To hear Lauryn Chun tell it, a major professional setback can steer a person toward a million-dollar idea that was hiding in plain sight.
Chun founded Mother-in-Law’s, a line of artisanal kimchi and other Korean pantry staples, in 2009. The brand now offers 12 products and is sold in roughly 9,000 stores nationwide.
Her entrepreneurial journey began when she was laid off from a marketing job at a global consultancy during the 2008 recession. Chun viewed the pink slip as an opening.
“I thought, ‘This is my ticket to freedom,’” she told Fortune. “There’s something magical about the worst of times—you decide you have nothing to lose and just go for it.”
Networking and revelation
Keen to build her own venture, she embarked on what she calls “a year of self-discovery,” attending small-business seminars and cold-calling people who were “doing cool things” to ask for meetings over coffee. She was leaning toward opening a wine shop—a longtime passion—until a fateful meeting with a hospitality consultant who described the burgeoning foodmaker movement in Brooklyn.
“She mentioned a DJ who was making kimchi, and I thought, ‘My mom makes the best kimchi on the planet,’ which I’ve been transporting in my luggage from California to New York for 15 years to share with friends,” Chun recalls. “It was my aha moment.”
Homegrown approach, clear vision
Armed with her mother’s family recipe, Chun began making kimchi at home and selling it at New York City green markets. She named it Mother-in-Law’s after her mother’s Korean restaurant, Jang Mo Jip (“Mother-in-Law’s House”), in Garden Grove, Calif. In Korean culture, a groom’s future mother-in-law spoils him with her cooking to ensure he’ll care for her daughter; eating at a mother-in-law’s house is synonymous with delicious food.
To replicate the small-batch kimchi she grew up with, Chun cut strips of napa cabbage and cubes of daikon by hand and hand-packed them into glass jars for balanced fermentation and deeper flavors.
“I’d make 70 or 80 jars, and then I’d rent a Zip car and drop them off,” she says. “The scale was so small, and the growth so incremental—I was doing everything, but I didn’t know any better.”
Meanwhile, kimchi’s profile was rising. Chun recalls hearing an NPR story about food trucks that mentioned kimchi on a taco.
“Many people listening likely didn’t know what kimchi was,” says Chun. “It seemed like the dawn of a great marketing opportunity.”
Her aim: elevate kimchi as a delicacy suited to far more occasions than strictly Korean meals.
“I wanted to tell the story of kimchi in a way that was refined and premium—a handcrafted, specialty tradition in the same ranks as winemaking and cheesemaking.”
Retail coup and expansion
An unexpected New York Times review in October 2009 put Mother-in-Law’s on the foodie radar. Soon after, Dean & DeLuca and Zabar’s became her first corporate accounts.
“From day one, my goal was for Mother-in-Law’s to be the first kimchi carried by Dean & DeLuca,” she recalls. “I basically willed it to happen.”
In 2012, Chun authored a kimchi cookbook; in 2014, the brand launched its own gochujang, a Korean fermented chili paste. Today, Mother-in-Law’s has a full-time staff of 30 and sells in virtually every U.S. state, including through Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Albertsons, along with natural food retailers and independent stores.
Lessons from the pandemic
While recent tariffs have not yet measurably affected the business, uncertainty has given Chun pause. She has considered strengthening the supply chain by finding alternative sources for some ingredients but is holding off.
“It’s a very nerve-racking time,” she says. “I’m afraid to change anything … This operating environment doesn’t help you grow your business in any strategic way.”
She’s leaning on lessons from COVID to weather future shocks. When the price of metal caps tripled virtually overnight owing to supply issues, for example, Chun scrambled to find comparable plastic ones.
“One of the big advantages of being a small business is that you develop the ability to pivot quickly and really think on your feet,” says Chun.
Another takeaway: diversify. Mother-in-Law’s sells both refrigerated and shelf-stable kimchi—the latter’s sales surged during COVID as customers stocked their pantries amid widespread disruptions.
“I don’t think anyone starts a business thinking, ‘I need to have different categories of product,’” Chun says. “But so many one-product businesses took a hit then because of supply and distribution issues. People talk about the importance of diversified investment portfolios, while I feel that way about business: Do whatever you can so your eggs aren’t in one basket.”
Asked what advice she offers aspiring entrepreneurs, Chun is succinct.
“Always know your margins,” she says, “and you’ll never make a bad deal.”
