Ask Me Anything (AMA) for Sustainability-Driven Entrepreneurs

If you’re a sustainability-driven founder at the early stage of growing your business, you definitely do not want to miss this event. It’s a great opportunity to connect with these two early-stage founders in the same space and ask them any questions you may have. Make sure you read their stories below before submitting your question on the registration page. Or just ask them in the LIVE event.

Speakers:

Mandy Yeung – Founder of Bobagreen

Bobagreen is an online bubble tea brand based on the idea that small actions can lead to big changes. We sell DIY bubble tea kits filled with quality bubble tea and eco-friendly bubble tea accessories.We’re on a mission to tackle the single-use plastic problem. One single plastic bubble tea cup doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the average bubble tea shop sells 150 cups a day, and just one of the popular brands, Gong Cha has over 1,500 locations worldwide. That’s over 82 MILLION plastic cups, lids, and straws from one bubble tea chain alone. We believe that by offering consumers ways to craft their own quality bubble tea drink at home (made with real loose tea leaves!) and offering a thoughtfully designed reusable cup and straw options so they can declare “NO THANKS” to single use plastic by this growing industry, we can spark a positive chain reaction for the environment.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York City, Mandy grew up wanting to understand how the world works. After 6 years in construction management, Mandy enrolled at Columbia Business School with a desire to do good through business. Upon graduation, Mandy initially returned to the work force instead of following her North Star, because of the risk averse mentality she held as a first-generation immigrant. However, at 6 months pregnant, she realized that she needed to be a worthy role model to the child she was bringing into this world. Mandy started bobagreen to share her love of bubble tea with the world, and, more importantly, help reduce the single-use plastic used by the boba industry.

Deepika Phakke – Founder of Nama Water

Nama Water is a sustainable bottled water startup based in San Francisco. We serve Actually Ethical Water and source water using zero-gravity techniques from a spring deep in the Appalachian mountains. Our bottles have >70% recycled aluminum vs 25% in the vast majority water brands in the market. We are the world’s first zero waste bottled water company and we are working with recyclers to remove equivalent aluminum from circulation.

Deepika is a long time Googler. She spent the last decade building and scaling Google’s $20bn ads business working across 7+ teams, moving her career from India to San Francisco via New York. Having worked with world-class leaders and hosted a variety of climate change talks, she pivoted her career to building a conscious and sustainable planet starting with Nama Water.