As a little girl, Caroline Hesse would practice writing her name and get upset that it could be shortened to C. Hesse.
"I didn't like the way that the letters looked together, and I didn't like that it was so close to the word 'cheese'," she says. "I didn't want to be the weird cheese girl."
Twenty-five years later, Hesse proudly says she's grown from the "weird cheese girl" to the "the weird cheese woman." That's because the 32-year-old spends her days in a Brooklyn warehouse operating her very own cheese mongering business: C. Hesse Cheese.
Hesse says she's not a traditional cheesemonger because she doesn't have a brick-and-mortar cheese shop. Instead she calls herself a "wholesale" cheesemonger, and delivers to clients including restaurants, shops and catering companies via her shipping partners.
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Her young business is not yet profitable, but it brought in roughly $400,000 in revenue in 2023, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Her clients range from New York City restaurants to shops in Florida, Texas and New Mexico.
Hesse typically works between 70 and 80 hours a week. Her responsibilities range from sourcing cheeses, finding new business and preparing and shipping orders herself.
She also hosts regular open houses at her Brooklyn warehouse where shoppers can take home as much cheese as they want for a flat rate of $25 per pound.
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With more than 100,000 followers on TikTok and a few thousand more on Instagram following her cheesemonger journey, Hesse has come full circle on her dairy-adjacent initials.
"I got so many people telling me that it's such a bad idea to name a business after yourself," she says. "I see this business as part of me. I think sharing a name with it makes it that much sweeter."
For the full story on how she got C. Hesse Cheese off the ground, check out CNBC Make It's latest video episode of On The Job embedded above.
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