Ellen Chen: Co-Founder of Mendocino Farms
Introduction
Ellen Chen is the co-founder and former President/co-CEO of Mendocino Farms, which she started with her husband in 2005. When she was President/co-CEO, Chen managed the hiring, finance, technology, and marketing departments. In 2020 , she transitioned from President/co-CEO to an executive board member to focus on other business ventures. Currently, Chen spends her time advising different brands, elevating female founders, and helping to grow Teach AAPI, a company that focuses on building curriculum and community for AAPI students. In addition to her professional work, Chen focuses on being a mom to her teenage daughter and son.
Background
Chen immigrated to the US when she was five years old. She lived in Northern California until she left to attend the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, Chen pursued a major in Economics and a minor in Chinese Studies. From a young age, she wanted to go into business because it satisfied both her parents' expectations and her desire to do something creative. It was a combination of her parents' hopes and her own desire for self-fulfillment.
Upon graduating from UCSD, Chen hoped to work as a consultant so she could experience multiple types of companies while learning from different industries and departments. Her dream was to work for one of the Big 6 consulting firms. She secured a job at Accenture Consulting as a technology consultant in their information systems department. From there, Chen went to work for an ad agency to explore her creative side. However, she discovered that it was not the creative outlet she imagined it to be. Around this time, the dot com boom occurred and Chen transitioned to an online ad agency which aligned with her dual interests in technology and marketing. When the start up she works for got acquired by Electronic Arts. She realized she thrived in a start up environment and decided to leave EA on sabbatical to figure out her next chapter.
During her sabbatical, Chen met her now husband and business partner, Mario Del Pero. He was in the restaurant industry and had just started a company called Skews Beyond Teriyaki. With a lot of time on her hands, Chen decided she would work for Del Pero for free. Chen had always been curious about food and the restaurant industry and felt this was the perfect opportunity to immerse herself in it. She ended up loving it.
Wanting to grow the business, Chen asked Del Pero if he was interested in scaling Skews with her as a business partner. Del Pero happily agreed and Chen wrote a check to invest and they became 50/50 partners. After opening another store, they both realized Skews was not as scalable as Chen originally anticipated, so they decided to sell it: “That was the catalyst that brought me into the restaurant industry. I think about it, that life is not linear and you're just trying to figure out what you’re passionate about. Not just passionate, but also what you can be talented at.”
In 2005, Chen and Del Pero used the capital from Skews Beyond Teriyaki to build Mendocino Farms. Knowing they wanted to create another restaurant, Chen and Del Pero pursued Mendocino Farms because they knew it would fill a gap in the restaurant industry. At that time, no one in the sandwich category was doing something with better ingredients at an affordable price point. Both Subway and Jersey Mikes were essentially fast food, and cafes served too many additional options. Around this time, Whole Foods Market was also growing and people were starting to invest money into better quality food. In addition, coffee shops were also expanding as neighborhood gathering places. They saw the sandwich business as their opportunity to do something more chef-driven with better ingredients, provide gathering places for people, and still have the option to “really scale it if we want to.”
In the process of trying to grow Mendocino Farms, Chen faced many challenges. Chen compared her experience with the saying, “You have [to] hit rock bottom before you can actually make [a] change to get better.” She realized she hit rock bottom in her self-confidence during a phone call with a board member at NAVO, the largest women’s business organization. The board member wanted to nominate Chen for an entrepreneurial award, but she declined the award because she didn’t feel worthy of it. The thought of having to go on stage and make a speech accepting an award she didn’t feel she deserved made her want to cry and bury herself in a hole. It was at that moment she realized how much self-confidence she truly lacked. Chen decided she either needed to change her mindset on who she was or accept that she wasn’t worthy. She wondered: if she wasn’t worthy, should she continue working herself to the ground to build this company? With that newfound awareness, Chen began to embrace the idea that she deserved a seat at the table because as a co-founder/co-CEO, she put in as much work as anyone else to build the company. It took her a while to find her voice, but she is now working towards strengthening her confidence every day.
