5 Asian-Owned Brands to Know: Founder Interviews from MAUM Market San Francisco

Each interview is one to three minutes long, with English captions and a readable transcript. BEENUVO also has Korean captions. The table describes the May interviews; it is not a September vendor list.

May interview snapshot: wellness specialty coffee, sold as whole beans and drip bags. The founder recommended IMUNIKA Red whole bean and described distribution through the brand site, Bean Box in the US, and Korean Air in-flight duty free. The official brand URL is imunika.com.

Wellness specialty coffee was both the category the founder described and the three-word answer for the brand.

The starting point is family. The founder's mother and grandmother were fermentation experts, and the founder grew up with the Korean idea that food is medicine. IMUNIKA applies a fermentation technique to whole bean specialty coffee and pairs the beans with a seven-mushroom beta-glucan complex. The brand describes its process as patented and says it brings those ingredients into the beans while preserving the coffee experience.

Asked whether the coffee was a form of hanyak, or Korean traditional medicine, the founder distinguished the approach from traditional medicine and framed the product around fermentation and the microbiome.

The founder described the result as lower in caffeine, gentler on the body, easy to drink on an empty stomach, and less acidic and bitter than a standard roast. These are the founder's product descriptions; the interview did not establish a measured caffeine comparison or a health outcome.

The pick for a first purchase was IMUNIKA Red whole bean, described in the interview as a medium-light roast made with beans fermented in Korea. The logic: if you are trying this coffee, you already care about what you drink, so grind it and brew it yourself.

At MAUM Market, the founder said shoppers came for a free sip and left with drip bags, making them the best seller of the day. The founder also reported that the drip bags had entered Korean Air's in-flight duty free. Check the brand's current buying options for availability; the May interview is a snapshot of distribution at that time.

Dahna’s read: IMUNIKA asks a shopper to understand coffee, fermentation, and mushroom ingredients in one conversation. The founder’s recommendation was whole bean, while the reported market best seller was the drip bag. That difference suggests a useful question: does the first-time customer want an easier way to try the coffee before committing to a brewing routine? The format may matter as much as the ingredient explanation.

What we’d test: a short drip-bag brewing demonstration that shows exactly how someone would make the first cup at home, with the fermentation story explained afterward. At the booth, ask samplers whether they already grind coffee, then record which format they buy. Use those answers to decide whether a first-purchase page should lead with drip bags or whole beans. Keep taste descriptions grounded in the experience rather than promising a health result.

May interview snapshot: Los Angeles-based sparkling tea; seven months old, with 30 retail accounts across LA, according to the co-founder. Products at the time: Peach Oolong and Apple Jasmine.

September update: Birdie announced its rebrand to ORCHA in July 2026. The current brand site is drinkorchatea.com. We keep the Birdie name below to reflect the May interview.

Birdie started as a Sunday habit. The co-founder's family drank tea together every week, and the ritual followed the co-founder from Hong Kong to Seoul to the United States. Once in the US, the co-founder noticed few people nearby drank tea as a daily drink. The response was to add carbonation and make tea feel like a soda you would grab cold from a fridge.

Seven months after launch, the co-founder said Birdie was in 30 accounts across Los Angeles with two flavors. Asked for three words to describe the brand, the answer was: Zen, energy, calm.

Which product came recommended? Apple Jasmine, a preference shared by the co-founder's mother. The apple hits first. The jasmine shows up as a floral finish after you swallow. That was a personal pick, and the crowd at MAUM Market voted differently.

Peach Oolong sold out an hour and a half after the market opened, according to the co-founder. Apple Jasmine sold out afterward. The co-founder's interpretation: peach felt familiar to US drinkers, and the taste reminded shoppers of drinks they grew up with. For a brand trying to get a first sip into a stranger's hand, familiarity can help.

Dahna’s read: Birdie has two stories with different jobs. Peach gives a new shopper a familiar flavor to start with; the family tea ritual gives that first sip a more personal meaning. The opportunity is to make the product easy to approach while keeping the tea culture that inspired it visible. A sell-out alone cannot tell us which flavor has stronger demand without knowing starting stock and how often each was sampled.

