VANESSA PHAM OF OMSOM

“Our full potential doesn't just lie in our ability to crunch numbers or to communicate this or that about a business, I think it lies in our ability to meaningfully connect with others and motivate others from a place of care.”— Vanessa Pham

Vanessa Pham is the CEO and co-founder of Omsom, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, and a Bain & Co. and Harvard alum. She advised Fortune 500 CPGs under their growth and retail strategy as a management consultant at Bain & Co. Prior to that, she managed a $3 million e-commerce business while studying sociology and economics at Harvard. She loves cooking all things fermented, caramelized and braised, and was recently named one of the Top 100 Home Cooks by Airbnb. 

Omsom’s mission is to reclaim and celebrate Asian flavors, stories, and communities. Who are some of your biggest influences on defining this vision for your business?

For me these past couple of years, it has been so humbling to see so many incredible Asian American culture-makers rise up and define so much of the visibility of Asian Americans in this country. I think Ali Wong is absolutely incredible. I love how she's able to shed light and educate on the nuances and multitudes within Asian America through her comedy. Simu Liu’s work with Shang-Chi is also absolutely incredible. There are also chefs, restaurateurs, and tastemakers that we work with through Omsom that I think are total trailblazers in defining how folks see these cuisines in the U.S., and ensuring that folks don’t think that all Asian food has to be cheap or “hole-in-the-wall.” Those are the narratives that I'm really excited about changing and evolving. There are so many incredible Asian-Americans across the country already doing that work through different art forms, whether that's cooking, acting, or writing. And then, of course, all the Asian American founders in the space that I've had the privilege of becoming friends with inspire me. 

What was it like founding a business with your sister, Kim, and how did you navigate this working relationship?

Honestly, I couldn't imagine it any other way, especially for this company, which just comes straight from the heart. I literally could not pick another co-founder besides her, but it has absolutely been challenging at times. Was founding Omsom a really big choice that we both knew we were signing up for? Yeah, it took a lot of consideration. But at the same time, when she called me and we went on our hike in Bolivia and it came up for the first time, it was like we've been waiting for this day. So it is this kind of funny feeling. But I would say at the beginning, there was a lot that we did have to work through as sisters to figure out our working relationship. A lot of petty sister drama, like things that sisters make each other feel insecure about, and the fear that we're going to let each other down and feeling like we're not enough. Like, that's just kind of core to a sister relationship. I think it took a lot of us getting super vulnerable with each other at the beginning and even still to this day, continuing to show up in that way and being really honest about what we're feeling. It’s gotten to a place where we work really well together. It also helps that we're extremely different and we run in very different parts of the business. She's extremely creative. She does a lot of the storytelling and brand marketing, and I'm more analytical and a long-term strategic thinker. So I do more of the fundraising finance, sales and distribution. Fundraising, product, and ops also report to me. So we kind of split the business differently and that helps. 

What was the spark for founding Omsom, and what really solidified that you wanted to start this business with your sister?

I think it was this experience of year after year going into the mainstream grocery store, seeing this really sad selection of jars and bottles with really stereotypical branding with dragons and pandas and tasting these diluted flavors that I felt really had nothing to do with Asian culture. And then at the same time, seeing the world around us evolving, and a renaissance around Asian culture and Asian cuisine in the United States. We realized that these products were not cutting it anymore, whether you're Asian or not—nobody was being delighted by them. There was such an opportunity to be building a brand that actually honored and celebrated the communities and cuisines that were being represented. It was honestly the brand that we wanted as Asian Americans for ourselves, and we were like, “Let's just go out and build that and build it the right way. Build it with cultural integrity and centering the Asian-American audience in everything that we do.” So we set out to do that.

As a first-gen, Vietnamese founder, what are some challenges you faced on your entrepreneurship journey and how did you combat them? Do you have any specific advice for BIPOC founders and creators?

