When Mohamed and Zein, Co-founders of Safina Ice Cream, moved to Chicago, they were frustrated by the Ice cream options in the city. Led by their nostalgia for the traditional Arabic Ice Cream Booza, they founded the first Booza Ice cream startup in the Chicagoland area. They are producing pints of delicious Booza Ice Cream with amazing flavors.
Now, they are available in many stores throughout the city and they also deliver to your doorsteps.
for more info, please visit: www.safinaicecream.com,
We sat with these two co-founders and had an amazing chat with them.
When Mohamed and Zein, Co-founders of Safina Ice Cream, moved to Chicago, they were frustrated by the Ice cream options in the city. Led by their nostalgia for the traditional Arabic Ice Cream Booza, they founded the first Booza Ice cream startup in the Chicagoland area. They are producing pints of delicious Booza Ice Cream with amazing flavors.
Now, they are available in many stores throughout the city and they also deliver to your doorsteps.
for more info, please visit: www.safinaicecream.com,
We sat with these two co-founders and had an amazing chat with them.
Malek: Welcome to this episode of our podcast. We have really interesting guests here, we really appreciate you being with us. The cofounders of Safina ice cream.
:Malek: Let us know a little bit about your background. Mohamed Omais: So thank you for inviting us. We're extremely excited to be part of this episode and this amazing community. My name is Mohamed Omais and I'm one of the cofounders of Safina ice cream.
Speaker 3:Zein: My name is Zein, and I'm the cofounder of Safina Ice Cream. And kind of add into what Muhammad said, I'm really excited to see what comes out of this and to listen to the final product, to delve a little deeper to start this off about myself. I was born in Lebanon. I lived there for seven years. And, after that, my family and I immigrated to the United States where we lived in New York for a while, and then we ended up in Dearborn, Michigan. After that I attended University of Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in finance, and now I live in Chicago.
Speaker 2:Mohamed: I was born and raised in West Africa and Ivory Coast. And, uh, then when I was a, a young child, my family moved to Lebanon. So both my parents are Lebanese. I grew up in Lebanon, and then once I was 14, I moved to Dearborn, Michigan. I have an aunt that lives in Dearborn, Michigan, which is what prompted our decision to move there. That's where I actually met Zein. So I've known Zane for 10 plus years now. Afterwards, I attended the University of Michigan, graduated with a business degree and upon graduation moved down to Houston, Texas, worked a bit in real estate, private equity. Then I decided to move back to the Midwest, joined Zein, I worked in real estate before starting Safina.
Speaker 1:Anwar: Nice. So you have a mixed background of real estate and business.
:Mohamed: Correct. Anwar: With this interesting background, what inspired you to start this venture with Zein?
Speaker 2:Mohamed: Yeah, so I think there's multiple elements that kind of came together. Uh, the first one is we were not extremely satisfied with our corporate jobs. In fact, we did not see ourself in a corporate rule. Uh, we were entrepreneurs since as long as we can remember. So we really wanted to start a company and a pursue something that we were passionate about. So the truth is, we said down one day and we asked ourselves, what is it that we truly like to do? And a one of those answers where we love to eat ice cream and a, we were a bit disappointed with the current offering in the marketplace. The current offering of healthy ice cream was just terrible ice cream in our opinion. So we would end up finding ourselves eating a whole pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting, which was delicious, but then you felt terrible afterwards. So we thought, why not create a ice cream that did not compromise on health for indulgence, which is one of the missions of Safina. The second component is moving away from Dearborn, which has a large Middle Eastern population, plus moving away from the Middle East, we were kinda feeling nostalgic and yearning for the Middle Eastern cuisine, which we all adore because it's so, so damn good. In addition, we grew up eating Booza(Middle Eastern ice cream). So our thought process was, well, why has no one tried to commercialize booza in the US? Why no one tried to package it in a pint and sell on the retail shelves and make it available to more people as opposed to it's currently available only in specific shops. So that's kind of this confluence of elements that led to the creation of Safina. Which is, One, uniting our culture or bringing in part of the Middle Eastern cuisine throughout the US and making it available to more people and, Two, creating a healthier Ice cream product.
