We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nina Tickaradze. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nina below.

Nina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

When we originally started NADI, we wanted our bottles to have a unique look, size and feel. So we partnered with a bottling company in Ukraine that could accommodate our ideas, but also accommodate our small budget. They created a unique bottle mold for us with a distinctive circle pattern, and for the past several years they have produced all of our bottles. When Russia invaded Ukraine and began bombing many cities, our bottling factory was hit and it completely destroyed thousands of bottles as well as our unique mold. It was a huge financial loss and mental setback, but it also meant we needed to quickly find another company to make our bottles. The different size and shape meant we also had to change our label and nutrition facts and SKU numbers. Rebuilding a company is extremely painful mentally, physically and financially. My team and I worked relentlessly to get NADI juices back into production and back on our feet, and in a few months we were able to relaunch with a new bottling partner in Turkey. It was a very traumatic experience. We lost a lot of inventory, our retail presence was hurt, our e-commerce customer base shrunk, and the hardest thing was that we lost all the sales traction we had prior to the incident. We were fortunate that our distributor and many wonderful retail stores stood by us and supported us, and we are optimistic that we can regain our footing with retailers and consumers.

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

I am originally from the country of Georgia, where I grew up with a tradition of rosehip juices, which is known for being a powerful immunity booster and cure-all for colds, upset stomach, low energy and other health concerns. My grandmother made this drink for my family daily and if you sneezed in her presence, she would insist that you drink rosehip juice immediately. My friends and I started NADI with a hope of introducing our Georgian tradition of rosehip juices to the U.S. market, and we also had a mission of creating jobs for the refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who lost everything they had when Russia invaded Georgia and they had to flee their homes. Our NADI rosehip juice is unique because we are the only USDA certified organic wild rosehip juice company in the U.S. The COVID pandemic helped educate consumers about the importance of taking care of your health and keeping your immune system strong with natural foods and drinks, so it’s a good time to sell products that are good for you and have health benefits. Rosehips are one of the best naturally occurring sources of Vitamin C, and they have 30 to 40 times as much Vitamin C as oranges and other citrus fruits. They also have antioxidants, polyphenols, B vitamins, and many other nutrients, and we never add sugar or artificial ingredients to any of our products so you can feel good about drinking NADI rosehip juices.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During COVID, we had to find a way to keep creating jobs for refugees and IDPs. It was not easy because we had to make all the juice we could possibly need earlier that year since we did not fully understand what kind of difficulties COVID would bring to the supply chain. So we had produced a year’s worth of juice in two months and shipped everything to the U.S. This left our team without much work to do, and production is not the type of work you can do from home. Instead we decided to launch a new product, something we had been testing for a while: dried apple chips called Happy Hearts by NADI. This gave our team a great opportunity to pivot and create new jobs. We needed to do a lot of research, design, package production, create a new facility, buy new tools and hire professionals who we could train to produce new products. It wasn’t easy to pivot into this new direction of making snacks when all we had known before was how to make juice. It was the best thing we could have done. We stayed active and advanced our mission by creating more jobs for refugees when they needed steady income the most. We also created a new stream of income and that helped us stay financially secure during the global shutdown.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience took on a new meaning for me when we lost our bottling company in Ukraine. As I began to understand the magnitude of what had happened and what it meant for us, it became overwhelming and daunting. I had no idea of the many difficulties we would face from the supply chain to distribution to our retail presence and the fees we would have to pay to get new bottles and labels. The financial loss was large. I had to pause and dig deep down and do some soul searching to find the strength and dedication to figure out a path forward. I was debating shutting NADI down for good. I just couldn’t take any more setbacks.
My inspiration and perseverance for rebuilding NADI came one evening when I was in my home office.
I am the mom of three awesome kids who are 19, 18 and 13. Each one of them has helped me with NADI through the years, sometimes helping me with fulfillment and shipping, design ideas, and demos for consumers in retail locations or during expos. My youngest son always took this very seriously, as if it was his personal responsibility to make sure NADI would succeed. So, that evening I was on the verge of giving up, and I told my son that I just didn’t know if I could keep going. My son responded: “Mom after all the hard work we have all put into NADI, you simply cannot give up today. Let’s fix today, and you can always give up later.”
I absolutely loved what he said. I had to solve the bottling problem today. That was the immediate problem at hand — not to question the entire existence and purpose of my brand. All I had to do was take the first step and find a new bottling company. That is exactly what I did. One step at a time. It’s the best lesson and advice in business. Just do the next good thing you can do to make progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://getnadi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getnadi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getnadi/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nadi