Sana Javeri Kadri:
I'm building this company so it lasts forever. I'm not building this company so that I lead it forever.
Kerry Diamond:
Hey, bombe squad. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe, the show that's all about women and food. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. Today's guest is an entrepreneur I admire greatly. Sana Javeri Kadri, the founder and CEO of Diaspora Co. Diaspora is a spice company with a devoted following that the big spice companies are paying a lot of attention to. Sana puts a great deal of care into sourcing, storytelling, packaging design, even shipping. And she is changing the industry in the process with her turmeric, nutmeg, chilis, cacao, cardamom, saffron and other wonderful products. Stay tuned to hear the story of Diaspora Co. and it's very impressive founder.
Kerry Diamond:
Today's show is sponsored by another company that cares a great deal about sourcing, it's Sitka Salmon Shares. Say that three times fast, Sitka Salmon Shares. If you listen to Radio Cherry Bombe, you know what a CSA is. This is a CSF, a community-supported fishery.
Kerry Diamond:
The Sitka Salmon Shares fish are wild-caught in Alaska and the North Pacific by Sitka's fishermen and fisherwomen owners and their trusted partners. The fisher harvested in season traceable to the source blast frozen and delivered to your door.
Kerry Diamond:
I wanted to see what Sitka Salmon Shares is all about and support what they're doing. So I bought myself a premium share, which is $129 per month for nine months, April to December. They do have other options, just FYI. What's coming my way? Maybe king salmon, albacore tuna, halibut, and sablefish, all sustainably caught by Sitka's small boat fishermen.
Kerry Diamond:
Sitka Salmon Shares has a special offer for listeners of Radio Cherry Bombe. Just visit sitkasalmonshares.com/cherry for $25 off the first month of a premium Sitka Salmon Share. The Sitka folks say it's the best tasting seafood you will ever have guaranteed. That's sitkasalmonshares.com/cherry.
Kerry Diamond:
A little housekeeping, we are announcing the new issue of Cherry Bombe this week. It's issue 16. Sweet 16. Can you believe it? Julia Child is our cover star and the issue is all about Julia. Newsletter subscribers will get the first peek at the issue. If you'd like to pre-order or subscribe, head over to cherrybombe.com. And now for my interview with Sana.
Kerry Diamond:
First off, I just want to say thank you in advance for your time, because you just got back from this incredible sourcing trip that I probably have a million questions to ask you about. So thank you for doing the show, even though you're probably jet-lagged and all of the above.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I am very excited. The sourcing trip was definitely like the trip of a lifetime. And one of my favorite trips that I've ever had, even though I've been doing this for five years now. Up until a month ago, we only source from India. My whole thought behind it is that that's where I'm from. That's where I have deep roots, and it's also where because we run an export company in India, we're able to have maximum impact. There's a lot of amazing companies that source globally. We just find that being very regionally specific works for us, like allows us to build connections deeply.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
But then as of last month, we're also working with Sri Lanka, which is really exciting that it's like one little expansion across the water. I'm in a culture that's similar and very different. So I'm very excited. I visited 10 states in the past two and a half months. And India is so vast it really felt like I visited so many different countries because Manipur, which is on all the way on the east is on the Burmese border. Kashmir borders China and Pakistan.
Kerry Diamond:
Amazing. Well, watching along on Instagram was just such a delight and such a treat, so thank you for sharing all those photos. I'm guessing this had been planned for a long time. If you're going to leave the country for two and a half months.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It's actually annual. So I'm in India for four months of the year, four or five months every year.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah, it's pretty normal for me. So I'm always there January until March because that's harvest season for a lot of spices. Then there's a second harvest season that's in September through October.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So I try to be there for both of those, which means that I also miss most of the cold here, which I love. So I just like summer-hop essentially. India has our summer from April until June and then a monsoon from June to September. So most things don't get harvested during that time. They're kind of just surviving the model.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I literally built this business because I wanted to spend time at home in India and spend time here. It was like trying to come up with the perfect schedule and luckily spice harvest aligned beautifully with my dreams.
