Making Tea Drinking More Fun and Unique for the Modern Age Tea Drinkers With Sashee Chandran of Tea Drops

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party? Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos, tacos and tech, you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper captains counting beans Contador quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset la Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded when San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom.

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Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom, and I am thrilled to have you here on the Talkers and Tech Podcast. We interview builders of technologies, of companies, of communities, and we do it weekly, so thanks for tuning in. Every Tuesday, a new interview, and on Fridays, we talk about what's new in the San Diego tech ecosystem from a news perspective. So make sure you join us there as well, too. We also have a tech newsletter that comes out every other week@freshbroodtech.com you can subscribe to listen to it without further ado. Enjoy this episode. Thrilled to have founder and CEO of T Drops, Sashi Chandran. Hey, Sashi, thanks for being on the podcast.

Thanks so much for having me, Neil. I'm excited.

Yeah, me too. I'm glad we got to know each other recently, and I'm excited to help tell your story a little bit. Do you want to give us a quick overview of what T drops is?

Sure. So tea drops are bagless, organic teas that essentially dissolve in your cup of hot water. Think visually like a bath bomb, except it's actual tea. So no tea bag, no steep time. Kind of an instant brew in your cup.

Ooh, we like it. Okay, well, we want to get to know how this all started, but even more so, you know, where'd you come up from, where'd you grow up, and how'd you find your path on this Entrepreneur own journey.

Yeah, so I actually grew up in Southern California, in Los Angeles area. And both my parents are immigrants and my dad was actually born on a T estate in Sri Lanka. So he came to the US to actually do his graduate studies at ucla. And then my mom is from China and she came here when she was 8 and then also ended up at UCLA. So my parents met at an international student dance in the 70s. And without even really realizing it, my parents, just by having that immigrant hustle, were kind of the first entrepreneurs I ever knew. They always had jobs, but they always had side hustles. So my brother and I would watch this growing up. And so I don't think the concept of entrepreneurship was foreign to me. I actually saw it, loved it, loved the hustle of the enterprising. But I actually didn't consider myself a true entrepreneur. So I kind of went the traditional path of graduating. Got a degree in economics, a minor in management, worked in consulting essentially and then moved to the Bay Area. Was working at ebay at the time in marketing, market research. And it's then that I actually had the idea for tea drops because I was a huge tea drinker myself and I saw that it took so much time to actually brew a high quality cup of loose leaf tea. And I didn't have the time or the means to do that. And so that was the genesis for the idea.

So did your parents have like products that. So that they had started or what were the companies that they. They were working on?

So my. No, so they didn't have products necessarily. But my dad, you know, even though he worked in corporate retail, he. On the weekends I would go with him to real estate seminars and learn more about just real estate. So buying, selling homes, rehabbing them, renting them. And for my mom, even though my mom spent a lot of, you know, she gave up her career to raise my brother and I, but she always wanted something of her own. So her friend was selling a crystal store in the valley and it was only open on the weekends, so it was something that she could, you know, raise us during the week, basically be owner of the shop on the weekends. And I would go with her. Not only I would actually be with her at the store helping her sell. And this wasn't like crystals, as we know at New Ag today. It's like literally crystal vases and carbo di monte, which is a type of Italian porcelain. So very interesting market, but I got to watch her, you know, buy inventory, resell it, and just learn kind of the fundamentals of Running a store and how to enterprise. So that was her side hustle. So I got to see firsthand.

You said the valley, like San Fernando Valley?

Yeah, san.

Oh, yeah, I know the valley. I'm from the valley. 818 right here.

818. So I don't know if you know the indoor valley swap meet that was in.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Yes. That was where she had her shop.

Oh, very cool. Is it still there?

No, that was like, you know, in the 90s when swap meets were the thing, like. Yeah, people were excited to go.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Very cool. So you worked at ebay, obviously, you know, you got to see a lot of consumer habits and literally the whole new entrepreneurial world of people selling and creating their own digital shop too. Right. It's kind of the new swap meet, I guess, is what ebay is. Right?

Yeah. So. Oh, my God, I didn't even make that connection, but that's so true.

Yeah, that's interesting. So take us through some of the things you kind of learned at ebay that led you to eventually having your own startup.

Well, I think I got first, first seed into digital marketing as we know it. And I actually soon into landing at ebay, I joined a rotational program. So for marketing in North America, they kind of groomed like the next set of, I don't know, marketing leaders, where they put you in a different department for six months. So you would learn, you know, kind of like bird's eye view of the business, of that business, and then move on to the next. So I spent six months in digital marketing. So social marketing, email marketing. At the time, we had a charitable kind of sector of the business called ebay, giving works. I spent six months there. So I really got a flavor for all of the different business units that make up, you know, marketing and how all of those departments function together. So I think that at very high level was, without even realizing it, very important to my experience of, you know, running T drops with obviously at the time didn't have any budget, but like, figuring out, coordinating how all of these different marketing levers work together. And then also I think when you work at a big company, you realize all the things you like about a large organization as well as all the things you hate. And so I think that was a big lesson for me. I think, you know, when you first out of college, you have these grandiose ideas of what it means to work at a larger organization, one with lots of resources, and then you soon get in, realize that, you know, what does impact really mean to you? What drives you? And also every day you're dealing with something that's a P1 or super high priority. But in the scope of things, you know, you work so hard on something and materially what happens with it? Does that idea get pushed forward? Does it actually matter? And so I think a lot of those questions also came up while there.

Got it. Okay. And was there this sense of entrepreneurial? I don't know. I mean, you were helping entrepreneurs start their companies, but what about for employees was there's this sense of like idea and start and try things too?

There definitely was an incentive there. And a lot of great. Actually founders now came out of, you know, working there where you are kind of in, in charge of a certain business unit and you're driving that initiative forward. So you. There is that. But also on the side, I'd have a. I had a lot of other ideas before T Drops. I was working on not anything that's, you know, world changing or anything, but I think I always was drawn to more of the creative side and culinary side of things. So the business that actually was like, I would say the genesis for Tea Drops was I had a cookie making business. And let me just like paint the, the concept here because I still think it's a good idea for whoever wants to take it. So it's essentially kind of like the cold stone model where you bake cookies on the spot. So you have your base dough, you have your mix ins, so that can be chocolate chips, you know, peanuts, whatever, and then you bake it on the spot. So my brother actually got me this like on the spot convection oven. And I would set up shop at like different shows, kind of farmers markets, types of venues where I would have this, you know, this like whole concept going. Because I just, I don't, I just wanted to test it out to see. Not that I thought it would be some huge business, but there was one weekend where it was the height of summer, it was going to be over a hundred degrees. And I was like, no one's going to want freshly baked cookies on a day like this. So that's when I, I basically had these prototypes in my kitchen I was working on called Tea Drops at the time. And I just started, you know, I brought them to the show just in case. And without having any formal packaging, I think I had Ziploc bags to, to, you know, to basically package them in. I sold out of all 50 of those prototypes. So I think that was really the, the turning point for me of being like, all right, this is definitely A more viable business than my totally though.

Hot day, hot cookies, hot tea. I don't know.

Well, the teas weren't being made on the spot. That was the thing.

Got it, got it. That makes sense though. You know, there is a whole market for like just cookie dough, uncooked, nice and cold cookie dough out of the fridge too.

It is now. Now there's been a huge surge of so many brands starting that. So I think I was onto something. I still think the retail concept of this is a great idea in case, you know, anyone wants to run with that one. Yeah, not so much for the types of like venues I was popping in at.

Totally got it. Okay, so take us through kind of the genesis of T drops, ideating it and how did you actually move it forward?

Yeah, so I, well, I just started experimenting with different spices and learned really learning the properties of loose leaf tea in my kitchen at the time, my apartment kitchen at the time. And then once I had some prototypes that I thought, you know, were worth, that took about a year and a half to really develop, I started trying to learn more about what it takes to start a business. I went to score, which is a business resource center. And there I met, I met a mentor who was the first one to really look at what I was doing in my idea and tell me that I may have some, you know, IP around this idea. So I, I ended up with his guidance writing my own utility patent at the time and submitting it to the USPTO and then taking that idea and concept and popping up at farmer's markets, artisan shows and really just getting direct feedback on if this was a viable idea. At the time I was still working full time and then, you know, sourcing the first iteration of packaging for the product, designing that. I didn't have any resources then. So my brother, who a designer at Google, was a UX designer at Google, like was helping me with the first, my first logo, the first kind of design of the box and then from there, six months later, seven months later, is when I decided to make the leap and leave my full time job to pursue it. And I think the rationale behind that, and it's a different decision moment for everyone, but I was deciding at the time whether I wanted to do my mba. I also. Right timing was I had just recently purchased a house and I knew I could take a home equity line of credit on it and use some of that for funding the business as well as my savings that I was going to use towards my mba. So it was either MBA or do this. I was young enough where I felt like if I pursued this and it didn't work out, I would still learn a ton from the whole experience. And it kind of wasn't a mini MBA in its, in itself. So I decided to make the leap and quit my job and then just focused on doing this full time. There was no real revenue threshold that was like that silver bullet of, oh, like, things are going so great, I should leave. But it was more just a conviction that this was a product. If you look at the tea industry overall, it's such a legacy driven category, there isn't much innovation. The last innovation was the tea bag in the early 1900s. And so I just felt that this definitely was a category industry that was ripe for disruption, but also that, that this was genuinely a good idea and I hadn't seen anything on the market quite like it. So I think that and also just wanting to start something and see where it went were all the reasons why I decided to make the leap.

