We were lucky to catch up with Kashish Juneja recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kashish, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
From growing up in Cupertino’s boba bubble to attending UC Berkeley surrounded by boba shops on every corner, the caffeine from classic milk tea and pleasure from chewing those boba balls fueled and continues to fuel my very existence. Boba’s mood-boosting capabilities helped me get through those awkward first dates, social gatherings, and gruesome college all-nighters. However, like any addiction, this one had its own flaws:
Boba tea has 2X more sugar than a can of soda – After gaining 30 lb from drinking sugary drinks daily, I became obsessed with finding a sustainable way of drinking boba at least 4X/week. I observed the high fructose corn syrup, heavy condensed milk, and sugar packed into those bobalicious drinks and after completing some seasons of Silicon Valley, taking an entrepreneurship bootcamp at Berkeley Haas, and failing at the first startup I worked at after 2 years, the entrepreneurship bug had officially bit me. With pitch deck in one hand and elevator pitch in the other, I raised a tapioca-sized fund that helped me open my first shop in San Francisco’s tech district right across the Embarcadero and Google building. What started as a dorm room dream transformed into your dream boba – AURA – a nutritious & delicious alternative that’s all-natural 0 calorie sweetened, vegan, and keto-friendly.
From sampling our first prototype as a blind taste test on campus, serving our drinks to TikTok stars at an LA content house, and catering at events throughout the Bay Area, the community drove AURA’s product improvement and innovation. Let’s just say AURA 1.0 from 2020 looks and tastes a little different than what we serve today – little might be an exaggeration here. From there, empowered customers and ambassadors drove our innovation & growth. After 6 months of opening the store, I bottled my store recipe to create ready-to-drink boba tea that you can enjoy anytime, anywhere. Today, AURA is more than better-for-you boba – it’s a good vibes movement that brings the community together to spread self-care, love, and positivity by fueling auras from all walks of life with clean, better-for-you boba tea energy.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
When I first dropped my banking six-figure job offer to pursue a boba company full-time, it was an uphill battle of validating my decision when my immigrant parents had made so many sacrifices to come to the US for me to have a stable job, hence giving birth to my signature line: a boba-preneur who got a BS to open a BS (Boba Shop) without the BS (Blood Sugar or Bullsh*t, your pick)…
AURA is a symbol of fulfilling your dreams and turning all those ideas into reality. It’s a crossover of the trademarked “Just do it” athletic attitude and your favorite drink to show you that you really can have it all. With drinks designed as a pick-me-up before your morning email session or recovery tea with electrolytes for that post-workout fuel, AURA was designed for people from all walks of life to enjoy. It’s essentially a good vibes movement to bridge the community together over a drink that’s clean energy for your mind, body, and soul without compromising your taste buds. Healthy food can taste good.
By definition, AURA is the energy that your body emits. While it’s not visible to the naked eye, it’s something that can be sensed. My goal is to maintain that vibe with our drinks and the ambience when someone walks into our store or receives our drinks at their doorstep. That means no BS, like I mentioned before. AURA’s drinks are ALL-natural without the artificial preservatives, non-dairy with oat milk and almond-coconut cream being our specialities, and under 100 calories with us replacing your traditional sugary, caloric heavy tapioca pearls with 0 calorie boba jelly pearls crafted with agar.
Each cup of AURA is handcrafted with love and positivity to match your customizations and preferences. Each bottle of boba tea is bottled fresh and delivered same or next day. Today, I’m excited to share we’ll be offering same-day delivery Bay Area wide! You can order us in store or online for nationwide delivery on our website www.AuraTeaCoffee.com
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When I first signed my store lease to open a store across Google, I figured the cash flow would literally be flowing. Well, like anything that you expect in life, it usually takes a different turn. Signing a lease during the pandemic meant I was going to tackle a different beast off the bat. When WFH rendered foot traffic in the tech district and in front of my shop obsolete, I almost sulked into an awful, self-victimizing hole but climbed out of thanks to the community’s support and my personal spiritual journey.
There’s a certain kind of “high” that comes with seeing customers walk in and serving them drinks. When I lost that high, I thought I lost my purpose, but that’s why they say everything happens for a reason. Hitting rock bottom with sales gave me the opportunity to discover my purpose behind my AURA, hence the good vibes movement we have today. The resilience didn’t stop here though because neither did the challenges.
After two months of opening, I was condemned to a health department closure after a viral TikTok video revealed that certain infrastructure was not commercially up to code – an epic social media fail. At this point, it was a battle of low sales and increased costs, every business owner’s nightmare. One month later, after dollars poured into renovation, a re-grand opening brought the longest line Downtown San Francisco would have seen after the pandemic.
Moral of the story: just do it and don’t give up because life will keep throwing challenges at you and well, that’s life
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media has been at the forefront of AURA’s birth and growth. From establishing our presence at UC Berkeley with an Instagram account before our first prototype was released to posting daily now, AURA’s community is a function of authenticity and consistency. It’s a matter of quality over quantity. By staying true to myself and showing the reality behind starting and operating the business, I’ve been able to garner the support of other thought leaders and creatives in the community who have further propelled my brand. Instead of focusing on the views or the number of followers you have, the goal should be to add value with your content. What’s in it for the person watching?
For anyone starting off, my greatest piece of advice would be to prioritize consistency when it comes to posting and engagement to build community. Each platform from Linkedin to Youtube to TikTok to Instagram has it’s own type of tone so shaping content to fit that tone is important. We all know that social media is the present and future and that many businesses’ (primarily direct to consumer) would depend on their social media presence, so investing consistent time daily, even if it’s 5 minutes would garner growth over time. I recommend recording the behind the scenes of your daily life as well whether it’s cooking breakfast or crashing in bed after a long day of work. Like anything else, it’s a process so just trust it and just keep it real!
Contact Info:
- Website: AuraTeaCoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurateacoffee/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurateacoffee/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aura-tea/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuraTeaCoffee?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BobaQueenKash/shorts
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/aura-tea-and-coffee-san-francisco-3
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/bobaqueenkash/ https://www.tiktok.com/@bobaqueenkash?lang=en https://www.tiktok.com/@aurateacoffee?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
Photographer Instagram @melujoyan