Kerry Diamond:
Sana, I would love to start with just what is Diaspora Co.?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah. So Diaspora Co. is a single-origin spice company, which means that we source from either one farm or one area per spice, which means that we have the total transparency and accountability of who grows it, how it grew, when it got here. Then we source from small family farms that are growing sustainably. I say sustainable instead of organic, because often the organic certification is expensive. It's a very western need. Whereas sustainable means regenerative, means pesticide-free, chemical-free. It's a broader definition that's more rooted in care for the land and for people and for nutrition.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So we work with sustainable small farms. Then our mission was really about like, how do we bring equity to a system that has been horrible for hundreds of years? I mean, actually you could say thousands of years. And for us that means that would be the farmer sets the price. And the farmer decides how much they want for their product. And then we build our margins and our pricing from there. So it's farmer led 100%. And in terms of beyond that, I think there's a cultural piece to Diaspora, which is about being for us by us.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I felt that as a woman from India, I'm third generation Mumbaikar, I didn't see myself, my culture like the beautiful regional nuances of Indian culture represented in the spice trade because it's always been a very colonial industry, and it's always told through the white lens. So telling stories from specifically our point of view and marketing it from this deeply cultural point of view was the exciting part of the whole thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Now, what were you doing before you started Diaspora?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I was a baby, but I was doing some things. I...
Kerry Diamond:
I usually don't ask people how old they are, but we should point out how young you are to have built such a remarkable company. Do you mind telling us how old you are?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I'm now 27. So I don't feel as young anymore, but I started the company when I was 23. At 23, I mean, I lied about my age all the time. I mean, I told farm partners that I had a husband. I pretended to be 30 because I looked like I was 12. So nobody took me seriously. But I'm also very grateful that I started the company so young because I was able to live on very little for very long. If you don't have funding as a founder, especially as a BIPOC founder, it's really hard for a really long time. So at 27 to have come into a little bit more cushiness, is a nice feeling.
Kerry Diamond:
You started with turmeric. Why did you start with that?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I did always know that I wanted to have more spices, but I didn't have any money to my name. So it was like, well, I'll start with one and take it from there. And also will this even pay off? In 2016, I was working at Bi-Rite, which is a wonderful grocery store here in the Bay Area, on the marketing team. I noticed that turmeric lattes were getting really popular. I remember walking to some of our tea house, which is in the mission on Valencia Street and trying their turmeric latte and just being like, "Oh, gosh. This is terrible." And wondering like, "Where is this growing? If it's all coming from India who was growing it? Are they making money off of this trend?"
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It was really that curiosity of like, I enjoyed uncovering and understanding supply chains and the supply chain the more I dug, the more opaque it seemed, the less answers I got. I was asking chefs. I was asking spice businesses. I was asking everybody like, "Where are you getting this from? Who is growing it?" I think I even emailed the goop team like multiple times and they completely ignored me. And eventually realized that this could be an interesting area to research.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I pitched it to my parents and I said, "I want to quit my job, and I want to come back home." I was also quite miserable living by myself and had a job I didn't love. So I pitched to them saying, "I want to come back. I've pitched it to a news outlet. I'll do a photo story about like who is growing the turmeric for your turmeric lattes?" And my dad was so scabbing where he was like, "You'll get bored in two minutes."
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I love to joke with him now that, "It's been five years and I'm not bored, dad." So I set off on this kind of on a whim. I had 3K from my 2016 tax refund, which was really large for me because the year that you work half full-time, half the year and graduate and were a full-time student half of the year, you get your biggest refund. So I had this little wad of cash to my name and I went back to Mumbai.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's just repeat that, so people...
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I just want you to repeat that. So $3,000 was the seed money for Diaspora.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yes. And that's what I use for February 2017 until August 2017, which was like travel money, like setting up account. I had to set up an export company in India, which was sheer madness. So a lot of that paperwork came out of that money. Then when I had to buy, I finally found this wonderful turmeric farmer. I connected with the Indian Institute of Spices Research, the scientists, they approved. Really, really helpful to me.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I also joked that they like tricked me into starting this business because they were like, "Here's the farmer. We are the researchers. We just need the market. Are you going to do this for your country?" I was like, "Yes, I'll do it for my country." I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but by the time I connected with Prabhu, he had 350 kilograms. It was about 700 pounds for me to buy. And he said, "I'm only going to sell it to you if you buy it all."
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So I did take an 8K loan from my dad to buy that. But then I had to find a way, like, get it here and pack it. Luckily, I had just started dating this girl who'd worked in like high-end furniture moving for a long time. She was really good at packing boxes. She's now my partner. She became the person who would like put things into jars for me.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I think, we launched for pre-orders September 2017, sold out. I thought it was hours, but we actually sold that within four days, which was amazing when I have like 300 followers on Instagram and everybody just wanted to support this idea and they bought huge amounts of turmeric from me to help. I think I still have friends who have like 2017 bags of turmeric that just bought it to support me.
