Mira Mehta's guest appearances

Mira Mehta

The Bulletproof Entrepreneur

Young African Entrepreneur

Jody Foster

Jeff Goins

Jason Treu

Kevin Bupp

Damion Lupo

Tom Schwab

Mark Goulston

John Livesay

Mac Prichard

Julie Broad

Todd Tresidder

Mark Daoust

Pia Silva

Whitney Hansen

Van Jones

OwlTail

Mira Mehta is the founder and CEO of Tomato Jos, a tomato paste company based in Kaduna, Nigeria. You can connect with her @ShoutsAndMiras and @TeamTomatoJos on Twitter. Mira was born and raised in New England in the US. Fresh out of college, she landed her first job at BlackRock, a large asset manager. Driven and ambitious, Mira quickly realized that she’d never have a leadership role, as her department was just a “line item” in the company’s P&amp;L. She was looking to make more of an impact and joined the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which sent her to Nigeria. While she was once driving to Kano in northern Nigeria, Mira saw a glut of tomatoes lining the side of the road. The quantity of rotting tomatoes was so great that the road resembled a red carpet. The image lingered with her. Why was Nigeria, which imports hundreds of millions of dollars of tomato paste per year, not able to manufacture tomato paste locally from its domestic tomato crop? After finishing her MBA at Harvard, Mira still couldn’t shake the tomato processing idea, and she decided to bite the bullet. In 2014, Mira moved to Nigeria to set up her tomato processing company, Tomato Jos. Mira talks candidly about the difficulties and challenges inherent to Nigeria’s agroprocessing sector, why profitable farming is the key to any successful processing project (and explains why Dangote’s tomato paste factory rests idle), the ins and outs of her outgrower program, and how she works with her investors. Plus, Mira gave one of the most thought-provoking answers to one of my favorite questions about where she’d travel in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve her business --- so don’t miss her response. Without further ado, here’s my conversation with Mira Mehta.

Mira Mehta is the founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.tomatojos.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tomato Jos</a>, a tomato paste company based in Kaduna, Nigeria. You can connect with her @ShoutsAndMiras and @TeamTomatoJos on Twitter. Mira was born and raised in New England in the US. Fresh out of college, she landed her first job at BlackRock, a large asset manager. Driven and ambitious, Mira quickly realized that she’d never have a leadership role, as her department was just a “line item” in the company’s P&amp;L. She was looking to make more of an impact and joined the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which sent her to Nigeria. While she was once driving to Kano in northern Nigeria, Mira saw a glut of tomatoes lining the side of the road. The quantity of rotting tomatoes was so great that the road resembled a red carpet. The image lingered with her. Why was Nigeria, which imports hundreds of millions of dollars of tomato paste per year, not able to manufacture tomato paste locally from its domestic tomato crop? After finishing her MBA at Harvard, Mira still couldn’t shake the tomato processing idea, and she decided to bite the bullet. In 2014, Mira moved to Nigeria to set up her tomato processing company, Tomato Jos. Mira talks candidly about the difficulties and challenges inherent to Nigeria’s agroprocessing sector, why profitable farming is the key to any successful processing project (and explains why Dangote’s tomato paste factory rests idle), the ins and outs of her outgrower program, and how she works with her investors. Plus, Mira gave one of the most thought-provoking answers to one of my favorite questions about where she’d travel in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve her business --- so don’t miss her response. Without further ado, here’s my conversation with Mira Mehta.

025: Mira Mehta – The Tenacious Founder of Nigeria’s Tomato Jos

While on a routine business trip, on behalf of the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Northern Nigeria, Mira Mehta observed that there were tremendous amounts of tomatoes wasting away on the side of the highway. Ever inquisitive, she asked around and soon learned that there were several easily mitigated factors that caused the current waste. She also learned that Nigeria was the number one importer of tomato paste in the world (spending over $400 million a year on this product- enough to fill the Empire State building twice).  She then had an idea to create a factory to produce tomato paste domestically in Nigeria. However, the idea remained at the back of her mind for four years until a serendipitous conversation with a friend at the Harvard Business School (HBS) enlightened her that Alhaji Aliko Dangote (the wealthiest man in Africa) was building a tomato paste factory in Nigeria. Feeling that her idea was validated by one of the shrewdest businessmen on the planet, she and her co-founder, Shane Kiernan, decided to pursue this dream. They began extensive research and put a team together for the Social Enterprise Track at the HBS New Venture Competition. The team placed second in the competition, and secured a $25,000 grant to launch the business. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of research, meetings with government officials, visiting potential sites, forging relationships, incorporating in the U.S. and Nigeria, trademarking their brand name “Tomato Jos,” and modifying and testing their business model. Along the way they’ve had to overcome numerous obstacles, and faced difficult and dangerous situations. That notwithstanding, this intrepid duo have also managed to make a lot fans along the way They are currently running a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to raise $50,000 to purchase equipment for their factory. This is the start of their bulletproof entrepreneurial journey. Donate to their Kickstarter fund and help make “Tomato Jos” a reality.

While on a routine business trip, on behalf of the <a href="http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clinton Health Access Initiative</a> in Northern Nigeria, Mira Mehta observed that there were tremendous amounts of tomatoes wasting away on the side of the highway. Ever inquisitive, she asked around and soon learned that there were several easily mitigated factors that caused the current waste. She also learned that Nigeria was the number one importer of tomato paste in the world (spending over $400 million a year on this product- enough to fill the Empire State building twice).  She then had an idea to create a factory to produce tomato paste domestically in Nigeria. However, the idea remained at the back of her mind for four years until a serendipitous conversation with a friend at the <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/Pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harvard Business School</a> (HBS) enlightened her that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliko_Dangote" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alhaji Aliko Dangote</a> (the wealthiest man in Africa) was building a tomato paste factory in Nigeria. Feeling that her idea was validated by one of the shrewdest businessmen on the planet, she and her co-founder, Shane Kiernan, decided to pursue this dream. They began extensive research and put a team together for the Social Enterprise Track at the HBS New Venture Competition. The team placed second in the competition, and secured a $25,000 grant to launch the business. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of research, meetings with government officials, visiting potential sites, forging relationships, incorporating in the U.S. and Nigeria, trademarking their brand name “<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599756125/tomato-jos-making-tomato-paste-in-nigeria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tomato Jos</a>,” and modifying and testing their business model. Along the way they’ve had to overcome numerous obstacles, and faced difficult and dangerous situations. That notwithstanding, this intrepid duo have also managed to make a lot fans along the way They are currently running a crowd funding campaign on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599756125/tomato-jos-making-tomato-paste-in-nigeria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> to raise $50,000 to purchase equipment for their factory. This is the start of their bulletproof entrepreneurial journey. Donate to their <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599756125/tomato-jos-making-tomato-paste-in-nigeria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kickstarter fund</a> and help make “<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/599756125/tomato-jos-making-tomato-paste-in-nigeria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tomato Jos</a>” a reality.

ODESHI 013 - How To Run A Kickstarter Campaign with Mira Mehta part 2

ODESHI 013 - Kickstarting A Dream with Mira Mehta part 1