Growing up in the South of France, where the culture is very much rooted in hospitality and gathering for meals, Mélanie Masarin developed a talent and love for both at a young age. It wasn’t until she moved to the US to attend Brown University and start her career at Goldman Sachs that she realized how much her childhood had impacted the way she wanted to lead her professional life too. Discovering her passion might actually be her calling, Mélanie left finance behind in search of a career that would bring her back to food. It was a customer service email she sent on a whim that propelled her career forward, landing her a role as Director of Strategy at Dig Inn. Mélanie went on to join the Glossier team as the Head of Retail and Offline Experiences, leaning into her IRL hosting skills.
When Mélanie left Glossier in 2018, she had an itch to get back into the food industry. Noting that hosting dinner parties has always been one of her best skills, Mélanie thought about how she could finally blend her personal passion of hosting with her professional experience in hospitality. In April, Mélanie launched Ghia, a non spirits apéritif. With a mission rooted in bringing people together, Ghia is meant to be shared around the table by everyone – not just sober or sober-curious – allowing us to connect ‘over the influence.’
Who were you at twenty?
I was just graduating from Brown! I was in love. I was about to start working for Goldman Sachs and I was super scared.
On leaving finance behind
To be honest I always thought I had a plan, but after two years at Goldman Sachs I wanted to leave. I thought I might want to work for a company with a product that was a bit more tangible so while I was figuring things out I started working for one of Goldman Sachs’ clients, American Eagle Outfitters.
On how a customer service email led to an unexpected opportunity
One of my coworkers at AE and I would go to Dig Inn all the time for lunch and there was this one particular day where we had a bad experience. As big fans of the brand, we decided to send an email to their customer service team saying, ‘We love the brand and we’re not criticizing, but here's what went wrong and these are some potential solutions.’ It just so happened that on this same day they were switching some things around at a corporate level and the CEO was looking at all the customer feedback. He saw our email and thought our perspective was really interesting, so he asked to get coffee with us.
It was during this coffee that I really saw and understood Dig Inn’s mission of making better food available to everyone which was a message that really resonated with me and my love for food. We ended up really hitting it off and he hired me as Director of Strategy. Again, I always thought I had a plan in my career, but the truth is you never really know what opportunities will come your way– the opportunity to work for Dig Inn was quite random, but ended up being a very defining moment in my life.
How have you evolved since?
I’ve become more confident. Whether it is with decision making or simply walking into a room full of people I’ve never met. It comes with time, but also with acceptance and self love. It sounds cliche but when you truly start to see yourself for who you are and own the parts of you that make you unique, confidence will come. Sometimes it just, unfortunately, takes the majority of your twenties.
On gaining experience at several brands before going out on her own
I left Dig Inn in 2017 and began working for Glossier. It was very fast paced and very community forward, I learned so much there and was just very lucky to be part of their growing team. Not only did I gain great experience at Glossier, but it also opened the doors to so many other opportunities.
When I left Glossier in 2018 I was interested in how digital driven brands could establish a 3rd dimension IRL– what does that look like, and what does that feel like– really thinking those details through. I worked for a number of brands– I did a small project for Mejuri, one for Dollar Shave Club, some stuff with Sweetgreen, a really broad range and got to build relationships with amazing founders. It was a great experience and also really bought me time to figure out what I wanted to do next.
On a client’s push and support to become a founder
I had started to think about non spirits apéritif, but I didn’t have the confidence to start my own thing. On the one hand I was kind of frustrated working for clients because not only did I want to have the ideas, but I also wanted to make sure they were brought to life properly and in a way that made sense. On the other hand, there’s something really safe about working for someone. It was one of my clients who told me, “I love that you’re working for us, but you need to go on your own. You’re a founder.” He was like, “Whatever you do, we’ll help you” and they ended up investing in Ghia which was really amazing.
On building Ghia’s brand
I really wanted to create something to change the way people think about drinking and gathering, making it easier to connect mindfully. I think alcohol brands have just poured marketing dollars over the past decade into making us associate alcohol with fun. What Ghia offers is a non spirits apéritif that is just as fruitful and better for you. The other side of it is creating something that will have mass appeal and make everyone feel like Ghia is for them, not just for people who are pregnant or people who are sober. So it’s really about brand building on one side and breaking the stigma around not drinking and then also just creating a product that will be as satisfying as what’s already on the market.
On launching Ghia in the midst of the pandemic
It has been incredibly challenging if we’re honest. We’ve had to face countless hurdles– We always say, ‘Ghia is a drink that’s made for sharing’ and our plan was to launch in restaurants, but we had to shift to online. I do think that there’s been silverlinings being able to build a really direct connection to our customer. With selling online, we’re able to interact with them, so that’s been really good. Other than that, I think like everyone else, we’re just trying to push through the pandemic and hopefully when the world reopens, people will be drinking more Ghia.
What advice would you give yourself at twenty?
I think when you’re twenty, it’s so easy to be consumed by the idea of your future self. So much so that who you are in the present is constantly overlooked. When I look back I usually find myself being amazed by how much I accomplished throughout those years but was always too distracted to see it at the time. I dealt with a great deal of anxiety in my twenties (and still do) because I struggled with trusting myself and my creative process. Now that I’m finally in a place where I can look back, I would say “remember to enjoy the present.”
What would you say to a twenty-something-year-old about finding her place in the world?
I would say don’t try so hard to “find” your place - make your place. Spend time getting to know yourself, paying attention to the things that make you happy, and lean into that.
Discover Mélanie’s world here & Ghia here
Image Credits: Ben Biondo