(8/12) “When we started the company we made a promise to...

(8/12) “When we started the company we made a promise to ourselves: no decisions out of desperation. That was rule number one. We had no money, no connections, and no leverage. We knew how easy it would be for someone to take advantage of us. One man offered just $10,000 for 50% of the company. We needed capital badly, but we turned it down. We would build Ginjan on our terms. Even if we were starving. My brother and I are a bit like the turtle and the hare. I like to look at things from all angles. Maybe I’m a little slower, and a little wiser. But Rahim is brilliant and full of energy. He took charge of all the operations. He learned about a new process called high-pressure processing. He found us space in a commercial kitchen. He emailed factory after factory to inquire about bottling. Both of us were working full-time jobs, so we were always exhausted. And we were funding the business with our paychecks, so every week we were on the verge of going bankrupt. But at least we had a chance.  It was like: ‘Oh my God,  after all this struggle, our lives are finally moving forward. We’re honoring our sister. We’re honoring our father.’ It was a happy time. I met the woman who would later become my wife. She worked in finance, but she didn’t mind that I drove a yellow cab. She liked me for who I was. And she saw my potential. Rahim and I weren’t making money yet, but we began to experience those small highs that entrepreneurs get. We got included in a lot of ‘shop local’ programs. We received some orders from mom-and-pop shops. The one thing we still needed more than anything else was investment, but everyone kept saying the same thing: ‘It’s too niche.’ Or ‘it’s too ethnic.’ In 2017 we were invited to Harvard for something called the African Business Conference. We were given ten minutes to pitch to a group of venture capitalists. The presentation went well, and afterwards we were approached by a young Indian guy. He explained that his family owned a plastics company. They’d made a fortune in Africa. And they would be interested in making a sizable investment in Ginjan. But first we would need to travel to Hong Kong, and pitch the company to his father.”