An Interview With Martita Mestey
Taste is most important. You can get people to buy your product with pretty packaging, but if it does not taste good, you will not get a repeat customer or favorable reviews.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Asha Patel of Leely Chai Co.
Asha Patel is the founder of Leely Chai Co, a chai and superfood blends company, based in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, Asha worked in marketing and client services for over 15 years. Asha holds a BA in Political Science and an MBA in Marketing and Information Systems. Asha currently resides in Glen Ellyn, IL, with her family and their sweet Bernedoodle Cody.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I grew up in a small city about an hour north of Kansas City, Missouri. My parents immigrated from India — I’m the daughter of a physician father and stay-at-home mother. I had a traditional and conservative Indian family, which was typical of Indian immigrants at that time. I would say my childhood was a mix of trying to balance my Indian culture and American identity. There was always a constant tug between maintaining my Indian culture and deciding if being “too American” meant not being “Indian enough” in my parents’ eyes. But overall, it was a typical childhood in the suburbs, filled with neighborhood fun with friends. I really didn’t start appreciating my culture and foods until after I graduated college.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?
I have always been entrepreneurial — not always successful, but each business I started that did not work out was a valuable lesson learned. I started two businesses prior to starting my chai company. I noticed that chai was growing in popularity and that it was available at most cafes and many grocery stores as a concentrate, meaning a pre-made concoction that you add milk to. I wondered why people wouldn’t want to drink freshly brewed chai, like coffee. I also noticed a trend in food consumption/purchase. People paid more attention to ingredients, labels, and had a desire to eat whole foods and less processed ones.
I felt the timing was right to launch a chai business that taught people how to brew chai the traditional and authentic way, using whole ingredients like organic tea and freshly crushed spices, and with a very clean label and authentic instructions to brew. My strategy in the beginning of my business was to position the brand as the authentic and traditional way to brew chai. I did that with detailed instructions in-person as well as on the labels. And that was really my “ah ha” moment! So, I launched at the Wilmette Farmers Market (north suburbs of Chicago) with one chai blend, which sold out at the first market!
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
I would say for those selling wholesale to grocery stores, try not to lead the sales pitch with “my product tastes so delicious, everyone will love it!” The buyer honestly does not care if you and everyone in your network thinks it is delicious — they care about whether the product will move off their shelves and increase category sales.
When pitching to buyers at grocery stores, really lead with data on why your product will move off the shelf and increase category sales. For each product a buyer brings in, that buyer is held accountable for the success of that product by store executives. The data you use in your pitch can be actual sales data that you have collected from other grocery store sales, farmers market sales, or even syndicated data.
And once it hits the store shelves, your job is just starting. Many think that the product will sell itself once it hits the shelf, but you really do need to have a strategy in place to drive sales of your product at each grocery store — such as in-store sampling demos, social media ads to drive traffic to that store, or staff education to better understand your product. Your ultimate goal is to get a reorder, not just for your product to just sit on the grocery store shelf.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I would say the first step is to create the product in your very own home kitchen and sell it locally. I believe farmers markets are a great way to launch a food or beverage product to really understand if there is product/market fit. Farmers markets act as a testing lab and are a great way to get feedback on how to improve your product, which may require many iterations.
Starting off at a farmers market does not require fancy packaging. People are excited to try local products, so do your best to get your product out there, iterate, and make changes to both the product and its packaging as you progress. It is important that you identify product market fit. If there is not much interest in your product, you need to decide to pivot your product offering or withdraw it completely.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
You are absolutely right about that, many people have good ideas all the time for a business. I do think it takes a certain type of wiring in people who are willing to take risks and launch a new business. I hear excuses like, “Oh I have no experience in the food business so I can’t start it.” Well, I would say you can start a business in most categories, but the only way to learn a new industry is really to just jump in and learn as you go. That has worked for me, as the food business was an industry that I never worked in. I was able to learn as I went along, everything from writing a HACCP plan to how to sell to grocery stores.
