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In conversation with
Sophie Baron
Founder of Mamamade
Introduction
Introduction
Sophie Baron is Founder of baby food brand Mamamade. Realising that baby food aisles were full of processed products and with the conviction that her daughter deserved to have the very best, Sophie took to creating recipes that were organic, plant-based, flavourful and healthy – free from any of the dangerous chemicals that make traditional purées shelf-stable.
It eventually grew to become a side hustle, where she was cooking, packing and delivering sustainable food pouches to people she met on Instagram . Now Mamamade is the go-to for over 70, 000 parents.
In this interview Sophie divulges her journey starting up her own company, tells us about what she thinks of the category and some of her favourite brands within it, plus reveals what her dream collaboration would be (we’re crossing our fingers and hoping it happens.)
P.S. Mamamade is now crowdfunding – find out more here.
Question and Answer
What were you doing before Mamamade? How have those experiences helped with starting up your brand?
I started my career at US Vogue, where I assisted the international editor-at-large. It was an incredible experience and I learned a lot about branding, content and communicating with an audience. Later, I was head of operations for a tech company in the employee benefits space – working in a fast-moving environment where we were literally building as we were going was equally an amazing education, and it meant the world when the founders of that company were some of the first investors in Mamamade.
What are some of the challenges you faced starting your own business? How did you overcome them?
Where to start! I never set out to build a business like this, so a lot of the challenges we’ve faced as a business have been in response to rapid growth – sometimes it feels like everything needs to break in order to get fixed! Building up my resilience– so learning to interrupt and re-route unhelpful thoughts, building a network of other founders, finding my mentors – I wouldn’t be able to do this without this support.
What didn’t you like about the baby food industry and what did you want to change about the category?
I wanted to offer my daughter foods that better reflected what I was eating – in terms of quality and variety – but the baby aisle is traditionally limited to shelf-stable, processed foods in pouches which aren’t widely recyclable. I felt strongly that parents deserved another way to feed their children, and from a brand perspective I was looking for something that felt more relevant to me as a consumer. There really weren’t any digital-first brands in parenting that felt fresh and modern.
“The baby aisle is traditionally limited to shelf-stable, processed foods in pouches which aren’t widely recyclable. I felt strongly that parents deserved another way to feed their children.”
What did the very beginning stages of Mamamade look like? What’s going on at the moment? And what’s the vision for the future?
Mamamade literally started as a side-hustle out my kitchen. I’d cook, pack and deliver everything myself to people I was meeting on Instagram! We’ve professionalised just a bit more since then! Now we have a community of over 70,000 parents and have helped at almost 1m mealtime. We’re going to keep building the go-to brand for infant and child nutrition.
What are some of your favourite brands within or outside of the category and why?
I love seeing the baby and family brands coming out of the US, which are matching strong visual identities with stellar products. Lovevery is a brand that we absolutely love in our home, and I’m patiently waiting for Primary and Coterie to come to this side of the pond!
Dream person or brand you’d love Mamamade to collaborate with and why?
I’m dreaming of the day we can release a Papier x Mamamade journal or weaning chart – you heard it here first!
Sophie's Storylist
Books
- Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- Crying in H Mart
- Sorrow and Bliss
Newsletters
- ThingTesting
- Mollie Chen
- James Clear
Podcasts
- The World’s First Podcast
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