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0:30

I am unwilling to give up. But

0:33

I will start over from scratch

0:35

as many times as it takes to

0:38

get where I want to be. I just want to make

0:40

sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you

0:42

don't get knocked out. So

0:44

your only choice should be, go focus on

0:47

what you can control. Hi

0:49

everyone and welcome to the Kara of Golden

0:51

show. So join me each

0:53

week for inspiring conversations with some

0:55

of the world's greatest leaders. We'll

0:58

talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs,

1:00

and really some of the

1:03

most interesting people of our

1:05

time. Can't wait to

1:07

get started. Let's go.

1:10

Let's go. Hi everybody, it's

1:13

Kara Golden from the Kara Golden show.

1:15

And I'm so excited to have my

1:17

next guest here. I have not met

1:19

her before, but I've heard amazing things

1:21

about her. And of course, love her

1:24

product. We have Rosa Lee, who is

1:26

the founder and CEO of an incredible

1:28

brand that hopefully you have tried. If

1:30

you haven't tried, you have to get

1:33

your hands on some immediately. But it's

1:35

an incredible brand called Wild Wonder. And

1:39

Rosa is also in the Bay

1:41

Area. She is the founder

1:43

and CEO. It is a gut-supporting

1:45

drink offering a great example of

1:48

East meets West. And if you

1:50

don't understand what that means, you're

1:52

going to learn all about it.

1:54

The inspiration for Wild Wonder came

1:57

from memories of Rosa's experience with

1:59

her granddaddy. Mothers Healing Tara

2:01

next I as she was

2:03

growing up in China. Super

2:05

delicious flavors. for any consumer

2:07

to enjoy. Ah, they're making

2:10

their way into many many

2:12

homes across America. Available on

2:14

of course. Amazon Sarah.

2:16

Direct to consumer and than many many

2:18

stores to and you may have caught

2:20

the episode on. Shark Tank where

2:23

she secured a deal and will

2:25

learn a lot more about that

2:27

too. So welcome Rosa! Thank

2:30

you for highly Kara Wow! that is

2:32

such an amazing. Introduction. At.

2:35

Well thank you thank you I am.

2:37

It's like my favorite part of this.

2:39

nice to meet. I like I like

2:41

having the questions but I love digging

2:43

in and doing the research. As you

2:45

know with I feel like I get

2:47

to know. Everybody even before I

2:49

actually have people on which is

2:52

super super. Nice! So ah and

2:54

I always as as you know i

2:56

always ask for the product to because

2:58

night as I'm super excited i when

3:00

i'm talking to people i always sick

3:02

like it's so weird if I've never

3:04

tried a product or her of a

3:07

product which wasn't the case with your

3:09

product but I have some. it's very

3:11

hard because I just skip. so invested

3:13

in it and excited about it and

3:15

and us so tell us in your

3:17

own words why did you decide to

3:20

start while wonder. Yeah

3:22

so as to capture so

3:24

correctly at well Winners: A

3:26

sparkling beverage with got health

3:28

benefits all rooted in Easter

3:30

herbalism. So my. Trying.

3:32

His grandmother raised me for the first five years

3:34

in my life. As

3:37

you breathe allow the ceiling honey

3:39

was just a symphony or wilde

3:41

herbs and botanical. And really

3:43

tommy the philosophy of through the medicine. So

3:45

am. I as a

3:48

never thought about starting a beverage company. But

3:50

my career really started finance the and

3:52

I have to sort the love stressful

3:55

job. At one point I. Actually went

3:57

to the doctor's office and he told me

3:59

you know. The first woman who

4:01

over report her weight factor two

4:03

pounds and I was very sharp.

4:05

spike in just the you know

4:08

the bad lifestyle. In Python my

4:10

hell am I had some digestive issues

4:12

i wasn't sleeping while on his as

4:15

a whole array of of various health

4:17

issues so I started looking more into

4:19

Got Home. And learn

4:22

about and as as he forgot how

4:24

became really popular and thing the

4:26

people talk about now I'm and really

4:28

believed in or so after didn't school

4:31

i wanted to do something and personally

4:33

passion about and that's really to bring

4:35

these and curators inspired and get healthy

4:38

ingredients. The massive do something that very

4:40

delicious so I'm a huge to the

4:42

and I don't believe in giving up

4:45

his for health and a lot of

4:47

the that functional beverages on the market

4:49

or are you know people. Find them

4:52

by. Intimidating. They're not the most. Approachable

4:55

and he's form of them.

4:58

So this is an opportunity

5:00

to really in a bridge.

5:02

Eastern or western? Where's the

5:04

concept of? A of health

5:06

plan for the stands out here.

