Bloom with Boba Guys
Welcome to Bloom with Boba Guys, an accelerator / mentorship program for small businesses with a specific focus on marginalized and underrepresented communities. The goal is to assist budding business owners during the early stage of their business, when networking and market-viable traction is critical.
With Bloom with Boba Guys, the co-founders of Boba Guys will provide small business owners with leadership guidance, resources, marketing, and expertise as they prepare to scale their business. We’ve learned a lot through the first ten years of our company, so we hope to pass on these lessons to the next generation.
In today’s climate, it has become increasing difficult to break through the clutter. We hope Bloom with Boba Guys will amplify high-potential businesses and give them a boost toward the scaling phase of their business cycle. The five chosen businesses for our Bloom program will have their product(s) sold in our ten Bay Area and four Los Angeles retail stores as well as online.
By the end of the program, we want small business owners to feel confident and knowledgeable about the next steps of blossoming their business.
Here’s to bridging cultures, one startup at a time.
Meet the Class of 2021
Please welcome the five businesses selected for our first class of Bloom with Boba Guys: BEVEY, It’s Nola, Kola Goodies, Shima’s Jerky Chips, and WalStreet Candles!
Back in March we introduced Bloom with Boba Guys and over the last two months our team interviewed 90 outstanding candidates. The caliber of talent and potential was overwhelming, and made it incredibly difficult to choose just five businesses. We wish we could have chosen everyone! Ultimately they chose five businesses felt had inspiring founders, incredible products, and unbeatable missions.
Throughout this season, our five businesses will have bi-weekly meetings, including seminars delivered by our co-founders and friends in the Boba Guys network. Additionally, their products will be sold on our website and in stores (coming soon) so you all can try them at home!
BEVEY
Simple but high-end, BEVEY is an organic, non-gmo cocktail base that can turn any drink into a sophisticated cocktail in 30 seconds. Simply mix with your favorite spirit (or soda-water for a mocktail) to produce a complex, rich drink that would rival what you’d get at a cocktail bar.
Their recipe is simple in order to focus on the core (and organic) ingredients and avoid the syrupy, sugary taste found in other mixes on the market.
A product manager at Google, Ajay Gokhale started BEVEY after being frustrated by both cocktail prices at bars and the complication of recreating bar-quality drinks from scratch. His mission with BEVEY is to help people connect with friends and family over rich cocktails at home, even if they are not a bartending-whiz.
It’s Nola
It’s Nola is a Black Woman-owned vegan snack company located in Brooklyn, New York with a mission to inspire and promote healthy living. Their delicious granola snack bites are plant-based and infused with real nut and seed proteins, dried fruit and spices.
In 2017, Margaret Barrow, a college professor, author, and keynote speaker, started bringing her homemade bite-sized snacks to her college students. Not only did all of her students enjoy them, her family, mentees, and colleagues did as well. By 2018, with everyone’s insistence, she started her business, It’s Nola, to share the deliciousness!
Beyond selling her snacks, Margaret wanted to use this business to give back to her students. She invited two of her mentees to join her, giving them sweat equity in the company. Additionally, she’s committed to giving 10% of the profits to community college mentoring programs.
Kola Goodies
Kola Goodies is an easygoing wellness brand bringing ethically sourced wellness goodies from the company’s South Asian origins to the modern consumer. The ingredients of their unique, first-to-market wellness blends are sourced directly from farmer collectives in Sri Lanka and India.
During her college days, founder Sajani Amarasiri realized she missed the savory breakfast drink her Amma (mom) lovingly made back in Sri Lanka called Kola Kanda. Additionally, like many others, she wanted to add more greens to her diet so she created her Kola Goodies business and the Super Green Latte blend.
What matters most to Sajani is representing, sourcing from, and giving back to the communities and cultures the ingredients actually originate from and bring wellness goodies in a culturally appreciative way. From farmers and copackers to product designers and photographers, the entire supply chain of Kola Goodies represents the South Asian culture, and are either immigrants, women of color or underrepresented minorities.
Shima’s Jerky Chips
Shima's Jerky Chips are wafer-thin, crispy beef jerky chips for carnivores of all ages. The recipe calls for preserving the natural state of the beef and slow baking it into a crunchy chip, which serves as a crispy, delicious snack.
Business partners Marc Shimamoto and Hazel Bourget want to provide a fun, healthy, and alternative way to eat meat - especially beef jerky. For years, Marc was making his jerky chips for family and friends. Encouraged by the word-of-mouth popularity of his product, he decided to partner up with Hazel to launch the product to the public in 2016.
Their mission is to provide a fun, health-conscious, and alternative way to enjoy beef jerky for people of all ages. Additionally, Marc and Hazel plan to give back to both small makers in the food industry and underserved Asian-American communities.
WalStreet Candles
Handcrafted and hand-poured, the candles by boyfriend-owned WalStreet Candles are no ordinary candles! They emphasize design in every way, from the branding to the decoration on the jars. Each one is hand decorated to give a uniqueness and visual enhancement to the candle scent. For smell, WalStreet Candles works to cultivate modern scents that bring familiarity while also expanding palettes to new horizons.
After meeting on Bumble in 2019, Tim Walton and Jared Overstreet quickly realized their mutual obsession for candles. This turned into Tim making Jared a candle for Valentine's Day, making candles for their friends for Christmas, and then starting a candle business.
At the core of it, Tim and Jared want to be examples in the LGBTQ community who spread peace, love, and awareness. With this in mind, they've pledged to forever donate 1% of annual profit to The Trevor Project.
How it works
PLACEMENT
We will purchase $1000 worth of initial product from five businesses each season. They’ll be sold in all our SF Bay Area and Los Angeles stores as well as online.
PROMOTION
We will leverage our network and platform to promote the business in a sustainable way. We want each business to succeed, so we will not do “one and done” campaigns.
MENTORSHIP
Businesses will have bi-weekly meetings with the Boba Guys co-founders and guest speakers to talk about business and leadership challenges.
Who we are looking for
Resilience, drive, and focus are all important qualities to have as entrepreneurs. But we recognize that often times simply having those qualities isn’t enough, especially for entrepreneurs that come from underrepresented or marginalized communities like we did.
We love introducing products with cultural relevance to a broader audience, as many of our early mentors did for us.
Our sweet spot for businesses we are looking to help are post-launch but before landing distributors.
Want to apply for our next season?
How to apply
If you're interested, we would love to have you apply! Our Class of 2021 has been chosen but keep an eye out on this page for the applications for our upcoming Class of 2022.
Feel free to share this application with businesses you think should apply as well.
Accepting applications through March 15, 2021. Applications now closed.
Selected businesses will be chosen on March 22, 2021 and contacted shortly after.
For questions, please email: bloom@bobaguys.com
FAQ
Selection criteria
How early is “too early” for my company?
Think of us as one of the first big accounts you land before larger distribution. We are looking for companies who’s product are already branded, certified and made in a production facility.
How will you select the participants?
We will put together a diverse committee that will read all applications and select winners. This committee will not include the co-founders of Boba Guys. Food, beverage and consumer packaged good brands are encouraged given our expertise, but all are welcome to apply.
Program Details
What are the program dates?
Stay tuned for information about our Class of 2022 application dates.
The program will last through our Spring/Summer season, ending around September/October.
Where will Bloom be located?
Do not worry if you do not reside in the Bay Area, this program is open to all US residents. Your products will be sold in our retail spaces and online with virtual mentorship.