In the competitive food and beverage industry, these entrepreneurs tapped into their childhoods to turn their culinary passions into multimillion-dollar businesses.
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:17 – Nadia Liu Spellman, 41, brought in $4.5 million over a year through her dumpling business. Nadia is the founder and CEO of Dumpling Daughter, a quick-service restaurant chain and direct-to-consumer dumpling business based in Boston, MA.
08:53 – Despite being a child of Kenyan coffee farmers, it took a trip to America, an MBA at Harvard and a short stint in investment banking for Margaret Nyamumbo, 36, to realize she could build a profitable coffee business while giving back to the sort of farms that raised her. In 2023, her business Kahawa 1893 sold more than $3 million worth of coffee.
18:08 – Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte invested all of their life savings, plus more money from family and friends, to open a cafe called Maman in New York in 2014. Last year, Maman's 34 locations brought in nearly $50 million. "It was one of the biggest financial risks we could ever take," says Marshall.
Produced by: Tasia Jensen, Raffi Paul
Managing Producer: Beatriz Bajuelos, Eric M. Clark
Additional Camera: Lauren Shamo, Valentinia Duarte, Timothy Fadek
Editor: Marisa Forziati, Amy Marino
Animator: Elham Ataeiazar, Gene Kim
Reporter: Megan Sauer, Ryan Ermey, Tom Huddleston, Jr.
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Nadia Liu Spellman, Margaret Nyamumbo, Kahawa 1893, Maman
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From Maman To Dumpling Daughter: Million-Dollar Eats