When she was just a sophomore at Georgetown University, Ann Yang started a business with her best friend, Phil Wong. They wanted to address the growing problem of food waste — up to 40 percent of all food produced in the U.S. winds up in the trash. Their concept: Repurpose so-called “ugly” produce that would otherwise end up in the landfill (crooked carrots, bruised apples, off-color kale) into nutrient-packed cold-pressed juices.
Misfit Juicery began selling its products in a few Georgetown campus coffee shops in 2014. Within a year, it had expanded its distribution to more than 50 retailers in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia areas. It’ll start distributing to New York City later this year.
The first year of entrepreneurship is a whirlwind for anyone, but Yang has juggled it all while also finishing her degree (she graduates from Georgetown in May). Below, the 22-year-old shares the hard-earned lessons that have propelled Misfit’s growth—and changed her life.
1. Your network is crucial to your success.
“When you’re starting something from nothing, the community you build is critical. The narrative we often see about entrepreneurship is one founder — typically white and male — who is disrupting the world with his big idea. Our experience has been the opposite of that. Actual capital is really important in making a business grow and thrive, but more than anything, it’s the relationships we’ve built that have led to our success. For example, I first met Ariel Pasternak to talk about our sales partnership, but that quickly turned into an incredible friendship. She started a group called Pineapple DC, which supports women in food through events that link the foodie movement and the good food movement. Similarly, Meg Kelly is one of the first people who really believed in our brand. She is a freelance designer, and really helped craft our story and our aesthetic. Not only did she help build our brand identity, but has been a huge emotional support for Phil and I as we go through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.”
Misfit Juicery co-founders Ann Yang and Phil Wong
Courtesy of Misfit Juicery
2. At some point, you’ll have no idea what you’re doing. Ask for help.
“We live in a culture where having an opinion is extremely important. As a result, we’re afraid to say, ‘I don’t know.’ When you’re an entrepreneur, you feel like you have to know the answer to everything, and the story you’re constantly telling is that everything is going really, really well. I’m aware that I’m extremely young, that I haven’t had a job other than this; I’m aware that I’m much more interested in storytelling and that means my quantitative skills are weaker. Particularly as a woman, a person of color, and a social entrepreneur who hasn’t even graduated from college yet, I am hyper-aware of my limitations. But when I’m feeling scared or intimidated, or facing a problem I don’t know how to solve — from designing a bottle with so little real estate to countless operations issues — I take a step back. And then I find someone who will help me figure it out.”
3. Use encouragement – monetary or otherwise – to power you forward.
“We were full-time college students and didn’t know what we were doing at all. We pitched the idea at Georgetown-sponsored pitch competitions and won about $6,000. That gave us just enough money — and confidence — to start the company.”
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4. Ask for — and accept — free favors from those who believe in your mission.
“From the beginning, we’ve been asking for help anywhere we can get it. We’ve had advisors from Georgetown mentoring us. We met a wonderful woman in architecture school who liked our business model and created our first brand concepts pro bono. And we’ve called countless MBA students to ask for help with our financials. There have been so many people willing to do us favors along the way, and that has really built Misfit into a thriving company.”
5. Working in a shared office space can yield big ideas.
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“We produce our juice from Mess Hall, a culinary incubator in D.C. that supports other food producers, and our office space is in Halcyon, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. When you’re starting a business, it’s easy to tunnel-vision into your company because it takes all of your focus. But working alongside diverse teams of people who are all creating solutions to various social problems has been an incredible inspiration. There are colleagues in our office space doing a green rooftop garden company; another team is working on a project that helps reduce the cost of transferring money between countries, which will impact countless families around the world. Sometimes all you need is someone else’s perspective to solve a problem.”
6. You will face a lot of rejection while trying to find investors.
“The hardest part about fundraising is getting people to buy into the return on the company that’s not just a financial one. We’re pitching not just on our company, but on the idea of changing the mindset of how we produce and consume food. Not everyone wants to have that conversation. For us the best kind of investor has been one who sees beyond the bottom line. They see the story of Misfit and how it can change the food system. Really, our investors are co-owners in the company. They see who we are right now and what we can become.”
In meetings, people will direct all questions at Phil instead of at me. We’re under the illusion that we’re in a post-gender, post-racist society. We’re not.
7. If you’ve started a business with a friend, don’t neglect the friendship.
“The most rewarding thing has been working with Phil, who is my best friend. At about the six-month mark with Misfit, we realized our personal relationship was our professional relationship. There were things we couldn’t work through professionally because we were neglecting our friendship. Now we have a personal check-in meeting once a week where we just talk to each other. It’s not a business conversation. It creates greater empathy toward one another, helps us problem-solve, and makes us a better team.”
8. If you are passionate enough, the hard work won’t feel like work.
“We spend 40 to 60 hours every week working now — even more in the first year of entrepreneurship. Work is an extension of our lives. We need to be passionate about it, and part of that is owning your strengths and weaknesses. The experiences I’m going through at work, and the things I’m learning every day as an entrepreneur, they are all building into my life as a future person and a future leader.”
9. Stay confident even when you face sexism.
“Women’s voices are policed all the time. In one of our earliest pitch sessions at Georgetown, the presentation coach told me that because I have an uptick in my voice, it makes me sound less confident. More recently, we’ve been in meetings and people will direct all questions at Phil instead of at me. I think we’re under the illusion that we’re in a post-gender, post-racist society, but we’re not. So I’ve become really passionate about speaking up.”
10. Remember that your business idea can change the world.
“Brands have a huge power over how consumers purchase products. We’re starting with juice. We hope to expand to more products in the near future. But the most important part of our company is going to be starting conversations about food systems, the environment, production, and labor, and making them commonplace.”