:Malek: So let me jump in with a question here. What is the main difference between the American ice cream and Booza? Zein: The first of which is we don't use any eggs in our, in our ice cream and the Middle East. The second thing is, two plant based ingredients that are unique to Booza, that nobody else in the world uses. The first of which is Sahlab, that mainly comes from Turkey. The second one is called mastic, which comes from Greece. Once you add those two ingredients into the Booza, you end up with a product that is a little more elastic, a has a different mouthfeel and also extremely creamy, uh, because of those plant based ingredients. Malek: Okay. Does the change in the ingredients, make it healthier, heavier, easier, smoother, like, how does that play into it? Zein: The Booze on the Middle East is not necessarily healthier than ice cream here. Um, uh, you know, it just depends what kind of like the fat and the sugar you put into it. We have done a modern revitalization of the old recipe where we made it healthier, where we realized a lot of that creaminess that comes from the plant based ingredients. We can lay out a lot of the fat and a lot of the sugar and still have an indulgent product. So that's kind of what makes our product a little more unique and a little different from the mainstream booza that you get from the Middle East, but also it stays true to its roots where if you were to consume it, uh, you know, you wouldn't be able to tell that much of a difference from the original authentic product. Mohamed: To expand about both the health component and the authentic components, our flavors were inspired by ingredients and flavors that are available throughout the Middle East. And it just happens that a lot of those flavors are naturally suites. For example, we have figs and chocolate chips which are both just naturally sweet, which allows us to layer out a lot of the sugar that becomes unnecessary to kind of create a sweetness in ice cream and as a result we can reduce the calories significantly.
Speaker 1:Anwar: We tried your ice cream. It's, it's pretty, pretty good. Especially the original one. The vanilla original boozer. It still has the same delicious taste, but it's healthier and has less calories, which is pretty interesting. I want to know the challenges that you guys faced to kickstarting your venture. What are the challenges? Why you chose Chicago to come and started this company? Why not a Michigan where you guys, grew up?
Speaker 2:Mohamed: So before starting this company, we need to develop the idea further. So the whole process of taking the original recipe of Booza and making it healthy, actually took us a whole year. So we spent a whole year experimenting in our own little kitchen here on Michigan Avenue and just trying, you know, iteration after iteration after iteration.
:Zein: Granted that was when we had our corporate jobs where, you know, he was working in private equity, and I was working in banking. So, we would come back home and pretty much stay up all night making booza. Yeah. And the first iteration was just blocks of ice. So you know, and obviously we don't come from food and beverages background and a, I wouldn't even consider ourselves that good of cooks and ice cream turn out to be a much more complex product than you would think.
Speaker 2:There is a lot of chemistry involved. So we had to learn a lot about the chemistry and the recipe formulation so that we can approach it in very scientific manner. And so we had a multitude of iterations of the ice cream. Uh, and you know, what led kind of the goal was constantly to submission where we could not compromise on health for indulgence. We did not want to create what was already on the marketplace, which is healthier product that are not that good. Um, and then involve just trying it again and again and again, uh, bringing in our friends to have a few fun focus groups, getting all that feedback, internalizing that feedback, adjusting the recipe accordingly and then kind of trying again and again, again afterwards. We finally had a product that we were satisfied with. And how long did it take before one of your friends was like, hmm, this is actually good. Uh, quite a while, a few months before, quit our jobs. So we quit our jobs and at the end of June and, uh, you know, we started on this full time technically on July 1st, so it was like a few months before that when people really started seeing, um, you know, our vision come to life, you know, in front of them. Um, the first time we invite our friends over it was pretty bad. Yeah. You know, you could see in their face that they didn't really like the product, but they didn't want to decide to be supportive. Yeah. Yeah. And you have to be very careful with some of the ingredients, uh, one of which is mastering. So as good as men is to the texture and to adding herbal notes that a flavor, if you use too much of it, it tastes like chewing gum. Yeah. It's, it's an acquired taste. But if some people usually don't like it. So that was kind of one of the issues that we had to overcome. And then finding just other substitutes to the sweetness that also was a, uh, an obstacle that we had to overcome. But, you know, once we were close to finalizing our product, we started involving other parties primarily with the marketing. We need to design the Pint, uh, what we wanted to include on the pines. And