Sajani Amarasiri is a complete pure at being a small enterprise proprietor. Her tea firm, Kola Goodies, has skilled quick progress within the two years since its inception. The model’s Sri Lankan tea blends are already promoting in brick-and-mortar shops, they’ve landed a partnership with an enormous Boba chain, and so they’re at present within the works of increasing their product line. This success gained’t be stunning to anybody aware of Sajani’s background.
“My mother and father are entrepreneurs — small enterprise house owners,” Sajani mentioned. “So for a very long time, I did not understand that was the one reference I had for a profession… so company was not the dream. I all the time thought I might do one thing alone.”
However, the highway to paving her personal firm took a while. After shifting to the USA from Sri Lanka for school, Sajani determined to enter the tech area not as a result of that was her dream profession, however as a result of it was probably the most reasonable choice for her – a survival mechanism as an immigrant. She ended up working at Amazon after which made the transfer to Microsoft the place the corporate sponsored her work visa.
It seems, that Sajani truly loved working in tech. Her job particularly centered on {hardware} provide chain, which might show to be helpful as soon as she made the swap to working a enterprise. And, regardless of the lengthy hours, Sajani didn’t let her day job take up all of her time. She all the time had aspect hustles like beginning an internet clothes retailer. Finally, she determined to deal with an excellent larger venture and managed to open up the primary ever co-working area in Sri Lanka – Colombo Cooperative – which was fully women-founded and funded.
However even that wasn’t sufficient for the Sri Lankan native. The itch to do one thing larger and bolder was brewing within her. By connecting again to her roots and leveraging her distinct perspective as an immigrant, Sajani would go on to create a small enterprise that embraces her Sri Lankan heritage.
A novel and multicultural perspective
A number of years in the past, Sajani seen the wellness growth which promised well being and vitality via holistic superfoods. Dwelling within the Bay Space, Sajani was surrounded by this new well being kick. It rapidly turned obvious that rituals and components she grew up with in her Sri Lankan family – like turmeric and coconut oil – have been blowing up in her new residence.
And whereas it was good to see elements of her tradition being acknowledged, Sajani couldn’t assist however really feel like her upbringing was additionally being co-opted.
“[These ingredients] have been in our generational kitchens and households for 1,000s of years,” Sajani mentioned. “However our tales weren’t being informed. That cultural appropriation was sort of loopy to witness being an immigrant.”
She realized that the entire tea manufacturers that have been promoting turmeric drinks on the time weren’t owned by South Asian founders, regardless of the yellow spice originating in South Asia. Together with her background and experience, Sajani knew she may develop an genuine, nutritious, and scrumptious turmeric drink. Much more so, she wished to create a product that might seamlessly mix her two identities.
“You get to have this distinctive perception from a special cultural lens. Two properties …my residence in America and my residence the place I grew up [in Sri Lanka],” Sajani mentioned. “For me, it was like, ‘how do I create worth addition from that perspective, in a approach that offers again to each the locations the place I come from?”
Actually, Sajani named the corporate after a well-liked Sri Lanka drink “Kola Kanda,” which is produced from uncooked rice, coconut milk, and natural leaves which might be mentioned to have medicinal properties. This was a drink she grew up with and has notably fond recollections of.
“It’s a deeply common, very Sri Lankan breakfast tea that’s so good for you. It is full of greens, it is warming, and it is nice to your digestion and vitality,” Sajani mentioned.
In 2020, she launched a minimal viable product of their first mix, the tremendous inexperienced latte, which incorporates turmeric. By way of this testing course of, Sajani obtained tons of suggestions and realized what shoppers wished.
This laid down the framework for Kola Goodies. Now, two years later, the corporate simply launched their third product – a dairy-free oat milk latte. Whereas Kola Goodies has seen quite a lot of success, Sajani has needed to alter her imaginative and prescient a few occasions alongside the best way.
Discovering your why and sticking to it
Sajani credit her success as an entrepreneur to at least one primary factor: figuring out her why. Even when she’s confronted obstacles in her companies, she’s been in a position to join again to her finish objective which has all the time pushed her ahead.
