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Amy Zitelman, an accomplished business leader, began her entrepreneurial journey as a co-founder and later transitioned into her role as the CEO of Soom Foods. With a background in interpersonal communication, she excels at nurturing vital relationships with key stakeholders and spearheading sales and marketing strategies for both short and long-term growth. Amy’s hands-on approach extends to overseeing financial matters, operations, and logistics, working closely with Soom’s COO to ensure the company’s success. She is committed to upholding a work culture that aligns with the organization’s mission and values. In recognition of her remarkable achievements, Amy was honored in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 class of 2018 in the food and beverage category. Soom Foods, under her leadership, has gained widespread recognition in renowned publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Forbes, and Cooking Light. Amy’s journey reflects her evolution from a novice entrepreneur to a strategic visionary and trailblazer in the food industry.
Soom Foods, specializes in delivering premium tahini with a mission to introduce the exceptional taste and versatility of this Middle Eastern ingredient to every kitchen. In a year filled with turmoil for many food providers, Soom Foods found itself heavily reliant on restaurant orders, constituting a significant portion of its business. The COVID-19 pandemic initially raised concerns about the fate of Soom; however, the unexpected occurred. The company’s 2020 revenues defied the odds by growing 30% compared to the previous year, even as the restaurant industry suffered severe setbacks due to shutdown orders. Online orders came to the rescue, allowing consumers to conveniently purchase Soom’s high-quality tahini products directly from the company or from online retailers, including Amazon.
Cara: Welcome to the Women’s Roundtable podcast, powered by the Think Factory, where we learn how women think big and grow their business. My name is Cara Fialkoff, Council of Outside General Counsel Solutions, and I’m the host of today’s episode. I’m happy to have with me today Amy Zitelman, the CEO of Soom Foods, launch with her sisters, Shelby and Jackie.
Soom has an amazing products have been featured in a number of media outlets such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Food and Wine. I recently discovered my love of Soom snack bites. I’m excited to have Amy with me today to talk about Soom’s growth and where she sees the brand going. Amy, thank you so much for spending time to talk with me today and excited to hear all about Soom and how you got this brand going.
Amy: Thank you so much for having me.
Cara: Can you give me a little background on the history of Soom and how you got this business started?
Amy: Sure. So I the company came about as an idea back in 2011. I’m the youngest of three sisters. The joke is that my oldest sister, Shelby, has a business degree. My middle sister, Jackie, married a tahini expert, and I just needed a job. And so I was graduating from University of Delaware when my older sister Shelby, was spending the year in Israel where our middle sister Jackie had lived.
She graduated high school in 2008. And Jackie was dating her now husband, Omri, an Israeli who had been in the tahini industry at that point for nearly a decade. So as we got to know Omri and got to know the amazing tahina or tahini, as we call it here in the states available in Israel, the health benefits and all the ways that it can be used. We realized that tahini as a product was really missing in the American market. So we had a brave idea to try to make tahini a more popular ingredient here in the American market.
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