Yeah, it's a big leap for sure. And you said you did it before you had sales, right?

I had about $30,000 in like, in revenue that year. And it wasn't like anything where you're just like, oh, I, I, I should give up everything to do this. But I also felt like if I didn't give it my full attention, you know how when you kind of are gliding along, you have one foot in one boat, another foot in the other boat and they're both going different directions. That's just, that's just how I felt constantly with having a full time job and doing this at the same time.

For sure, you eventually, I know, took outside capital, but not in the beginning. So how, when did you realize that, you know, you needed besides your own home, online credit, when did you look for outside funding?

So I, you know, call it naive, but I actually didn't even like understand how venture capital worked. I didn't even understand what like an angel investor was. I mean, I kind of knew like conceptually you have an idea when you hear that word, but you're like, well, what does that really mean? What like, how does that exchange happen? And I think that for me, I had to get comfortable with the idea of taking money on, like taking someone else's money and knowing what to do with it. So I spent the first year and a half funding it myself through my own savings. And like I said, I took a home equity line of credit. I'm not suggesting anyone does that, but like, I had some buffer There that I utilized for the business at the time. And so that gave me enough kind of Runway to see is this something I really want to do full time and also gain just a little bit of traction from that point, I didn't know anything like I mentioned about VC funding or raising capital in general. So I read a book called Venture Deals by Brad Feld and there's another co author to that that really just taught me the fundamentals of what is a term sheet, what's the difference between a con, you know, convertible note or equity raise and what are the terms you should watch out. And then I just started educating myself and talking to a bunch of, well, not many VCs would talk to me, but just talked to a lot of investors and learned kind of the, the lay of the land of what this entails, what it takes to really be a investable company. And I actually didn't go that traditional route of raising in the beginning. What I did do though was entered a lot of pitch competitions because I noticed that I wasn't getting any headway. Just like cold calling VCs and just or investors and having them get back to me. So I looked at a lot of these competitions, had VCs on the or partners on the panels, right. Judging the competition. So I just felt like I could just get in front of them even if I don't make like top anything, like at least they would hear me out. So that became the way for me to actually make these relationships. And so we entered Woman Founders Network which was a investment comp or pitch competition. T Jobs ended up getting first place there. That's how I got one of my first investors. The second one was the Tory Burch a hundred thousand dollars pitch competition. We ended up getting first place there in front of like Tory Burch and two other, you know, VCs. And so they actually ended up investing too. So my first three major VCs all came from pitch competitions. And just like pitching in front of.

Wow, that's great to hear a lot of people, you know, enter them or say, oh, it's not worth the time, but obviously you've made them work for you. And there's no one silver bullet how to get investment, that's for sure.

Yeah.

And it sounds like you found some domain relevant investors, right? People who were in your space who could probably help you more than just a check, I would imagine too.

Yeah, I think it was that and also that they really, these were networks that were like a being a female founder for some of these woman founder Network competitions. I think it's VCs that really understand or appreciate diversity and want to focus on that. Also pitch competitions related to my category. Like you said, I was in consumer packaged good in the food industry, so that naturally, you know, attracted the right people, the right contacts and so that's been really instrumental for us.

Got it. So by this point, are you already back in Southern California at this timeframe of when you're, when you've been raising and starting or you were still in the.

No, by this point I had just moved to, back to la, our manufacturing. So I ended up growing, you know, manufacturing out of my kitchen to a commercial kitchen, then to a co manufacturer. My first co manufacturer was based in la, so I ended up moving down here. Plus my family is down here. So that was an easy decision. So I ended up in la and that's when I learned the whole circuit of competitions and, you know, started that whole route.

