During the pandemic, Seena sat on her couch with amaranth and chocolate in her kitchen and thought, “This is it.” What started as a personal experiment to recreate alegrías—a traditional Mexican snack she loved as a child—has grown into Paktli, a brand named for the Aztec word for “joy.” The journey has been long and often grueling: hand-making thousands of bars with a small team, years searching for the right machinery, and bootstrapping every step. Yet Seena’s persistence has paid off, with nationwide launches and recognition in some of the food industry’s most competitive accelerators.

OU Kosher: Can you tell us how Paktli began?

Seena: I grew up in Mexico eating alegrías. They’re puffed amaranth with unprocessed cane sugar or chocolate—a snack sold everywhere on the streets. For the Aztecs, amaranth was sacred, used in rituals to give to the gods. The Spanish tried to ban it, but it survived. During the pandemic, I was at home, feeling kind of depressed, and I had amaranth and chocolate in my kitchen. I mixed them together, gave them to my friends, and they said, “Seena, you need to do something with this.” That’s how it started.

OU Kosher: What did the early days of production look like?

Seena: Honestly, exhausting. I was up until two in the morning figuring out recipes and molds. I even worked with a woman in Oaxaca who was an expert in amaranth. Eventually I found an incubator kitchen in Cincinnati where I could produce and obtain my food business license. We were a team of seven Latina women hand-making 3,000 large circles a day. It was incredibly labor intensive and really hard on my body. In five years, we produced around 130,000 bars.

OU Kosher: How did you move from hand-making to scaling up?

Seena: A woman from Kroger told me my product had to be bite-sized in a stand-up pouch, if I wanted to grow. But this wasn’t like granola you could cut and bind with syrup. It took me four years to find the right cereal-forming machine—and the machine manufacturer allowed me to test the machine for free, since I was too small. A trial would have cost thousands of dollars. The manufacturer let me send 25 kilos of product to test, and it worked. Then I had to raise $100,000—through loans for minority- and women-owned businesses, plus friends and family—to buy the machine. It took almost two years and then another year for the equipment to be built. That machinery changed everything—it allowed me to finally scale production with a co-packer who also had organic, gluten-free, and kosher certifications.

OU Kosher: Why was kosher certification important to you?

Seena: I’ve always bought kosher, organic, and gluten-free for my product. For me, kosher feels expected in the “better-for-you” market—if you’re using kosher ingredients, why not certify? Beyond that, I’d love to grow more into the kosher market specifically. It’s a huge opportunity.

OU Kosher: Your product reminds people of OU Kosher–certified Undercover Snacks. How do you see that comparison?

Seena: Yes, people bring them up all the time. Customers will say, “Oh, I’ve tried something like this on an airplane.” Undercover Snacks is definitely the company I get compared to the most. But our products are different—mine are puffier, almost like little bites of popcorn, while theirs are more crisp. I think there’s room for both of us. What makes Paktli unique is the cultural richness behind it, rooted in Mexican alegrías and the Aztec idea of joy.

OU Kosher: What recognition have you received along the way?

Seena: Despite the struggles, I’ve been fortunate. I was one of eight companies selected for PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator for Latino-inspired CPG brands. I completed Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program. I was a finalist in the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream pitch competition and even presented to Jim Koch in Boston. I’ve also been a finalist at the Naturally Network pitch event, where I won the Audience Choice Award. Most recently, I was a finalist for Whole Foods’ LEAP program, where I was in the last 26 brands of 1600, although I wasn’t chosen for the final cohort. These moments give me a lot of encouragement and validation to keep going.

OU Kosher: What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?

Seena: Know it’s going to be a long hustle. This business is very cash intensive. Unless you have funding, it’s tough. I wish I had someone to share the weight with. But it’s also a passion project—full of meaning for me. I want to see my project thrive and grow. I am so honored and proud of the journey I have had and the most important advice I would give is to make sure you are starting with a really good product.

https://paktlifoods.com/