“I feel one of many greatest issues is having your ‘why’ very clear as to, ‘why you’re beginning this?’ And, ‘what’s the imaginative and prescient behind it?’” Sajani mentioned. “As a result of it’s not straightforward to undergo each day pushing a small enterprise to achieve success. However having that why… will all the time show you how to get via it.”
For Sajani, her primary objective has all the time been to lift extra consciousness of Sri Lankan tradition and amplify the voices of the Sri Lankan group. So, despite the fact that it was troublesome for the entrepreneur to shut down Colomba Cooperative a 12 months into the pandemic, she was nonetheless pleased with the expertise as a result of she knew she’d achieved her objective. The co-working area was the primary of its sort in Sri Lanka and introduced individuals collectively, making the group stronger.
Equally, early into Kola Goodies Sajani had discovered that she wanted to pivot with the sorts of teas they have been producing.
“Once we first began, we have been extra centered on the superfood drinks, like Moringa, and turmeric latte,” Sajani mentioned. “However then, we wished to have extra culturally impressed merchandise that we’re bringing to life supporting our personal farmers, and that have been going to convey our tradition ahead in fashionable methods.”
Moderately than simply specializing in strictly wholesome drinks like their Tremendous Inexperienced Latte, Sajani was in a position to increase the product line so as to add the Sri Lankan Milk Tea, which is at present their best-selling product. Increasing to offer milk tea additionally made it potential for considered one of Kola Goodie’s greatest partnerships.
Boba Guys – a well known milk tea chain in California and New York – had an accelerator program for minority founders and ended up loving Kola Goodie’s tea blends a lot, that the 2 companies collaborated to launch a turmeric boba milk tea. Not solely did this enterprise present extra publicity for Kola Goodies, however for Sajani, it was one other approach to herald extra range within the beverage area.
“It’s one factor to see golden [turmeric] milk boba obtainable at such an enormous chain,” she mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s such a tremendous collaboration to see East Asian tradition and South Asian tradition coming collectively in a drink.”
Ushering in additional illustration for the Sri Lankan tradition has all the time been a objective for Sajani. However extra importantly, she wished to instantly assist her fellow Sri Lankans. This is the reason Kola Goodies instantly sources their components from native farmers, regardless of it not being probably the most sensible route.
“I’m going to make use of that additional time and assets to search out the [Sri Lankan] farmers to have the ability to help them as a result of that instantly correlates to my why. And it is smart as a result of that is a worth framework that I’ve for all the choices that I make,” she mentioned.
Not solely does this result in the freshest and most genuine components, but it surely additionally permits Sajani to pay these farmers in USD and supply them with a extra steady earnings. At present, Sri Lanka is going through a political and financial disaster and Sajani has used her platform as a small enterprise proprietor to educate her clients in regards to the state of affairs. She’s additionally raised cash for Sri Lankan organizations and donated a whole bunch of meals on to these in want.
Having the ability to give again to her hometown means rather a lot to Sajani. And the entrepreneur mentioned she has one one who deserves the credit score for making all of it potential – her mom. Kola Goodies’s slogan, “Bought it from my amma,” is a direct shoutout to her contributions. If it wasn’t for his or her morning rituals within the kitchen, Sajani mentioned she could by no means have been impressed to open up a Sri Lankan tea enterprise.
“[My mom] is such a cornerstone, as a result of if she did not take the time to make the issues that nourished us, that turned an enormous a part of my day-to-day rising up, then properly, I would not even have an inspiration level to convey a brilliant inexperienced latte or Sri Lankan tea,” she mentioned. “That was all her.”
The entrepreneur has come a good distance from consuming Kola Kanda at residence as a toddler along with her household in Sri Lanka. By merging all of her idiosyncrasies– her distinct background, her expertise in tech, and her drive to empower her group – Sajani has created one thing particular. Kola Goodies is likely one of the manufacturers bringing much-needed illustration to cultures that don’t usually get a highlight.
“The truth that there may be Sri Lankan milk tea in a San Francisco grocery store is large from a cultural perspective,” Sajani mentioned. “[Sri Lanka] is such a small nation. We’re very a lot not represented, even when it comes into the South Asian dialogue. So it is superb to simply see your self on a shelf once you’re strolling down the grocery retailer.”
