March 5, 2015

by Zach Epstein

What’s in a name?

To Drexel senior and entrepreneur Michelle Silberman, the answer to that question is everything.

Although she first conceptualized the idea for a company that makes delectable cookie cups a decade ago, she needed a name that perfectly described her venture’s spirit.

She knew she wanted it to be unique. She looked for inspiration in other languages — French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, even some Slavic languages — before settling on her final choice: ChocAmo.

“Chocolate and amor. So, love for chocolate is ChocAmo,” she says.

Silberman’s goal now is to make that name synonymous with her company’s cookie cups.

“I just need to be able to teach consumers how to say it.”

ChocAmo — which, for the record, is pronounced Cho-cAH-mo — makes cookie cups in roughly 14 flavors that are capable of holding ice cream, coffee or liquor at any temperature. It’s a concept that Silberman has honed since bringing ChocAmo to the Baiada Institute last year, but one that its “Chief Cookie Officer” has been developing since middle school.

“Back in seventh grade, me and my best friend were sitting in a public speaking class, and our teacher, Mrs. Wheeler, asked us to think of a cool product and present it,” Silberman says. “And we thought, ‘cookies and milk, America’s favorite treat.’ Why wouldn’t you put the two together?”

The idea was never far from Silberman’s mind, reemerging during her freshman year at Drexel. Asked to present a business idea in LeBow Professor Christopher Finnin’s entrepreneurship class, she called upon the cookie cup concept that she could never quite shake.

“Every other team presented a tech-based idea,” she says. Her concept stood out, and with some encouragement from Finnin, Silberman decided it was time to give her business idea a real shot.

“I went back to my Myers dorm, took some Nestle dough, flipped over muffin pans and burnt the whole batch,” she says. “And failed many times after that too.”

While the recipe has changed many times since that initial effort, the process hasn’t.

“We bake in my apartment. We bootstrap to the max,” Silberman says.

Though ChocAmo is preparing to move to a commissary with more space and resources, Silberman still bakes each batch of cookie cups herself, all from scratch — a practice that results in about 40 cups every three hours. With the help of her team — Ramon Contreras, Rochel Wener and Katelyn Taylor — she tallies her orders every week and makes enough to fill those requests all at once.

It’s a process that Silberman has been forced to perfect over the past year, as ChocAmo continues to gain traction not only on Drexel’s campus, but throughout Philadelphia. The company’s initial focus is catering and the event space, and one event last year — Drexel Startup Day — demonstrated just how receptive ChocAmo’s market was.

“That was awesome,” Silberman says. “It was a bit overwhelming at times, but it was nice to have a line and see how Drexel students are so supportive of what we’re up to. That warms my heart.”

ChocAmo also recently catered the viewing party at First Round Capital for fellow Baiada company Scholly’s appearance on Shark Tank. For now, ChocAmo will continue to concentrate on volume sales — although cookie cups are also available in packages of six on its website — and make a stronger consumer push later in 2015.

“We really want to launch a strong Kickstarter campaign, which will be the opening on our consumer end,” Silberman says.

ChocAmo is also developing co-branding partnerships with local event planners, and is working to improve the product’s shelf life and shippability. As Silberman prepares to graduate from Drexel this year, she plans to continue building ChocAmo full-time.

“I’ve gotten the most amazing mentorship thanks to Drexel, and the connections of President Fry and the people here have been really amazing.”