#101 Celebrating 10 Years of Growth: Family, Foodservice, and Forging your Own Path with Soom's Amy Zitelman

Aug 1, 2023

Amy Zitelman, co-founder and CEO of Soom Foods, joins the show to discuss the 10-year journey of her company. Topics covered include starting Soom with her sisters, focusing on the foodservice channel, launching nationally in Sprouts and Whole Foods, the process of rebranding, balancing family and startup growth, and navigating financial challenges.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Zoom's Growth Journey and Financial Challenges

02:24 • 5min

Starting Soom: Mindset, Planning, and Family

07:10 • 19min

Growing Locally, Rebranding, and the Importance of Regional Success

26:16 • 3min

Exploring the Process of Rebranding and the Importance of Customer Feedback

29:22 • 3min

Preparing for Maternity Leave and Transitioning Roles

32:07 • 19min

Finding Comfort in Personal Growth and Overcoming Challenges

50:42 • 2min

Appreciation for the StartUp CPG Community and Excitement for the Future

52:57 • 3min

Making it to the 10 year mark as a food business is no small feat, and our friends at Soom Foods just passed their 10 year anniversary. Today we are joined by Soom’s CEO and co-founder, Amy Zitelman. Amy had just graduated from college when she and her sisters started Soom, and since then, her and her sister Jackie were on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Soom has been featured by Forbes, Bon Appetit, and The New York Times, and they have grown into the trusted brand for tahini and tahini products. I met Amy at a Mental Health for Founders event that I hosted last year and was so impressed with her calm, steady wisdom, so I was so excited to share her insights with all of you in today’s conversation! Make sure to grab Soom products at your local Whole Foods and Sprouts and I’ve linked a great blog post in the show notes where Amy reflects further on 10 years at Soom.

Listen in today as Amy shares about:

Starting Soom with her three sisters
Why Soom focused on the foodservice channel for the first eight years and what it was like to get started and grow the restaurant channel within foodservice
Launching nationally in Sprouts and Whole Foods in the past two years and how they prepared as a business
The process of rebranding to prep for retail
How Amy navigated having 3 children while growing Soom and her tips for growing a family and a startup at the same time
What it’s look liked to grow Soom from a financial standpoint from a story that almost bankrupted the business to what it was like to raise outside funds for the first time in 2021
How Soom has used EOS, or the Entrepreneurial Operating System to scale their team and build an accountability chart
Amy’s tips for staying grounded amidst everything
And more!

This episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpg
This episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpg

Episode Links:

Soom website & IG @soomfoods
Amy’s LinkedIn
10 Years of Soom blog post
Entrepreneurial Operating System, Traction book
Brands mentioned: Pulp & Wire, Zahav Restaurant

Graphite Financial Links

Graphite Financial website
Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here
Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here.

Kickfurther Links:

Kickfurther website
See how much inventory funding you qualify here

Show Links:

Join the Startup CPG Slack community (14K+ members and growing!)
Follow @startupcpg
Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics