Melissa Ben-Ishay: Founder & CEO of Baked by Melissa

Episode 647

In this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Melissa Ben-Ishay, Co-Founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, the beloved dessert brand known for its handcrafted, bite-sized cupcakes. Melissa shares her incredible journey from being fired from her job in 2008 to building a multimillion-dollar company that has sold over 400 million cupcakes, operates 13 retail locations in the NYC area, and ships nationwide.
We dive into the challenges Melissa faced in the early days of her entrepreneurial journey, how she turned setbacks into opportunities, and the creative process behind Baked by Melissa’s unique flavors. Melissa also opens up about the role social media has played in her success, from going viral on TikTok with her innovative recipes to building an engaged community that’s passionate about her brand.
If you’ve ever wondered how to stay ahead in a fiercely competitive industry, how customer feedback can drive innovation, or what it takes to create a brand that resonates with millions, this episode is for you. Tune in to hear Melissa’s story and gain insights into the mindset and strategies that have made Baked by Melissa a household name.
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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I’m so excited for my next guest, Melissa Ben-Ishay is the founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa. And I was just saying that every time I go through JFK to come back to San Francisco, I definitely grab a tray of those yummy little bite sized cupcakes, and I was so excited to to be able to interview her and hear a lot more about the brand. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of biting into one of those delicious handcrafted bite sized cupcakes, then you already know why this brand has captured the hearts and taste buds of millions since its founding in 2008 Baked by Melissa has grown from a small idea born out of Melissa’s kitchen to over third or I guess, 13 retail locations and nationwide shipping over 400 million. Is that correct? Cupcake sold? Yeah, that’s, that’s amazing. That’s, that is absolutely amazing. So, and I got a chance to try her, one of her latest, the Tabasco collaboration, which was really, really yummy. So very, very excited about that. And I can’t not mention her incredible cookbook, come hungry, which has already debuted as a New York Times bestseller. So congratulations on everything, Melissa. So excited to chat with you more. Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here. Super, super excited. So what inspired you to start bait by Melissa, and Did you always know that you were going to be in the cupcake business? I

Melissa Ben-Ishay 2:25
love to bake and create with my hands, and for as long as I can remember as a kid, that is something that I’ve always enjoyed. And I was actually working as an assistant media planner in 2008 and I was also baking my tie dye cupcakes for everyone and anyone, if it was your birthday and I loved you, I baked you tie dye cupcakes I know and love a ton of people, because it’s it’s my love language to create and give. And then I was fired from my job, and I never thought that baking cupcakes was something I could do for a living, but I went to my brother’s office crying from being fired, and he said, it’s the best thing that ever happened to go home Baker cupcakes. We’ll start a business together. And that’s really how it kind of got off the ground. I went home and I baked cupcakes that night because it makes me happy and because my brother told me to and my best friend’s little sister was saying with me for the summer interning at Allison broad PR, I sent her into her internship the next day with cupcakes. I said, if nothing else, you’ll make new friends, because everyone loves cupcakes. And Allison’s caterer was in the office, and I got introduced to him, and I really just did everything I possibly could to be Melissa, Baked by Melissa, and bake cupcakes for a living.

Kara Goldin 3:44
So being a media planner, as compared to starting a company in physical goods, perishable goods, very, very different. What was the first step that you took outside of dropping off these samples to Allison, brought to actually look at, okay, how are we going to start this business?

Melissa Ben-Ishay 4:08
Sure, so I actually got a phone call from Allison’s caterer that next day. That day I sent the cupcakes into work with my friend sister, and it was Allison’s caterer. He said, like, I’d love to bring you in for a tasting. I love your cupcakes. So I went right back to my brother’s office, and I went in there and like, Oh, my God, we got a tasting with Allison’s caterer. Let’s go in there. Like, we have a business already, and he could be a part of it. So we decided we needed a name and a logo. I wanted the name of the company to be called baked. My brother insisted that it have a personal tie. He challenged me. He said, You wouldn’t even know who Allison broad is if her name wasn’t in the name of her company. Totally true. And my brother’s business partner at the time, Matt, who I used to refer to as my brother from another mother, we were very close. He’s a creative genius. He was fiddling around on his desktop, turned around. Monitor and that that he had designed the logo. It’s the same logo we have today. So those were the next immediate steps. I printed out that new logo on my home printer, and I stopped at the bakery, or the clover deli on 34th and second, which was across the street from my apartment. At the time, I used to go there every day and get two cupcakes, because I never could decide which flavor I wanted, and I just asked them for a flat pastry box, and I pasted the logo on the pastry box, baked the cupcakes for the tasting with the caterer. Really step by step. Every opportunity you just keep going and do everything you can to achieve the goal. For me, it was to bake cupcakes. So

