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“I love the idea that when you fall in love with the food, you fall in love with the culture. This is exactly what we want to achieve with SOMOS,” says Miguel Leal, co-founder and CEO of the company WE ARE Food. “There is often a general approach to Mexican cuisine. Many retailers carry Americanized versions of Mexican cuisine. Spoiler alert: taco salads and chimichangas are not available in Mexico.”
Miguel Leal founded SOMOS with his co-founders Daniel Lubetzky, founder TYPE OF SNACKand Rodrigo Zuloaga, former head of KIND product development, were all born in Mexico. They founded SOMOS for the American consumer who loves Mexican food but is afraid of find out how to make it at home.
Leal said their mission is to demystify a category that has for so long been binary: the decisions are purchasing ingredients to make recipes from scratch, which first-generation Mexicans often do with the help of a member of the family, or purchasing ingredients for simplified options — Americanized versions of Mexican foods corresponding to hard shell tacos and taco seasoning packets.
“Mexican cuisine is incredibly diverse depending on the region,” Leal says. “The food I ate growing up in Monterrey is very different from the food Daniel grew up in Mexico and Rodrigo grew up in Guadalajara. We bring the diversity of Mexican cuisine to households, offering meals that may quickly be put on their family’s table.”
In lower than three years of operation, SOMOS is available in over 11,000 retail locations nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Target, Walmart, HEB, Publix and more. In 2024, just over 70% of the brand’s spending supports the Mexican community. They produce all SOMOS products in Mexico, sourcing as many ingredients from Mexico as possible, and are wanting to work with Mexican suppliers and vendors. This includes packaging designers, photographers, food stylists and ingredient suppliers.
Building and scaling SOMOS, while difficult preconceptions about Mexican food and culture, was demanding. Leal and his co-founders relied on each other while going back to basic business fundamentals to make sure they were starting the company for long-term success. Here are three lessons Miguel Leal learned on the approach to building SOMOS.
1. Pay attention to accounting details
“I wish I had paid more attention to my accounting classes in business school,” Leal says. “I was trained as an engineer with an MBA and was very focused on P&L management. In the beginning, I was chasing growth when I should have been focusing more on profitability.”
Leal urges founders to drill down into the details: accounts payable and receivable and how much inventory is available, focusing on the business fundamentals. He says most investors shall be interested not only in your sales, but also in your path to profitability. It reminds founders that the balance is that growing inventory may require significantly additional cash and caution have to be exercised when aiming for the right metrics. Leal also admits that scaling the business for profitability will also be difficult in a market where rates of interest are so high immediately.
“Your balance sheet can be your best friend or your enemy,” Leal says. “My advice to founders: commit to understanding the basics of accounting. Let the balance sheet be your best friend.”
2. Meet your customers where they are
“Mexican food is a $68 billion market, and yet 82% of consumption occurs in restaurants,” Leal says. “When you walk the aisles of grocery stores, you’ll see that there hasn’t been much innovation in the Mexican set over the years. We know SOMOS can fill this gap by offering Mexican food that celebrates vegetables, grains and legumes.”
One of the first lessons Leal recalls is how the co-founders selected the names of their products. “When we first launched SOMOS, one of the products we were most excited about was our ‘pea-cadillos,’ a plant-based protein alternative to my favorite picadillo that my mother made for me every year for my birthday,” says Leal. “Not only does the average American not know what picadillo is, calling it ‘pea-cadillo’ in reference to the pea protein in the product, but we also thought we were being clever when in fact we were simply misleading our consumer.”
It was an essential reminder that when a consumer walks the aisles of a food market or browses on their phone, they make a purchase decision in a matter of seconds. This was one other core business that Leal and his co-founders relied on. For future products, Leal and his team clarified the nomenclature and details while remaining true to the Mexican heritage.
“Meet your customers where they are,” says Leal. “Make it easy for them to understand what your product is, how to use it and ultimately decide to buy it.”
3. Building a business with others can leverage different strengths
Leal, Lubetzky and Zuloaga crossed paths at KIND Snacks. After their time together at KIND Snacks, they broke up and realized they hadn’t spoken to each other in over a yr. They missed friendship and building together.
“I feel very lucky to be part of this journey with Rodrigo and Daniel,” says Leal. “Rodrigo comes from a family of chefs and is an extremely talented product innovator. I love Daniel’s leadership style and the culture he has built at KIND. I have a passion for connecting all the dots and getting things done. Together we bring different strengths to the company’s table.”
As SOMOS continued to build, their friendships strengthened. This time they spend more time with their families, who also bring different skills and knowledge. The name for the brand was invented by one of Lubetzky’s members of the family, which implies “we are” in Spanish. The Rodrigo family was involved in the development of SOMOS’ Mexican Chili Crisp, also generally known as salsa macha, and one of Miguel’s members of the family often shares brand strategy ideas on social media.
“We definitely don’t agree on everything, but we always respect each other’s opinions. It makes us stronger,” says Leal. “Different perspectives result in the best ideas. Ultimately, it’s not about who is right and who is wrong; we all just want SOMOS to succeed.”