5:08

We live in California we have

5:10

this great access to fresh produce

5:12

and I'm just always inspired by the

5:15

farmers' market and so really wanted

5:17

to bring the function with and thing

5:19

delicious for the everyday consumer. So

5:22

do you remember the moment when you

5:25

decided? I mean, you had been. In

5:27

Finance you with Business School Like

5:29

did you ever think you were

5:31

gonna become an entrepreneur or tissue

5:33

a beverage entrepreneur? I mean all

5:36

of the things that you're doing

5:38

today of in you ever seen

5:40

in that. Process. Or what

5:42

was the moment when you thought, okay, I gotta

5:44

go do that. Oh

5:46

man, I think. It's certainly a

5:48

journey. I never thought I was gonna

5:51

start a business myself that I'm In

5:53

fact, I've. Always. enjoyed and

5:55

busting i was a i was investor

5:57

as a national healthcare which is very

5:59

because I was not treating my health

6:02

very well. But

6:05

I thought I would invest in emerging

6:07

markets. But I

6:10

ended up working a lot with entrepreneurs when

6:12

I was an investor. And I was

6:14

very inspired by what they were doing.

6:16

I loved the idea of really

6:18

taking an idea to scale and

6:22

to really grow a business. So

6:24

when I was in business school, I

6:26

actually tried my hands on the operating

6:28

side, essentially just offered myself as

6:31

free labor to anyone who

6:33

was looking for help. And startups are

6:35

always very cash and resource constrained.

6:37

So no one was really

6:39

utilizing data in a way that's

6:42

helpful. So I was basically able

6:44

to help a lot of the

6:46

companies and leverage my skillset from

6:48

finance and investing

6:50

to help startups grow.

6:52

So that really gave

6:54

me a viewpoint on a startup world. And

6:57

afterwards, I helped a front-launch business,

7:01

an e-commerce business, and

7:03

just started exploring what

7:05

I really want to do for my life. And

7:08

something I'm truly passionate about is

7:10

really to bring more diversity

7:13

and heritage into

7:16

the masses. So my

7:19

grandmother is very close

7:21

to me. And she had

7:24

a lot of impact on my life. And this

7:26

is almost like honoring

7:28

her influence and also

7:31

our heritage. So basically decided to try

7:33

my hands at food. And

7:37

honestly, I knew nothing about

7:39

the beverage industry. I don't know

7:41

if I would still do it if I knew everything.

7:44

It's very, as you know, very

7:47

bro-y. There's not

7:49

a whole lot of diversity. But it's

7:51

really awesome to see now that there's

7:53

more representation in food. I mean, there's

7:55

more representation across different industries. To

7:58

see a lot of these things. their

8:01

own heritage and their own story to the

8:03

market. It's truly exciting. Yeah,

8:05

definitely. And obviously the, you

8:08

know, you've got a

8:10

few competitors in

8:12

that space, but as I always tell

8:14

people, like there's nothing wrong with competition

8:16

in many ways, like the

8:18

challenge, the biggest challenge we saw with

8:21

Hint early on was that we didn't

8:23

have any competition. So an unsweetened flavored

8:25

water, we were it, right? So we

8:27

started a new category. And

8:30

we kept telling people, we had some competition from

8:32

some of the big strategics, but

8:36

everybody sort of like came in and

8:38

they weren't willing to

8:40

sort of watch it grow over time. And

8:42

so it was very different than, you

8:45

know, the coconut water category, for

8:47

example, was starting around the

8:49

same time when we were starting. And, you

8:51

know, there was tons of competition. So

8:54

I think that competitors are definitely not

8:57

such a bad thing. But there was a

8:59

lot of competition. Obviously you've been on the

9:02

other side investing in companies, but would you

9:05

agree with that? Yeah, definitely. And by the

9:07

way, I definitely remember hearing about Hint. You

9:11

guys were truly one of a kind because all my friends

9:13

and tech were like, oh my gosh, what is

9:15

this water that's flavored? And it's

9:17

like zero calories, zero sugar. And you

9:20

were very big in food service, which,

9:22

you know, it's also

9:24

a channel we focused on. So I definitely remember

9:26

hearing all about it. And I do think it

9:28

takes multiple players to really

9:30

create a category. And it's not something

9:32

that's easy to do. So I actually

9:34

really welcome competition. I do think competition

9:36

makes us stronger, as long as we're still

9:39

very focused on our

9:41

true differentiation. What I find in

9:43

the market a lot, especially with

9:45

the soda category nowadays, is

9:47

everyone is building, a lot

9:50

of people are building a MeToo product.

9:52

And obviously that's, you know, it's

9:55

easy to be attracted to

9:57

these shiny objects. And if...

