Jesse Jacobs | Redefining Growth in 2020

In March 2020, Jesse Jacobs, the founder of Samovar Tea, was poised for growth. He planned to expand his organic small-batch tea house cafes from four Bay Area locations into Southern California and over to the East Coast. Then COVID-19 happened.

Jesse is no stranger to overcoming obstacles. When he started Samovar Tea nearly 20 years ago, the Small Business Administration provided him with a list of 72 banks that offered small business funding. It wasn’t until his last meeting with bank No. 72 on the list that he secured funding.

His secret to staying positive? Meditation. It reminds Jesse that everything is temporary — and that there’s no need to panic.

“I can either get consumed by that, depressed by that, caught up in that and project that into the future, or I can let it go and plant a seed of optimism,” he says.

After Jesse secured funding (which, by the way, required cashing out his wife’s 401(k) and all their credit cards and getting a life insurance policy), it took him about six months to launch Samovar Tea.

The whole process required a lot of starting from scratch. Not many teahouses in the U.S. hosted traditional tea ceremonies, a ritual Jesse fell in love with back when he studied in Japan.

Although Jesse’s plans for growth were derailed this year, he’s made the most of a bad situation. Specifically, he’s focused on redefining and refining the e-commerce side of his business, offering tea sets, organic teas and even virtual experiences.

Jesse has also been partnering with major tech companies based in the Bay Area to teach professionals (who are all so tied to their computer screens and seats these days) about tea and mindfulness.

“It's horrible to have our retail cafes closed — no doubt — but it's a wild blessing to be able to reach out, connect, show people mindfulness, give them amazing tea and do it internationally,” Jesse says.

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👨 Name: Jesse Jacobs

⚙️ What he does: Jesse is the founder of Samovar Tea, an organic small-batch tea company based in the Bay Area.

🍵 Company: Samovar Tea

💎 Words of wisdom: “As long as we're not reacting, we have agency and we can make a choice. There could be a horror show happening — earthquakes and violence and COVID and bankruptcy — but if we can actually have a level head, we can make effective decisions.”

🔍 Where to find Jesse: Twitter | LinkedIn

🔍 Where to find Samovar Tea: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

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💡 R_e_defining growth: Entering 2020, Jesse and the Samovar Tea team were poised to expand across America. Instead, COVID-19 forced him to take off the “stress hat” and put on the “creative hat” and redefine his efforts to grow — virtually.

💡 Finding funding: The SBA provided Jesse with a list of 72 banks that offered small business loans. It wasn’t until his last meeting with a bank — bank No. 72 on the list — that he secured funding.

💡 Don’t panic: Meditation has taught Jesse everything is temporary, which allows him to avoid anxiety and instead be present and find tranquility and clarity.

💡 Teahouse research: Jesse researched teahouses in the U.S. — what they were doing well and what could be improved. He used that intel to create a robust training program that allowed him to quickly onboard new employees.

💡 Tea teachings: Jesse aims to educate his customers, and this year, he began hosting virtual tea and mindfulness experiences for Bay Area tech companies (think: Google, LinkedIn, Adobe and more).

💡 Locked in: Technology and remote work are forcing professionals to become locked into their seats and screens, but tea can help you become more mindful of all your sensations.

💡 The path, the goal, the journey: At the end of the day, Jesse says the path is the goal and the destination. When you can remember that, you can make better decisions.

Jesse Jacobs:

“I can either get consumed by that, depressed by that, caught up in that, and project that into the future. Or I can let it go, and plant a seed of optimism into the future and have potential because, actually, nobody knows the future.”

“It was just a matter of … taking off the stress hat and putting on the creativity hat as we looked at, ‘How do we solve our customer's problems of stress, health, something convenient, something affordable, something delivered to their doorstep?’ It turns out the tea is a perfect solution for all of that.”

“I think in terms of risk, it was definitely eye-opening to take my wife's 401(k), to cash out our credit cards and to get a life insurance policy all as offsets for the banks. We inked the deal and got the loan, but it came with significant strings attached, right? So you need significant cash. You need to have a life insurance policy with the bank made out as the first recipient, etc. etc. So those were the things we did and felt worthwhile — but definitely, that was not on the checklist before we entered that game.”

“It's horrible to have our retail cafes closed — no doubt — but it's a wild blessing to be able to reach out, connect, show people mindfulness, give them amazing tea and do it internationally. … I never would have had this experience were it not for COVID. There are plenty of pain points with COVID — we don't need to talk about that — but this is a blessing that never would have come up otherwise.”

“You boil the water, you pay attention to your breath, you pay attention to the aroma and the taste and the aftertaste of the tea. That whole experience gets you into your physical body and out of your head, and that actually gets you present. There is nowhere else to be.”