Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kai Pan, co-founder of FS Drinks, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
FS Drinks is a new RTD (ready-to-drink) bottled boba beverages company seeking to break the monopoly MTO (made-to-order) boba shops have on supplying the legal narcotic to a growing mass market of boba addicts.
Tell us about yourself
After eight years of doing global marketing in-house and agency-side, TZG Partners, the trans-Pacific investment firm behind FS Drinks and a portfolio of other CPG businesses, seduced me with nostalgia for my own past entrepreneurial success. I had previously started, built, and then sold a business, and there's a certain je ne sais quoi about creating something from nothing. As I grow older, my body resents me, but my heart wants what it wants. As much as the odds against success are for new businesses, I'm motivated by our small team of co-founding boba true believers. Boba is intrinsically fun, and we know we have a product that will positively disrupt how boba lovers like ourselves can get our fix.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
It's early for FS Drinks, so there are no accomplishments I want to toot a horn for just yet. That said, whether I'm a business owner or just an "employee," I've always prided myself on articulating a vision that excites our first team members before going on to demonstrate the potential of that vision to bring others on. Very few things are built by an individual, but an individual can be infectious. I like to think I'm slightly more infectious than herpes.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
At the risk of being cliche, it's the unrelenting self-doubt of whether I'm applying the right resources to the right priorities, knowing that the consequences can be borne by no one but myself, and those consequences are both practical and emotional. No one wants to be the one to lead others to failure.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
One, ideas are cheap, and execution is everything. Two, perfection is the enemy of progress. Three, testicular and/or ovarian fortitude is an absolute must. You cannot lead or own if you can't tolerate or weather failure. Bonus cliche: Love what you do. As a business grows, everything gets more complicated, so you must remember and make passionate love to the core value proposition of your business.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://fsdrinks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FSdrinksUSA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fsdrinksusa/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSdrinksUSA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fsdrinks/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.