Looking back, Chen sees the ways in which all her past roles significantly impacted her role at Mendocino Farms. In college, she “took an accounting class for her Economics major, and it became the backbone for financing at Mendocino Farms.” Chen noted, “one of the major hats I wore at the company was being the finance person, and understanding how to manage the money and how to be profitable.” From a consulting perspective, a large part of Chen’s job was process work which greatly helped her with scaling Mendocino because it was a process driven company. She notes, “When we were scaling, I think you need to create systems and my brain always goes how do we make it so that things are systemized and there’s a process so you’re not always having to do the same thing over and over again. I was able to create a foundation of how do we create great systems and how do we create really great training.” She was able to utilize her knowledge and previous training in all of the roles Chen held at Mendocino Farms.
Chen now spends her time on a multitude of different things. After transitioning to the board, Chen had a chef partner lined up to start something new. However, the pandemic forced her, like many, to reevaluate her life and what she wanted to do. She made a conscious choice to focus on being a mom. Although she built and affected team members' lives, Chen wanted to focus on the family she was also building. Chen notes, “I didn’t get to be as present when I was building the business.” She now really has the time and ability to shape their lives.
During the pandemic, Chen started connecting with founders who wanted her advice and guidance. This led her to start serving as an advisor and investor to many different brands.
Chen’s favorite part of her career is working with people. She loves being able to make an impact on people’s lives. At Mendocino Farms, Chen pushed herself to help people beyond just collecting a paycheck. She believes they are not only selling a product, but also selling happy. She hopes they created an environment that makes people feel happy.
She finds additional fulfillment now by aligning her expertise with other founders.
Mentorship
Chen believes that mentorship should start before a career. She sees value in being able to learn from others and have people help you think through things. She mentions, “your social network is one of the most valuable things you can create from school.” She did not personally experience mentorship early on because she didn’t understand the power of a network. As an immigrant, she was just trying to figure out how to survive. Although her parents supported her as much as possible, she had to figure most of it out for herself. In addition, UCSD did not have the best alumni network at that time.
Chen cites one experience that made her realize the true power of a network. Chen had a roommate whose dad was a partner at Accenture Consulting. When Chen ended up applying, she asked her friend if it was okay to put her dad’s name under the question, do you know anyone who works here? He happily agreed because he remembered Chen from a lunch and had a good impression of her. She believes because she put herself out there, she had a leg up in the application pool. There were hundreds of applicants and she was one of the three that were hired. From that experience, she learned about the power of a social network and the importance of not being afraid to ask.
As an entrepreneur, mentorship wasn’t something she experienced personally in the restaurant industry. It was a white, male-dominated field and she presented a stark contrast as an Asian American female. However, she did have one mentor. Her accountant took the time to teach Chen how to do the bookkeeping and understand the numbers when she and Del Pero were first starting Mendocino Farms. Chen initially just wanted to pay her to do the bookkeeping, but the accountant refused because she believed Chen needed to know how to do it herself if she wanted to build a successful business. She said to Chen, “You have to understand what is coming in and out of your company.” At the time, Chen didn’t understand the importance of her words, but she later came to understand the value of having someone sit down and take the time to teach her how to run the numbers herself.
In the last decade, Chen has made an effort to build relationships with people who support and inspire her. She is now surrounded by an amazing network of women because she knows that if she doesn’t build her community, no one else will.
Future
Chen feels fulfilled with what currently fills her time. Her favorite part of starting Mendocino Farms has been helping others, and she is able to do that for so many people in her current position. At the moment, Chen doesn’t see herself starting her own company again unless it is the perfect opportunity and she’s willing to put in 110% of her time, energy, and effort.
As a mentor, Chen hopes to cultivate kindness. She notes, “Business is not a zero-sum game. You have to have empathy and compassion for others. Empathy isn’t just about being kind to people. You need to understand what motivates people.”
For students, Chen believes they should give themselves grace because there is so much time to figure out what one wants to do. She advises them to go out and explore to discover what they are talented at and passionate about. Chen found she had a talent for finance which then developed into a passion because she turned it into a game of figuring out the numbers.
For entrepreneurs, Chen believes they need to know their “why” and their purpose for building a company. She believes if someone is going to work so hard to build something, they have to understand their reasons and motivations. In addition, receiving help, advice, and financial support from others is very powerful. However, she claims the most important attribute is to be coachable and open to feedback.
