Today we’d like to introduce you to Henry Lo and Ben Hsi. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Ben Hsi and Henry Lo are the owners of Teaspoon Austin. We are the first location in Texas and Austin! We both grew up in Houston, went to school at the University of Texas at Austin, and post-college decided to move to NYC and SF, respectively, to pursue our careers. When the pandemic hit, it made us both take a hard look at our lives individually, and the stars aligned that we both wanted to move our families back to Austin. We realized we had an amazing opportunity to reset and do things differently. So fast forward to today; nearly 2 decades later, we made our homecoming back to Austin last year to launch Teaspoon.
You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
As Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth..” And that is exactly how it felt at times. We devised a plan thinking it would be one way, often, or most of the time. It turned out to be something else not expected. The delays caused by the ramifications of the pandemic added to the hard work required to open up anything, along with much uncertainty. Still, we realize this is the rite of passage for any business owner entering this space, especially for the first time. Our HQ is based in California, so another challenge we faced was setting up the distribution channel and figuring out the timing and cadence to ensure we could stay on top of inventory. On the personal front, we also need to understand when and how to let go of certain things we cannot control. The adjustments needed to get through each hump are exceedingly difficult at this world’s pace, and it took a while to get used to. And we still learn and adjust each day.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Ben had a career in advertising & marketing for nearly 20 years. He has diverse experience working for Fortune 500 brands on the agency side and joined big Global brands like Unilever and Yum! Brands to manage in-house digital marketing and then ad sales at companies like Google & Reddit. Ben is most proud of being able to experience different roles within the advertising ecosystem, which helped him understand the entire marketing funnel and gain insights into the pain points of making decisions and executing the marketing plans successfully. His experience in building digital marketing programs for brands has served as a helpful skill when evaluating marketing and promotional opportunities for Teaspoon Austin.
Henry comes from a career in private wealth management/finance of nearly 16 years. He has experience working with the top private wealth management firms ensuring white glove service and access to exclusive investment vehicles while delivering operational excellence for their top-tier clients. Henry’s background in finance has helped tremendously when it comes to forecasting sales goals and developing a plan to achieve them. This has been crucial in Teaspoon as many of our business and sales models had to be created from scratch. His experience in Operations has also served as a critical asset. It allows Teaspoon Austin to build on a good foundation to ensure quality assurance and optimize/improve our efficiency.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
While the corporate world works differently than Food & Bev/Retail, it gave us a good baseline to help tackle new aspects of building this business we have never encountered before. From both our careers and professional experiences, some key qualities we bring our project management and operational excellence. We are also proud to be Asian American, and Teaspoon represents the next generation of bubble tea that aligns with what we want to bring to our community. One of the best ways to introduce culture to others is through food, and we are excited to make an impact that way by serving as a bridge through bubble tea.
Contact Info:
- Website: teaspoonlife.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/teaspoonaustin?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Image Credits
Ben Hsi, Henry Lo, Alexander Wang