10:00

of the traditional soda flavors are

10:03

doing really well. Ollie, Pop,

10:05

and Poppy are doing a great job really

10:08

bringing these better for you, traditional

10:10

soda flavors to market and then everyone else is

10:13

jumping on it to do something very

10:15

much the same. I

10:18

do think that, you know, there's

10:20

not a whole lot of value to be

10:22

a Me Too product, but it does take

10:24

multiple players to

10:26

really open the market and educate the

10:28

market. So it's awesome to have these

10:31

leaders educating the

10:33

market about pre-biotics, about get-held, about what it

10:35

means to be a better soda alternative.

10:38

But I do also believe

10:42

in sticking in our lane

10:44

and having a

10:46

perspective on the market. So we're not

10:48

about the, you know, doing

10:50

another version of traditional soda

10:52

flavors like Dr. Pepper or

10:55

Cola. We're

10:57

all about bringing a different perspective to

10:59

market with a cultural and

11:01

botanical influence. So if you look

11:03

at our flavor profiles, you know, strawberry

11:05

passion, that's actually with fresh-brewed hibiscus

11:07

flowers and strawberry juice and passion

11:09

fruit juice. You

11:11

know, mango gold is fresh-brewed turmeric

11:14

with mango. So there's a, the

11:16

very first ingredient is always a

11:18

fresh-brewed botanical herb. And

11:20

that's really reflecting the Eastern

11:22

herbal wisdom. And we

11:25

also pair it with a fruit

11:28

flavor that's very approachable. And a

11:30

lot of the flavor profiles are

11:32

very tropical and it's fruits I

11:35

love growing up. I

11:38

love it. So how did

11:40

you start in terms of, you know, obviously

11:42

you did a business plan, you

11:45

created a first batch, but

11:47

what were the first flavors?

11:49

Like, did you sell online

11:51

versus stores? Did you try and get

11:53

it into a local store in San Francisco? Tell

11:56

me like those early days as you're

11:58

like, okay, I'm gonna go try this. What

12:01

was it? What were those beginning days like?

12:04

It's funny. I had no business plan. I

12:06

know people always talk about it and I

12:08

even went to business school. The

12:10

product really started in my

12:12

kitchen. I literally just brew

12:14

the herbs and try

12:17

to balance the flavor with different juices.

12:20

The first three

12:22

scoops are guava rose,

12:25

mango gold, and peice

12:27

ginger. Later on, we basically

12:29

launched a new flavor a year. My very

12:33

first channel was actually food

12:35

service. I started talking

12:38

to these chefs at Uber

12:40

and Square and all these large

12:43

tech companies that really

12:45

bring forth a lot of these health-conscious

12:47

products. They obviously

12:49

want to make sure that their

12:51

employees are eating healthy, which is awesome. I

12:55

remember this before COVID, I actually

12:57

sold into these tech

12:59

companies and Uber or

13:01

Square was my first customer. They

13:04

invited me to a food

13:06

show where we

13:09

sampled our products with employees and they

13:11

voted on the product. I

13:14

had literally no product at the time. I

13:16

just brew the

13:18

liquid in my kitchen. I bought

13:21

one of these wingtop bottles from

13:23

Amazon and made the

13:25

drinks at home. I hand-labeled a bottle

13:28

just so that it looked

13:31

legit. People voted for us.

13:34

Both Square and Uber said, we want your

13:36

product. That's when I said, wow, I don't

13:39

have a co-packer and I don't have products. I

13:43

basically convinced the co-packers to

13:45

work with me. That was

13:47

the hardest thing because no

13:50

one really believed in me

13:52

at the time. I basically brought

13:54

my liquid from my kitchen for

13:56

everyone to taste. wouldn't

14:00

leave the cold pack around until the owner gave

14:02

me an answer I wanted, which is, yes, I

14:04

will produce a product for you. So

14:06

that's how we ended. We made our first batch. And of

14:08

course, you know what happened in 2020. I

14:11

was going to launch at Expo

14:14

West and we had all these large

14:16

POs going out to the offices and

14:19

the world was shut down. So the entire

14:21

food service wiped

14:24

out all the inventory, wiped

14:26

out all the POs and

14:28

sales channel. So I basically had

14:30

to start over. And that's

14:32

when I went to D2C

14:35

and I went to retail.

14:37

So I actually, in retrospect,

14:39

forced us to diversify our business for

14:42

the better. So now we're stronger because I

14:44

truly now believe in this omni-channel strategy,

14:46

where it's a 360 approach. We

14:49

get to touch the same customer throughout their day, not

14:52

just when they're working in office, but also when

14:54

they're shopping online, when they're shopping in the grocery

14:56

store. So we have

14:58

very intentionally built this omni-channel

15:00

strategy. But in 2020, I

15:02

literally, when everyone was shut

15:05

down and locked down

15:07

and quarantined, I drove around

15:09

the Bay Area and I went door

15:11

to door and visited over 100 stores,

15:14

probably over a span of three months. And

15:17

at the time, everyone was very

15:19

scared to even

15:21

come in contact with anyone.

