By Jennifer Eder
Cinnamon sticks, rosemary and dried apple slices are just some of the ingredients Bodhi Tea customers can choose when designing their custom tea.
Founder Gabrielle Green, a GW sophomore, uses great care and attention to detail when creating her teas.
“My tea is artistically blended,” she said. “That’s an opportunity that most companies can’t offer.”
Nineteen-year-old Ms. Green, a student in the School of Business, founded Bodhi Teas when she was 15 and completing an entrepreneurship program through the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship – a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities for low-income students to learn business and entrepreneurial skills – and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
“At first, I thought it was just going to be something to do for the summer, but I got really excited and became dedicated to the project,” said Ms. Green.
As part of the program, Ms. Green was asked to develop her own business plan. She was paired with a Goldman Sachs employee, who gave her advice and feedback as she prepared for a regional business plan competition.
Ms. Green chose a tea company because not only is she an avid tea drinker (black tea is her favorite), but she believed there were unique ways of creating the product.
“I believe tea can become as trendy and chic as the growing coffee trend,” she said.
Bodhi Teas was one of the top 12 business plans out of 24,000 entries in the Oppenheimer Funds National Business Plan Competition in 2008. At the Goldman Sachs business plan and expo, she was named the “overall winner” and received recognition for having the best marketing materials and the best booth display.
Ms. Green had the opportunity to participate in the Goldman Sachs program, in part, because she was enrolled in New York City’s Prep for Prep program, which places minority children in independent middle and high schools, including boarding schools, throughout the Northeast and provides mentors and support to the students. Prep for Prep is a partner of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
Ms. Green used the reward money she received from participating in the business plan competitions as start-up funds. Since the company was founded in 2007, it’s been pretty successful considering the sole employee has been busy balancing finishing high school and starting college while continuing to run the business. She’s made about $5,000 in profits and has about 50 returning customers.
“Sometimes it’s been really stressful if there’s a particular hurdle I need to cross, but once I’ve done it, I’m really proud of myself,” she said. “As an entrepreneur, you just have to be really dedicated.”
So far, she’s gotten her customers through mostly word of mouth, but she would like to sell her tea in markets like Whole Foods and high-end salons, spas and yoga studios. And while she doesn’t actively sell her product on GW’s campus, she gave some of her tea away to her professors as a thank you at the end of the school year.
She offers four basic teas – red, black, white and green – but with all the different ingredients that can be blended together, the possibilities are “pretty endless,” Ms. Green said. The most popular blends are black tea with chamomile and red tea with coconut
This summer, Ms. Green is interning in New York City with the Camuto Group, a high-end shoe company that sells brands like Tory Burch and BCBG Maxazria.
“I’m learning really valuable information to take away for my own company,” she said.
This upcoming school year, she’s hoping to continue to work with Kathy Korman Frey, an adjunct professor of management and a GWSB entrepreneur in residence who founded and manages the Hot Mommas Project – an award-winning free global database of case studies written by female entrepreneurs. Last year, Ms. Green took Ms. Frey’s women’s entrepreneurial leadership course, where students are required to take an idea and make it a reality. During the course, Ms. Green worked on a business plan for a shoe company where customers would be able to design their own shoes.
“The idea of working for someone else doesn’t appeal to me,” she said. “I definitely want to be an entrepreneur full time. I’m kind of addicted.”