Kerry Diamond:
But you had a lot to figure out. It wasn't just the sourcing, the packaging, the shipping, the website, the marketing, all of that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yes. If I look back to the first Squarespace website, it was so janky and so homespun. So the fact that people purchase and supported and were so excited about it, when we had so little to show for ourselves, it was really amazing to me. I, at the time, 2017, when I came back to the US, I was working at Cosecha, which is an amazing local Mexican restaurant twice a week. And then I was also photographing freelance. And then I was doing this on the side. Because I didn't have the ability to do this full-time. So I was kind of hustling all the things for about a year and a half, almost two years before I was able to say, "Okay, this will pay my rent. I'll be okay."
Sana Javeri Kadri:
We added the spices very slowly to, because I wanted to source very thoughtfully, only source when we had a fantastic farm partner. We started so strong with the turmeric, but I didn't want to add a bunch of stuff that wasn't at the same quality level. So it was a slow crawl. And now we're moving much faster.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you really start to hire people to help?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Okay. So March last year when the pandemic hit, we were three people. I was the only full-time person. The other two were part-time. As of today, we're eight people, six of which are full-time. So this year has been a really big year for us. A lot changed during the pandemic. I really thought the business was going to pack up. I had three months rent set aside and I was like, "That's it. We're going to be done now. See you after the pandemic." But we grew 5X last year. Thank you to the Diaspora community.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. What do you attribute that to, the growth?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I think one part of it is that we were never... Our market was never really restaurant or wholesale. We were always direct to consumer. I started the company because as a good home cook, I wanted access to flavors of home and kind of fresher flavors. We had everything set up to be a direct to consumer company except the budget for Instagram ads. I think when the pandemic hit, we kind of looked around and was like, "Oh, that's us. We're the ones who can ship you spices really quickly into your doorstep." We have all the relationships set up. I've always sent out these like long rambly, thoughtful newsletters. During the pandemic people were really into them.
Kerry Diamond:
Your newsletters are fantastic. So we should give a little plug to the newsletters. And if folks haven't signed up for it, it's one of the best brand newsletters out there.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Thank you. I really try with them. I really feel like I hate my inbox being cluttered and full of random branded stuff. So why would I do that as a brand to anybody else? Yeah. I think one was just being prepped as a D2C brand at a time when things moved online so quickly. And then the other one was people cooking at home and realizing that their spices were terrible, and they didn't taste like anything, and wanting a better option, and realizing that for $12, they could significantly upgrade their cooking.
Kerry Diamond:
Now I want to go back to the start a little bit. So it wasn't just that as a home cook, you wanted better spices. You thought there could be better turmeric sourcing. You set out to decolonize the spice industry, which is a massive, massive goal. I mean, I don't know as much about the spice business as you do, but I would imagine it is controlled by a handful of companies and you decided to bite off this huge goal.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I think it's called being 23 and not knowing any better.
Kerry Diamond:
I would love if you could just walk us through, like what is the spice industry today? Who controls it and what does it even mean to decolonize your spice cabinet?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah, firstly I started with this word decolonize because I was fresh off of my liberal arts education. It was like, "Oh, decolonization. What a big fun word." I think now, as we've grown as a company, I realized that especially in the American context decolonization stands for land reparations in the US to indigenous people. So we definitely walked away from using the term decolonization because we don't want to co-op the term that we're using metaphorically, not literally.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So I think we now say that we're dedicated to building a better spice trade, but to give some context about what the colonial origins of the spice trade are, what the industry looks like today. Today, the industry is controlled by about four or five brands. I'm not talking about America, I'm talking about the global spice trade. And that's because these are legacy brands that were set up 100, 150 years ago. So colonialism might have ended, and then it trickled straight into big, big capitalism.
Kerry Diamond:
I've noticed that the big spice companies are talking a lot more about their sourcing. I have to think that they are watching everything you do and reacting. Even though, not to take away from what you have built, but you represent a small fraction of this industry, the spice industry, but they're clearly watching what you do. Do you feel that? Have you noticed that?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Well, we see them placing orders so we know that they're watching.
Kerry Diamond:
I didn't even mean that, I meant like in how they're doing their marketing and videos and all of that, but they're placing orders. Wow.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Just that they're placing orders so that they can see our product, tastes our product, look at our marketing materials. We see orders from all the big five all the time. I'm like, "Do you think we don't see this?" You're literally using your company email address. They want to know what we're up to. I mean, I think that they will have to get smart to the way the consumers will start demanding better. But my understanding of the spice trade in India at least is that these companies are used to working with large export companies, large traders, large "cooperatives" that are not actually very fair trade and how they work, that to do the kind of small scale sourcing that we do, and really look for flavor on the ground, like that's... It takes a lot... It takes me being there half the year to do that level of sourcings. They can co-opt all the words that they want, but I'd be surprised if they could parallel our flavor.
