Numi Organic Tea: Reem Hassani and Ahmed Rahim

How I Built This · 5 Jul 2021 · 1h 09m

What this episode covers

Reem Hassani and Ahmed Rahim, co-founders of Numi Organic Tea, recount launching their premium loose-leaf tea brand in 1999 from Reem’s 600-square-foot Oakland apartment. They detail the challenges of sourcing Fair Trade ingredients, navigating FDA regulations, and securing initial funding through their father’s home equity. The episode covers their strategic decision to reject an acquisition offer from Haynes Celestial, the pressure from investors to scale rapidly, and their eventual success as a privately held B Corporation selling tens of millions of dollars in organic tea annually.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies: Haynes Celestial, Starbucks, Rainbow Grocery, DeLuca, Pete's Coffee, La Colombe, Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Tommy Hilfiger, Smucker's, Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart, Ritz Carlton, Fairmont, Cost Plus, Neiman Marcus, U.S. Bank
Products: Numi Organic Tea, Tazo

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Numi Organic Tea: Reem Hassani and Ahmed Rahim

What this episode covers

Most relevant to

Topics

Mentioned

Related episodes from other shows

#51 Pure Gold Series: Ask Seth Goldman Anything! Plus the Announcement of Just Ice Tea

Founders Feature: Heidi and William Schneiders of Tea Jams

Founder Feature: Greg Cahn of Tamar Date Coffee

#115 Pure Gold Series: Lessons on Iterating from Seth Goldman + Updates on Eat the Change & Just Ice Tea

Got herbs? Bringing sparking herbal teas to market with Hrbvor's founder, Zahira Marmar