We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Devin Keopraphay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Devin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
The most unexpected piece of my business was realizing as I shared my culture and pov I was slowly advocating for third-culture kids under the AAPI umbrella, immigrants, dreamers, restaurantours, entrepreneurs and further.
I thought cooking, meant one thing “to feed hungry patrons”. But as time lead on I realized I was slowly building a bridge, connecting cultures, stories, and most of all people. This small engagement feeding into people’s own research of the new food that they had experience.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Rising Tiger was a brand built on connecting community. From the scattered AAPI Community across the front range to the ever growing diversity here in little ol Longmont.Paying homage to classics and famous breakfast dishes from across Asia and bringing it to you here. A perfect blend of third culture food and interpretation of home. We’re hoping to bring more food diversity and culture to our ever-growing town.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2020 we focused on a brunch delivery service offering meal kits that were to be finished at home. Think better, healthier, ready to eat, “TV” dinner. As lockdowns eased our current business model was slowing going extinct. Sales dried up, realizing we had maybe weeks left of business going at the rate it was. I decided to change our entire brand, business and food concept. Creating a business is already hard, dismantling a business, hoping pieces can be repurpose, trying to maintain your current clientele while acquiring new, develop a whole new food program and now figuring out how to deliver this said new concept. That, that is hard. Mentally & emotionally draining and down right costly.
My answer was to do what I always love eating. Breakfast & Asian food and the desire to make a restaurant that could be apart of someone’s everyday routine.
I guess you can say the rest is history and god bless this plan worked out!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Authenticity of not necessarily food but of myself. Full transparency that behind this company is just a guy, trying figure it all out one step at a time in a business where there is no clear path to take. We’re all people, so lets share a table together, the community that eats together, learns together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Risingtigerco.com
- Instagram: Risingtigerco
Image Credits
Katie Wei
IG @katiewei_