we also want it to remain authentic to our second mission, which is introducing a new culture, uh, beyond just the product, but to the different traditions and the different arts. So a lot of the designs on our packaging, we're inspired by Middle Eastern architecture. So just trying to kind of communicate that. Did a designer and have her, again utilize your creative capabilities to put that on the packaging. That was a process of itself. Um, so once we had the product and once we kind of had the design of the packaging, uh, it was time to start creating the business, just establishing the structure and that involved learning a lot about the supply chain. Um, so pretty much how can we take, uh, our process of cooking this product at home and scaling it to a commercial level, ward, unnecessary equipment required. Uh, what are the necessary capital investments that need to be made and ward the different avenues where we can get those equipments and where we can eventually sell our product to. Um, and we can jump into this further, but the regulations aspect of things was definitely a challenge. Uh, there's a lot of regulations that need to be addressed as it pertains to ice cream, more specifically dairy. So one of our main issues was we didn't want to create a store. Uh, as a result, we either needed to build our own kitchen or operate out of a shared kitchen and it's just much more cost effective to operate out of a shirt kitchen. But you know, don't want to get into more details about getting it, working in the shared kitchen. It requires a lot more, you know, regulations that need to go through. Uh, so we had to find, for example, a kitchen dad and enclosed room we could not do. So that kind of kicked us back a whole month. Uh, so we eventually had to operate yet at night as if the whole kitchen would be part of an enclosed room. So now we cook from 10:00 PM until 4:00 AM every day. Oh, didn't know that. So you can not do during the day because it has to be completely closed for you. Yes, exactly. Uh, another issue that we faced was the milk needs to be pasteurized. Um, so initially our thought process was we would send the base who, uh, a farm and they would add the milk, pasteurize it and bring us Beth back to base. So we turn it, uh, that did not work because booze is just so elastic. They actually clogged up their machines. Uh, as a result, we needed to become a dairy manufacturing facility to pasteurize our own base. Uh, so just the process of getting your business licenses and then it requires certification to eventually make this product was definitely a challenge that took much longer than expected. Um, so that's Kinda,
Speaker 1:but the fact that you guys, uh, like, like even though with these challenges, like I would expect a lot of people to just maybe pivot to another idea, but the fact that you guys kept on going to get to overcome these obstacles, it's pretty impressive because specially in Illinois and especially Chicago, we know that they have way more extra, uh, policies and, um, uh, licensing you need to do to start specially in the food business. For example, here, Chicago is the, the toughest city to start a food truck actually. So, uh, they have a lot of, a lot of policies, a lot of uh, fees, a lot of licensing you need to go through, but pretty impressive guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Did you guys use any resources that Chicago can provide that other cities can not? Like for example, back to the was question, like why Chicago, not Michigan for example. So the beauty about Chicago is in a lot of, one thing that a lot of people take for granted is, um, this is a hub for food and beverage. You know, startups just like they have like Silicon Valley with tech, dental down in Cali. I'm Chicago is well known and I mean really stablish when it comes to the food and beverage space. Um, uh, startups in particular, uh, you know, one, one resource that we off the bat use was the hatchery. A, that was a pretty, pretty solid resource where the people who were really helpful, uh, you know, they had their connections throughout the, the industry, you know, they had connections with plenty of other founders and startups and they throw on these classes where we can, you know, go and take the classes and kind of learn about certain aspects of starting a business, for example. Um, so that was one of resources. Were you one resource we used. Um, but another resource that was invaluable for us was, you know, as we went to market, uh, you know, our product and uh, you know, like mating Chicago or other markets, run the city, you'd meet a lot of entrepreneurs that are going through the same thing you're going through there, are struggling through the same struggles that you're experiencing. And just having that community, um, you know, everybody has each other's back and learning from each other. That's, that's, that's one thing that's probably the biggest thing that helped us along the way. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. And to add to Chicago. I think there's a reason why there's a lot of motivated entrepreneurs in this city beyond, it's just, it's beautiful architecture and the amazing but not so great weather. Uh, I think just the people disagree with that. Uh, people, uh, and the pride that they take in their product and their companies and then the businesses here, uh, is just invaluable. Um, you know, the consumers, you are more than happy to represent a local company and spend their money buying local products just so that they can see the people of their city succeed and take it to the next level. Interesting. Interesting. You say that. Do you also think that because Chicago's a pretty diverse city but international city, that people are more willing to try products that they're not familiar with? Yeah, definitely. I think that the diversity kind of brings to light a lot of the differences in cultures and experiences that if a person living in Chicago can actually go through as opposed to other cities in the u s which creates this intrigue in the people of Chicago, that they would like to be more universally connected. And one of the best ways to be universally connected this through food, which is a language that we can all understand and kind of hoppy off that, you know, uh, Mohammed mentioned earlier that one of the things we're trying to do with our product is, uh, you know, the, the whole no compromise with health and indulgence, but, uh, the, the way we, another trend, we see food going in terms of the way people interact and perceive food. People want to, um, understand the meaning behind their food, where it comes from. They, there, there has to be more of an interaction between them and the food that they consume. A food is no more a meaning of sustenance, where you just eat it to kind of just fill yourself up. And that's one thing. Um, we see in Chicago a lot of people actually when they interact with our product there justice interested in the product itself in terms of, you know, just the inherent characteristics of the product, uh, as well as the, you know, where it came from, the story behind it. So that that's also a really cool thing to be on that trend and be able to further that trend. So, so talking about that, uh, so, um, me and a and Malik, we know founders
Speaker 1:of Chicago and Arabic that Chicago is one of the, uh, the major cities in the US that has big Arabic population. There's around like 200,000, uh, Arabic speaking residents here in Chicago and the near suburbs. So, uh, so as your, your customers, you guys are focusing more to reaching this big community or a, you want to reach like the general population here, like Americans and, and other communities here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, um, you know, obviously the Middle Eastern consumer is a consumer of ours primarily because the are familiar with the product itself being Ouzo. Exactly. And therefore there is a connection, primarily a nostalgic connection. Just like we were feeling and yearning nostalgic to Bussa, there are most likely yearning and feeling nostalgic to booze as well. And our product is kind of an avenue for them. Uh, so we're definitely targeting that consumer. But the goal again is to take this product beyond the Middle Eastern consumer and kind of introduce it to the larger population, uh, and more specifically to the American consumer. And one of the ways that we're currently doing that is really through our marketing and even through our flavors. Uh, so in our flavors, instead of just using one ingredient to create the flavor, for example, figs, we decided to create a fusion figs and chocolate chips. And therefore you're kind of connecting a flavor that the American consumer is used to and you're utilizing the original flavor that the Middle Eastern population is used to and therefore you kind of bridging the gap and making a conversion between those two types of consumers. Interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 1:The American population needs a lot of awareness and education. Uh, so during your, your marketing and during your, your effort to, uh, to advertise your product, are you taking any special measures to, to educate people about your new product? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, so it's, it's a, it's a, you know, inherently the product. If people want to look at our packaging, it has like kind of geometric designs and has a little extra on the side. And, and you know, the logo is also a symbolic of, of, you know, what we're trying to do. It's a ship, like a storytelling kind of exactly the word itself. Yes. Yeah. So, uh, you know, inherently from the product packaging, that's when the education starts because you know, well, and I can't always be there to talk to the customer cannot samples and such. Um, and then we want to engage the customer through that medium and then bringing, bringing them on to our other, uh, you know, mediums such as social media, right. You tried to do flavor spotlights and Kinda introduce people to like, you know, for example, what does Eric Hoff, Arabic coffee symbolize in our culture? It's a big cornerstone of social interaction. Um, and then that kind of extends into our website where, you know, recently we've been doing this where every month we send out a newsletter to people who are