Kara Goldin 5:46
you went into that meeting with the caterer and you had your tie dye cupcakes. I would imagine, how many different flavors did you have of cupcakes in that initial meeting? Four

Melissa Ben-Ishay 6:00
flavors. It was the tie dye, cookie dough, peanut butter cup and s’mores. And I had created those additional flavors. That night I was fired because my brother said, if you want to start a business, you got to think of more flavors. So I did that. And at the time for the tasting, I made them just that standard mini size. And it was the caterer who, when he took a bite of them, he said, these are incredible from a catering perspective, people lose their minds over like cute little things. If you could figure out how to make these Just a bite. Oh, my God. And so I saw that as my next assignment, and I literally walked out of his apartment on barrack street and stopped strangers and said, Hi, do you know where baking supply store is? Didn’t even know baking supply stores were a thing, but they they were more than, probably than now, and I found a temporary solution to make the cupcakes Just a bite. I went home, I baked them, brought them back to him. He loved them, and he said, Great, I’m doing an event on Spring Street in two weeks, wear all black and bring me 250 cupcakes. And so I did. And for that first event, we created a website that was the business that my brother had started with our childhood friend Matt, website Baked by Melissa.com we shot every picture on my IKEA coffee table, Jewel worthy photography of our of our cupcakes. We created business cards that had my name, my home address, my cell phone number. It said sweet 20 7g instead of apartment. My parents were not thrilled about me having my cell phone number and apartment address out there, but you know, for that first event, it was very legit. I put the stack of business cards in front of the cupcakes, and people were picking them up, which would drive them to this website. And you could order 100 cupcakes or more using PayPal, and I would deliver them to anywhere in Manhattan using the subway in a white pizza box that I would hand assemble and put a sticker on.

Kara Goldin 8:06
Do you remember the early days? I’m sure in in terms of trying to figure out how to actually make cupcakes and volume is probably a little different than making maybe some just for your home or a few of your friends. Do you remember those early days and some of the things that you had to go through in order to figure out that challenge?

Melissa Ben-Ishay 8:32
Sure, of course, and at the beginning, I was baking out of my apartment for the first seven months that I was doing events and and more, and it was truly back breaking work. I would stack the cupcakes in in my freezer, and then I would ice them, and I didn’t even know about restaurant depot or buying ingredients in bulk. And then I in November, so about seven months after we started the business, moved into my first commercial kitchen in Soho, and started buying ingredients at bulk and hired our first employee who could help me bake, and learned how to delegate, because I had never really done that either.

Kara Goldin 9:14
That’s wild, so you’re the company started in 2008 kind of epic time, and in many ways, to be starting a company. So what were some of the biggest challenges for you, above and beyond doing something totally new, like, how did you view the world back then, if you can think back. I mean, did you go raise money immediately? What was kind of the other things that you were really concerned about, outside of growing the business,

Melissa Ben-Ishay 9:44
sure. I mean, for me personally, my concern was who was going to come and buy these cupcakes when we opened our first store, it was truly my brother’s vision he believed in, Baked by Melissa and the product we were selling well before. I did, and he believed in me and my ability to continue to produce it, and together, we really founded and grew Baked by Melissa in those early years. So for me personally, when I look back to that time in my life, I was 24 years old, I had not yet earned my confidence, I felt like an imposter a little bit Melissa. Baked by Melissa like I said, I had to learn how to delegate. I was literally baking and icing and stuffing and topping every single cupcake we made until I couldn’t, but then had to teach somebody else to help. And I treated the product like it was my child. I, you know, I still do, in many ways, care very much the quality of the product is the most important thing for any business so. But for me, the challenges were more around believing in myself and learning how to manage, and I think working together as a team with my co founders, that’s

Kara Goldin 11:09
awesome. So did your brother actually work in the business with you? I know you’ve you mentioned, you know, he was sort of the imps for you to actually go and do it. But was he, yeah, on the sidelines, or was he actually? Did he come into the company?

