How Jenny Yue Built HOME! into a Functional Snack Brand That Made Healthy Snacking an Easy Yes

Meet Jenny Yue, founder of OHME!, a Canadian functional snack brand built on the idea that healthy snacking should be an easy yes, not a project. Jenny and her husband co-founded OHME! to make freeze-dried fruit and yogurt crunch snacks with short ingredient lists and real, whole ingredients that happen to be gut-friendly, starting at farmers' markets and now growing into retail across Canada and DTC across North America.

What makes Jenny's story stand out is how quickly conviction outpaced strategy. There was no deck, no funnel, just a folding table, samples, and the willingness to hand someone something and say try this. Eighteen months later, the business has reached $1.5 million in revenue, launched in Whole Foods across Canada and Urban Outfitters across the US, and proven that the most powerful market research is still watching someone take a bite, pause, and ask where to buy more.

Please share a brief introduction and your business:

I'm Jenny, co-founder of OHME! - a Canadian functional snack brand built on the idea that healthy snacking should be an easy yes, not a project. We make freeze-dried fruit and yogurt crunch snacks with short ingredient lists and real, whole ingredients that happen to be gut-friendly. We started at farmers' markets and now we're growing into retail across Canada and DTC across North America!

Take us back to when you launched. What was your marketing strategy?

We had a folding table, samples, and the willingness to hand people something and say "try this", all thanks to farmer's markets! That turned out to be the strategy. Watching someone take a bite, pause, and say "wait... this is actually really good" taught us more about positioning than any deck could have. From there it was word of mouth, repeat customers asking where to buy between markets, and slowly building a small online following from people we'd already met in person.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Yes! I was selling clothing and stationery on Facebook shops back in high school, when that was still a thing. A few small ventures came after, each one teaching me something about building from scratch. Eventually I landed somewhere that let me solve real problems for real people, and at some point, "the breakfast you eat without tasting" became one of those problems I couldn't stop thinking about. The entrepreneurship part followed the curiosity :)

Do you have a co-founder?

Yes! My husband and I co-found the company together. My best partnership tips: talk about the hard stuff before it's hard. Money, decision-making, what happens if one of you wants to step back, get those conversations on the table early, when nothing's on fire. And keep checking in.

Are you a mamaprenista?

Lower the bar on what "balanced" looks like. Some days the business gets the best of you, some days the family does, and almost no day gets both. The trick is letting that be okay instead of treating it like a personal failure. Also: build a team you trust, both at home and at work, so nothing depends on you being in two places at once.

What accomplishments are you the most proud of to date in your business?

Launching in Whole Foods across Canada and Urban Outfitters across the US. They both have very different shelves and clientele, but both said yes to us! Landing in those aisles still feels a little surreal!

What is one thing you wish you had known when you started your Entreprenista journey?

That you don't have to have it all figured out before you start. The plan changes, the product evolves, the customer tells you things you didn't know to ask. Starting messy beats waiting for clarity that was never coming.

If you've raised capital for your business already, what are some of your best tips or lessons learned?

We've grown HOME! without raising outside capital so far!

When hiring, what is your go-to interview question?

"Tell me about a time when something didn't go to plan, what did you do?" In a small, scrappy business, things break constantly. I'd rather hire someone who can think on their feet and stay calm than someone with a perfect resume. Bonus tip: pay attention to how candidates treat the small stuff, replying to emails, showing up on time, asking thoughtful questions. That's usually how they'll show up on the job too.

What did you do before starting your own business?

Both of us came from healthcare project management. Neither of us had food industry experience, which sounds like a disadvantage and sometimes was, but it also meant we approached snacks as eaters first, not as people trying to engineer a category. We knew what "eating well" was supposed to look like on paper. We just didn't think it had to feel like homework.

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

The truth is... a goal to shred 50 pounds and a good breakfast. During the pandemic, our days slowed down and our food got duller alongside it. Same bowl, same spoon, same oatmeal we could prepare half asleep. When I gained 50 pounds in less than eight months, it wasn't a crisis of knowledge - it was a wake-up call that eating had gone on autopilot. We got curious about freeze-dried fruit, loved how it tasted, but found most of what existed felt frozen in time. We didn't want to just sell fruit. We wanted to build snacks that fit how people actually eat. That curiosity turned into kitchen experiments, then farmers' markets, then HOME!.

Do you have any recent wins?

We are currently 1.5 years into the business and already reached a revenue of $1.5 million!

What's one app on your phone that you cannot live without?

Slack. It's where the business actually happens, quick decisions, team chatter, the small stuff that keeps everything moving!

Who are your customers?

People who already know how to "eat well" but are quietly bored of it. Parents packing lunches that don't get traded away. Runners and desk-snackers looking for something that travels well. Picky eaters who've been let down by "healthy" snacks before. They're not chasing a wellness lifestyle, they're trying to eat better without overthinking every bite. Mostly Canadian right now, with a growing US online audience.

What's your top productivity tip?

ClickUp and Slack, every day. ClickUp keeps the chaos organized; Slack keeps the team in sync.

What's your favorite business tool?

ClickUp. It's the closest thing we have to a single source of truth, i.e. every project, deadline, and to-do lives there. As a small team juggling retail, DTC, ops, and product all at once, having one place that holds the whole picture has saved us from a lot of dropped balls.

What's your approach to work-life balance?

Time blocks everything, even the fun stuff. If family time and leisure aren't on the calendar, they get eaten by work. So they go on the calendar, and learn to actually stick to it!

How do you avoid burn-out?

A good breakfast, a walk along the beach, and a sweat at the gym.

What advice do you have for aspiring Entreprenistas?

Start before you feel ready. The plan you make in your head will change ten times once you're actually selling something, and the only way to learn what works is to put it in front of real people. Listen more than you pitch.

What's next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

New formats, new product launches, and more stores across Canada and the US!

Jenny's story is a reminder that the simplest go-to-market is often the most honest one, and that founders who built a brand from a folding table at a farmers' market tend to know things about their customers that no growth playbook can teach. We are so glad to have her in the Entreprenista community and cannot wait to watch OHME! continue to grow.

Want to connect with founders like Jenny? Visit the Entreprenista League to explore our community and discover more stories of women building businesses that truly matter.