Sitting on the corner of her bed, in her one-bedroom apartment in Murray Hill, Melissa Ben-Ishay didn’t feel ready to run her own business. At least not yet.
Back in 2008, Melissa Ben-Ishay was fired from her job as an assistant media planner at an advertising agency. She went to her brother’s office and he told her to go home and bake, and that they’d start on their life-long dreams of starting a company together from there.
“Creating and giving is my love language,” Ben-Ishay told Fortune. “I never thought it could be a business or something I could do as a full time job.” But today, her company, Baked by Melissa, is now a multimillion-dollar business, as confirmed by statements sent to Fortune.
Her signature bite-sized cupcakes grew into a craze, moving from Ben-Ishay’s Manhattan apartment to the basement of a kitchen called Cafe Bari, to their own display cases in the fourteen Baked by Melissa stores that now dot Manhattan.
As her brand unexpectedly took off, Ben-Ishay became determined to become the vision of her company, the Melissa behind Baked by Melissa. “I just knew I needed to do everything and anything I could to achieve my goal,” she said. Even so, Ben-Ishay wasn’t ready yet to stand at the helm of the company that bore her name.
The Instagram-friendly cupcakes fit for Thumbelina (or to be consumed by the handful like mini M&Ms) gained traction in the mid 2010s. Beloved by corporate types, young teens, and moms alike, the chain further spread its influence via Ben-Ishay’s viral social media presence. Not limiting herself to desserts, Ben-Ishay has also cornered the salad field with chips to dip in lettuce and her famous Green Goddess recipe.
Despite posting daily, Ben-Ishay shirks the term ‘content creator.’ “I’m an accidental creator. I don’t like the word influencer. I don’t like the word viral,” she says, adding that she scoffs at people attempting to go viral claiming that purposeful virality is “ an oxymoron.” Instead, she maintains that she’s accidentally found a platform based on an output that is both consistent and quality.
Melissa’s journey toward running and owning her own business
So why didn’t Ben-Ishay want to be the CEO of her own business? The founder says she likely experienced imposter syndrome when she was in her twenties. “I just didn’t think I deserved it,” she said, adding, “Baked by Melissa sounded so legit.”
“The perception of me was so different than the reality,” she said, adding that giving off the impression of self-confidence was key when she was starting off.
Her brother Brian Bushell, a co-founder, was the CEO until 2016, and he still serves on the board of directors, according to his LinkedIn. She recalls feeling quite comfortable operating from her position of president and chief product officer.
“Baked By Melissa was my brother’s vision. He saw so clearly what we could be – I didn’t,” Ben-Ishay says, adding that she wasn’t assured in herself to be at the helm yet. “I was the product and the brand but he saw it and I’m forever grateful for that.”
In December of 2019, a little more than a decade since Ben-Ishay founded Baked by Melissa, she moved into the role of CEO.Thrust into the role by the board, she remembers being scared out of her mind, explaining that it was not a goal she was working toward originally.
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“I had no choice, and it was the best catapult out of my comfort zone I could have ever asked for and didn’t,” she says. “I wish I went after it myself.”
Being in an executive role is part of what gave Ben-Ishay the confidence of men in such roles, she says.“You get to know them and you find out, like, I’m just as smart as he is,” she adds.
Starting off on shaky ground, Ben-Ishay was guided by two of her self-described strengths: asking for help for what she doesn’t know (and knowing the right person to ask) and being open to being wrong. “One of my superpowers is knowing when I don’t have the answer,” she said. “ When I became CEO, I really didn’t know what to do and sometimes today I still don’t know what to do, but I do know when to ask someone I trust for advice or guidance.” She learned to be confident in herself and to not be scared of failing on the job.
”I think about how many people must have these silent dreams that they don’t go after,” Ben-Ishay says. “I share my story because I just want to empower people to actually recognize those dreams and go after them.”
