Shazi Visram
Toronto-born, Tanzanian + Pakistani-American
Founder + CEO, Happy Family
Instagram: @shazi_visram
Born in Toronto and raised in Alabama since the age of 3, Shazi is the daughter of Tanzanian and Pakistani immigrants. From growing up in a motel her parents had bought in Birmingham, to turning her parents’ struggles and entrepreneurial success into motivation, Shazi has become an American entrepreneur that has changed the baby food game!
While attending Columbia Business School, Shazi was listening to a friend that was explaining how difficult it was to find time to make her own baby food for her twins, in addition to being unable to find a vast selection of healthy baby food options in stores. This was Shazi’s ‘aha moment’, which led to conducting research and taking advantage of the opportunity to create an organic baby food brand for retailers and consumers. Happy Family would be the company that Shazi would launch in 2006 with frozen baby meals as its first product within the heart of New York. Although this idea flopped, the setback would lead to a new idea in 2009: the launch of an alternative to the baby food jar, baby food pouches – a total game changer!
Between 2004 and 2012, Shazi and her founding partner raised $23 million from individual private investors rather than selling equity to financial partners. And by 2013, Happy Family had gained so much success that they were approached by Group Danone – the largest infant nutrition company in the world. Shazi agreed to sell 92% of Fappy Family to Danone for a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while remaining its CEO. As of today, Happy Family has eight manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and has grown to over 100 products sold across 34 countries.
Shazi has been named entrepreneur of the year in NY by Ernst & Young (2011), one of Crain’s New York Business 40 under 40 (2012), America’s fastest-growing inner-city company by Fortune Magazine (2013), and is a member of the Young Global Leader Class of 2013 at the World Economic Forum. And regarding the Happy Family brand, it has partnered with UNICEF and other organizations to address children's health in the U.S. and around the world. Watch below as President Obama delivers high praises for Shazi and Happy Family!
Sources: Forbes and success.com