15:24

So obviously, we're all wearing

15:26

masks. And I actually offered these

15:30

door managers to basically I helped them

15:32

to stock the shelf as a way

15:34

to help them out. And I know everyone's

15:37

really stressed and they weren't thinking about new

15:39

products. But we

15:41

also need to make our cash

15:43

flow work. So I basically offer

15:45

my services in exchange to talk

15:47

to them about my beverage. At

15:50

the end of year one, we were in over

15:52

100 stores and that includes our local whole food.

15:55

So that was basically my

15:57

kind of entry into retail.

16:00

we started learning more about what

16:02

does it take to win with these

16:05

independent specialty natural retailers

16:08

and the really easy way to the product. The

16:11

product on day one was nothing

16:14

like the product now. We

16:16

listened to our customer, we changed a

16:18

lot. We actually started in a glass

16:20

bottle. I know we talked about packaging

16:22

before and learned very quickly that was not

16:24

the way to go. Especially

16:26

as we were shipping online, by the

16:28

way, in 2020 while I was going

16:30

to stores, I also built

16:32

the Shopify site and we launched online

16:35

within three months to

16:37

literally make cash flow work. I

16:41

basically went to all my food service

16:43

customers and got everyone

16:45

to instead of ordering or getting

16:47

the drinks from the office, order online

16:50

so we can ship products directly to people's

16:52

homes and take care of them

16:54

at home. It

16:58

all worked out in the end, but it was a very

17:01

stressful time. We

17:03

really iterated the product a lot,

17:06

learned many lessons during that time

17:08

both from a taste perspective, so

17:11

that changed our formulation also from

17:13

a packaging perspective and that changed

17:15

the way we know our teams

17:18

look nowadays. I

17:20

love that story. That's

17:22

so great. Where does the

17:24

name Wild Wonder come from? It's

17:27

a great question. The name was the hardest because

17:31

nowadays everything is like,

17:34

it's trademarked and you can't find a good website.

17:38

I was really going after

17:40

a heart brand. I want

17:42

people to feel something when

17:45

they hear the word Wild

17:47

Wonder. We

17:50

created this product to really create everyday

17:52

wonders for those under voice in our

17:54

communities. So, wonder was a word that

17:56

I felt very strongly about.

18:00

And Wild actually denotes a

18:02

few things. Our ingredients all

18:04

come from nature. And

18:06

I was very influenced by these wild

18:09

herbs and botanicals on my grandmother, Bruce,

18:11

for me growing up. And

18:14

I think Wild also denotes the spirit

18:16

we have because the brand is very

18:18

whimsical and fun. So it has a

18:20

lot of different meanings, but very much

18:23

very, I guess, it

18:27

really reflects the spirit of the

18:29

brand as well as the

18:31

product and ingredients. I

18:35

love that. So can you share a story about

18:37

one of the funniest mistakes? We've had

18:39

people on who have, I

18:43

mean, so many great stories along

18:45

the way. We had,

18:47

I think we had HealthAid on and she was

18:49

talking about that her

18:52

Kombucha product blew up. She

18:55

was dealing with some equipment. And

18:57

I mean, it's just so funny. We

18:59

had somebody else who was, it

19:03

was Malibu Milk where she

19:05

thought that the product had gone bad. She

19:07

didn't know that she had to let it

19:09

sit. And so

19:11

they tossed hundreds

19:14

of thousands of dollars, maybe

19:16

not that much, like maybe less

19:18

than $100,000 worth of product, but

19:20

it was real money, right, worth of

19:23

product and it was gone. And so

19:26

many lessons that you learn that's

19:28

way more expensive than probably your

19:30

Stanford Business School education, right?

19:33

Along the way. I mean, it's

19:35

just, and again, like, you're

19:38

learning on the job, you have to be willing.

19:41

All of the stories that

19:43

I've heard about COVID, we

19:45

obviously have our own stories too. It's

19:47

just, I feel like so many of

19:49

my friends who were in different industries, I

19:52

couldn't even like pick up the phone and

19:54

tell them, you

19:56

know, I'm going into stores and stocking shelves

19:58

at 6 a.m. I mean, it just

20:02

didn't even matter to have this conversation because they

20:04

think you were crazy and then you didn't even

20:06

know whether or not it was going to happen,

20:10

right? You were like, you know, you had

20:12

been through a traumatic time, obviously

20:15

having to shift from food service.

