Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Amselem.
Marco, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am 32 years old and I’m originally from Brazil. I moved to San Diego on May 2010 with the main goal of extending my studies in Business Management and learn the American perspective of doing business. Two other things that were heavily weighted in my decision to move to San Diego was Surf and Triathlon. I knew that both sports were really big here and I love both.
It didn’t take me too long to fall in love with San Diego and decide to build my future in this amazing lively city. My first years in San Diego was very intense. My time was divided between studying and training and soon my wife moved here to join me.
In 2011, I became part of the best Adventure Race team in US and started race all over the world the most challenge races that one can imagine, the Adventure Race World Series. If you never heard about it, Adventure Race is a multi-sport event composed by Mountain Biking, Trekking, Kayaking and Orienteering through the wilderness. The races can last from 4 to 10 days nonstop and the teams must be auto sufficient. In 2013 in joined a Spanish team Columbia Vidaraid and in 2015 we became number 1 team at the World Ranking.
Apart from the sport in 2015, an unpretentious conversation with my dad became a big dream for both of us. We both agreed that we found a product that was missing in the US market and that the culture of the Peanut Butter here was in our favor. On that day Pasokin was being born, the Peanut butter snack that is a huge success in Brazil would be now produced in USA.
It took us over 1 year to put the business together and it was only on September 2016 that we produced and sold our first Pasokin batch.
My wife and I are responsible for everything from the roasting of the peanuts until the final packaging. We buy our peanuts in person to make sure the quality of the beans meets our quality standards and from there we participate in every single step including: production, cleaning of the facility, sales, in store demos, farmers market, so on… We know that soon we won’t be able to do it all but it was very important for us to learn all aspects of our business.
We are aware we could have grown much faster with a sales team and more work force but we decided to grown organically first in order to learn as much as we could. Funny thing is that many references speaks about Business being a marathon not a sprint race. I like to say that run a business is like being in an Adventure Race. You need to work as a team, adapt according with the challenges, be persistent and positive about the bad times and think about what is in front of you and overcome the difficulties one by one. Don’t think about the whole race because it will affect your motivation. Think about one stage at a time and do the best you can at each stage.
Has it been a smooth road?
I like to think that challenges are lessons. We definitely had a bunch of them with Pasokin and they were essential for our grow.
Besides running an entire manufacturing business with only 2 person, I think one of the biggest challenge of Pasokin has been educate our audience about the snack. Pasokin has a very unique texture. We don’t use any syrup or wet ingredient and what holds the ingredients of the snack together is the own oil of the peanuts. It has a very crumbly texture but at the same time is creamy because it melts in your mouth. Our snack has also an unusual tube shape but we decide to stick with the same shape this type of snack is sold in Brazil. The cork (tube) shape also adds structure strength to the snack since it would be very fragile if it was in a bar shape.
All these aspects bring the audience a new experience since most of them never tried this snack before. However, the taste is something very familiar for everyone. The biggest challenge has been getting people to try for the first time because once they try they can’t live without it.
Another big challenge for us was to start a business where our network is very limited. If it is hard to start a business at your home country where you have an extensive network it is even harder when you have only a few years of network built.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Pasokin – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Pasokin was created based on the Brazilian snack called paçoca. In Brazil this snack is part of the culture. It’s like peanut butter for Americans, everyone like it, from kids to high performance athletes.
Pasokin is an all-natural peanut butter snack. It is Vegan, Gluten Free and has no artificial ingredients. It’s an “on the go” version of a peanut butter. People always compare Pasokin with the inside of Reese’s pieces. The difference is that our product has no preservatives and it taste as fresh as a homemade peanut butter snack.
Pasokin has an unbelievable acceptance by the audience. This is probably one of the most grateful part of our business. Not only the Americans that never tried this type of snack before are falling in love but Brazilians who grew up eating this type of snack are saying that Pasokin is the best version that they ever tried.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I already consider San Diego my home. My wife likes to live here but I am passionate about this city. San Diego is a lively city and it doesn’t matter your sport activity you can do it all here. Even if you want to see snow we are just a few hours from the mountain.
San Diego has a special vibe, I feel like I live in a small beach city but at the same time it has everything you need. The weather here is amazing too and I believe it has a big impact on this special vibe of the city.
Things like kayak with dolphins and whales, mountain bike the trails around San Diego and surf really good waves are just priceless and I feel blessed to be able to do all this where I live.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8860 Kenamar Dr. STE 306
San Diego, CA, 92121 - Website: www.pasokin.com
- Phone: 858 361 8221
- Email: marco@pasokin.com
- Instagram: @pasokin
- Facebook: @pasokinsnack
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pasokin-san-diego
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/pasokin
Image Credit:
Juliana Povoacao
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
