Our Story

With a PhD in food engineering and an MBA, I spent a decade building a career around food.

Across R&D, management consulting, and corporate strategy at large companies, including Coca-Cola and McKinsey, I was shaping and advising the growth and innovation strategies of large CPG companies. I had a career that most people would call successful.

But while my career progressed, my body began responding differently to stress and age. The signs came quietly at first: thinning hair, fatigue, then an episode of severe back pain that forced me to slow down and re-examine my lifestyle and the foods I was eating. Eventually, my search for remedies led me back to something deeply familiar — black sesame.

In my grandmother’s kitchen, black sesame was never labeled as a superfood. It was simply part of everyday life — folded into desserts, stirred into porridges, shared during holidays and family meals. For generations, it was valued for nourishment, balance, and vitality in our culture.

I became drawn to a more grounded way of thinking about nourishment — one rooted in everyday foods rather than wellness extremes. I started returning to these foods more intentionally. And slowly, I began feeling like myself again.

That experience changed the way I thought about wellness.

After months of rushed mornings stirring black sesame and other seeds into my yogurt bowl, I asked myself: why not create something delicious, nourishing, and convenient for people like me?

That idea became SESA — a modern wellness snack rooted in tradition and informed by modern food science, anchored around one of the oldest and most tasty ingredients I know.

— Wendy Zhang
Founder, SESA
PhD Food Science