Contact
  • HOME
  • / MEDIA /
  • “Life as an entrepreneur is tough” Is An Understatement For Vanessa Techapichetvanich

Uncategorized

September 12, 2022

SHARE:

Some business owners spend years building a company only to see it fail before it even takes off. How are you going to survive and cope? Will you just give up that dream business?

We all know that life as an entrepreneur is complex, but once you hit it, everything falls into place. Following the example of 27-year-old Thai entrepreneur Vanessa Techapichetvanich as she trusted the process and waited for the right moment to reap the benefits of her efforts.

Read through as Vanessa shares her story with the AHN community about building her passion-driven business Jamulogy, a 100% plant-based Indonesian herbal tonic. She discusses her struggles that almost made her give up, and what kept her going in order to reach her successes today.

Hitting Rock Bottom At The Very Start

2 years ago, I poured all my life’s savings into building Jamulogy. I raised quite a significant amount of funding through families and angel investors, built my first factory from scratch, and lost over $1M, due to the pandemic and an over-prioritization of FoodTech R&D.

I was devastated. This tremendous loss was beyond tragic. I was at the point where I wondered whether it was stupid for me to leave my high pay corporate job only to lose all my savings along with a sum of money from my investors.

What am I going to feed myself tomorrow? What will my employees do when they lose their job? How will I regain all the money I’ve lost? How will it affect women founders’ reputation in the startup ecosystem?

These questions and my desperation kept me wide awake at night for months. I was distressed, depressed, and hopeless. It was one of the lowest moments of my life.  

It also made me realize that when someone says “life as an entrepreneur is tough”, it is very much an understatement. You’re pretty much living on the edge 24/7, giving your 10000% best while success isn’t guaranteed.

What am I going to feed myself tomorrow? What will my employees do when they lose their job? How will I regain all the money I’ve lost? How will it affect women founders’ reputation in the startup ecosystem?

-Vanessa Techapichetvanich

Shedding Some Light On Untapped Opportunities

I almost gave up. I would have.. had I not coincidentally connected with someone from AHN who is in the import and export business. One really good thing about this group is you have people from everywhere around the globe, and they are able to share insightful expertise on some stuff you’re not familiar with. 

I joined AHN more than a year ago when Facebook suggested the group to me. One day, I saw some people posted about expanding their food products to big retailers like Walmart, Wholefoods, and Costco, and from there, I got to connect with someone from San Francisco who works for a national distributor company in the US, and that’s how Jamulogy’s products entered the US market. 

This encounter shed some light on untapped opportunities and calls for a pivot in our business model. And I have been rebuilding since January. Despite the adversity I have been put through, this journey has been my greatest teacher yet.

I’m proud to share that Jamulogy is now available in 5 countries worldwide, including the US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Jamulogy has also recently “graduated” from Southeast Asia’s biggest FoodTech accelerator program. 

Despite the adversity I have been put through, this journey has been my greatest teacher yet.

-Vanessa Techapichetvanich

Transforming Traditional And Holistic Drinks Into Recipes Of Yummy 

Jamulogy was born out of my passion for a healthy lifestyle and my dream to bring Asian pride to the global stage. My mother is Indonesian, and I was introduced to Jamu when I was 5. The word “Jamu” itself means herbs in Indonesian. Sadly, our generation in Asia has overlooked these Indonesian herbal drinks that have over 1,300 years of history as they often associate herbal blends with older people.

Vanessa and her mother

Using modern food tech and all-natural non-GMO ingredients, we aim to recreate traditional Indonesian Jamu as a way to restore health to modern consumers. We are also committed to debunking the myth that healthy food tastes terrible.

Our concept is “From farm to bottle,” and we take every opportunity to support local farmers & growers around Asia. Each bottle contains only 40-80 calories without cane sugar or highly processed ingredients.

Going forward, we are also diverging our product offerings into herbal powder mix to cater to different consumer lifestyles across the world. 

Inspiration To Keep Going and Work Harder

What inspires me the most are our customers. I received all sorts of feedback from customers, both positive and negative. Whenever I hear our customers telling us how our products have created a value-adding impact on their health and life, I can’t help but smile to myself. 

But of course, we also received negative feedback and complaints, which I got a lot of value from as those have helped us improve, adjust, and create even better products for our customers. Truth be told, we have experimented with over 150 recipes. It was a struggle at the start, but “fall seven times, get up eight.” 

It’s the joy of being able to create a positive impact in society that keeps me going. 

It’s the joy of being able to create a positive impact in society that keeps me going. 

-Vanessa Techapichetvanich

Advice To Aspiring Entrepreneurs

  1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. 
  2. Do not let your failures define who you are, but do learn from them. Every successful person I know has gone through several major failures before they get to where they are today.
  3. Surround yourself with like-minded people. I can’t stress enough the importance of this. 

For me, the most important traits of being an entrepreneur are a growth mindset and adaptability. It’s not about who has the most brilliant ideas or who has the highest IQ, but more so who adapts the quickest to fit the market’s needs and customers’ expectations. 

Connect With Vanessa

You may check out our IG/FB at @drinkjamulogy.

If you’re just starting an F&B business or planning on exporting to Asia and want some advice, feel free to reach out as well. I’ll try my best to answer ⭐

Related Articles

Image Source: Tammy Sun Linkedin

Stories

Through Personal Experience, Tammy Sun Starts Up Carrot Fertility Company To Help Women Start Families

At 34, Tammy Sun went looking for egg fertilizing services as she thought of starting a family of her own someday. But in her quest, she, unfortunately, found out that she has “premature ovarian failure.”

The mysterious disorder indicated negative effects on Tammy’s fertility that she had to go through several egg-freezing cycles which cost her $40,000.

