Inspiring Women in Food & Beverage: Meet Taeya Abdel-Majeed, Founder of No Guilt Bakes

Describe your innovation in a sentence?

We offer low carb, and ketogenic baked goods and treats. We’ve recently started with bread and pizza and are looking to expand into more savoury options.

How did you discover the issue that your innovation addresses?

I suppose it started by necessity. After leaving university you often find yourself sitting behind a desk all day, coming home late, and your diet can suffer. I wanted to lose weight but still be able to have a sweet treat – but I couldn’t find any lower carb options.

Often the “healthy” options on the market use hidden sugars like honey, these are better than refined sugars but still raise your blood sugar. At the same time my father was diagnosed as pre-diabetic – and that’s when I started to make my sweet treats.

What are the benefits of working with SBI/LSBU for you?

Food can be very technical. Maya attended the LAFIC bootcamp last year and she came home just buzzing like, “Oh my god, there's so much we need to know.” I know why people don't start food businesses, it's because there's so many rules and so many regulations. But it gave us a base understanding of what we needed to know and how we could potentially do it.

"We’re now taking the next step of working with Adri Bester, Senior Food Technologist, to help us refine our strategy, think about how we can scale whilst continuing to stick to that clean label brand that we want."

How would you describe your experience as a woman in business?

It's so hard to say, but it's still, in many ways a man's world. As a black woman, I just see a lack of representation across the board. For example, when we were looking for mentors to help me grow, the ones I ended up with were great, but they were all white males.

I grew up in the 80s and you wouldn’t see black people in leading business positions. Society hasn’t given us the CEO or head of a company role. For me, this is as dangerous as being told that you can’t do something, that this isn’t for you. Without representation you're not able to even imagine yourself in a leadership role - so you don’t even think about them, to aspire to them, unless you have a moment of revelation.

Which woman, living or dead, would you invite to dinner and why?

I'd love to meet Michelle Obama because she supports a very strong male character and she's been very conflicted about how to exist in her own right. She's not just the wife of President Obama, she has two Ivy League degrees, dammit! You know, she's more than capable.

So how do you continue to grow but balance the other elements of your life? There’re so many things that, as I grow, I want to do but I keep thinking of myself, “Oh my god” – I want to have kids at some point, Jesus, how do you do ALL that?

What is your top tip for women developing new products?

That the idea of perfection is a myth. I say that with so much strength behind it because I was the person that said, “We don't have the perfect idea”. Then all the recipes aren’t perfect. All the packaging isn't perfect. The website's not perfect. You're taking your own pictures- they're horrible. You need better pictures but that would have cost £500, we can't afford it. So we waited and we waited and we waited and we waited. The idea of perfection is something everyone perpetuates. I don't know where it came from, but you just need to start, it doesn't need to be perfect

Fine out how we helped to create marketing materials for No Guilt Bakes here.

Find out more about No Guilt Bakes via their website.