20:17

But anyway, just curious,

20:19

is there any super funny story along

20:22

the way? We

20:24

can come back to that too, if you like. Well,

20:27

I mean, I do think that there's

20:29

all the fun stories, I mean, fun

20:31

in quotation marks, happened

20:33

in production. I think that just the

20:35

early stages of making a product work

20:39

was just a lot of ups and downs. And

20:42

seeing the

20:44

product really start in the kitchen, but

20:46

seeing it to be produced at mass

20:49

scale at a manufacturing facility was just

20:51

amazing. And I would say, there are

20:53

so many times when, you know,

20:56

you can never predict what happens at a

20:58

production facility and it's never perfect. So

21:01

I remember the first time I

21:03

produced this one flavor. Somehow,

21:06

because we have so much

21:08

fiber in the drinks,

21:11

and it really interacts differently

21:13

with different juices. And

21:15

the juices somehow, the blend, they're

21:17

really clumped up and we

21:19

cannot get the liquid through the filter and

21:21

we couldn't get it to be basically

21:25

sold into the cans and the entire production

21:27

had to be shut down. And

21:29

then we were literally hand

21:32

bashing and getting

21:34

all the clumps out of these large

21:36

tanks. And then that's kind of like

21:39

one of the main examples that happened

21:42

at the production facility. And when we

21:44

first started, I mean, gosh, all

21:46

of us were at the facility

21:48

and we're trying to figure out

21:50

how to get, you know,

21:52

the liquid from one tank to another gets

21:54

through the filter because the

21:57

viscosity is different, you know, than what

21:59

we've funded. And gosh,

22:01

there's just, yeah, most of the

22:03

fun things all happened at production.

22:07

Yeah, no, it's so true.

22:09

So when did you then go back

22:12

into food service, like shortly

22:14

after COVID? Yeah,

22:17

whenever the offices reopened. So I would

22:19

say 2021, we started to

22:22

see some more volume coming through,

22:24

but it wasn't strong. And

22:26

nowadays, I do think that food

22:29

service is somewhat back up, it's not like

22:31

fully back at the volume

22:33

that pre-COVID

22:35

had. So food

22:39

service, I mean, it's actually a third of

22:41

our strategy. So it's a big channel. And

22:44

I can definitely see a lot more volume now, but given

22:46

where the market is, a lot of companies are

22:49

also more, I guess, wary

22:52

and they're careful with their budget.

22:54

So not as generous

22:56

in spending on expensive food

22:59

and drinks. No,

23:01

it's so true. And there's just not as

23:03

many people back in the office yet. I

23:06

think people are, they're getting there. But

23:09

it's, especially in certain parts

23:11

of the US, like San Francisco, it's just

23:13

not happening yet. So I think

23:15

it's probably more so in New York. Would

23:17

you agree? We do have

23:19

a lot of volume in New York, also in the

23:22

Bay Area. So we saw Google, we took

23:24

off Google from San Francisco all the way

23:26

down to San Jose. So they

23:28

do a lot of volume. And I do think

23:30

that the minute the office is open, they have

23:32

to stock, you know, drinks and

23:34

serve food. And nowadays, a lot of

23:36

the offices are actually trying to get more employees

23:39

back into the office. So the perks are actually

23:41

quite important. And

23:43

we are, I would say, like from

23:46

a number of customers' perspective, the

23:48

numbers go back. It's

23:50

just more how they allocate their budgets has

23:53

been different. Yeah,

23:55

definitely. So tell

23:58

me your favorite flavor of Wild. wonder.