Melissa Ben-Ishay 11:22
So when we founded the business, it was myself, my brother Matt, his our childhood friend, and his partner in the business they were running at the time, and the caterer, and we were the original four co founders. And they were like, almost like at the beginning, like, sure, like helping me out, doing me a favor, but Baked by Melissa grew very quickly or and became bigger than we had anticipated. And then they they all worked full time in Baked by Melissa,

Kara Goldin 11:57
so you have grown to 13 stores now, what, what was the first outside of Manhattan, and Melissa delivering, or somebody from your team delivering cupcakes locally, what was kind of the first big breakout that you made, that that kind of maybe gave you that confidence that that this is really going To make it so we’ve got to, you know, continue moving forward and and growing the physical locations, as well as the direct to consumer. I used

Melissa Ben-Ishay 12:30
to go on tastings. Most often Ben the caterer would send me to places like, if he had a client, he would send me Go bring cupcakes to this person, let them taste so they order. I went on a tasting to cafe Barry. It was a cafe in Soho on the corner of Broadway and Spring Street. I met the owner. His name was Danny. He took one bite of my cupcakes and said, Oh my god, I love you. I’m storing in my phone his cupcake. It will be in touch. He wound up reaching out to me a few weeks later, asking if I wanted to do my baking out of his prep kitchen in his basement, and in return, sell him our product at cost, and he would then sell them from the Union Square Holiday Market that started at the end of November and lasted through December and moving into his kitchen space and hiring our first employee To help me produce the product, and then seeing the booth in Union Square, the Holiday Market, branded Baked by Melissa, watching the lines of people there, and really hearing their response, that it was a delicious that people lined up for our product, that that was crazy to me. I never would have thought. And I remember saying to Matt one day, like, it’s just so crazy. Like everybody loves them, like even people who claim they don’t like dessert, like they love our product too. And that was definitely a moment for sure, outside

Kara Goldin 13:54
of Manhattan. What was the first store then that you decided to to launch in? So

Melissa Ben-Ishay 14:01
most of our retail locations are in the New York area. We have one in JFK airport, we have one in Garden State Plaza in New Jersey, and we have one in Long Island in the Roosevelt field Mall. But everything else is really concentrated in the New York City area. We ship our product nationwide, and that is our core business.

Kara Goldin 14:20
Yeah, I love it. So the pandemic effect on businesses has been vast. What strategies kind of helped you navigate that time in particular,

Melissa Ben-Ishay 14:35
I became CEO of Baked by Melissa in december 2019 not by choice, but by circumstance. I was working alongside a CEO who had become my partner and dear friend to me. He really taught me a lot, and on December 5, 2019 something happened where he could no longer be our CEO anymore, and my board put me into this role. So. And it wasn’t something I thought I could ever do shame on me, but that is just the reality. And I was so far out of my comfort zone, I knew it was going to be an incredible opportunity for me to learn and grow, of course, but that was three months before COVID, so I was new into this CEO role and earning my wings, I guess you could say proving myself to myself every day. And I had been because we had just gone through December, which was our it’s our holiday season. We broke records, and then we have Valentine’s Day, which is like our Super Bowl, and then COVID. And I think what was so interesting about COVID Is it really leveled the playing field for me, because no CEO had a rule book on how to navigate a global pandemic, but what I had is the love, the grit, the passion, all of those core traits that you need in order to succeed in business and life, in my opinion. So I think that really set us apart, believe it or not, I had a one and a half year old and an almost four year old at home, or maybe she just turned four while my friends were freaking out about like washing their hands and wiping down their groceries, I had a business to run that I would stop at nothing to protect and ensure we got to the other side of COVID, and I think that did so much For my family during that time to keep us grounded, and I just so appreciated the extra time I was getting with my kids. I would go to the bakery wearing a mask, you know, do anything I needed to do. And I think it was the determination and the love for this company and the refusal to fail that got us to the other side and our customers, and we pivoted. We changed our marketing strategy. We did so many things because it’s all I was thinking about. So

