What inspired you to launch Egunsi?
As a young adult, I spent hours in the kitchen helping my mother prepare meals for our family, but I had never really done any cooking on my own. It wasn’t until I went away to college at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and began meeting new people that I realized how much of my culture I was able to share through food. I started hosting dinner parties in my dorm, where, with my mom’s coaching, I was able to prepare and share authentic West African recipes with my friends.
When I moved to New York City to start my career, I returned to hosting supper clubs as a way to meet people and share my passion for cooking and my culture. Over time, the parties led to requests for batches of soup and invitations to cater events, and while I had never cooked for more than a handful of people, I jumped at the chance to share my passion. This led me to launch Egunsi Foods’ personal chef and catering services, which enabled me to test recipes and gauge the public’s interest in West African food.
After years of market testing and product development, Egunsi Foods launched its first packaged soups in 2017.
Your early career was spent in fashion merchandising and forecasting. How did you then transition to food entrepreneurship?
It wasn’t until my last week of college that I was introduced to the idea that I didn’t have to spend my entire career doing the same thing. One of my professors brought in a guest speaker who talked about taking multiple paths and setting a career timeline. I’ve never forgotten what she said, and it definitely helped me feel confident in my decision to launch Egunsi.
From a practical sense, fashion merchandising helped to prepare me for many things, including working within a budget and forecasting market trends, which have been really useful in my work with Egunsi.
How did the Cornell Food Venture Center (CFVC) help with your journey to entrepreneurship?
I was 30 days away from launching my first product at Whole Foods’ Harlem location when I realized that I had been so focused on creating an all-natural product, that I hadn’t yet considered how my formulation would impact the products’ shelf life. I learned about the CFVC and started working with Bruno Xavier, senior extension associate in the Department of Food Science.
The first tests showed that our products only had a shelf life of about five days. With Bruno’s help, I was able to increase our shelf life while maintaining my commitment to an all-natural, preservative-free product. Now, our soups and sauces can last for at least 100 days in the refrigerator. This assistance helped build a foundation for my company’s success in the marketplace, and it gave me a sense of security, knowing that the CFVC is a resource I can turn to for troubleshooting.
I’m really proud of how well Egunsi products have performed, and I’m ready to keep growing my business. Having also been recently been introduced to the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech, I am looking forward to seeing how we can collaborate in the future. Having access to their expertise will be a huge help in making strategic decisions.
