Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Warren Bacal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Warren, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started Kosui to help people experience Japan through scent and to bring more Asian representation to the fragrance industry. There are Asian Fragrance brands and western, mostly French, fragrance brands, but I wanted to bring my Asian-American perspective to the industry. I decided to do a Japanese-inspired fragrance brand because Japan has such a rich history of scent culture with things like incense and tea. I first became interested in Japanese culture around age 10, and started studying Japanese language and culture in school at age 11. I did a study abroad during high school in Japan in Shizuoka-ken where I took cultural classes such as calligraphy and tea ceremony (Cha-do). Japanese culture has always been a big part of my life and interest of mine, so it made sense to me to want this to be a Japanese-inspired fragrance brand. I first became more seriously interested in perfumes after taking a perfume making workshop in 2020. What stood out to me was how much similarity there was between perfume theory and music theory. I minored in opera performance in college, so perfume seemed like a similarly multi-disciplinary space where you have the mathematical ratios and proportions of sound waves in music theory to the more expressive, artistic, and highly emotional aspect. On top of all that, my major in college was Biology, so perfume also has that very scientific chemistry component as well. I made a serious decision to begin building Kosui 2.5 years ago in December 2023. Coincidentally I had just been laid off from my corporate job in video game marketing in January 2024 a month later. I took it as a sign from the universe to fully commit to building this brand and taking the leap of entrepreneurship. The brand has finally launched on April 1, 2026, and I am SO happy to be able to finally share this amazing brand with people.

Warren, 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?

Kosui is a Japanese-inspired fragrance brand based in San Francisco, California and compounded in Grasse, France with the aim of helping people experience Japan through scent and bring more Asian representation to the fragrance industry.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think a big part of entrepreneurship is being able to remain flexible and pivot when needing. It is important to do your due diligence for having a plan, but inevitably nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan. I have had so many pivots I had to make during the initial development process for the brand. I will share a few examples of times that I had a plan that did not end up working out and having to pivot.

When discussing the MOQ (minimum order quantity) with my manufacturer, we had initial discussed one number. With that MOQ in mind, I planned out finances for how many fragrances I could launch with initially. The initial plan was to launch the brand with five or six fragrances. It wasn’t until we got more into the specifics of what I wanted, which included colored glass bottles and screen printed logos, did I find out, that the MOQ for those features was actually double the previously quoted MOQ which was for more simple features. I had to decide in the moment, what direction I wanted the brand to go down, either launch with all five or six fragrances I planned for with simpler bottles and logos, or cut in half to only launching with three fragrances with bottles and logos much more in line with my original vision. I decided this brand would be all about premium features and be made for the fragrance enthusiast, so I knew I had to go with the better bottle and logo for the better customer experience.

Similarly, when choosing bottle design and cap, I had initially planned on a more typical rectangle shape bottle. I knew from the start I had to have magnetic caps for the premium experience. Unfortunately the rectangular bottle I had selected was unable to take magnetic caps due to the narrow collar shape. I had to decide if I keep my original bottle plan or keep my original magnetic cap plan. I decided to keep the magnetic cap for the more premium experience and pivoted to the current bottle shape which is more of a gemstone shape with geometric and cut corners. I am so happy things worked out this way because I would have never found this current gemstone shape had my original rectangle shape been able to take magnetic caps.

Both of these examples also highlight the importance of detachment from outcomes. If you are able to meet perceived “success” and “failure” with equal excitement, you will never be disappointed. You realize that outcomes are outcomes and we are the ones that assign a positive or negative value to them, yet we have no way of knowing how a perceived negative might actually lead us down an even better path with my gemstone bottle shape as a prime example of that.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Kosui is fully self-funded. I used all my personal savings to commit to this brand and making it work. I had built up that savings through my corporate job in video game marketing and living below my means and investing a large portion of my salary into stocks. It is very important to make sure your money is working for you to make more money — this is an important concept both in personal finance as well as building a business. Now that I have finally launched and was able to make self funding work, I am so glad I went with that option since now I retain 100% ownership of the company.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kosuifragrances.com
• Instagram: @_kosuifragrances_
• Other: TikTok: @kosuifragrances

Image Credits

Ella Sophie Photography (https://www.ellasophiephoto.com/)