Introduction
I had an advisor early on who told me during a strategy meeting, “You don’t have anything unless you have happy customer (and he drew a huge happy face on the white board).” In our business, that happy face could be a retail chain buyer, a distributor, a child customer, or a parent customer. Whenever I hear from any customer that they’re happy, I get chills from head to toe and think…all this is well worth it!
Mom Made Foods is based in AlexandriaVA yet our products can be found in thousands of grocery store freezer aisles nationally. We take kid-favorite recipes and make them healthier using organic and anti-biotic free ingredients, low sodium, and always no preservatives or artificial anything.
Background
I grew up in a foodie family and my mom went back to work full-tine when I was nine years old and my brother was eleven. Even after going back to work, she managed to get healthy foods on the table for us every night.She’d call us at 5pm from the office and give us dinner prep jobs.The conversation usually went something like this…”David, we’re having fajitas and I need you to please chop the chicken and veggies and marinate it. And Heather, I need you to grate the cheese and set the table.I’ll be home at 6pm to cook the chicken and sit down to eat with you both.” That time together around the dinner table was and still is my favorite time of day.
Even before my husband and I had children, we vowed to each other that we’d raise healthy kids who ate a variety of foods.We travelled the world together and really enjoy food.We didn’t want to have to change what we ate as soon as we had children.However as a working mom, I couldn’t find anything in the market that I felt good about feeding my kids when I was in a pinch for a healthy, convenient meal. I wanted to do the same for my kids as my mother had done for me, yet found it so difficult to do so. I was working in the high tech industry at the time and as a new mom, just wasn’t invigorated by the industry I’d been in for the last 15+ years.
As soon as the idea for Mom Made truly marinated for a few days, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night thinking about how I could create a company. I surveyed parents and found an overwhelming number of parents felt exactly the same way so off we went on the Mom Made journey.
Little did my mother know, that thirty years later, her son would be a professional chef (and married to a professional chef) and her daughter would have a national food company.
Professional issue
I launched Mom Made at a local farmer’s market after seven months of full-time business planning. I rented a certified kitchen from a catering company during their off hours for the first year in order to make our foods. By the end of that summer at the farmer’s market selling from behind a card table, we were in business with local stores ranging from Whole Foods to natural and specialty food stores which gave us enough volume to start talking to manufacturers. Just before our 1-yr anniversary, we moved production to a manufacturer in Pennsylvania and the efficiencies went about 20-fold from our made-by-hand production. We knew we were onto something. Now almost seven years later, Mom Made products are sold in thousands of grocery store freezer aisles nationally.
What truly brings me to work everyday is knowing that we are doing our part to make children healthier (and parents lives a little easier is a bonus too!) When children eat healthy, organic, anti-biotic free foods, they can focus in school and their growing bodies thrive. One in three kids is obese today in America. It’s going to take a lot more than Mom Made to fix that problem but it is gratifying to be part of the movement.
Personal issue
Before I launched Mom Made, I really struggled with the challenge how I was going to balance being a good mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend and also a successful entrepreneur. I asked the question to an 80 yr old retired grocery chain owner. She looked me square in the face and said firmly, “Heather, you’ll do it and you’ll adapt.” She was right then and today as I’m faced with new challenges everyday.
Still however, the biggest and most consistent challenge for me is mothering my two kids who I deeply adore while also running a rapidly growing business. Mom Made could easily be all the waking hours of my day if I let it.
I was most scared of failing my business and failing as a mother when I birthed my second child when Mom Made was 3+ years old. How was I going to run the business up till my due date? How was I going to survive without maternity leave? And, most importantly would I be a good mother to my newborn? With a lot of planning, family help the first few weeks and a nanny who came for a few hours every day until she was old enough for daycare, I, my daughter and Mom Made survived and thrived during that time. I even managed to close an investment with angel investors when my daughter was 3 weeks old. After that whole experience, I think anything is possible.
I know that 99% of parents struggle with getting healthy foods they can feel good about feeding their kids on the table for three meals a day. It’s a tough job and we FULLY understand that challenge. We’re real people behind the brand and making real food. Sounds simple but it’s amazing how many foods don’t have anything “real” in them.