Kerry Diamond:
So you just got back from an incredible two and a half months trip. Can you tell us about it?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I live in Mumbai. That's where my family is and that's kind of my base. I live in our tiny two-bedroom with my parents for two and a half months when I'm at home, which is always wonderful and a little bit special where you suddenly revert to being an eight-year-old. Then I zigzag all over from there that I started in the West, which is closer to Mumbai. So I started with cumin and coriander in Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
My family and my ancestors are from Gujarat, so it's always nice to start with your roots and start in a place where you speak the language. In so many of these places, I don't speak the same language and we either work with translators or sourcing partners or a lot of Google translate and hand gestures. It's a mix of things.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Then the most special trip that I made, I think there was two really special ones. One was Kashmir where we went up and visited our saffron partners. I have so much pride for being Indian and for sourcing from India, but the same way that we talk about the colonizers and what colonialism, the effect that it had on India, I think it's been a learning for me that in any nation building exercise, like in the exercise of building India, we have been colonizers or occupiers off like people and states and regions as well.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So as a "proud" Indian, how do you navigate that? How do you honor people's desire for sovereignty, for their rights to be acknowledged, which is the case in Kashmir where Kashmir truly wants to be free. I mean, it was a real learning experience of I'm so proud of the work that we do and the people that we work with, but that doesn't mean that my patriotism is blind.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It doesn't acknowledge the areas that we source from that are really complicated. And where the Indian government has actually inflicted great violence on these areas.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait. You were there during the farmers' strike, weren't you?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yes. That was another very complicated element because our farm partners, we stand in and I will be very clear that we stand in complete solidarity with the farmers' protests. I believe that farmers determining their future is the only way having a say on a policy like that. But our farm partners are already so privileged because they directly work with me as a corporation who in a very lucky way that we're allowing them to set the price. We're honoring the price that they want.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
The farm protests and the farm bill do not affect our farm partners because we work with a very specific niche, subset of farmers. The comparison I would give is that we work with like the Fishkill Farms and the Front Porch Farms on the two coasts of the US whereas the farmer protests are largely like the Idaho and the Ohio, and the grain bowl farmers protesting on a much large scale for grain in large ag.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
But yeah, was very complicated to navigate how the Indian government had also like pitted farmers against each other where our farm partners, I often had to get into difficult conversations with them. It would be the way they would say, "But we're able to be self-sufficient, why can't be? Why can't those grain farmers in Punjab, and I had to say that this is literally the government pitting you guys against each other, instead of … standing in solidarity with them. So it's very complicated. We can talk about that for two more hours.
Kerry Diamond:
You mentioned earlier, I can't remember whether we were recording yet or not, but sometimes you had to pretend you had a husband. Now, you are queer, you are a woman of color. You're from the Bay Area. You don't hide who you are. So I would imagine that is a challenge for you.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I do. When I'm here, I don't, and on Instagram, I don't. But even on Instagram, that's become really tricky. I've had to move a lot of my openly queer content, like my more gushy queer content to my close friends on stories rather than in my posts. Recently, I knew that a farm partner's son was like going through my Instagram posts because I could see him liking stuff, and I was like in a race to beat him to archive things that I didn't want him to see. And that's not because I'm hiding.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It's just because it's a cultural thing that it wouldn't make sense. My job is hard enough in a lot of ways as a young woman. I'm not trying to suddenly be like woke and queer to them and expect them to understand that. But this trip especially, I think that did start to wear on me is that in some ways I'm so lucky in that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I don't know if it's lucky or not, but like I'm straight passing. I identify as femme and I can pass as a straight woman anywhere I go. And that means that I can easily conceal my identity and mask, but that's exhausting at some point to pretend you have a husband, to pretend that you are going to get married to a man at some point and have a traditional Indian wedding. Like all of these stereotypes of what my farm partners are just like making small talk with me. They're just trying to connect with me in some way and not understanding that like there's no connection around those things and I'm having to lie or fake it or divert the subject.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Whereas in the Northeast, so in Meghalaya and Manipur which are places that I had visited before, like develop, form relationships that I had sourced from, it was really incredible this time to be able to be honest with our farm partners about who I am and who my partner is in my life, because the Northeast is honestly just a much more progressive part of the country.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, I think just being honest about it is amazing. Again, I just marvel Sana at how much you carry on your shoulders and just how-
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
And just being so honest about it. I have so much admiration for you and how you have built this and how you continue to build this. Tell us a little bit more about the trip though, because it, hopefully, like I said, people followed along on Instagram. It was so beautiful. Can you tell us some of the things you sourced while you were there that we'll be seeing in the weeks and months ahead?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah. So in Kashmir, obviously we ordered... We actually bought... Before I visited, we had bought a year's supply of saffron that we then sold out off in six weeks. Part of my trip was saying, we need more. How do I find more? Going with [Rakeb] to say, "If I need 10X what we first bought, how are we going to do this?" Through him, we were able to connect with a Kashmir chili farmer that we have a small lot of really red, like deep rich Kashmiri chili launching soon in a couple months. The other end was when I went to Meghalaya, we sourced an heirloom ginger powder. That's going to be called Makhir Ginger.