Yeah, and the consumer side, I would, I, I have this feeling that SoCal does consumer a bit more than the Bay Area. I don't know. Is that true?

Definitely. I mean this is where, and I know most of your listeners are in tech, but like that's all there is in sf. At the time it was just like any networking group I would go to, everyone's building an app and I'm here like making tea, you know, pushing tea. So I'm like, I felt so out of just, you know, like a fish out of water and not really knowing when you're first starting out of like where to go to, where to build a network, where to get smarter. That was really challenging I felt for me in the Bay Area. But when I moved to la, really just unlocked this amazing community of consumer packaged good entrepreneurs. And you know, it was like, it was like a healthier mix, I would say.

Yeah, absolutely. And take us through kind of to where the company is now.

So we definitely have been scaling over the last several years. I would say we're mostly direct to consumer online. So, you know, we have our own web store and Amazon. So we service, you know, hundreds of thousands of tea lovers around the world. Or it's concentrated here in the US but definitely have some international customers. And then we're in about 2,500 retail stores throughout the US from Whole Foods to Natural Grocers if you're in the Rocky Mountains to Dry foods on the East Coast. So I think, you know, when you look at tea drops, we started out with the concept of just making tea easier, but we really have transformed to Much more than that. You know, we're really making this notion of beverage personalization, tea personalization or cafe style drinks, making that easier to, to access at the home. And so from our latte kits to our Boba kits, to just our whole assortment now that we offer is really just making that experience easier. Fun. Yeah. And like providing this experiential element to the tea making process.

That's really cool. I gotta imagine Covid has just dramatically increased everything about this.

Yeah, I mean our 2020, our business kind of exploded and it was actually interesting because we, I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but we ended up early on in Covid just researching all the keywords, like what was happening on Google Trends, what was happening on Amazon search and saw the huge rise of people typing in milk tea Boba and I was like, what's going on here? And then making that connection like, oh yeah, people can't go to their favorite Boba shops or cafes and so they're looking for this online. So it was an immediate like, oh like we could do this. Found a Boba manufacturer and put a kit together and that was our hero skew of 2020 and remains a very strong channel for us. So yeah, a lot came out of COVID for us.

Are you finding a whole new crop? People like experiencing tea because of this, that that wouldn't before. And how is that manifesting kind of going into the future? Like is there a whole new category even within tea as well? Kind of what you're building?

Yeah, there is. Because I think when you think of the tea drinker, you're thinking of like I don't know what you, what comes to mind but like I think people have a perception that it's you know, either the super hippie consumer that's drinking, you know, tea before yoga, or it's like a highbrow British tea, you know, afternoon tea experience or it's someone who's just drinks straight oolong or Matcha. But what we're finding is that there's actually this hybrid drinker that really enjoys tea, but also enjoys soda, coffee, all of these other beverages. And really the lines between different beverage categories are blurring. So that's what you're seeing, the rise of tea infused sodas, of milk teas, boba teas, like that's all emerging and we really think that's amazing and it's really cool to be on kind of steering the charge there and offering a whole range of these hybrid tea drinks to consumers and making that accessible because I Think before that was definitely something that was missing.

Totally. And the rise of kombuchas. Right. And now the alcoholic versions of all these hard kombuchas. Hard yerba mates, hard, you know, other teas. It's been fascinating to see all these new beverage lines come out and San Diego is actually pretty rooted in that in terms of its beverage community.

It really.

Manufacturing.

Yeah.

When did San Diego kind of pop up on your radar as a place to, to build a business?

Well, I saw always like what I always appreciate about San Diego is I think the work life balance. And it's not that people aren't ambitious, it's just they have a different attitude towards, towards growth, like running a business, integrating a healthier lifestyle and a balance there. And that to me that was always attractive to me. I also think that, I mean comparatively like way better beaches, just like I just feel, I don't know, there's something about this area where the sunsets are even more glorious, more beautiful. And so I always noticed that. But I always thought living here was such a far off dream. Like I literally was like, maybe when my team, like this was three years ago, maybe when my team's remote or I retire, I'll end up in Encinitas. And that day came way faster than I thought. So yeah, during mid Covid I was like, oh yeah, like we're all remote. Like why am I here? Why am I stuck here? And if anything, now's a great time to, to move down there. So I moved, you know, a few blocks from the beach. I walked to the beach, on the beach every day. And like it's not that, you know, that driver ambition has gone away, but it's definitely a way healthier balance for me personally being down here.

