Emily Hochman ’10 is currently the CEO and co-founder of Wellory, a health tech company dedicated to fostering healthier relationships with food. In addition to her work at Wellory, she is a startup investor at Story Ventures, a venture capital company, and an advisor for Welfare, a nonprofit that delivers nutritious groceries to food-insecure families in New York City. Hochman describes herself as someone who “care[s] a lot about building things that make [an] impact in the world and help people.” Much of Hochman’s work is centered in New York, and she strives to make the community better. Currently, she lives in Soho with her family and a two-year-old pet dog. 

After graduating from Poly, Hochman attended Bucknell University, where she majored in Art History with a double minor in Dance and Italian. She notes that though she did not have the opportunity to study entrepreneurship or build a background in startups when she was at Poly, she was involved in numerous extracurriculars. Hochman was a four-sport Varsity athlete as the captain of the dance team, as well as participating in other sports such as  lacrosse, swimming, and volleyball. “When I graduated college, I worked at a sports and entertainment company, and I started in a career that I’d never done before,” said Hochman. She first worked as a sales executive at Van Wagner where she traveled across the country doing sales and marketing. Then, though she was able to meet many athletes and celebrities, she realized she “wasn’t passionate about the problems [she] was solving, and [she] really wanted to get into tech.” 

She then joined a small startup and was again in a role that she had never done before. “And that was a trend that existed in my career,” said Hochman, “which is I always took on jobs that I’d never done before and then I would just figure out how to do them. And I realized that’s what entrepreneurship is.” After noticing this theme in her career, she started Wellory based on her personal experience. Hochman states that after graduating from college, she did not eat well and was diagnosed with many chronic diseases. “And when I went to the doctor, the doctor prescribed me with a bunch of pills, medication. And I was like, what? Why? That’s crazy. I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I was healthy my whole life and I just made some pretty severe lifestyle changes in college and now all of a sudden I was categorically sick,” Hochman emphasizes. Instead of taking the medication, Hochman enrolled in nutrition school and taught herself “all about the power of food as medicine, and was able to cure [herself] with every single potential chronic condition simply by changing [her] diet.” Realizing the importance of food and nutrition, she partnered with her friend Jeni Fahy ‘09, a Poly alum, to build Wellory. “We want to create a world where a doctor will prescribe a visit with a dietician before they prescribe a pill,” Hochman said.

Currently, Wellory is in collaboration with the White House on an “eight year goal to support 100 million Americans with one on one life changing nutrition counseling.” On September 28, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and presented President Biden’s vision for ending hunger and reducing diet-related disease by 2030. “The most powerful emotion coming out of the White House was such conviction and validation for the mission that we’re on,” Hochman said. 

“One of the most incredible opportunities about my career is the opportunity to network,” Hochman emphasized. Hochman would like to add that she is more than happy to help any Poly students who would like to reach out and connect with her at [email protected].