Kerry Diamond:
So exciting. It must be so satisfying as an entrepreneur to know that every time you launch a new product, your audience is so excited and thrilled.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It is. It feels really sweet that we have this like dedicated community who cheers for us, so hardcore. I mean, I've talked about this all the time that the first three years of the business were horrible. Yes, there were these big wins, but they were so hard. My mental health really suffered. I think the only reason we pulled through these past three years was because that community of people that cheer for us, that sent us nice notes, that by everything we offer has only grown and grown and grown. Then there's people who believe in what we're doing, even at times when we were like, "Do we believe in what we're doing?"
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So yeah, that's been a real gift. I think that's also why I always want to put so much care into our newsletter so that it feels like a way to connect with and really thank our community for all that they do for us.
Kerry Diamond:
As a sister entrepreneur, we definitely don't talk enough about the mental health issues that come up when you're an entrepreneur. And it's hard. People just don't realize. I don't know if these folks understand that they're what get us through awful patches. I was wondering as I was putting these questions together, Sana and looking at just all the different parts of your company that I think you do an amazing job from the packaging, to the shipping to so many things, do you have mentors? Do you have an advisory board? How do you make these decisions?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I don't have an advisory board, but I'm working on it. If you have people that you think should be on our advisory board, I am all ears after this. But I do have... So Will Rosenzweig, he was the founder of Republic of Tea and he now co-teaches Edible Education with Alice Waters. He's my business coach, and he has been for about a year now. I'm paying him like a token of thanks for the support and the mentorship. I'm sure his experience and everything he offers costs way more than I pay him.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I find that as an entrepreneur, there's so many things that are scary, that are overwhelming, that we can often get like into blinders about, and a business coach's job in my experience, and having interviewed a few is really about opening up those channels for you and helping you learn how to solve problems, that you may not know how to solve or like to develop the mindset to where it's solving those problems.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Or similarly like….like Trinity of Golde. She and I actually had a working relationship and that we used to source from them. And then we, don't source for them anymore. They just grew too big and we grew in a different direction, but we still definitely emailed back and forth being like, "How are you dealing with this? Can you help?" I think having this group of like women founders, usually women of color founders where we all help each other with the nitty-gritty stuff that nobody tells you about like liability insurance or fulfillment companies.
Kerry Diamond:
We wanted to call you so badly in December about packaging because I had ordered some of your products and they came so beautifully packaged. You probably don't know this about me, but I can't stand like excess packaging.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Over-the-top packaging.
Kerry Diamond:
Things that aren't recyclable. I was like, "Oh my God, everything is recyclable. It's so beautifully packaged. Nothing was broken, you name it." And not only that, but December was just such a nightmare for anybody shipping. And I was like, "Oh gosh, maybe we should just call Sana." But I was like, she's probably so busy right now and losing her mind.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I'm glad you didn't call me in December because that was a dark time. We sent out 10,000 orders in three weeks and we were just like, our fulfillment company actually said no to us and said, "We cannot deal with your demand". So me and my entire team moved into their warehouse and did it ourselves. So every order that was sent out in December was like me and my partner, my best friends, my partner's rugby team. It was everybody we knew that we were training like in a day to pack orders for us. So I'm so glad you didn't email me, but I'd love to help you now.
