How the Manchester MBA helped launch ChewChew from idea to market
Full-time MBA students and business partners Tom Minnock and Aaron Tonjang share how the Manchester MBA helped turn an early idea into ChewChew: a health-focused snack startup.
ChewChew began in the first month of the Full-time MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School, when Tom and Aaron discovered a shared interest in health, wellness and community impact.
In the year since, the product has moved from classroom conversations to customer testing across the UK and Southeast Asia, a launch at MBAT in Paris, publication in an international academic journal, a presentation at the ISPIM conference in Spain, and an upcoming retail launch in more than 20 shops from early September.
A partnership formed at AMBS
Tom and Aaron met on the first day of the MBA. Tom, from the UK, came from commercial property, sport and entrepreneurship, with a growing ambition to move into health, fitness and wellness.
Aaron, from Thailand, had completed a PhD in Innovation Management and Operations. He worked with Southeast Asia’s largest healthcare conglomerate before joining AMBS to develop an innovation project rooted in health, supply chains and transformation.
A conversation about Aaron’s family businesses led them to agriculture and, from there, to the possibility of a healthy organic food product.
Tom says, ‘It immediately resonated with me because it was organic and positioned as a healthy snack. It aligned with my personal values and with wider market trends.’
Aaron saw the same opportunity through a healthcare lens. ‘Younger generations are looking for healthy food and healthy activities, and they value longevity. Their focus is not only on wealth, but also on health.’
The pair complement each other through their different working styles: Aaron brings operational focus and structure, while Tom contributes ideas, commercial perspective and communication skills.
Together, they created ChewChew with a clear ambition: to build a science-based healthy innovative product that is affordable, research-informed and genuinely healthy.
From the outset, the product was not only a business idea, but also a way to apply the MBA in real time.
Learning by doing
‘I always say that ChewChew was born at the Manchester MBA,’ says Aaron. ‘The biggest influence has been the “learning by doing” method.’
That approach shaped the venture from the beginning. Through consultancy projects, practical modules, Venture Builder and MBA sessions in areas such as strategy, finance, operations and brand storytelling, Tom and Aaron learned how to understand client needs, customer expectations and partner requirements, then translate those insights into a sharper product and proposition.
Customer testing became central. They tested ChewChew in the UK and Southeast Asia with groups representing around 20 nationalities, gathering feedback on quality, taste, transparency, organic credentials and brand narrative. Using surveys, Likert scales and in-depth interviews, they found that preferences varied widely and used those insights to refine flavours, protein options and positioning.
‘The product today is quite different from the one we designed at the start,’ says Aaron. ‘This is because we listened to customer expectations and aligned the product with them.’
The AMBS community also became part of ChewChew’s development. Senior staff and colleagues including Chris Healy, Marie Dutordoir, Naomi Blackwell, Michelle Morrison, Helen Dowd, Lisa Samberg and many others helped them connect with partners and test ideas.
The Masood family, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, Venture Builder, Unit M, and the wider University of Manchester startup community also provided guidance. Leigh Wharton, Aaron’s CBP supervisor, became an important adviser.
‘We have access to these resources, and when we ask for help or want to test an idea, there is always someone in the business school we can speak to,’ says Tom.
More than half of the Full-time MBA cohort also encouraged the venture and gave feedback, including during MBAT in Paris, where Tom and Aaron launched the product.
A sharper product, pitch and strategy
As ChewChew developed, Tom and Aaron tested not only the snack but also the story behind it: their backgrounds in healthcare and sport, their shared passion for healthier living and the idea of building a sustainable value chain.
They spoke to people across strategy, finance, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, marketing, branding, product design, e-commerce, retail and go-to-market strategy.
‘We have probably spoken to 50 or 60 people,’ says Aaron. ‘We received a lot of feedback and recommendations, which helped us make the business sharper, stronger and more impactful.’
Those conversations helped them identify gaps and bring together different perspectives across the full business operation. In Aaron’s words, the Manchester MBA taught them ‘to stay open-minded, to act without needing every answer in advance, to listen to feedback, to improve continuously and not to be afraid of failure.’
For Tom, the value has been turning theory into practice. ‘We take what we have learned, apply it, get real-world feedback, identify what works and what doesn’t. It’s a continuous improvement cycle.’
Taking ChewChew to ISPIM
In June, ChewChew reached another milestone when Tom and Aaron attended ISPIM, the International Society for Professional Innovation Management, in Granada, Spain. Founded in 1983, ISPIM connects more than 5,000 members across 100 countries and brings together researchers, professionals and businesses working in innovation.
The selection process is competitive, requiring applicants to submit a strong paper, research story and business case.
‘Before attending, I didn’t expect too much, because ChewChew is still at an early stage,’ says Aaron. ‘However, after joining the programme, we received a lot of positive feedback. Presenting the business made the effort worthwhile.’
The audience saw ChewChew as an innovative business operating across the whole value chain, from upstream to downstream, combining agriculture, engineering, food science and business while incorporating ESG and sustainability principles.
For Tom, presenting to innovation experts was a chance to test whether their work matched global definitions of innovation. ‘It was encouraging to present our paper and realise that, from the beginning, we had already been applying innovation in practice.’
The conference also opened new connections, with the research now published internationally, and the opportunity for research collaboration with a professor from Manchester Metropolitan University.
‘In the long term, we want ChewChew to be more than a healthy snack,’ says Tom. ‘We want it to become part of people’s lifestyle and health community.’
A network that opens doors
For both ChewChew founders, the MBA network has been as valuable as the formal learning.
‘I feel at home explaining the business because people are willing to listen’, says Tom. ‘I can go into someone’s office and ask for two minutes to talk, and people are generous with their time.’
Aaron adds, ‘Their time is valuable, but they have still provided recommendations, feedback and support.’
This culture of openness has helped them build confidence, sharpen their pitch and understand what kind of business partners they want to become.
‘One thing the MBA promised was that we would become part of a community,’ says Tom, ‘and that when we leave the MBA, our own doors should also be open to others. The school has created that culture, and it has worked for us. The network is large, open and driven by a Manchester spirit of creating change.’
‘Running a startup requires looking at the whole picture end to end,’ says Aaron. ‘We apply knowledge from the business school every day.’
Advice for entrepreneurial MBA applicants
For entrepreneurial applicants, Tom and Aaron point to the breadth of opportunity at AMBS: funding, programmes, professors, business advisers, venture support, startup networks and activities across areas including AI, consumer products and strategy. The challenge is not a lack of options, but choosing where to focus your time.
For Aaron, the most memorable part of the MBA has been the openness of the business school community.
‘Before joining the programme, I expected knowledge in finance, strategy and marketing,’ he says. ‘What I found was much more than knowledge: everyone is so open to listening to each other, giving recommendations and helping you become a better version of yourself.’
ChewChew’s next chapter
ChewChew will become available to buy from over 20 retailers in the Manchester area by early September, including around the university campus, Manchester Museum and beyond. For Tom and Aaron, that progress is inseparable from the place where the business began.
‘From our perspective, ChewChew was born at AMBS and through the MBA. Without the support from the school, including its people, facilities and wider community, ChewChew would not be where it is today. We hope it also makes AMBS proud.’