0:01
- Hey guys, I'm very excited. This is video is the first in a six part series that I'm gonna be releasing over the next two and a half months or so. I'm starting a new business, and the idea is to do it for under $500 without leaving this apartment. Show you the whole process from start to finish, my successes and my failures with your real-time feedback, helping decide what happens next.
0:27
So what is it that I am doing? - Too hot. I am proud to announce that I am making my very own tea. I'm making tea. I'm starting with two original blends, one for energy, one for chilling out. (loud snoring) And my goal is to make the absolute best, most (beep) delicious teas that the world has ever seen. And so the first step is.
0:57
How make tea company. (uptempo music) - My name is Jason D'Mello. I'm a professor at Loyola Marymount University in the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship. - We're talking about starting businesses today. I feel like I should have worn a brazier too. I'm I under dressed? - You're not, I felt like a professor. I should look a little professorial. I'm wearing shorts underneath this.
1:19
- I'm not wearing any pants at all so you got me beat. The goal that I have is to get tea into people's hands in two months without leaving my home. And I'm trying to spend under $500 out of pocket. Is that possible? - Yeah, hell yeah. Most businesses don't need that much money to start. And you just have to be creative. But what we try to get students and new entrepreneurs to think about is not the business plan, but the business model.
1:44
So how does this business work? What is the story? What's the narrative? I always start my classes with the diagram, this Japanese concept of. (speaking in foreign language) Are you familiar with this term? - I don't think so. (speaking in foreign language) - It loosely translates to your purpose or your reason for being. And it's the intersection of your passion, your mission, profession and your vocation. The things that you love, the things that the world needs, things that you can get paid for, the things that you're good at.
2:08
That's like the Holy Grail for entrepreneurship. - Thinking about my. (speaking in foreign language) So what I love is tea, (beep) duh. I love drinking tea, I love the way tea makes me feel. I love finding new flavors and just like trying to find the best tea, (beep) tea check. What I'm good at is debatably this, at making videos, hopefully connecting with people, making content that shows people why this is a great thing that they need in their lives.
2:36
What the world needs. Again, I think tea it can help you slow down. It can give you energy and clarity but beyond that, I think we need tea to be cool. We're a coffee society. People turn to coffee as their caffeine of choice, and I'm wanna show people that tea is better in every single way and it's (beep) cool. And finally, what I can get paid for making the greatest tea that the world has ever seen. (loud thud) (speaking in foreign language) - You have an.
3:03
(speaking in foreign language) You got a clear understanding of why you're doing this. So your passion for tea is a great place to start. And then looking at what the world needs. It's going to be an $86 billion industry in 2026. - I'm sorry, did you say 26 billion dollar industry? - 86 billion, right now I think. - Oh, I was short 60 billion. I don't wanna just sell someone else's tea, I wanna create a brand new tea. A tea better than anything else on the market.
3:29
So I'm gonna need a partner. I also maybe should put some pants on. - My name is Steve Schwartz. I'm the founder of Art of Tea and I am a passionate servant of the leaf. - Wow. - I had no idea that it was going to start a tea company. I just knew that I was a huge tea nerd. When I finished studying, I worked four different jobs. I got a backpack and started traveling around the world to find the best teas and botanicals possible.
3:55
And started bringing some back to friends and family and caught the attention and Wolfgang Puck, Caesars Palace, Google. Super passionate about blending. So I'm honored to be here tracking with you today. - Please, the honor is all mine. If you're a servant of the leaf, I'm a peasant of the leaf. Over the next few weeks, I get to make original blends with Art of Tea and with Schwartz's help. And I'm stoked that they said yes, because one, they are literally better and more creative at this than anyone else in the world, but also they source from better products than anyone else on the planet.
4:25
- So imagine getting, for example, a bag of chips. You get these uniform shapes, and as you work your way down to the bottom, it's a bit more broken and all the way down to the bottom, it's just powder or dust. So what we source is the top 2% of all the teas that are produced in the world. Hand harvested, hand pick that's the top of the bag. - You're getting the good chips not like that stuff that you have to lick off your fingers and dip the bag into your mouth.