Kerry Diamond:
What is your ultimate goal with Diaspora? Will you ever sell this company? How long you like to keep building it on your own?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It's a conversation I've been having with mentors, with everybody really for the past year now, because I've been doing this for almost four years and I'm slowing down a little bit in my energy. And also I have other interests and other things that I want to do and other dreams. I think I'm building this company, so it lasts forever. I'm not building this company so that I lead it forever. My intent is that we can build the impact on our relationships, in our supply chain, with our farm partners, so that they last forever. And that as long as our farm partners want us as their market, as their access to market, we will be there and we will go above and beyond to do everything for them, which over the past two years has been rolling out healthcare for not just our farmers, but also our farmworkers, like the daily wage laborers that work on the farms. My dedication is to build a system that works deeply for them, but I know that I will not be the right person to lead this two or three years from now as it grows.
Kerry Diamond:
Have you raised outside capital?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
We haven't, no. We haven't raised a single dollar. That first 11K has just been recycled with cashflow to be now several million. So it's really, really just recycle, recycle, recycle, which means that cashflow is really, really hard for us. When people ask us to make these big payments upfront, especially with harvest season, we pay all of our farm partners 50% advances, which means that right now, like between January until April, we owe our farm partners in advances, not in harvest money, over $1.5 million, which is just terrifying.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So it means that we're having to get very creative and last year, what helped us was opening up for pre-order. And I think we're going to do that again this year is that if our customers and our community can help us with pre-orders in March just to get us until May, they can help us stay an independent company, as long as possible. I think we at some point will raise money. That's never off the table, but my thinking around that has always been that like, I want to build the model and like the perfect model first, which is rooted in equity, which doesn't have to worry about margins and revenue and like targets and investors and all that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
First, I want to build a model that works for these farm partners like build the company we want, then we'll take on money. We just have a long way to go as yet, but I don't feel that it's the time as yet.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I have a million more questions for you, but I would love to do a speed round with you and then let you go, because you've only been back in this country for what, barely 48 hours?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
About that, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
And you got vaccinated. Are we allowed to say that publicly?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah. I'm thrilled.
Kerry Diamond:
Congratulations. I'm super happy you were able to that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Speed rounds. I don't know if you've gone grocery shopping since you came back, but what was your last pantry purchase? Nothing.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
No, no, no. That's easy. When I'm in India, the weeks leading up to coming here, I stock up. So I ordered six jars of Boons Sauce because it's so good.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, tell me what that is.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
So I love all chili crisp equally. I'm an equal opportunist when it comes to chili crisp, but Boon Sauce is more like fennel forward chili crisp that's based out of LA, and it's fantastic.
Kerry Diamond:
Yum. Fennel-forward one. Okay. I have to try that. What is your most-used kitchen implement?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Oh, I think it's my rice cooker. I have an adoration for my rice cooker.
Kerry Diamond:
What is a song that makes you smile?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Oh, there's a song called Ab Hoga Kya by Prateek Kuhad. It's an Indian indie singer-songwriter. It's just cheerful and wonderful. I've gotten really into like independent Indian artists right now.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have playlists on the Diaspora site?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
No, but I was thinking that we should probably have some like especially from regional music from our farm partners, that would be a lot of fun. So stay tuned.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Oldest thing in your fridge?
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Oh, God. Capers probably. I never know what to do with them, but I always buy them.
Kerry Diamond:
They might last forever.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I hope so.
Kerry Diamond:
I think I've got some really old capers from really old cornichon that I should probably do something about. Okay. Last question, Sana. A dream collaboration. I know you do a lot of thoughtful collaborations.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
This one's easy. I've been scheming this since I was a kid, working with Patagonia.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay. Oh, I love that.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You can make that happen.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
I think so. Yeah. Give me a year.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll give you a year. We'll check back in 12 months. So anyway, Sana, thank you again. Thank you for agreeing to do this right when you came back and thank you for just all the beauty and intentionality you put out into the world. I can't thank you enough. You're a role model for me.
Sana Javeri Kadri:
It's very mutual. I said this before we started recording, but I've been listening since before when I was in college. So this is a big deal for me. So thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
All right, Sana. You're the bombe.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Sana Javeri Kadri of Diaspora Co. for joining us and for being an inspiration. Be sure to check out their products at diasporaco.com. If you are a Diaspora super fan, mark your calendar because the spring '21 harvest pre-orders launch March 31st. Thank you to Sitka Salmon Shares for supporting this episode. You can check them out at sitkasalmonshares.com. Radio Cherry Bombe is produced by Cherry Bombe Media. This episode was engineered and edited by Jenna Sadhu. Thanks for listening everybody. You're the bombe.
Harry from When Harry Met Sally:
I'll have what she's having.