Valentina Mussi is bringing a whole new meaning to the word foodie. With over 80,000 Instagram followers she is surely catching the attention of a lot of people’s sweet tooth.
Here is her Under 25 story!
“My name is Valentina Mussi and I am the person behind @sweetportfolio, a Miami-based food and lifestyle page. I come from a multicultural background, my mother is Colombian and my father is Italian. I moved to the U.S. six years ago and began this culinary journey a little over two years ago.
My focus is on food and lifestyle. I made it my job to try all the newest food trends, to report on the best eats in Miami and the cities I visit, to stay at the best hotels, and to attend the coolest events.
My love for food is rooted in my multicultural background and the fact that my parents exposed me to good eats since I was a little kid. My parents were never the kind to go on dates alone on weekends, instead, they’d bring me along.
I started Sweetportfolio after taking a three-week trip to New York with my best friends. We were obsessed with the INSIDER food videos and we based our itinerary off of them.
We tried to hit every single spot with cool eats, we went to Flushing for Hello Kitty-shaped cotton candy soft serve ice cream, to Chinatown for ube ice cream, Black Tap for those ridiculous freak milkshakes, and so on! All while documenting our journeys on Snapchat, but we faced a problem: it all disappeared within 24 hours.
After eating internet-famous food for three weeks, I was back at home in Miami, motivated to start a food Instagram account. I did my due diligence and took every online course on Instagram marketing I would come across. I looked at every food Instagram account and analyzed what they did, what they posted, at what times they posted, which hashtags they used, and how they edited their photos.
In less than 6 months I had amassed 10k followers and surpassed accounts that had been in the game for years. I didn’t exactly intend to become an influencer or “influence” people, I’m just a competitive person who wanted to excel at this photo-taking/binge-eating weird hobby.
Despite being opposed to being a so-called influencer, it didn’t take long for me to realize the potential Sweetportfolio has. After partnering with GoDaddy, becoming a Google Pixel Ambassador, and appearing on national TV three times, I knew I had to do this full-time.
It was a risky move, but if I don’t do it now, I would miss the train with all the opportunities the influencer marketing world can provide me with. In January of this year, I decided to pursue Sweetportflio full time and I couldn’t be happier.
In the next few months, I would like to further establish my brand. I’d like to embark on projects that go beyond just Instagram. I currently have a Tiktok that in a matter of months amassed over 300k followers, I want to focus on that a bit more.
My goal is to explore other mediums to express myself and share my work, perhaps host a food web show and begin writing articles. In addition to that, I’d like to perfect my craft, become a better photographer/videographer, speak at more conferences, travel more, taste more. Basically, pursue every opportunity that comes my way.
Probably art. I don’t think Instagram has enough art accounts, it would be cool to have an account documenting museum visits around the world and showcasing emerging artists. Maybe even accepting submissions and doing mini-interviews or features on them. I’m not sure how lucrative it would be, but I would have totally pursued it as a passion project. I come from a family of artists and considered studying art history in college so, the love for the arts is definitely there.”
The Under 25 section of 1PRCNT is meant to showcase to everyone that there are plenty of young entrepreneurs out in the business world making strides to better themselves and the world around them.
If you are an entrepreneur under the age of 25 and have a story you would like to share then please feel free to email us and we would love to interview you!