24:00

Well, God, think about why

24:03

I know. My so our top

24:05

dollar is the strawberry passion. Actually,

24:08

when I was on Shark Tank,

24:10

Mark Cuban love this flavor so much. He chucked

24:13

a whole can of strawberry passion on TV and

24:15

our sales on Amazon just completely like blew

24:18

up. And but

24:20

I my personal favorite is actually the

24:22

mango gold and that's with fresh fruits,

24:25

turmeric roots and mango puree. And

24:27

the reason is because it's just

24:29

so it's kind of

24:31

like a nectar like it's more it's

24:34

more tropical and there's also passion

24:36

fruit in there to make it

24:38

even more tropical. I love

24:41

I love strong flavors and that

24:43

one has gone through so many iterations

24:45

and it's very dear to my heart because

24:47

we started and that's a learning too as

24:49

we started the flavor

24:52

by calling it mango turmeric and

24:55

very quickly realized that

24:57

while turmeric is very good for you, people

24:59

don't like to see on the label and they don't

25:02

like to think you know they tend to think it's

25:04

an acquired taste. So it drove

25:07

less trial so we actually tweaked

25:09

the formulation to lighten the

25:12

turmeric taste making more mango

25:14

forward and immediately the

25:16

sales just went up. So another

25:18

example of iteration but

25:22

that's we also have a another flavor that's

25:24

launching soon. We're actually launching it in about

25:26

a month so I'll definitely ship you some

25:29

samples. That I think is

25:31

gonna be my favorite one. I'm very excited about

25:33

that one because it's very

25:35

closely tied to my heritage

25:38

Asian if there's a more Asian flavors

25:41

in that drink but it's

25:43

also very approachable. It's very

25:45

delicious. It's not an acquired taste at

25:47

all so I think people will like it. Oh I'm

25:50

excited to try it for sure. So you

25:53

mentioned Shark Tank so can you share how

25:56

did that happen first of all and

25:58

tell us about the episode. Oh

26:00

gosh, that was such an exciting time. I

26:03

can't believe it's actually been a year since

26:05

we aired last January. So

26:08

one of the producers, they have these people

26:12

researching brands and

26:14

they reached out to me and said,

26:16

you know, love to interview you for Shark Tank. And

26:19

that happened actually a whole year before I

26:21

responded because they reached out to me

26:23

during COVID. And during COVID, I really

26:26

wanted to make sure our supply chain actually works.

26:28

And, you know, like the entire world was shut

26:30

down and our cool packer actually shut down for

26:32

a certain period of time. So

26:35

I was very much focused on saving

26:38

the company and making sure that

26:40

we build infrastructure to scale. So I actually

26:42

didn't respond at all. And the

26:44

whole year later, I decided, hey, this is the right

26:46

time. And we actually have the ability

26:49

to scale and

26:51

reach back out, started the whole process,

26:54

many rounds of screening and

26:57

interviews, Zoom calls, and

27:00

then basically talked to a lot of

27:03

different producers and they all approved. And finally,

27:05

and you probably heard this

27:07

from other Shark Tank candidates

27:09

or a brand, that

27:12

nothing's a guarantee. So just because you're in

27:14

a process doesn't guarantee

27:16

you to be taped. So you could

27:18

be spending this whole time prepping for

27:21

it, building the booth until

27:23

the very last minute and they

27:25

can totally cut you. And then

27:28

even if you tape, right, a lot of companies

27:30

don't air, which

27:32

obviously is not great because entrepreneurs

27:34

invest so much time and

27:37

resources in that. So luckily,

27:40

you know, we got a deal and we aired

27:42

and that was so impactful to

27:45

the brand. So first of

27:47

all, you know, as national audiences, four

27:49

million viewership across the country, we

27:52

really gotta tell our story to our

27:55

target audience and learn

27:57

a ton from... who

28:00

the customer is, where the customer

28:02

is, and got a lot of

28:04

feedback on how they're consuming our

28:06

products. But not only that, we

28:08

expanded in a very major way

28:10

with retail. So after

28:13

we aired on Shark Tank, a lot of retailers heard

28:15

about us. And then

28:17

following that, basically last year, every

28:19

time I talked to someone in

28:22

a retail meeting at a trade

28:24

show, they would say, oh, I saw you

28:26

on Shark Tank. And honestly,

28:28

I didn't watch Shark Tank. The fact that,

28:31

you know, everyone was watching Shark Tank, and

28:33

it's a great family show, it was

28:36

very impressive. So I definitely

28:39

encourage, honestly, every entrepreneur with

28:41

a consumer product to go on Shark Tank. That's

28:45

awesome. So you got a

28:47

deal with one of the

28:49

sharks. Can you share a

28:51

little bit about that? Definitely.

28:55

Yeah. So Shark

28:58

Tank tried to match the brands

29:00

with the appropriate sharks. And

29:03

there's usually, you know, the

29:06

four, I would say the regular

29:08

sharks, and then they have a guest shark. My

29:10

guest shark is the CEO of DoorDash, which,

29:12

you know, I mean, obviously, he

29:14

was the perfect guest shark for us

29:17

because he could actually help us with

29:19

distribution, put Wild Wonder on

29:21

DoorDash. And that would definitely, you

29:23

know, really propel the company to a different

29:26

stage. And so I

29:28

was definitely going after him.

29:30

And he also is a Stanford

29:33

business school graduate. So we connected on that

29:35

front. And when I was telling my story,

29:37

it also resonated with him

29:40

because he's also, and he also immigrated

29:42

here from China when he was 12.

29:45

And I think he was also raised by

29:48

his grandparents too, as a lot of the

29:50

similar immigrant stories. And so

29:52

he's very supportive of, you know,

29:56

brands that are really

29:58

amplifying, I think, culture. and

30:00

heritage. So believed

30:03

in me, believed in the story and then decided

30:06

to partner with Well of Wonder, which

30:08

is honestly truly amazing. And so we're

30:10

actually in the process of expanding

30:13

with DoorDash. So since

30:16

he invested, we got

30:18

onto Dashmart and we're working

30:20

with different teams at DoorDash

30:22

to make the partnership basically

30:24

bigger and expand further. I

30:28

love that. So such a great story. So

30:30

when you think about the evolving

30:33

landscape of drink preferences and

30:35

like industry trends, you have

30:37

pre and pro biotics

30:39

in your drink and

30:41

all kinds of new

30:43

flavors and super great.