Working in Evernote tech company that did not have fertility treatment benefits, the medication was very costly for her.

With this in mind, Sun put up Carrot Fertility, a fertility care provider, in 2016.

Carrot Fertility partnered with different companies to include fertility services in their health coverage where employees can avail of egg freezing, IVF, adoption, pregnancy, menopause treatments, and others.

In MSNBC, the CEO and founder stated that “The company was born out of a desire to make sure that every single person, regardless of their age, their sex, their sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, race or geography would have equal access to high-quality care.”

Not only did the service provider address women’s concerns but also men’s as according to her, fertility is a human health issue for both sexes.

A year after Carrot’s onset, it has already acquired over $200 million in investments from first-class firms and is now a partner of above 800 companies.

Supporting millions of workers, including their families, Carrot is set to process claims worth $500 million.

Tammy also revealed that 95% of their clients remain in their respective jobs because of Carrot.

Unlike other businesses which declined during the pandemic, more than a three-fold increase in the use of the platform was observed during the time and up until now as many availed of mental and emotional health services.

Many companies partnered with Carrot to encourage employees to stay especially during the Great Resignation period.

Now, Carrot Fertility is the leading global platform for fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits.

  • 2 min read
Image Source: Richie Fernandez Facebook

News

Filipino Family Grows COVID Financial Aid From Government Through Fishball Sauce Business

Filipino Richie Fernandez, a new entrepreneur, was able to launch a business venture that now generates a five-digit income with the help of $100 in financial aid from the government.

During the height of the pandemic lockdowns, Richie and his family chose to grow the help by opening Manong’s Fishball Sauce, “We thought of how to grow and prolong the money,” Richie said.

With his family’s fondness of eating street food fish balls but at the same time considering the limitations posed by the pandemic at that time, the family decided to sell bottled fishball sauce so people could just enjoy it at home with their own-cooked fish balls.

The modest family business prospered through hard work and perseverance. Not only do they sell their product in the Philippines but they now also export to Japan, Australia, Austria, and the US.

  • 1 min read
Image Source: The Sacramento Bee

News

Asian American Community Is Prospering In Folsom Sacramento County

The number of Asian American immigrants in Folsom multiplied five-fold from 2000 until last year as found out by the US Census Bureau.

Among them are Chalamcherla of India, Steven Wang of China, and Marcus Yasatuke of Japan.

51-year-old Chalamcherla long decided to come to Folsom after falling in love with the city while attending the birthday celebration of a friend’s son, but it wasn’t until 2006 that he actually did so after spending two years in Singapore and the Bay Area.

Nearly ten years after arriving in the country, Steven Wang, who is currently Folsom’s city attorney, became a citizen.

Back then, it was hard for tourists to enter the US but Wang, together with her brother and mother, swiftly passed the immigration after saying that they would be visiting Disneyland, the only place he knew. 

Wang, who is now a lieutenant colonel, has been a member of the US Army Reserve since 2004. During that time, many of his fellow soldiers were losing their lives while serving, and Wang felt in danger.

Because of this, he worked in Folsom city before finishing the necessary time to serve in his Afghanistan deployment, and he told The Sacramento Bee, “I don’t know if every company is like this, but Folsom has been quite supportive of the military.”

Additionally, in 2003, Marcus Yasutake, 45, moved to Folsom with his wife after receiving job offers from Placerville and Roseville. They were able to reside there and raise a family of three children.

Communications director Christine Brainerd of the city of Folsom said that Asian Americans are likely attracted to the area on the same note as why many citizens choose to call Folsom home.

The head of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce’s economic development team believes that the tech-based companies in Folsom may be one factor for the recent increase in Asian residents.

Marcus cited the excellent school system in Folsom as one of the reasons why he came there, whilst Chalamcherla claimed that technology plays a significant role in the city’s increasing Asian population.

Racial discrimination is far from nonexistent in Folsom. That’s why Chalamcherla urges other Asians to immerse them in Asian culture.

  • 2 min read
Image Source: The Denver Post

News

Denver’s Vietnamese Refugees Share New Life While Keeping Family’s Heritage

Because of the chaos that was happening in their homeland in the 1970s, thousands of Vietnamese fled and some, later on, found a home in Colorado.

The melancholic memory is still fresh for Nga Vương-Sandoval, who, at the age of three, had to temporarily stay in refugee camps in the Philippines, Guam, and Arkansas.

She was with the about 2 million people who were unhoused and still have from within the shock of their suffering. 

It had been very challenging for them as they had to leave behind the good life they have in Vietnam and even depart from their relatives in order for them to leave safely.

Starting their life all over again, Denver has become a home to the 24,000-man Vietnamese Americans.

After being able to establish their community and found a home in the place, Nga said “I’m proud to say that it’s the city that I love, it’s the state that I love.”

Meanwhile, Vo, a 21-year-old grandchild of a Vietnamese who grew up in Aurora after his grannies and parents left Vietnam in the 1990s to seek a better life, had the experience of living in “a very diverse place.”

Knowing very little about his family’s past in Vietnam, he conducted a research project to unleash an “inherently American story,” according to him. 

Enabling people to have a glimpse of the refugees from a different perspective, Vo made use of his relatives as objects of his photography.

“Even though we moved here, they still lived a very Vietnamese life,” Vo said in Denver Post, 

It was also in his research that he found out how the majority of his family members were able to escape Vietnam while being robbed of cash and gold on their way.

He also mentioned how his family kept their culture by still practicing them in Denver which contributed to what America is, a place with diverse cultures. 

Despite having to start from scratch, they were able to begin life anew and even owned an Asian supermarket, Asian cinema, and Truong An Gifts.

His family also started the Far East Center shopping mall in 1987, home to him and his cousins and even to the Asian community.

  • 2 min read