Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara Delaney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Sarilla was founded by a woman named Sara Stender Delaney, who moved to Rwanda in 2009 to follow a calling. There she found her teachers of resilience in the people of Rwanda who survived the Genocide of 1994. A rape survivor and recovering alcoholic, Sara’s experience living in Rwanda is where the seeds for Sarilla were planted. From there we have been building this non-alcoholic sparkling beverage made with organic, fair trade tea leaves and botanicals. We aspire to be a global brand which is focused on erasing sexual violence, providing inclusive social spaces, and encourages women and marginalized people with the opportunity to tap into their true self.
Sarilla inspires.
Sara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Sarilla creates products by sourcing ingredients that have been ethically grown, and which directly support women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Our founder is committed to creating products that are alternatives to alcohol for women who are looking for healthier and purpose driven products inspired by our founder’s life journey. Sarilla is liquid sunshine.
“We bring sunshine to people’s lives. We help shine a light on their inherent wisdom and beauty, to inspire women to find meaning in a chaotic world. I believe challenges and traumas can help us grow and become powerful leaders, but if we do not take our own painful experience to help another it feels wasted. To make sense of my own traumas I have to help as many women as possible to recover, to find a sense of peace, to tap into their inner wisdom and strength. I do this successfully when I sponsor women through the 12 steps recovery program. In the past year I have seen women emerge from dark confused places, living in fear of themselves and the world, Now they are sponsoring newcomers and the gift keeps giving. That program is anonymous, it is free of any financial exchange, it is not a business….however, it has given me the great opportunity to see what I difference I can make, to see the gift of healing and recovery that has been offered to me and how we can use the Sarilla brand as a beacon of light, as a vehicle to inspire, to motivate, to affirm our self-worth as humans, our beauty, our “rightness”. There is unity is sharing our stories, and as we rise from the healing, and stand up tall again, we bring others with us.” – Sara Stender Delaney
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
The first investment I made was to attend the World of Tea conference in Las Vegas in 2016. The travel costs and entry ticket totaled about $1,200 and I paid out of pocket. At the time I reached out to someone who was excited about the work we were doing with the nonprofit I founded, Africa Healing Exchange. He helped me to focus and identify which product category to start on developing because I had so many ideas. There are so many beautiful products made and grown in Rwanda and I wanted to make the biggest social and economic impact as possible. Tea seemed like a great starting point for so many reasons. After the trade show I started to buy small quantities of 4 types of tea from farmer cooperatives I knew in Rwanda and for the first year of business I funded my growth with the sale of the tea. It was very small and I had other employment which paid my bills and supported myself and my baby boy. At some point I met a woman who heard about my dream to create a liquid tea and to have it on tap, and she was inspired to reach out to me with an angel offer. She truly was an angel because her investment was a straight gift and it helped us to build the first iteration of what we call Sarilla today. We launched a line of packaged loose leaf teas and two flavors of Sarilla in cans in 2018/19. Since then I have continued to grow by investing 100% of revenue back into the business, winning grants and pitch award cash prizes, and I have an open seed round which is helping us to increase our scale-up pace.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We have always been authentic with our story telling and social media presence and I feel this is more important than having a perfectly polished appearance. We encourage engagement and send out alot of samples so people can try our drinks and hopefully share their reviews with friends. We do not work with paid influencers or pay people to write reviews. Our followers and loyal fans seem to be most interested with what our brand stands for – inclusivity, health, resilience, inspiration and joy. While the product flavor, features and ingredient benefits definitely matter, social media is a gateway into your world. We have a massive opportunity to build community today and people are hungry for good news.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DrinkSarilla.com
- Instagram: @drinksarilla
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrinkSarilla
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sarilla-sparkling/
Image Credits
Aris Wells (photo of Sara)