Speaker 2:on our list, sign up to our list where we focus on one country in the Middle East and kind of give you a brief rundown where within 10 minutes you can kind of get to know the country a certain unique attributes of it and you know, cool facts. So if you, you know, you're into that signup to our newsletter at Davita, that'd be pretty cool. I share it with our audience and as much as we are trying to educate the consumer, we're trying to educate ourself on the aspect of business. As we previously mentioned, we'd come from finance background and we might have had some limited exposure to marketing. Uh, but we are trying our best to kind of improve ourselves. And that kind of ties everything together in which it's a function of, you know, the available information to you online. And then the experiences of other entrepreneurs that have kind of gone through the same journey and sharing, you know, their word of wisdoms in a sense. Right. Um, so pivoting is not just, you know, at the product level or at the company level, is that the personal level as well? Right, right. Nice. So looking forward, what is one thing that will help you guys move to the next level? Yeah, so I think, uh, we have to define what the next level means. Uh, so in our opinion, the next level is to, so to tell you about, about our business model. Uh, we originally launched online, so we have our website which makes ice cream available to the consumers, uh, you know, direct to consumers. We have a local delivery service and we also ship throughout the United States would ups. And we recently got into our 11 store. So the next step is to kind of, uh, increase our, uh, our store footprints to be available in every single neighborhood in Chicago and throughout the suburbs of Chicago. And if we can potentially, depending on the timeline that we're discussing, we would like to expand further into the Midwest. Uh, we know we've received a lot of attention from New York and California, but I think they're just logistically too far for us for now. Uh, so just trying to make this available to as many people in as many retail stores, uh, and in order for us to get to that level, uh, we kind of need the, what I would say, you know, in a sense of validation. So a lot of people have tried the product and they've loved it. And, uh, it's always amazing to hear consumers kind of coming back to you and tell you, we really appreciate it. We love it. And now this product is part of our lives. That's really why we do this. Um, so it would be interesting to see if, uh, you know, organization like Chicago and Arabic and a or any other influencer of a certain magnitude, uh, can, uh, take on this product, give it a try. And, uh, hopefully they enjoy it and then they'll kind of give the product validation. Uh, so you either have like an influencer aspect of it or, uh, what we're currently working on is trying to get into a larger store. So we've been kind of targeting a lot of independent retail stores, which have been very receptive to the product. But I feel like once we get into one of the major chains, uh, the product itself will gain much more validation that and now is accepted as part of
Speaker 3:the typical ice cream aisle. Um, you know, offerings. Yeah. From, from a technical perspective. Um, and this is the kind of more broad for any entrepreneurs out there that are starting their company right now. At this stage we were in were I can see us like we're pretty much small batch, you know, we're making this by hand, Eh, you know, we do have commercial equipment but we still make ourselves. Um, so one key thing and it's a kind of a, a balancing act between consistency to the consumer, uh, you know, offering very consistent offering in terms of the product, but also being able to understand when you should pivot and change the way you approach things. Just so that you can always keep up with your consumers. Um, so that's one thing. I'm, the second thing is from, from a cash perspective, um, you know, you only have so much money in the bank, so make sure you use it in a way that will get you the most bang for the buck. Right. Um, and for us, the way that we're going to do things is instead of trying to build our own kitchen and get and buy bigger equipment, um, eventually we're going to, you know, I hit up a co packer that already is established and we'll take a little sliver of, of, you know, uh, of money off. Each pint does produced. Um, we're also talking distributors to kind of get that rolling. So, uh, it's kind of, uh, you know, one, one saying, I was like to use a standing on the shoulders of giants. I'm utilizing what other people have built and making those connections and, and you know, getting some more meaning out of them than something you're able to do yourself. That's awesome. So I bet you guys are seeing more change and more growth day by day. So where ideally say today is January 1st, 20, 20, where would you like to see yourself then? I'm 20, so ideally it would be a no pressure but national availability. Um, so hopefully we can get picked up by one of the major chains and be available throughout the u s um, and obviously in order for us to be there, ill involve some of the aspects that Zane talked about, which will involve, which is primarily expanding our production capacity, uh, and an expanding our market and get Macedonia and hopefully, uh, right now as Amy and I are the only two employees of the company, so we kind of do all functions and we carry ourselves. So if we're able to get to that level, they'll involve bringing on more people into the company and growing Safina as a company. Um, so that's really what would be really nice to see. Yeah. I mean what I would like to see is, um, you know, us kind of staying true to what we've created and not lose that identity. Um, you