4:48
- Yes, yeah, so that stuff is when they're producing the teas in the factories, the dust falls on the ground, they sweep into giant piles and that's reserved for most traditional paper teabags that you find at a typical supermarket. - Wait, literally they sweep it off the ground? - Yeah, yeah. (loud swishing) (loud slurping) - We've all had shitty tea in our past. And I think for a lot of people that turns them off of it forever.
5:12
How do you go about blending flavors and making a brand new tea? - I'd say years of (beep) up. - I've been doing that for ever. - [Steve] That's awesome. - That means I'm super prepared for this. One of my goals with this project is to take artists in quality team, but demystify it and make it easy and accessible and fun. But I'm doing this for a lot more than just to make something tastes good.
5:34
I do wanna sip. (loud slurping) Over the years through our videos, you've seen the process of me becoming myself. I started out as this raw man putty, and have formed into a person that I'm pretty damn proud of. My auto immune disease has stolen a lot of my life. It has robbed me of energy, of creativity and at it's worst motivation.
5:58
Finding the right tea has been crucial in giving me my life back and helping me fulfill my potential these last few years. And now I have the opportunity to pay it forward to you and to prevent you from having to buy as many goddamn teas as me to find it the best one. - If you see someone slipping in the mud, you hand them a stick, you don't hand them your hand.
6:23
They could pull you in and you both have to figure out how to get out. But if you hand them a stick, they have a tool to be able to leverage themselves out. And tea seemed like that thing. - We're gonna give people a bunch of sticks. - There you go, man, yeah. - I'm starting out today with nothing. If I were to make a, to do list, what do I need to check off? First I need something to sell. Business plan, a flavor, I need a name, your logo, my esthetics, packaging, margins, loose-leaf tea verse bagged tea.
6:47
I need to get samples, holy shit. This is a lot of stuff. Sales portal, subscription service, marketing, social presence, launch date, new website. - So have you registered your business? - No. - So getting a DBA, Doing Business As gives you sort of a tax ID and that's the first step. - So any good business needs a great name. Stop being so sexy Zach.
7:10
So I have a couple ideas, but first I just wanna try out there's this business name generator. Let's just type in tea and see what they got. Neptune Tea, Treasure Tea, Tea Lightning, Mogul Tea, Tea matters. Honestly, that's a great slogan right there. BlackBelt Korndiddy, I like the sound of that. (loud slurping) - I call it a tea paradox. Where people are like, I don't have time to make tea.
7:34
I wanna push a button. I want the shot of espresso. I want my tea instant. If you take the time to select the leaves, to prepare the water, to get your cup ready, to slowly step, it's amazing how much more time opens up throughout the rest of your day. - Go drink some tea and stare at a tree. It's gonna change your goddamn life. - It is man, yeah. - What I want for this tea to do is to give you energy and clarity of mind and motivation.
7:57
It doesn't matter how you start. It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It just matters that you keep trying. Slow and steady and you'll win the (beep) race. So for all of those reasons, I am calling this Turtle Tea, Turtle Tea, Turtle Tea. There's a lot to be excited about. (soft music) So I went to turtletea.com.
8:22
(soft music) No, what? No, no, no, no, no. And it redirects to someone else's website, jimneuner.com No. (loud thud) what do I do? He doesn't make tea and he's not a (beep) turtle. What is going on? You okay phone? So we did a little bit of sleuthing and it turns out that he has owned this site since 2008.
8:47
- They are people a bit like bought it a year ago and like are parking it and are gonna forget it. Not someone who's been parking and paying for it for 12 (beep) years. - What do you think his game is? - Oh, he's on his Instagram. - She likes gnomes, eating hot dogs and using Oxford commas. Listen Zack, is a no, you're not getting it from Jim Neuner. - So I decided to reach out to Jim. I wrote him a very kind email seeing if I could purchase it from him.