Totally. And I think having kind of a wellness product, I think that's also kind of cool to have your customer everywhere around you as well too. Yeah, these are, these are the users of it as well.

Yeah. And I think I was talking to you earlier but like just knowing that there is actually this growing and really prolific founder community here and so many amazing CPG brands have emerged from like even at Encinitas where I live, it's pretty incredible.

Yeah. Vuori being one on the apparel side, which is just booming in Encinitas, but so many other kind of CPG and natural food products. Are you already connected to naturally San Diego?

I am, yes. So I became a member as soon as I joined. I think they had their first in person event last December. So I was, I was there. But yeah, it's an amazing network to be part of for sure.

Yeah, I just joined yesterday, so I'm a member as well too. Big fan of Ari and Kirsten and we at Interlock have invested in a few companies, including Carrie, Leslie's Verity.

I met her the other day actually. Yeah, maybe you were the one who introduced me. But we reconnected and she's super cool.

Yeah, no, it's a great group. The pitch slam I know is coming up. We'll give a shout out to Naturally San Diego's pitch competition.

Yeah, it's April. April 7th.

Oh, look at that. Going from pitching to judging.

Yeah. Oh my God, that's so fun.

Yeah, that is cool. So we'll see you out there. Take us through a little bit else of like, do you have other talent and team members here in San Diego or is everyone totally remote?

No, actually more and more we're hiring on the San Diego train, so our VP of marketing is also based out here. Our other retention marketers in Oceanside, we're right now hiring Just Shout out for anyone who has operational skills. We're hiring for our VP of operations. I would love them to be locally based, not mandatory, but just a, you know, just a shout out there. If anyone knows of someone we're actively hiring and really great culture. We truly try. Like I mentioned, I moved here for the balance that work life balance. And I think that's something we really try to promote at T drop. So had to plug that opportunity.

Sure. Yeah. We'll make sure we link to them in the show notes too. Do you have an office or do you guys get together or what's the in person component like here?

Yeah. So right now we're doing once a quarter we get together. You know, we usually meet because like we saw a lot of members in la, so we meet at Irvine as like the midpoint at a workspace and just hang out all day and go to lunch together. So I think we're gonna obviously keep up that cadence. I think the other thing we did which was super fun was we just worked remotely out of a hotel like actually in San Diego, which is it the Pendry downtown. Yeah, downtown we went. We just like all hung out at the Pendry shout out to them for that free WI fi and then. But we went to happy hour there, had lunch there. So it was just like a good. It's like a good break. Right. From the whole work from home.

Totally. Yeah. No, that's super smart to do that. It's hard to replace some of those pieces. Including, you know, sharing a meal, like having tacos together, you just can't do that virtually. So. That being said, do you have a favorite taco spot? Have you found some new ones in San Diego or other or elsewhere?

There's so many here, but I have to go with, like, our tried and true because it's two blocks from us, which is City Tacos, and I think it's the chile rieno ones I got that were really well done. Yeah, that's our local spot. And Taco Tuesday, they have like a DJ out and it can get kind of wild. So.

Yeah, in downtown Encinis. No, City Taco is doing great and they've got a few locations, I think as well, too.

Yeah, there's some others. I've only been to the one in suny, but love it.

Yeah, it's a great spot, so. Good one. It's in our taco database already. It's definitely a fan favorite on the show, which is awesome. Maybe we need to do an. An irl.

I think that would be amazing. I was just going to say that I'm like, maybe since you're pushing them so much, maybe we could do like a sponsored event there.

Yeah, totally. Well, Sashi, thanks so much for coming on the show. I'm looking forward to trying some tea.

Drops if you don't have them in your hands already. I have to get your address.

That's on me, but we'll. We'll get that going. I was eyeing it just before we talk, and I was looking at your. Your Boba box.

We have a discount code for your audience too. So it's Tacos and Tech20 for your audience members to get 20% off their first order.

Awesome. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. We'll make sure that everyone gets to try some tea drops and we'll see you at the pitch slam coming up soon. But Natural San Diego. And Sashi, thanks again so much for being on the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for tuning in to the Tacos and Tech podcast. You can find all of our episodes on freshbroodtech.com as well as on Twitter at Tacos and Tech pod. Also, follow FreshBrewedTech on all of our social platforms and make sure to share and give a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. Thanks again.

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