know, some, uh, some certain points, you know, you can grow so big, you'll uh, you know, you start focusing on different things that compromise your quality exam wise. Um, so yeah, I mean I want to, you know, have a company at that time that is not only, you know, large like Mohammed said, there's always the goal for, for business to grow, grow, grow, um, by wants to stay true to what we've created and stay true to the consumers that we've, uh, you know, uh, engaged along the way. So reaching this point, you guys need to have two options. So you want to do bootstrapping or investors. Um, well, right now the money is available in the company is part of our savings. Uh, and uh, you know, thankfully we were able to live very frugally during our finance years and the saved enough to kickstart this process and take us through, I would say the first year or two. However, if we see that this company has really taken off and there is a great potential to it, which we truly believe, especially giving the missions that we have set to ourselves, we would definitely be open to the idea of raising more capital. Have you been approached by somebody who was interested in investing? We've not yet, but this is one thing to know about food and beverage companies. Um, one of the beauty about this specific industry is you can pretty much build a business that goes national and you'll give away very little amounts of equity. And that's because if, you know, if you're very sad, you know, financially savvy and from opera perspective, operational perspectives, excuse me, you know what you're doing. Um, you know, you're able to manage your cashflow the right way to grow through, you know, the money the business is making. So, you know, one goal for me personally, and you know, I took, I talk to them all about this is when we do become that national brand, I want us to kind of not have, um, much equity given away. You know, I, I want, uh, you know, this business to grow by means of, uh, kind of the means of the businesses, the cashflows generated. So we'll see how that goes, but you know, if there's, there's an opportunity to, to grow much faster and for infusion. Yeah, of course. Okay, good. Perfect. Um, do you have any more questions for them? No, I mean, my only thing that I always wonder is having gone through this process, you know, over the time that you guys have spent doing it, going back to day one, is there one thing that you wish you've done on day one and, and just consider this like an advice for somebody who's, you know, thinking along the same lines. What is one thing that took you guys a while to understand that you'd wish, you know, and they want? So I think, uh,
Speaker 2:it's, it's, it's very important to speak to the consumer and to really understand, uh, what the consumer means. Uh, so initially you, when we were thinking, uh, uh, developing our flavors, we tried to be as exotic as we could be. And the consumer. Kenna was like, yes, I want something exotic. Give me as exotic as it can. However, we've noticed that as exotic as you know, the consumer wants it to be at the end of the day, uh, ice cream is a product that they consume potentially once a week. And when they consume it, they're very selective in what they pick up. Um, so you have to be kind of mindful of that aspect of things in which there is something that they want, but then if day there's something that they're willing to spend their money on. So if you're able to bridge those two, by truly listening to your consumer and truly understanding how those trends eventually align up with what the consumer is spending money on, and you can adjust your
Speaker 3:products accordingly without compromising the 10th, the idea behind your company, uh, then that's definitely going to be important for your success and is going to kind of shorten the aspect of it. Yeah. Um, you know, I'll keep this brief, but you know, in terms of starting a company, a lot of the battles you fight or in your head, it's the mental side of things. Um, so for any entrepreneurial starting in her path, and even if I was to give myself advice from back in the past, I would say limit my optimism because there's old Beaton's is always going to be something to kind of crush whatever the mystic hopes that you have. And that's part of starting a business because, uh, you know, things are gonna come up and everything's going to go wrong and it's just a matter of just problem solving. So just stay grounded. Uh, go, go at it day by day and don't be optimistic, but just don't, you know, don't let yourself get too wild in that department. That's really awesome. I mean, we really believe in you guys. We love your energy and your dedication for your product and we encourage everybody who's listening today to try'em Safina boozer and sign up for your newsletter and learn more about what you guys have to share with them. And thank you again for coming here. One final thing, uh, for our listeners to know in which stores do you are available, uh, at this moment. Yeah. So I can, you know, list all those stories, but to be honest, it would probably be easier for the consumer to go on our website, www.safinaicecream.com and now we have a retail tab that has an emap and the list of all the retail stores that we're in. So definitely check us out. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you for having you, for having us.