Before graduating college,Sana Javeri Kadriheld jobs at vineyards, olive groves, urban farms, and bakeries.
But despite being surrounded by food, her experience with her daily spices was, well, lackluster.
The turmeric that I was getting sucked.
I really thought pepper was a nasty spice until I started sourcing ours.
Here, Javeri Kadri reflects on self-care, getting good advice, and the biggest business challenges shes faced.
How did you decide to make the jump to running a spice company?
That was a metaphor that was really beautiful to me.
South Asia has so much indigenous knowledge around spices that’s been passed down over thousands of years.
Did you have a backup plan going into this?
I didnt do Diaspora full time until the fall of 2019.
Cooking at a Mexican restaurant two days a week, plus tips, paid for rent and therapy.
Freelance photography provided any money that I put into the business.
I didnt have health insurance.
That’s literally how I was cobbling together Diaspora for the first couple years.
The caveat there is, I also have supportive, wealthy parents in India.
I’m so aware of what a privilege that is.
As a business owner, who do you go to for advice?
My business coach is my closest adviser.
He and I have a standing meeting once a week for an hour.
It’s like therapy.
I’m also part of a group for Bay Area natural food CEOs who I can ask for recommendations.
or “Do you trust this vendor?”
We’re also there to be friends to each other.
We’ll share vendors and resources, but we’ll also talk about our breakups and our love lives.
We’re also people outside of being CEOs.
How do you turn your brain off?
You have to learn that sh*t is going to hit the fan and disconnect from it.
My adviser calls this elasticity.
Recently, the same thing happened.
I was like, “It’ll show up.
Otherwise we’ll file an insurance claim or we’ll shut down the company, whatever.
One of those three things will happen.
I’m going to go to the gym now.”
There’s no point losing sleep over something thats out of your hands.
So I turn off my laptop at 4:30 p.m.
I go to the gym, and I talk to my parents.
Ill usually take an edible or watch or read something.
Whats been the biggest challenge over the last five years of running Diaspora Co.?
Probably growing as a leader.
Making sure that we’re doing right by them has been scary and hard.
For somebody who never really had any work experience, those were all new things.
What advice would you give someone who wants to start their own small business?
So many people come to me with brilliant ideas, but they’re completely incapacitated by their own overwhelm.
My packaging and my website sucked for years.
You have to think one step at a time.
You don’t need that.
Know your power, know your story, know what you’re free to hire for.
Those are my two big ones that I tell everybody.
Your worth will give you confidence.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
This article was originally published onMay 23, 2022
