Toast-It: Making healthier ready-to-eat arepas

When sisters Mafe and Coco Cabezas moved to the United States from Venezuela, they missed many foods, but one stood out more than others: arepas. Arepas are a staple in Venezuela. They're corn dough cakes that can be filled with anything from meats to vegetables. The sisters went from eating homemade arepas every single day in Venezuela to not having the time to make them, nor the calorie balance to allow a daily dose of arepas in the United States. In the middle of the pandemic, Mafe and Coco decided to launch Toast-It, a line of healthier, ready-to-eat versions of Latin American foods, like arepas made with cassava flour. Today, the products are available in more than 1,800 stores, including Publix and Walmart. Mafe joins Bísness School to explain why the sisters left prolific corporate jobs to launch an arepa company, how they got their products into Publix stores and how they balance parenthood with entrepreneurship.