Meet Chennelle Diong | CPG Founder & GF Foodie

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chennelle Diong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chennelle, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When I’m in the kitchen, whether it’s cooking or baking, I feel at home. Working with food and ultimately bringing joy to others through the food I make is when I feel the most connected to my purpose. It’s a mix of creativity, science, and experimentation and I even feel like (and look like) a mad foodie scientist at times. In addition, I’ve always loved art and have a background in design. The walls in our home are my personal canvas and I’ve painted colorful murals on almost all of them! When it came time to develop the branding and image for GoodLove Foods I completely geeked out. It was like my creative passions of food and art were finally colliding.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think the easiest way to describe my work history is to tell you what I haven’t done! In short, it’s multi-faceted. I feel as if I’ve lived many, many different lives but all of them, in retrospect, have prepared me for this venture. I started working in hospitality before high school and cleaned rooms at a bed and breakfast in Arizona. In high school, I started serving at a Chinese restaurant and then transitioned to retail in college. But this is where it gets interesting. I grew up in Nevada and my dad is a blaster at a global gold mining operation. They had a program for college students of employees to gain work experience and make money over the summer. So for 3 summers I was a certified gold miner at an open pit gold mine! The experience was unbelievable. At this point I was getting the itch to be in a big city and began studying fashion design in Chicago. I went from hard hats, dirt and steel toe boots to a concrete jungle and working on hems. My time in Chicago was a major turning point in my life. Culturally speaking, it was like my world expanded and I made lifelong friends. Although I loved the city, I wasn’t beholden to fashion design and made yet another big move where I landed in Denver and transitioned to graphic design. This is where I got back into hospitality. After a few years working at a brewery, and subsequently dropped out of design school, I began my hotel industry journey and worked at one of the largest convention hotels in downtown Denver. After five years I finally decided it was time to go back to school and I completed my degree at Metro State with a BA in Hospitality, Tourism and Events. This was also a pivotal moment as I started becoming more aware of the startup culture in Denver. I got into event design and production and as a project manager, I worked for a few agencies and startup brands and although I had regular work, I was burning out fast. When the panedmic hit, I lost my job but took it as a welcome reprieve from the grind. I had also been contemplating going back to school and the pandemic actually helped move the needle. In June of 2020 I started the online MBA@DU program with the University of Denver. A few quarters into the program I got the idea for GoodLove Foods, and in July of 2021, after 6 months of prototyping and designing the brand, I officially launched. Currently, we operate direct to consumer with customers ordering locally and across the US. After aquiring my own production facility this summer, I can now increase production and go after distribution opportunities. My goal and our mission is to become a freezer section staple while destigmatizing what it means to be “gluten-free” with delicious food that just happens to be GF.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denver is so unique and has many hidden gems! Although I’m a huge fan of entertaining at home, when friends do visit, I like to make it an immersive experience while just scratching the surface. The itinerary would first involve a tour of the city and surrounding areas to give an overall perspective and catch the big sights. We’d most likely do a bike ride on the South Platte River and get in some miles during the day. For happy hour, we’d grab a cocktail and apps at Linger with one of the best views of the city. To round it out, we’d take a drive to overlook at Red Rocks (where my partner and I eloped) and finally end up at Lookout Mountain to see the city lights below and the stars above.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe so much of my success and growth to my partner, Justin, who is my original source of inspiration. Food restrictions are incredibly difficult. It’s more than just a diet change. It affects mental health and everyday life and I didn’t want someone I love to suffer. A culmination of experiences lead me to the idea for GoodLove but the decision honestly came to me in the middle of the night. I told Justin, “This is it. I’m going to do this thing and I’m going to call it GoodLove.” Usually in those situations people look at you like you’re crazy but even in that moment he was like, “Yes! Do it!” I’m also grateful to my graphic designer Gracie Fasani who is incredibliy talented and helped bring my brand to life. Kelly, my best friend for over 30 years, is also a talented photographer and has taken the headshots for this article and a host of others you see on my website and social media channels. I have so many friends and family in my life that have contiued to show their support and I owe them so much! Last but not least, credit is definitely owed to the wonderful Entrepreneurship@DU team, which is part of the University of Denver. I completed my MBA this year and right after I graduated I entered a pitch competition for their inaugural startup accelerator program called BASE Camp. I was actually completely surprised when I was accepted! It was 6 weeks of learning, testing, iterating, researching, validating, and above all, practicing our pitches incessantly. I came out of that program more confident than ever.

Website: https://goodlovefoods.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodlovefoods/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chennellediong/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodLoveFoods

Image Credits
Kelly Kontz, Kelly Kontz Photography Entrepreneurship@DU, University of Denver