30:45

How do you ensure

30:47

that Wild Wonder stays

30:49

like relevant to the

30:51

consumer? And I guess this is

30:53

sort of a two way

30:56

question. How do you build

30:58

community? But also, you

31:01

have to educate consumers because still a lot

31:03

of the average consumer I think isn't really

31:05

sure the difference between pre and pro

31:07

and is it going to

31:10

taste bad? So all of

31:12

those things, but

31:14

I'd love to kind of hear you respond

31:17

to that. Yeah, that's a great question. I

31:19

mean, we're constantly talking about how do we

31:21

stay relevant. And

31:24

I would start by first addressing

31:26

the function piece because I

31:29

totally agree like consumers are not

31:31

always educated. And I don't even

31:33

think the average consumer knows just

31:36

the difference, but knows what like

31:38

prebiotic or probiotic is. I think

31:41

generally speaking, people might think it's better for

31:43

them. They drink yogurt. And

31:46

so they might know something about gut health. I

31:49

don't expect people to be educated around

31:51

this. So whether someone's

31:53

doing prebiotic or probiotic, I guess, I think

31:55

as long as the product formulation makes sense,

31:58

it's a good product. great.

32:00

And it's all about expanding people's

32:02

education around gut health. I

32:04

do think that recently we

32:08

started doing this more holistic

32:10

way to approach gut health is, well,

32:12

I truly believe that not

32:14

only do you need probiotics, you also

32:16

need prebiotics. And prebiotics is really the

32:18

food for probiotic surprise, similar to humans

32:21

without which we just aren't that productive.

32:23

And probiotics is something that

32:25

people are more familiar with. I

32:29

didn't really have ample

32:31

funding or a ton of resources

32:33

to do education. And to

32:36

your earlier point about, you know, it takes

32:38

multiple players to really build a category, it's

32:40

really hard to build something yourself. So

32:44

I, you know, really leaned on

32:46

the education that's already provided by

32:48

Kombucha by yogurt and the

32:50

industry around gut health around probiotics. And

32:52

then, you know, we want to introduce

32:54

something new as well, because all the

32:56

pop and pop, you're doing a really

32:59

good job sharing

33:01

more information about prebiotics. So

33:03

it's nice to write a

33:05

faster growth trend, but also

33:07

bring people in with the familiarity

33:10

of probiotics. So when we first started,

33:12

actually, we pitched Wild Wonder

33:14

as a Kombucha alternative because

33:16

they simply offering Kombucha benefits

33:19

without vinegar, and that really resonated

33:21

with people because the

33:23

approachability of the taste. So,

33:25

you know, we're always watching trends,

33:28

we're always trying to see like

33:30

what consumers are looking

33:32

for and, you know,

33:34

do our best to make very

33:36

customer centric decisions going forward. So

33:38

if they're, you know, they are

33:40

attracted to prebiotics, that's great. And

33:43

if people are looking, you know,

33:45

people are looking for lower sugar,

33:47

people are looking for certain form

33:49

factor, we're always responding to that.

33:51

So how we drive

33:53

our product innovation is not

33:55

just based on market trends, but also based

33:57

on our customer needs.

34:00

And I would say the

34:03

other point about relevance is

34:06

around, yeah, like what is important

34:09

for customers these days.

34:11

And I do think a lot of people care

34:13

about where the brand is from

34:15

and what the brand stands for. It's

34:17

not just another version of a sports

34:19

drink or energy drink or soda. There

34:23

is a story to be told

34:25

here. And I do think that

34:27

there's increasing representation, not

34:31

just in the API

34:33

community, but across different

34:35

ethnic groups and different

34:37

heritages. So it's nice

34:39

to really kind

34:41

of be part of that conversation

34:43

as well and talk about

34:46

our heritage and how Wild Wonder

34:48

is really changing the beverage industry

34:50

and bring innovations to the market

34:53

by bringing more, not

34:56

just innovation, but also representation. One

35:00

of the things that in

35:02

sort of a sick

35:04

way I love is when I hear

35:06

from people who maybe they

35:09

had worked on our team over the years

35:12

or maybe they had invested in Hint

35:15

and then suddenly they start their

35:17

own company. And it's like, whoa,

35:19

I had no idea that these

35:23

types of challenges exist

35:26

for founders. Like

35:30

how you obviously had done some other things

35:32

before you decided to start the company. But

35:35

what has been, I

35:37

guess, most surprising to you or

35:39

most challenging to you as

35:41

a founder of your

35:43

own company? I think to say

35:47

like the buck stops with you

35:49

is like an understatement, right? You

35:51

feel everything, right? I remember feeling

35:54

the first employee that left like

35:56

you think your baby's ugly, right?

