Columbia College Today

HAPPYBABY founder Shazi Visram ’99 (left) and her business partner, Jessica Rolph, near their Brooklyn headquarters.

PHOTO: The Brooklyn Papers, Tom Callan

Shazi Visram ’99, ’04 Business, is entrepreneurial by nature. “I am always looking for a better way to do something,” she says. This is exactly the spirit in which her company, HAPPYBABY, was formed. As a gift to mothers and babies, on Mother’s Day 2006, Visram, founder and CEO, and her business partner, Jessica Rolph, co-founder and COO, launched their company, which creates frozen organic baby meals. One of the first of its kind, the company, headquartered in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, is dedicated to the proposition that a healthy baby is a happy baby.

Although Visram always was driven, during her undergraduate years she never imagined that she would create her own business. A visual arts and history major, she says, “I definitely was a liberal arts undergrad.” New York City’s artistic vibrancy and the academic, liberal arts style of the College is what drew Visram to the city from her home in Birmingham, Ala. She spent much of her time in Prentis Hall drawing and painting, but, true to her leadership spirit, was part of the first team to lead the Columbia Outdoor Biking Orientation Program for incoming first-years.

After graduation, Visram pursued a job in business. “I began to see that a business is very much like creating a work of art that takes on a life of its own. Creating a living, breathing entity that could positively affect others became my passion,” she says.

After jobs in the business sector, including an analyst position with CNBC and heading up the new interactive department for Horizon Media, Visram began her own media buying and marketing consultancy, Maven Marketing. After a successful year, though, she still felt a void. Visram wanted her work to make a difference to society, so she returned to Columbia in 2002 and graduated from the Business School in 2004. It was during that period that she came up with the idea for HAPPYBABY (www.happybabyfood.com).

Visram always has been avid about nutrition and eating whole foods. She strongly believes that processed foods “toxify our systems and make it harder for us to achieve optimal health.” The main inspiration for the company stemmed from one of Visram’s close friends, who became the mother of twins. Her friend’s doctors informed her that it was best to feed children homemade baby food, so they can develop a taste for fresh, natural foods. But Visram’s friend, busy with her career, did not always have the time to make their food. As Visram listened to her friend’s guilt and “failure of being a perfect mom” with a sympathetic ear, she wanted to find a better, healthful alternative to jarred food for her friend. With the business education to facilitate her plan and a strong cause to motivate her, she set out to create an organic baby food company.

The original idea, under the name Fresh Start Organics, began in July 2003. The first challenge was to find a partner who complemented Visram’s business qualities and also shared her vision. Visram found her ideal partner in Rolph, who had been in market research.

The next major obstacle was raising the first round of financing for the initial launch. Frozen organic baby food was not a common item on the market, so substantive financial supporters were a challenge to find. With the help of family, friends and angel investors, Visram and Rolph raised enough money for the launch under the new name, HAPPYBABY. They decided to keep the business regional for at least 18 months to allow popularity for the product to grow and to not exhaust funds.

But Visram and Rolph were happily surprised by the reaction to their product. “We received amazing responses from moms and retailers alike,” Visram notes. The response was so remarkable that the company went national in October, more than a year ahead of schedule.

HAPPYBABY offers 10 flavors and in two stages: “Very Smooth” for babies 6 months and up and “A Little Chunky” for 9 months and up. The meal options include creative combinations such as “Yes Peas & Thank You Carrots,” “Smarter Squash & Wiser Apple,” “Sweeter Potatoes & Purer Pears,” “Grrreat Greens & Easy-Being-Green Beans” and the palate-expanding meal “Baby Dhal & Mama Grain.” (“We like to have a sense of humor with the names,” Visram explains.) These meals, which are produced in Salt Lake City, can be found in Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats and other high-end health food stores. Depending on the store, each meal costs approximately $4.99.

In addition to creating a successful business, another of Visram’s goals was to have a positive impact on society. Toward this end, HAPPYBABY works with Project Peanut Butter (www.projectpeanutbutter.org), a nonprofit that provides food for children in Malawi. A portion of the proceeds from every HAPPYBABY package sold are used to feed a child for an entire day.

What’s in the future for this thriving business? “For now, it is about perfecting the company and making it the best it can be,” Visram says. More flavors will be added, including “Chick Chick,” “Gobble Gobble,” “Perfect Peaches” and “Regular Prunes.” You can also expect this company to go beyond making babies happy by launching a food line for toddlers … perhaps HAPPYTODDLER?

ALUMNI UPDATES

Shazi Visram ’99 Keeps Babies Happy and Healthy