CLEARWATER, Fla. — Growing a small business can take many years, but a Clearwater man has skyrocketed to success in just five years with the best-selling pasta sauce on Amazon. The recipe: a big inspiration from his 'mama', a sprinkle of help from the city of Clearwater and a dash of advice from Pinellas County.
David Habib started Yo Mama's Foods in his parent's garage. Today his headquarters is a large warehouse in Clearwater and you can find his sauce in more than 10,000 stores and seven countries.
"Our brand proposition is: 'If your mother doesn't have the ingredients in her pantry, then we won't put it in your actual food.' So we craft all of our pasta sauces using fresh tomato, fresh basil, fresh onion and fresh garlic. There's no added sugar," Habib said.
Looking around the warehouse, it's hard to believe that just a few years ago, on Mother's Day, Habib came up with the idea for Yo Mama's Foods.
"I was inspired by my own mother, by how she brought people around the table through healthy and wonderful food and the communal aspect of food is really what drives our brand today," he added.
As the business grew, Habib needed a little help. He found it right in his own backyard, for free, from the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County. Denise Sanderson is the Director of the Clearwater Economic Development and Housing Department.
"We work with small businesses like David's on a daily basis to help them grow and retain and sustain through all of their growth challenges," she said.
David took all the help he could get. "They helped us with the location. They helped us to make sure that our current headquarters would be suitable for our needs and Pinellas County has been extremely helpful for us on the international growth side," he said.
Dr. Cynthia Johnson is the Director of Pinellas County Economic Development, which offers free services to all businesses in the county.
"We love what he's doing here. He's creating jobs. He's creating opportunity. He is part of the economic fiber of Pinellas County," Johnson said.
David has this advice for others who are creating small businesses: "Persistence and tenacity are everything." He says to accept the help from those free resources and roll with the ups and downs.