“We call ourselves the Ben & Jerry’s of hummus. You have Breyers’ ice cream and others that just do chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. How many companies do Chubby Hubby or Chunky Monkey? Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t do ‘chocolate.’ Roasted red pepper would be our ‘chocolate,'” said founder of O’Dang Hummus Jesse Wolfe, a senior business management major with an entrepreneur track.
Wolfe’s hummus has unconventional flavors such as buffalo, dill pickle and sweet and spicy black bean. The flavors aren’t the only factors “the hummus rebels”, as Wolfe calls his company, have to bring to the table. The hummus is vegan, all natural and gluten-free.
Wolfe explains it all started a few years ago when he got his wisdom teeth removed and could only eat certain foods.
“My mouth blew up; way worse than they [doctors] anticipated. So, I couldn’t really eat anything for two weeks. It was like the worst two weeks of my life. The first couple days were cool like just milkshakes and soup. Life’s awesome. An excuse to drink milkshakes! But I got tired of them after three days. I told my girlfriend at the time if she could get me hummus from Publix because it would be healthier than what I was eating.
“She bought one of every flavor of Sabra. I got so burnt out on those flavors. So, I had to take a full week off of work and so I wasn’t bored out of my mind, I actually walked to Walmart and bought a mini food processor and some chickpeas to make my own hummus. I started messing around and that’s how I created the buffalo first. And my girlfriend took it to work, and she was in the fashion industry. So, these health-conscious girls were eating this,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe stated he never imagined his hummus getting as far as it did till he entered in The Joust, which is the UCF College of Business administration’s Business Plan Competition.
“It’s like the ‘Shark Tank‘ of UCF,” Wolfe said. “You enter your idea and if you get selected they help you write a business plan and you can win thousands of dollars. The concept is to use that money and build your business.”
Wolfe took third place, winning $4,000 in prize money. A few weeks later, he did a collegiate competition at Disney World and took second place.
Roy Reid, who works in the College of Business at UCF, has known Jesse through work at the UCF Blackstone LaunchPad and his engagement with the related programs.
“Understanding that it is a full commitment of yourself. It requires that you have your hands in every aspect of the start-up and there are no days off. ..Having the courage to make hard decisions and learn from failure are some of the most difficult things to master in business,” Reid said. “Jesse exemplifies the spirit of our student starters and has committed himself to his dream by taking massive actions to achieve it.”
O’Dang Hummus became an LLC in June, but started selling since April 29.
“We lease a kitchen at East End Market. We have hand-packed about 6,000 tubs of hummus. The chickpeas are imported from the Middle East and the cold-press extra olive oil is imported from Italy. Everything else is local from farmer’s at farmer’s markets,” Wolfe said.
Katrina Layman, a senior nursing major, is one of three employees or “minions” as Wolfe calls them at O’Dang.
“We make about 300 containers per week for the Winter Garden and Lake Eola farmer’s markets, ” Layman said. “I was always in love with hummus and ate Sabra so when I met Jesse and changed to healthier eating habits, his hummus changed my world.”
The hummus goes for $5 for each eight-ounce container.
Wolfe said so far O’Dang has made $35,000 in sales, but his goal for the year is $100,000. Wolfe has 100 percent equity of the company, but he’s not opposed to investors.
“I am in the process of applying to be on ‘Shark Tank’,” Wolfe said.
Phil Dumas, a UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) 2005 alumni, was one of Wolfe’s judges for The Joust and was a contestant on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank.’
Wolfe currently sells his hummus at the Lake Eola farmer’s market, Winter Garden’s and others.
He said his goal is to have his product in stores such as Trader Joe’s and at Orlando theme parks.
Wolfe’s biggest competitor is Sabra, which dominates 60 percent of the hummus industry, according to Information Resources, Inc.
Besides the funky flavors and health aspects of Wolfe’s product, his hummus can be frozen because he doesn’t use water in it and the self-life is two weeks. Sabra’s hummus cannot be frozen and the self-life is one week.
Right now Wolfe’s next step is launching his hummus to-go pack , which would consist of two ounces of hummus and two ounces of gluten-free pita chips. Wolfe said he is trying to partner with the Olde Hearth Bread Co. so that they could make the chips.
Wolfe also has seasonal flavors such as barbecue, which he sells during summer.
“For fall we are doing a flavor that’s very fall Starbucks-ish,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe will be a guest speaker on Tuesday at the Blackstone LaunchPad from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be free hummus.
