Melissa Ben-Ishay's "love language" has always been baking. So, when she was fired from her advertising job at age 24, following her passion into business seemed like an ideal opportunity. Her brother Brian Bushell encouraged her to seize it. "We wound up creating an incredible product that makes people happy during good times and bad," Ben-Ishay says.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Baked By Melissa. Co-founder and CEO Melissa Ben-Ishay.

Ben-Ishay launched the bite-sized cupcake brand with co-founders Brian Bushell, Matt Baer, Danny Omari and Ben Zion in 2008.

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The company, which just celebrated its "Sweet 16," has grown a lot over the years, becoming a multimillion-dollar business with nationwide shipping and 13 retail locations in the New York City area and Boston.

Baked By Melissa has sold more than 350 million cupcakes, built an online community of 3.8 million followers and expanded into new categories, partnering with major brands such as Oatly and Entenmann's along the way.

Ben-Ishay has also evolved as an entrepreneur and leader in the past decade-plus. She stepped into the CEO role in 2019, just before the pandemic, and rose to viral TikTok fame in 2021 thanks to her Green Goddess Salad recipe. Her cookbook Come Hungry was published earlier this year and became a New York Times bestseller.

Related: She Imagined a Specific Type of Culture Before Starting Her Business — Then Grew It From 1 Cart to Cult Status: 'Magical Things Happening'

The driving force behind her success, according to Ben-Ishay? Her ability to understand what she doesn't know — and to turn to people who do.

"I love to be wrong," Ben-Ishay........

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