36:00

you take it very personally, you get

36:02

kicked out of a store, you're like,

36:04

Oh my God, it's all terrible. Everything's

36:06

ending. But especially

36:09

since you had been on the other

36:11

side of things, what would you say

36:13

to that now? Like the biggest kind

36:15

of surprise that you've that you've faced

36:17

and in, or that you've seen kind

36:19

of biggest challenges? Yeah, you

36:21

know, I didn't really come into

36:23

the industry with any expectations. I

36:26

didn't really expect entrepreneurship to

36:28

be a certain way. So I

36:31

would say maybe I wasn't so

36:33

much surprised by, you

36:35

know, there's not really a big surprise, but

36:38

I'm constantly, I guess,

36:40

surprised in small ways. Like every

36:42

day there's a new challenge. I

36:45

think it's maybe it's just a pure range

36:48

of things we have to

36:51

worry about. You know, when I was

36:53

doing investing or working in finance, I

36:56

definitely worked a long hours. It's not so much about

36:59

the hours, but you know, I was very much focused

37:01

on one thing at a time. And my

37:03

job was to say, like analyzing these

37:05

companies or making an investing decision.

37:08

I wasn't worried about, you

37:10

know, necessarily employee

37:13

happiness or, you know, find

37:16

the financials like raising money and running

37:18

out of cash. Or,

37:20

you know, the whole, gosh, wide

37:23

array of potential challenges. Like, you know,

37:25

when I first started, it was, you

37:27

know, our shipment got lost. Or

37:29

the, you know, there's some truck

37:32

that's carrying a different product that's got to,

37:34

you know, deliver it at the wrong products.

37:37

And then it was, you know, maybe,

37:39

you know, fundraising fundraising is always a

37:41

challenge for everyone, including investors themselves. And,

37:45

and then it was figuring out what's the best

37:47

marketing strategy for, for retail. And, you

37:49

know, I think is the

37:52

surprise comes from just like the

37:54

emotional, strain in

37:57

general and being able

38:00

to kind of monthly switch from one

38:02

thing to another throughout the day and

38:04

taking care of all aspects of the

38:06

business. So I do think that it's

38:08

a bigger toll on everyone's kind of

38:10

mental emotional energy and

38:13

that is something I'm you know, always like

38:15

working on how do I you know kind

38:17

of stay alert and

38:20

Put my energy on the right things and

38:22

allocate my time wisely because there's so many

38:24

things to worry about. Yeah,

38:27

such great words of wisdom. So

38:30

last question, best advice for

38:32

founders who are who've got a

38:34

great idea thinking about starting

38:37

their own company. What would

38:39

you say? Gosh,

38:42

so many important things I've learned over the

38:44

years. I would

38:47

tell people like I'm always very supportive

38:50

of people starting companies. I

38:52

think it's such a great experience. And

38:55

it's also very exciting. But

38:59

I would definitely make sure that everyone

39:01

has a stronger mission than

39:03

just bring forth a

39:05

new product. To me,

39:07

the entrepreneurial journey is so

39:10

challenging and oftentimes,

39:12

you know, it's

39:15

hard to wake up in the morning or get

39:17

up and put one foot in front of another

39:19

and to just keep going. But

39:22

I always go back to my North Star

39:24

and always go back to a deeper mission

39:26

that's bigger than myself. And

39:28

that really, you know, propels me to

39:30

go forward and gives me the energy

39:32

I need to build

39:35

a bigger platform to really bring

39:37

these heritage inspired and get healthy ingredients to

39:39

the masses. It's because you know,

39:41

the brand itself represents something bigger and

39:43

not just Wild

39:46

Wonder, not just the, you know, canned

39:48

beverage that's sitting on the shelf. Absolutely.

39:51

So Rosa Lee, founder and CEO

39:53

of Wild Wonder. Thank you so

39:56

much for joining us and good

39:58

luck with everything. you're

40:00

off to an incredible,

40:02

incredible start. So I'm

40:05

really proud of you. So you're

40:07

doing it. So very, very cool.

40:09

Thank you so much, Kara. That

40:12

was such a fun conversation. Thank you for having me.

40:14

Super fun. Thanks

40:17

again for listening to the Kara Golden Show.

40:19

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40:36

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40:40

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40:42

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40:46

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40:48

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40:51

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40:53

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41:01

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