Founder Feature: Jenn Ko of DIME

Meet DIME: the brand on a mission to reclaim the narrative around MSG and celebrate Asian culture.

Growing up in a predominantly white Bay Area community, Jenn Ko spent her early years trying to fit in. She was shy and did what she could to blend into her surroundings. But by high school, something shifted – she began embracing what made her different and questioning the predetermined path society and her Asian parents expected her to follow.

That questioning led to a pivotal moment in 2013 when Jenn took a solo trip to Kenya and met a local woman who had quit her corporate job to start a children’s home. “I stayed in the home with the children and it was then that I knew I wanted to find my way out of the corporate ‘rat race’ and find something that truly brings me joy,” Ko recalls.

It took five more years of burnout in advertising and tech before she acted on that realization, quitting her job in 2018 to pursue a Master’s Degree in cross-cultural communications in Sydney, Australia.

Today, she’s the founder of DIME – an MSG-focused company that’s looking to reclaim MSG as a villainized ingredient and instead – celebrate it.

Finding Her Voice Through Global Perspective

Living and studying abroad opened Jenn’s eyes to how people around the world celebrate their cultures. “I got to experience so many beautiful cultures up close and see how people around the world celebrate where they come from,” she shared. Her thesis on how poverty is represented in the media deepened her passion for accurate representation and impactful storytelling.

When she returned in 2020 as the COVID pandemic hit, so did a surge in Asian hate crimes. This became a catalyst for finding her voice in cultural advocacy.

During a grocery shopping trip, a friend casually mentioned buying MSG for dinner. Ko’s immediate reaction was telling: “I was triggered. MSG? No, that’s bad.” But her friend’s explanation started her down a rabbit hole of understanding MSG and incorporating it into her daily life.

The MSG Mission

Then: DIME – an everyday MSG seasoning designed to flip the narrative about MSG and bring bold, simple umami to your food – was born. The product directly challenges decades of anti-Asian sentiment disguised as health concerns around monosodium glutamate.

The urgency came from watching other Asian ingredients get commodified. “We started seeing MSG as an upcoming trend in certain media resources about food, and were like, ‘we need to take the story before anyone else does’,” shared Jenn. “I had seen that things like goji berries and jujube were blowing up and becoming really trendy. And I wanted to make sure that us Asian people were actually taking this story and doing this ourselves.”

Jenn’s approach combines her advertising background with her cross-cultural communications expertise. Her career began at San Francisco agencies working on globally-recognized accounts, where she developed skills in creative and analytical thinking. She later joined ClassPass, working alongside an inspiring Asian woman founder who built a global wellness brand – an experience that impacted who she is as a business owner today.

“I quickly realized how important it was for me to work with companies whose missions aligned with my own values,” Jenn notes, a principle that is now a driving force behind her own venture.

Building Authenticity and Community

Currently balancing consulting work with building DIME, Jenn is navigating the transition from side hustle to full-time passion, like many Startup CPG founders are. “Every time I get to take my breaks or at the end of the day at night I’m working on DIME… That just lights me up,” she explains. “I feel like I’m at that crossroads now where I am starting to see the rainbows and daisies and unicorns over there and I want to run to that.”

ICYMI: DIME took home the winning title for Best Seasoning in the 2025 Startup CPG Shelfie Awards, becoming an award-winning brand just months after launching.

Listen to our episode with DIME on the Startup CPG podcast.

To learn more about DIME – visit their website and follow them on Instagram.

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