Kara Goldin 17:10
in addition to just I feel like you guys have created a lot of new things in the market, including the bites. You were really the first ones that I saw doing the bite sized cupcakes. And it just was brilliant. You know, in many, many ways, when you were saying, Ben, the caterer had said this too. I mean, the idea that, you know, it was great. And I’m sure there’s others that maybe were doing it at the time, or you gave them the idea. Regardless, I feel like that. I think about your product, not just for all the unique flavors and yummy cupcakes, but also for those bite size you’ve really made kind of a you put stakes in the ground, I guess, around that concept, which is really awesome. So but competition in the cupcake industry, I’m sure, is fierce. I came from the beverage industry. I know about fierce, and it can be very, very challenging. How do you stay ahead? And do you ever worry about competition, or what kind of strategies to use to kind of continue to do what you do every single day.

Melissa Ben-Ishay 18:26
I think we are in an interesting place. So to your point, we make bite sized cupcakes. And what makes us so unique is a, we have one product. B, we we have, we’re always introducing new new flavors, new assortments, new partnerships. I see that bite sized cupcake as a vessel for flavor, and I’m delivering you this like perfect dessert experience or bite with a ratio of flavors that are very thoughtfully placed. There’s stuffing. It’s either over stuffed or stuffed. Normally, there’s either an icing ring or full icing, depending on how I want the flavor of the icing to come through, compared to the stuffing, and then a topping and icing. And so that’s first off. I think it is different and unique in the sense. And we also have packaging that’s equally as unique as our product is, that allows us to ship nationwide, guaranteed to arrive perfectly fresh and safe, and you could choose your arrival date. And I think those two things together makes for a more one of a kind type gift and dessert experience. And then there’s also a crazy lady who is on the floor of the bakery making sure the quality of the product is best in class. We also, you were talking about how we founded the company in 2008 at the heel of heels of the recession, which was a great time the. Because it was a great time to do what we did, because we make them small so you could try them all. You could walk up to this little pickup window and for just a couple of dollars, get cupcakes that make you feel happy, make you feel like a kid again. And I think people there was really a need for that. And similarly, where we are today in the world where, I mean, every day, you wake up and it’s just, it’s crazy, what’s going on in the world, and we offer, I mean, we’re not making it better by any means. I’m not trying to say that. But, you know, we we have a gift that appeals to literally anyone, whether you’re four years old or 80 years old. We’ve gotten messages from customers all over the country, like my mom is in a nursing home, and you know, I sent her your cupcakes for her 91st birthday, and I got pictures from her caregivers, and she was smiling and so genuinely happy for the first time. And I can’t remember, or, you know, my kid had a really rough time in school, like they’ve been getting made fun of. And thank you so much, because your cupcakes are like such a a ray of light. It’s something that makes my child so genuinely happy, and it’s just such a beautiful thing that we could bring joy into the world during good times and bad. I

Kara Goldin 21:29
love that. So if you weren’t running Baked by Melissa, what would you be doing something

Melissa Ben-Ishay 21:35
that makes me happy? The quick answer is probably chopping something, because I do that on social media too. I don’t know, honestly, I’ve been doing this for 16 years that could do so many different things. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Kara Goldin 21:51
but I love that you’ve been doing something that you really enjoy. Because I actually think that that’s it’s challenging for many founders to go and find something that they want to do, especially when they’re doing something

Melissa Ben-Ishay 22:03
I mean, and I sorry to interrupt you, because I do. I one thing I struggle with in conversations like this is, obviously I’m sharing the good, and I don’t want it to take away from how challenging it is, and it’s so much more than what I speak about. I mean, the story and the the founding story, you know, that was 16 years ago, running a business and being a founding CEO, too, comes with such a unique set of challenges. And continue, continuing to grow your business and making sure you have the right team in place. It is not for the faint of heart. It is really difficult, and I do enjoy it, but not every day. Yeah, it’s challenging. I’m sure you could relate to

Kara Goldin 22:58
it’s it can be really challenging, and I think it’s, but it’s, you know, building a puzzle, right? Is, is not always fun either, right? You you walk away from that certain days and say, Okay, I got to come back to this tomorrow. And I think it’s probably, that’s the way I’ve thought about building a business. It’s probably the closest thing, you know, you’re going to figure it out. But at certain days, it’s, it’s really, really tough. And there’s people who choose not to ever build puzzles.

