How Rebekah Blank and Ariella Blank Built Atmosphere Kombucha

Rebekah Blank discovered kombucha, a fermented tea, while she was studying in the United States. She started brewing it herself while studying computer science, and then eventually taught her sister, Ariella Bank, how to do the same. Today, the Blank sisters own and operate one of the few kombucha startups in India. This is their startup story. 00:00

SECTIONS

00:48 Turning a Hobby into a Startup
04:46 Introducing India to Kombucha
07:27 The Homegrown Startup Hustle
10:15 Becoming Full-Time Entrepreneurs
12:37 Two Near-Death Startup Experiences
17:52 The Future of Atmosphere Kombucha

Turning a Hobby into a Startup: After Rebekah Blank introduced her sister Ariella Blank to kombucha, the duo started brewing the fermented tea on a regular basis. It got to the point where Rebekah, who is also one of the founders of Fab Cafe, was bringing the tea into work with her. The chef at the cafe suggested that they start selling the kombucha at the cafe, and thus, Atmosphere Kombucha was born.

Introducing India to Kombucha: Fab Cafe was a great testing ground for the Blank sisters, because they were able to experiment with different flavors of kombucha to see which ones suited the Indian palate. They also learned to brand their drink as a sparkling, probiotic tea instead of a fermented tea.

The Homegrown Startup Hustle: Eventually, Atmosphere Kombucha expanded to a couple of cafes, restaurants, and stores in Delhi NCR. The Blank sisters were working very hard to keep up with demand. They were brewing and bottling their kombucha in their apartment, while simultaneously working full time jobs. Demand grew to the point where Ariella began travelling across the city to deliver kombucha to people's doors.

Becoming Full-Time Entrepreneurs: Eventually though, the sisters realized that this sleepless startup hustle wasn't sustainable, and so they purchased a brewery, Ariella quit her job, and the duo started focusing a lot more on their kombucha startup.

Two Near-Death Startup Experiences: Unfortunately, things started to go wrong when the equipment which they had purchased for their brewery didn't arrive on time. Then, after the equipment arrived, they were shocked to discover that their brewery required a specialized electrical connection which the city officials were unable to install for several months. These two events slowed the kombucha startup down considerably. Another disastrous event was when the brewery's glass manufacturer stopped making the bottle which Atmosphere Kombucha had built their brand around. Luckily, the Blank sisters were able to find a similar bottle from a more reliable manufacturer. These two experiences, while challenging, taught the sisters a lot about entrepreneurship and business.

The Future of Atmosphere Kombucha: The Blank sisters just recently started using their brewery, and intend to scale up operations and expand across India. The kombucha market in India is slowly growing, and Atmosphere Kombucha is in the perfect position to capitalize on and further that growth.

If you enjoyed hearing Rebekah Blank and Ariella Blank talk about their experience of building Atmosphere Kombucha, please make use of the links below:

Rebekah's LinkedIn:   / rebekah-blank-936097163  

Atmosphere Kombucha's website: https://atmospherestudio.in/
Atmosphere Instagram:   / atmosphere.in  
Atmosphere's email: [email protected]

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