From parties to business: Apex moms launch fast-growing food company

Neha Avasthi and Anupama Singh both once worked as IT professionals in jobs that made it difficult to balance life and career. Singh, a mom of two, worked in Silicon Valley, Calif. Avasthi, mom of one, was in New York. They escaped the rat race, moving to Apex to raise their kids.

By coincidence, they built their homes next to each other and became friends. They are both foodies, who love to entertain and were driven to find ways to cook and eat healthfully. Friends started encouraging them to turn their passion into a business.

But they had no business experience. So they worked with mentors at the small business center, Wake Technical Community College and the N.C. Department of Agriculture. Basing their recipes on hundreds of years-old recipes, they worked to create foods that that are unique and addictive. It was the start of Apex Food Company.

I checked in with Avasthi and Singh to learn more about their fast-growing business and what they offer. They'll be sharing a recipe here on Go Ask Mom too.

Here's our Q&A:

PIAZ, gourmet onion relish; ZUKTI, flavorsome tamarind sauce; and ZUKTI, rib sticking wing sauce.

Here's what they have in common. Products have a very balanced taste profile. Though there is at least one “super ingredient” in each product, the spices and flavor profile is such that it works very with everyday American food like burgers, wings, pizza, sandwiches, grilled meats and veggies.

And the differences ... we're introducing ingredients that American people are starting to explore, including the ingredients that are common in every Indian kitchen. Our Tamarind sauce is known as the “ketchup of the east," while amazingly lots of Americans have not even heard of it. People have heard of the health promoting spices from the Indian pantry, but do not know how to use them. For example, the beneficial processed sugar substitute, Jaggery in PIAZ, is the most raw form of sugar and actually helps in digestion. Indians consume it after meals to help digest the meals. Though it's expensive and has to be imported, we use it in our products to let Americans experience the goodness.

Our kids are American, born and brought up, and they are picky when it comes to Indian food. We know and accept that they love American food. We slowly started introducing them to our home made condiments to avoid all the junk they were adding to their food with the typical condiments from the market. Simple make overs made both us and our kids happy. Brown rice with Piaz, grilled chicken with Zukti, a Caprese sandwich with Piaz, good old cheese and crackers with Piaz. The possibilities are endless and easy. Rather, this is how this company came in to existence.

They both love Sushi. They both like Indian food as well - Tandoori chicken, butter chicken and curried chickpeas are some of their favorite Indian dishes.

Neha: My nine-year-old love chicken with Zukti tamarind sauce. He will take samosa with Zukti any time over any other snack. He enjoys burgers topped with Piaz and Mexican food is all time favorite.

By the second quarter, internet sales doubled. On Amazon, Zukti became a best selling sauce. We also started selling through Ebay, imortitaall.co.za, desert cart.ae in the United Arab Emirates and in India. We also got into two internet food box companies, all Lowes Foods and Southern Seasons, bringing the number of stores to 25. We also started selling out of state in Iowa at their largest organic and natural foods store, Everybody’s Whole Foods. In this third quarter, we have won Whole Foods on the national level, while our internet sales are on a constant growth.

With this very rapid growth every quarter we anticipate a 20 percent to 30 percent revenue growth each year. We will be introducing at least three more products next year. We are streamlining our process to meet the demand for the anticipated growth on national level next year with the possibility of going into the international market.