Melissa Ben-Ishay 23:30
It’s, and I completely understand why. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 23:34
no, definitely. It’s, it’s, it definitely has its moments. So what has been one of the more exciting moments in the journey you’ve talked about taking on the CEO role, you’ve talked about, you know, some of the different times in history that you’ve experienced and building your company, you’ve also, you know, maybe there was a time that was particularly scary, that you got through that, that you weren’t exactly sure that you were going to but obviously you’re sitting here today. I mean, what would you say has been kind of the more exciting moment in the journey so far for for you and and Baked by Melissa, I

Melissa Ben-Ishay 24:18
think maybe three, four years ago, I started posting to Tiktok as a way to learn how to use the app so I could give my team actionable feedback on the content they were posting. Of the cupcakes and wound up going, quote, viral and under. I immediately understood the opportunity that provided my business with and stuck to it. So I I have been posting a new recipe to Tiktok every day for the past four years. It provided me the opportunity to write a cookbook about so much more than just dessert, but also salads, and really bring areas of my life. Life and world into the picture that I never thought possible. It also allowed me to show up very authentically on behalf of Baked by Melissa. And that is incredible. And I think it breathed new life into Baked by Melissa, because the brand awareness really skyrocketed. It’s interesting, because it’s not always about the cupcakes. I get recognized wherever I go. I was like, in Whole Foods, like people come up to me all the time, and, you know, I was saying how hard it is. Most people don’t get that type of recognition, recognition, you know, and I know that. So, like, people come up together, like, basically what they’re saying to me is, like, you’re doing great. Like, the hard work is worth it. And, like, that’s what I’m saying. Thank you for whatever they’re saying. Like, that’s I just so appreciate the recognition. And I know that most people who work this hard, or even harder, they don’t get that. So I just think it’s it was a happy accident that I was able to really understand the opportunity of and it’s fun, it’s exciting. It allows us to work with other brands and bring like, right now, we have Tabasco cupcakes, like an unexpected duo for Valentine’s Day, and also we’re working with cavid, and we have like, sweet and salty inspired by caramel and cheddar popcorn. And that’s just fun. And how cool is that? And then, of course, we have our our classic Valentine’s Day assortment of the best flavors that pair so well together and are inspired by a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. But that’s what I love to do, and to now get to work with these big brands that I have looked up to my entire life, let alone career. I mean, that is incredible, and I’m such a protector of our brand, so we do it when it works and it makes sense.

Kara Goldin 27:18
Yeah, definitely. Well, I loved the the partnership with with Tabasco, because it just, I mean, honestly, like, I never really thought about Tabasco cupcakes, and it was it, and it’s great. They’re amazing. So it’s, yeah, it’s great. So it’s sort of opened my mind. And I think that so often those partnerships do really breathe not only extra life into your brand, but also to Tabasco, because it just it breathes innovation newness. I’m sure that that’s actually helping people to think about that brand too, and sort of what your expectations are from it. So I think it’s, it’s definitely, it’s a it’s a cool partnership, for sure. So looking ahead, when you think about your legacy on Baked by Melissa, maybe it’s to your family, maybe it’s to your consumers, or just to other entrepreneurs, what would you have to say about like, what, what? What do you hope is the takeaway from Baked by Melissa and all the great stuff that you’ve done,

Melissa Ben-Ishay 28:37
simply stated, I think you can accomplish anything. And we have one product, truly, it’s remarkable. I am so proud of, in certain ways, the simplicity of but also the complexity like it’s made entirely by hand. And I think that what I love so much, or what I hope to achieve by sharing the story and having people experience our product is to inspire people to, first and foremost, share love and make people happy during good times and bad, but also go after your dreams and and if I could do this, you know, obviously, by surrounding myself with people have skills that I don’t, and it’s not just me, it’s a whole group of people. It was then. It is now, but you can achieve anything. And I think that our minds are constantly focused on so many different things today, more than ever. So if you’re willing to focus and prioritize, you can do it.

Kara Goldin 29:37
I love it. So thank you so much for coming on today, Melissa. And for everyone listening, be sure to check out Baked by Melissa’s delicious cupcakes and her cookbook come hungry, as well as her social channels. Your Tiktok channel is awesome and your salads are also super awesome. So great. Great job. Um. I will have all the info in the show notes as well, but appreciate you coming on and appreciate everybody tuning in, and until next time, thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. You.

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