Features

Alumni: where are they now? NovelTea Tins

By Sarah Rahman ’16

Daniel O’Kelly ’14, one of the directors of the rapidly successful business NovelTea Tins, shared with The Spectator his experience as Outreach and Partnerships Director of the start-up. In a recent interview with O’Kelly and founder John Pujol, a graduate of UC Berkeley, the duo explained how a joke about puns and word play over Christmas last year eventually laid out the foundation for NovelTea Tins.

“We wanted to pair the idea of reading classic fiction with drinking tea,” said Pujol, elaborating on the idea of keeping the tradition of tea-drinking alive and embracing the culture of reading great fiction. Indeed, NovelTea Tins visually captures what Pujol initially imagined for this business. The tea tins are handcrafted and resemble book covers illustrated with classic literature titles. But the innovation does not end there; the creative minds at work at NovelTea Tins use flavors blended to the essence of the literary classic cover they use on each particular organic tea tin. Popular tea tins include “The Picture of Earl Grey” and “Don QuixoTea.” When asked to talk more about flavors and pairing them with the classics, O’Kelly mentioned the spices—cardamom and cinnamon—that make “Don QuixoTea” rich and exotic, evocative of the Spanish countryside. With tins packed in the US and tea from India, NovelTea Tins works with artists, blenders and designers to make a combination of teas and novels that go together, and go together well.

In reference to the business and marketing of NovelTea Tins, O’Kelly praised the virtues of crowd funding that allowed this startup to be funded 100% in two days, and reaching nearly 400% in a few weeks on KickStarter. With help from social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, NovelTea Tins already has a fan base.

“It’s about reaching out to everyone constantly,” O’Kelly explained. By targeting the right kind of audience—book lovers and tea enthusiasts—NovelTea Tins is successfully expanding its following.

KickStarter statistics show that about 47% or more of campaigns do not meet their desired goals, which makes the feat that NovelTea Tins has achieved quite remarkable. Not only have they reached their $10,000 pledged target, the campaign has raised over three times that amount in a matter of a few weeks. With 567 backers, NovelTea Tins is currently going strong with $34,617. What makes this achievement noteworthy is that only 12% of funded KickStarters have raised between $20,000 and $99,999.

When talking about NovelTea Tins’ backers and their involvement in the business, O’Kelly mentioned, “We had our backers suggest ‘moTeafs’ for the books. They decided between ‘Tom SawYerba Mate,’ ‘Pippi Oolongstocking,’ ‘Crime & Punishmint’ and ‘Rooiboson Crusoe’ for the 4th tin. Given that we’re a start-up, we’ve been very receptive to customer feedback. ‘Pippi Oolongstocking’ will be the next tin.”

None of the founders—Johnny Pujol, Mitch Kraemer (UC Berkeley ’15), Jorgen Stovne (Humber College ’06)—have worked in manufacturing before, but Pujol has a successful water start-up, SimpleWater, and Stovne worked for Lipton through his advertising agency, DDB Canada.

NovelTea Tins has been thriving thus far. O’Kelly noted, “going forward, the biggest challenge will be to have the tins ready for the holidays. But, we’re confident that we will with help from a fulfillment center. When our crowd funding campaign finishes, we will go store to store, prototype in hand, not only to sell more tins, but also to spread the good word about our product and mission.”

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