Jen Zeszut

Jen Zeszut is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of GOODLES, a mac and cheese brand that has disrupted the consumer packaged goods industry. Zeszut first established herself as the founder and CEO of Scout Labs, a SaaS platform designed to help brands monitor and extract marketing insights from social media. She led Scout Labs from inception until its acquisition by Lithium Technologies for $22.5 million.

Before founding Scout Labs, Zeszut served as vice president of marketing at Leverage Software, acting director of marketing at eBay, and director of strategy and analytics at Avenue A | Razorfish. Her early career was rooted in brand management at Procter & Gamble. Zeszut graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley and earned an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

After Scout Labs, Zeszut continued her work in consumer products as CEO of the baby food company Cerebelly before launching GOODLES. She co-founded GOODLES with Paul Earle under the parent company Gooder Foods, Inc., headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. The brand was created to address a gap in the mac and cheese market, which had seen little nutritional innovation and was primarily marketed to children. Zeszut and Earle aimed to reimagine the category with improved nutrition, branding, flavor, and a fresh tone of voice.

Launching during the pandemic, GOODLES implemented a nationwide tasting program by shipping samples to thousands of people, building an initial community of 3,000 fans. The team developed over 1,000 versions to perfect their proprietary noodle.

GOODLES debuted with four mac and cheese flavors that sold out within two weeks. The brand’s identity, with flavors such as "Ched Over Heels" and "Twist My Parm," quickly attracted a dedicated following. Following a $13 million Series A round, the company experienced triple-digit growth, selling a box every second and generating $70 million in sales in a single year. Actor Gal Gadot is an investor and founding partner. The brand’s success is attributed to its focus on delivering healthy options without compromising taste or texture. At Target and Costco, more than 80 percent of customers reported they had not previously purchased mac and cheese at those stores before trying GOODLES.

GOODLES is recognized as the fastest-growing mac and cheese brand in the United States and ranks among the fastest-growing natural food brands in the grocery sector. The company has been named to Bain & Company's Insurgent Brands list, which highlights independent brands reshaping the fast-moving consumer goods industry. GOODLES is also the first boxed mac and cheese to receive the Clean Label Purity Award.

Zeszut has been recognized as one of Inc. Magazine's Female Founders 500 honorees and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on NBC's "Today Show." She is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, brand-building, and growth strategy at industry events such as Expo West, where she discusses strategies for success in the evolving consumer brands landscape.