9:10
And I Hope you're managing well and miss all this craziness. Best, Zach Kornfeld and send. No response. - That's a very strange domain for Jim to own. How many times have you reached out to him? - Just once? - Well, I would say be a little more persistent before you give up on the domain. - Sent him another email, get the website, no response. Then I went to go register my trademark, using the Trademark Electronic Application System.
9:36
Literally the abbreviation is T.E.A.S. and it turns out that Herbal Turtle Tea is taken. Fuck. This is crazy. Beyond Turtle Tea we have applied for several trademarks now, and they're all getting rejected. Tea Paradox, there's a company called Paradox Coffee Co. Spillz Tea, there's another one called Spilling the Tea, Kettle Black, Black Kettle, Zax, Z-A-X.
10:03
Which was like not even one that we really liked. 'Cause there was a registration for Organic Zacks, Z-A-C-K-S. and because it sounds the same, I can't even use my own (beep) name. I had no idea this was gonna be so hard. Do you know broadly percentage wise, how many businesses succeed versus fail? - Some people say like eight out of 10, six out of 10. - Succeed? - [Jason] Fail.
10:24
- Oh. - There's a Mike Tyson quote, that "everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." (dull thud) And it's true like you go into a fight and you have a strategy of how you're gonna take an opponent, the moment we get hit in the face, everything we had trained for is gone. And that's, what's it's like in business. - How has COVID-19 affected business? - So about 80% of our business has been impacted. What it's done Zach, is that it's allowed us to reflect back on why we exist as an organization.
10:51
What are our core values? It's leaves and water, but it's so much more than that. Our company and our team is very purpose-driven right now. And, the fact that we're here for a reason, we wanna impact as many lives as we can through tea. - We're going on an adventure. I kind of just need to get out of the house and clear my head and just try and think a lot. - When people fall in love with their products as entrepreneurs.
11:15
I would urge you to fall in love with your customers and the product can change and evolve over time. But if you love your customer, you will find ways to create value for them. - [Zach] One of the things that I need to be thinking about right now. - Who are you and who do you wanna become? And what impact do you wanna make in this world with this product? Unfortunately, I have to go, but those are. (Zach laughs) - I love like, all right.
11:38
Well, I'm just unpackaged 30 years of living. Find out who you are and I got to go see you later. (loud laughing) The first of probably several inevitable failures during this process. I can react one of two ways. I could panic and freak out. (loud screaming) Or I can use it as a moment to reflect. (soft music) What is my (speaking in foreign language) Who do I want to be?
12:05
(soft music) Turtle Tea was just this obvious name. It felt easy, it felt right. Now I'm like, (beep) that name. It's not a good name, I can do better. In fact, I will do better. I wanna come up with something that blows Turtle Tea out of the (beep) water, save the turtles. I wanna make something that gives you the energy to manage your daily life, to stimulate your creativity, to motivate you, to exercise, to get out there, to be social, to soothe your stomach and your anxiety, and to give you a clarity of mind, to do all of this, without the jitters of coffee.
12:38
I wanna make the best tea, nah, the best caffeine that the world has ever seen. A tea that I wished that I had always had, that hits all of my specific needs, and I wanna share it with you, so that you can be your best goddamn self too. And together we'll change the world, probably. Here I thought I was starting a business, I'm actually soul searching and finding out who I am.
13:03
- I hope so. - I want you guys to be part of this process. Tell me what you think, tell me what you want. Blow up my Twitter mentions. Hey Bowie, let yourself be heard. In the weeks to come I still need to decide the final flavors, the packaging, and we need a name. There's a lot to do, but I'm stoked because we're doing it together. You are a nuisance. Next time on the $500 new business challenge. All the good names are taken.
13:25
Time to try my tea. (loud slurping) Oh this is terrible what have I done? We're running out of time and money. (loud slurping) Oh, this one's delicious. What have I done? I'm stressed out. (upbeat music) I even looked up Cock Teas as a joke, taken. Of course it is, it's great name.