We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Thai Phi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Thai, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

I’m extremely grateful for my parents and the journey they took from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to San Francisco, CA then to Columbia, SC.

In the late 1980s, my parents took a chance and fled Saigon during the night. Our caravan was comprised of my auntie, siblings, and some of our neighbors. By foot, bus, and boat, our family traversed across the jungles of Vietnam, flooded pathways in Cambodia, and the gulf of Thailand in a small boat.

Their journey wasn’t easy. It was met with starvation, pirates, poverty, and rough conditions. However, we ultimately made it to Thailand, where I was born in a refugee camp and ultimately to San Francisco, CA.

It’s their resilience, kindness, and hard working ethic that inspires me daily.

Thai, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Pink Bellies started as an idea to share Vietnamese culture through food. After grad school, I thought a food truck would be a great starting point for the idea. Starting small – I was able to learn valuable lessons without tremendous costs, cultivate the idea on a daily basis, grow, and put myself out there.

In my eyes, food is one of the most effective ways to share culture. At the time, Charleston, SC lacked real representation for Vietnamese and Asian food and culture. Now, there are quite the number of Asian owned eateries, especially from younger entrepreneurs, and I feel like we were a catalyst for this movement in this city.

Our food is a creative mix of things I’ve had in Vietnam, things I’ve eaten in my mother’s kitchen in America, and everything else that inspires us. Our competitive advantages are the unique dishes that are an expression of my life and how it’s presented to the customer from the architecture of the space to the branded chopsticks and togo bags.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

“The proof is in the pudding.”

I think the best form of advertisement is a healthy mixture of a great product and consistency.

We’ve slowly built our reputation throughout the years of being a food truck, food stall, pop up, and now a restaurant – trying our best at every single step and growing along the way. This has allowed our foundation to be rock solid.

Nowadays, I think especially with social media, a lot of entrepreneurs gravitate towards creating novelty and chasing virality to hit homeruns. However, I think hitting singles to go from base to base gives you a real sustainable growth.

And when it comes to food, it’s the actual experience the customers have when they taste the dish that ultimately matters. Yes, service and location matter as well – but at the heart of the all – it’s all about how the food tastes.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Pink Bellies is totally self funded. The food truck was started with two maxed out credit cards and savings. As a lean startup, I kept these habits as I grew. In 2019, we did a Kickstarter campaign and successfully crowd funded about $32,000. Everything else since has been a reinvestment of our profits.

Contact Info:

• Website: pinkbellies.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/pinkbellies

Image Credits
Andrew Cebulka Son Nguyen Jonathan Boncek Ryan Belk