Armita Jamshidi, a junior at Cornell University double majoring in women's health and computer science, has a few things on her mind.
“Actually, I have an exam on Tuesday,” she said.
But for Jamshidi, unlike her colleagues, exams may be one of the least stressful events in her life. That's because the 20-year-old recently launched her own full-fledged business. This project was born while participating in the Women's Entrepreneurship Program at Cornell University.
Armita Jamshidi
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Armita Jamshidi
“I found it completely by accident and had no idea what it was,” she said. “But I applied, I got into the program, and I got more and more interested, especially as I started doing a lot of customer discovery and understanding what the really big problems were that I wanted to solve.”
As Jamshidi delved deeper into the program, her academic curiosity began to intersect with a long-standing personal struggle that reached a critical turning point.
“At the beginning of my sophomore year, my period pains got so bad that I blacked out and went to the emergency room,” she said.
After overcoming this frightening health ordeal, Jamshidi started her venture, Ant Flow's Kitchen, which uses traditional Iranian medicine to create snacks with ingredients she claims combat menstrual pain. launched. Blending her health concerns with her cultural roots, Jamshidi's business takes a modern approach to ancient Iranian healing traditions.
Armita Jamshidi
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Armita Jamshidi
“Cornell University has really, really helped me. The Center for Entrepreneurship at Cornell University is growing very quickly, and it's great to be in that kind of environment,” she said.
Jamshidi's Clamp Bites snacks are inspired by her Iranian grandmother's recipes and are made with healing ingredients such as dates, walnuts, and tahini, as well as spices such as saffron and cinnamon. There is.
“I believe menstrual care should be available to everyone,” she says. “There are a lot of walls, so I want to do my best to grow and challenge those walls.”
But Aunt Flo's Kitchen is more than just a business venture. It is also a platform for social change. Jamshidi envisions it one day becoming a means of providing employment opportunities to refugees from the Middle East.
“Ultimately, we want to sponsor people from the Middle East to come to the United States if they want and help make products and provide good-paying jobs where they can also work on the business side,” she said.
Currently sold in six retail stores in Ithaca and online, Jamshidi's next goal is to carry Aunt Flo's kitchen products in major chains such as Wegmans, which she calls a natural menstrual pain reliever. It's about increasing access.
She is also committed to making an impact in society, offering free packs of her products through Cornell University's Gender Equity Resource Center to improve access to menstrual care and promote discussion about menstrual health. furthering her mission.
Armita Jamshidi
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Armita Jamshidi
Even as he navigates the complexities of entrepreneurship and academia, Jamshidi remains driven by a vision that goes beyond business success.
“I hear a lot about traditional Chinese medicine, but not so much about traditional Iranian medicine,” she says.
Jamshidi hopes Aunt Flo's Kitchen will combine tradition and innovation to provide comfort to customers and highlight the role of entrepreneurship in driving positive change.
But before she can find a solution to her stigmatized health problem, Jamshidi needs to find a way to study for her next exam.
