Entrepreneur Portrait: Maribel Lieberman, MarieBelle
Maribel Lieberman, originally from Honduras, came to New York City to study fashion, but she soon found a new passion – cooking. In true entrepreneurial spirit she started a catering business out of her home combining her sense of fashion with her sophisticated palate. Eventually she evolved her business into focusing on chocolate and its many delicious forms. New York International was able to meet with Maribel in her beautifully decorated SoHo location and talk to her (over a cup of delicious hot chocolate) about her story, her success, and where she’s headed next.
Running a chocolate company is every kid’s dream job. Was it always your dream as well? How did you get started?It didn’t start as big as it is right now. I came to New York to study fashion at Parsons School of Design. For a while I worked freelance doing illustrations for fashion companies, but I realized that I wasn’t crazy about the fashion industry. I love fashion, but I wasn’t passionate about it.
I started getting into cooking and entertaining at home and eventually that evolved into my catering business. One thing I love about New York is that you can go to many countries in one city. You go to an Indian store - you’re in India, you go to a Korean store - you’re in Korea. I love that and it inspired me to cook. Each culture feels that their culture is the best and is proud of their food, but at the end of the day we’re all people who are just used to certain tastes. I just wanted to put my opinion and my taste out for the public.What I love is not just presenting the food, but presenting it beautifully - the lighting had to be perfect, the colors have to match, the plates and cutlery have to look nice. When you see food on the table it’s not just about having something to eat, you need to please all your senses. So I catered following that concept. Five years later I wanted to move to the next level. I opened a small store and cafe in NoLita with a friend who sold eyeglasses. It was called Lunettes et Chocolat (glasses and chocolate). Since we decided on that name, I figured I ought to make sure to sell a lot of chocolate. Before that I was doing some truffles for dessert with my catering but I wasn’t making a lot of chocolate.So how did you end up going from Lunettes et Chocolat to MarieBelle?Well, September 11 happened about a year after we opened. We continued a little while but the area was horrible, still smoky, and it was not a place people wanted to be.For Christmas I decided to take a new space, only for December as a sort of pop-up chocolate shop. This space was an art gallery. I borrowed furniture, repainted in blue, and called it MarieBelle. We opened on December 15, 2001.So it was such a success you decided to keep the space?Yes. We’re still here. Originally it was just the front part of the building that was open, and back here was my office, but now we’ve expanded.How does MarieBelle distinguish itself from other companies in that space? Of course, this [the decorating, the chocolates] is my sense of design, I like to present the food beautifully. Maybe someone who likes modern design might not be comfortable here in my shop, but this is what makes me comfortable, and I think it attracts customers who feel the same way.It is certainly beautiful and everything matches so elegantly. What inspired you to start your own company after already successfully catering to brand retailers like Dean and Deluca here in the city?
A product sells better in its own environment. If I put something like my ganache next to other brands, it becomes just another item. The design is very artful, you’re not just buying chocolate, you’re buying art. But if you sell it next to other brands it becomes just another chocolate bar.Do you feel your Honduran heritage has played a part in your success?Of course. I grew up in the Honduran countryside where we had cacao trees in our backyard. We used to drink cacao in hot water with sugar. When I read up on the history of cacao, I thought to myself – I need to bring back what America gave to the world, because everybody gives the credit to Europe, but actually we’re the ones that gave it to the world. That became my passion.Getting funding can be difficult in the best of circumstances, but as an international, and a woman, it must have been especially challenging. How did you go about getting funding when you were first starting up?In the beginning I started with $50,000 of my own money, which is not a lot to start a business. Two years later I wanted to get a loan, and as you might know, banks don’t even look at you if you don’t have at least 5 years in the business. So I went to a micro-financing company, Accion, which gave me a $20,000 loan. This ended up being a great opportunity since these days I’ve become their star example and I get invited to speak at a lot of events. If I’d gone through a bank I would never have had these opportunities - everything works out for the best.How do you feel NYC’s support is for entrepreneurs starting up in the city?If I didn’t move from Honduras to New York, and instead went somewhere else, I wouldn’t be where I am with my business. Not only because of micro-financing, but also the public here is very open. When people here see something created very well, they give you support.Has the luxury chocolate industry suffered at all with the latest trends toward healthier eating?
No. Luxury chocolate does not mean only luxury packaging, it means good ingredients. I continue to use everything natural and to me that’s luxury – it’s more expensive to buy fruit and make your own pulp, the product doesn’t last as long as chocolates with preservatives. I feel that healthy eating is not just about what you eat, it’s about how much you eat. That is why I serve my hot chocolate in a cup that’s tiny, that’s why I serve a ganache that is 10 grams. That 10 gram ganache has 50 calories, but you’ll be satisfied with one. The more sugar you put in something, the more calories it will have. My hot chocolate doesn’t have a lot of sugar; it has a lot of chocolate.Where do you source your chocolate? How much of the creation process takes place internationally and how much takes place here in NYC?Right now my cacao is from Ecuador, but I want to source from Honduras soon. The rest of the creation process happens all in NYC. Everything here in the store was made in my factory in Brooklyn.I know you opened up some shops in Japan recently...We opened the first Japanese MarieBelle last year in Kyoto, it was a huge success - there are lines to get in. We also opened a second location in Kyoto called “Cacao Market” – we wanted to be a little more casual more like a nice coffee-shop feeling, still very beautiful but more casual. I don’t want to produce many MarieBelles because then it becomes boring. In Tokyo we opened one MarieBelle last August in Shibuya and we’re opening another one in November.What made you decide to go to Japan after New York City instead of expanding in the US?Since day one, I had a lot of Japanese customers. I noticed they were choosing the chocolates by design, not just by flavor. So it was a natural place to go next before anywhere else. I visit every three months. I love the culture.What was your biggest mistake as an entrepreneur? Your best decision?I think an entrepreneur should always know their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I knew I was weak in finance, but I thought as long as I make my products expensive enough, I would never go bankrupt. Big mistake. First of all, you price your product according to your cost and do the margin accordingly. Second, keeping all your costs and figuring out the cost of each product, is more than about how much the ingredients cost you, it’s things like labor and overhead - I had no idea what overhead was. This is a lesson I learned over the years. I wouldn’t have had to go through big hits if I had just hired the person necessary to fill my weakness in finance.
Biggest success is my hot chocolate. I was the first one to introduce the chocolate like this in America. It’s a product I’m very proud of and it still wins competitions. The second is my ganache with the designs on it, I introduced that trend. Every design is thought out and has a story.What gave you the idea to do the designs on the ganache?Because I come from the fashion industry I was joining two visions. Chocolate usually has three colors, white milk and dark – but I give it an extra twist. Even though it didn’t look like chocolate, you have to follow your own senses and this is what makes me smile.What advice do you have for others who are thinking of starting a business?At the end of the day what’s going to sell is if you have the passion and you’re selling a product that you really love. It’s passion that’s gonna get you there. There are many working hours, you might not get a salary for a long time, you might be broke for many months, but perseverance is really key. You have to love what you’re doing.I heard you say “don’t say no to any opportunity,” I really liked that.I did that! You have to say yes, and then worry about how you’re going to do things afterwards, there are always solutions. Always.