Don’t spend years on analyzing, also known as analysis paralysis, or you will get stuck in the analysis phase. Get a product out there, iterate as you progress, and exit fast if it is not the right fit for you or the market.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
These consultants do cost money. I would say for a new product, try to see if there is a product market fit first by selling your homemade or commercial kitchen-made products at your local farmers market. Once you see product market fit but you feel there might be any deficiencies in your product, like taste or texture or shelf stability, at that time it would make more sense to get a consultant/food scientist involved. They can help perfect your product to ensure taste, quality, safety, and shelf stability, especially for retail/wholesale sales.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
Venture capitalists always want an exit — they want their money back (plus much, much more) and they see that happening with an exit. So, if what you envision for your brand is to eventually sell your company and cash out, then VC funding with the right partnership can help you grow/scale and hopefully eventually exit.
I would say VC is really not a good option if you want to maintain decision making control of your business and if you want to keep the business indefinitely. With bootstrapping, you can grow at your own pace and maintain control of your company. So, first ask yourself what you want out of the business: Is it to grow/scale for an eventual exit, which requires answering and reporting to the VC? Or do you want to grow organically, maintain control on decisions, and keep the business indefinitely?
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
I don’t personally have experience with filing a patent, but I would advise contacting a patent attorney to guide you in that application process.
Regarding sourcing ingredients and finding co-packers, I always rely on three options:
- Google Search
- Startup CPG Slack channel, a great resource where other CPG founders are connected to discuss all things CPG, including sourcing ingredients and co-packers.
- Taking a course like Retail Ready, which allows you to join their Facebook group with other CPG founders. This is another great community of founders that you can get referrals from.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand” and why?
- Taste is most important. You can get people to buy your product with pretty packaging, but if it does not taste good, you will not get a repeat customer or favorable reviews.
- Still, packaging is very important in retail sales. Unlike at farmers markets, you won’t be at the grocery store to sell your product on a daily basis. Customers eye the shelf and make decisions pretty quickly on what product to put in their baskets. Your packaging needs to be visually appealing and really able to communicate the product’s unique selling point, which will hopefully help shoppers pick up your product.
- Distribution for national growth is key, if national or regional growth is a part of your strategy. I would say start selling locally to the grocery stores and cafes. Chains like Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, and Marianos are very open to local brands. If you can get into a store like this at the local level and you are successful, they may consider adding you to their regional or national stores. This is a good way to get distribution, as these stores will ask their distributor to add you to their roster of brands, so that these distributors can sell your products directly to the chain either regionally or nationally.
- Once you have product/market fit, I really do recommend working with a PR firm to get press. It is time-consuming to do this on your own. A PR firm that is experienced can help land you in regional and national press. It helps build credibility, increases SEO, and can drive sales both at a digital and retail store level.
- In this day and age, social media marketing is very important. If you do not have the experience yourself, work with someone who can drive your social marketing and following. You can reach many potential customers via social, whether that includes paid social ads or organic social growth.
- I know you said five, but I do have a sixth one! Make sure all of your finances are in order and you really do understand how to plan for sales, marketing, PR, and growth. If you don’t, this is a task you can also outsource. There are many contract financial experts available to help craft a financial plan for you.
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
Pay attention to what is happening in the market. Is there a trend toward whole foods, plant-based foods, gluten-free foods, or convenient healthy foods? Watch for those trends that are here to stay and find a product to meet those needs. Hopefully you will have a product to meet consumer needs and grow a loyal following.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I honestly believe every company should operate by having a positive impact in the world. I source sustainably grown ingredients from companies that take care of their workers and communities. I am moving toward post-consumer recycled packaging, as I do not want to introduce new plastics into the world. I also personally give back to organizations that help under-resourced kids and welfare of all animals. I hope to do that at the company level as well in terms of donations.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I truly believe in the power of a plant-based, whole-foods diet. If people are able to adopt this, or even increase their intake of these foods, it will be better for their health and the planet. Therefore, as I continue my CPG journey, I would love to bring more high-quality plant-based products to the market.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Asha Patel of Leely Chai Co On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.