Sashee Chandran is the Founder & CEO of California based company, Tea Drops. After initially starting the brand as a passion project and side gig, she has raised $3.5 million and garnered mainstream attention from the likes of Chrissy Teigen and Tory Burch. She joins Ara to discuss growing up on a tea estate and learning to sell from a young age, how one tweet changed her entire life, and the power of both learning to let go and celery juice.
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Connect with Sashee - https://www.instagram.com/sasheechandran/
Follow Tea Drops - https://www.instagram.com/myteadrop/
Timestamps:
00:15 - Introducing Sashee Chandran
01:23 - Growing up on a tea estate with entrepreneurial parents
04:35 - Learning to sell from a young age
05:24 - Starting Tea Drops while working a full-time job at eBay in Silicon Valley
06:46 - How Sashee knew it was time to quit her job and go all-in on Tea Drops
10:57 - The process of patenting Tea Drops
13:39 - The impact of being tweeted about by Chrissy Teigen
15:58 - Transitioning from bootstrapping to raising funds
18:31 - Maintaining open to feedback while having conviction in what you’re building
22:48 - Raising $3.5 million to date and embarking on a $5 million series A round
24:39 - Receiving support from her family, friends, and mentors
27:18 - Meeting people she would have never expected
28:06 - Following her father’s “Horizon Theory”
30:05 - Expanding beyond tea to incorporate and emphasize self-care
34:59 - Wanting to separate work from her personal life, and investing in other founders
41:20 - What Sashee would be doing if Tea Drops wasn’t a thing
46:24 - Why Sashee moved into a 250-sqft home and got rid of 75% of her belongings
49:47 - Sashee’s view on social media
51:40 - Sashee’s interests outside of work (spending time with family and travelling)
54:04 - How the book “Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer helped Sashee learn to let go
56:12 - The power of celery juice
57:20 - Wanting to make other people feel like they are the priority
58:40 - The influence of Tamil culture on Sashee
01:00:17 - Admiration for Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
01:01:37 - Sashee’s advice to other Tamil creators
01:02:38 - Would You Rather