I could talk about this all day. It's definitely by far the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, but also by far the most rewarding thing that I've ever done in my life and rewarding not just professionally, but also personally: building something that's deeply aligned with my values has had such positive ripple effects into the rest of my life, allowing me to show up more as the truest version of myself in different settings and attracting people that are more aligned with those values and more aligned with the world that I want to see. So I've been really grateful for that opportunity, but it's been really, really hard. I think the challenge is that there's all the challenges everyday, like, “Oh my god, I have no idea what I'm doing.” There is tons of imposter syndrome. So there's that steep learning curve, ramping up on something you have no idea how to do, while trying to be really good at it because your company demands that. 

I think the area I have found to be most challenging and perhaps more unique to the women of color, BIPOC founder experience is a lot of the scarcity that I feel in tackling those challenges, whether that be from self-doubt or fear-based thinking, and trying to work through a lot of that. I think when I trace back the origins of some of that scarcity and fear-based thinking— and therefore leading— it is coming from a place of fear. 

So, it's a very high-priority personal mission of mine to continue to trace that back to its origins. It comes from coming from an immigrant background. My parents were refugees when they came to America, and their goal was to survive. And survival is inherently fear-based, hypervigilance-based thinking where you're looking for threats and trying to reduce them. To be a founder where you're coming from a place of conviction and possibility and belief in yourself and others is not that mentality. So, that's the work that has been core to this journey for me and has been most important in showing up as the leader that I want to be. It's such a work in progress. I would say from day one, even when you're trying to be scrappy, find a way to prioritize your development and give yourself access to the resources, mentorship, and a support network that you need to evolve and to show up the way that you want to show up. For me, early on I was able to get a life coach and I was able to negotiate that as a really early stage founder: “Hey, I am still pre-seed. Is there any way you can work with me on this?”  I got an adviser pretty early on as well, and I gave equity for that and tried to find an adviser that I felt like I could show up vulnerably around. That was really important to me. And now I have transitioned to an executive coach and I have a therapist, which I get through insurance, so it's really affordable, and I also have my sister. Think about building up a support network through mentors, whatever it may be to support you through this journey. I know a lot of people are like, “Oh, that's expensive,” and I get it. But there are ways to get the support that you need, whether it's through equity or whatever else. And I would say prioritize that early on before you think you need it, because by the time you need it, it's not going to be as effective as having that foundation ready to go.

You’ve mentioned that you define yourself as a “heart-forward” leader. Could you expand a little bit more on that?

What I mean by that is, I think that there's this very antiquated notion that in the workplace, there is not room for our full selves. And I think that's a huge limitation of the ability of businesses to unlock people's full potential. Our full potential doesn't just lie in our ability to crunch numbers or to communicate this or that about a business, I think it lies in our ability to meaningfully connect with others and motivate others from a place of care. I, as a leader, try to show up as my full self, talk about my personal life, share vulnerable things that I'm really afraid of. My hope is that it inspires others to do the same at Omsom, and I think what it allows for is an experience where people feel seen and cared for in the workplace. I think that's so core to the work that we do. We try to do that with our brand and our brand story externally, but I want to do that internally as well. 

I think that unlocks all of our ability to do that better for the brand and for our broader community, so it's something I think a lot about. I do a lot of work on my own time— I actually wrote a leadership manifesto a couple of months ago, and it's on my personal website because I'm trying to hold myself accountable to it externally and with my team. When anybody joins the team, I walk them through it and I'll tell them, “I don't show up this way every day; I wish I did, but I don't. But I'm showing you this so that you can hold me accountable to it, and I can continue to strive to be that heart-forward leader that I'm trying to be.”

Quick Take One: Name your favorite dish from your childhood.

Easy. It’s Bún bò Huế . It’s a Vietnamese lemongrass beef noodle soup. It’s like a spicy beef noodle soup.

Quick Take Two: Who is a woman that you look up to?

Definitely, my sister. I think she is a creative mastermind, and I'm always learning from her way of thinking.

Quick Take Three: If you had to choose your favorite Omsom product, what would it be?

Oh, it's got to be the Vietnamese lemongrass barbecue, which is also called Thịt nướng in Vietnamese. It really tastes homemade. It just reminds me of going to family barbecues in the summer growing up, and nothing can replace that type of emotional connection.