What we’d test: two short videos using the same product offer—one opening with a cold pour and the flavor, the other with the co-founder’s Sunday tea story. At the next sampling event, record tastes and purchases by flavor. That would help decide which story earns attention and which flavor earns the first purchase, without assuming they must be the same choice.

May interview snapshot: a Korean brand, eight months old, selling through Amazon, TikTok Shop, and the BEENUVO direct-to-consumer site, according to the founder. Products: bee-derived beauty and wellness. Recommended: Honey Collagen Lip Butter.

BEENUVO had an unusual launch order. The founder said there was no Korean launch: the brand went straight to the US market eight months before the interview.

The brand builds around bee by-products such as honey, propolis, and royal jelly, reinterpreting traditional ingredients in modern formats. Its current website says it donates one percent of profits to protect bees.

The origin story is personal. The founder described years of sinus rhinitis and said symptoms improved after starting to use propolis. That personal experience prompted reading about where propolis comes from, and the reading turned into a fascination with bees. This is the founder's account of the brand's beginnings, not evidence that propolis treats rhinitis.

That became the brand's position: make products from bee by-products, tell people why bees matter, and put money toward protecting them. The founder described an ambition to build a bee universe with a sense of humor and take it from the US to global markets.

Asked for one product, the founder picked Honey Collagen Lip Butter, a lip treatment combining honey and collagen. It was also the reported best seller of the day. The founder estimated around $2,500 in lip product sales at the market before closing; Dahna has not independently audited that figure.

Dahna’s read: BEENUVO’s bee universe connects the ingredients, founder story, and conservation mission. That gives the brand a recognizable subject to return to across content. The lip butter supplies a concrete first product to try. The marketing task is to connect that wider mission to what a shopper can actually see and feel when using it.

What we’d test: a close-up lip-butter demonstration showing application and finish, followed by a short explanation of the bee-derived ingredients and the brand’s donation commitment. Compare that with a mission-first version using the same offer. Track product-page visits and purchases, alongside comments about the texture or mission, to learn what moves curiosity toward a product decision.

May interview snapshot: Korean skincare-infused lip tints and glosses. The interviewee described seven years running a skincare company before launching OFFLOW. Explore the current line on OFFLOW's official site.

The founder came to makeup from skincare and watched the market open up for Gen Z makeup brands. After trying lip tints, the founder described a recurring frustration: matte finishes could feel drying and emphasize lip lines. The goal was a matte finish with enough moisture to keep the lips looking smooth.

Asked for three words, the founder laughed and said great looking products, referring to the packaging. OFFLOW designed the containers to attract attention on the shelf and feel good in the hand. The interviewee considered that as much a part of the product as the formula.

The conversation also highlighted Haze Lilac, a shade the founder said can look surprising in the tube but gets a different reaction when shoppers try it. The current product catalog identifies Haze Lilac as a Knot Glazed Liquid gloss. We have not labeled it a tint here.

The founder identified Shell Pink Haze as a best-selling tint in Korea at the time of the interview. The official catalog lists it as A02 Shell Pink Haze. A best seller for OFFLOW at the May market was not established in the interview.

Dahna’s read: OFFLOW’s packaging can earn the first look, but lip color still needs to be seen on a person. The founder’s account of Haze Lilac suggests a specific gap between how a shade looks in its container and how shoppers respond after application. The gloss shade story and the matte-tint moisture story deserve separate demonstrations so each product’s purpose stays clear.

What we’d test: a tube-to-lips video of Haze Lilac, with consistent lighting, no beauty filter, and the product name visible. Repeat the format with consenting creators who have different natural lip tones. Compare it with a packaging-led video using the same offer, then review shade questions, product clicks, and purchases. This tests whether the online demonstration can answer the hesitation the founder sees at the booth.

May interview snapshot: after-swim hair and body care, including swim shampoo, a kids line, and body wash. The interviewee spoke as a SOOO team member, referring to the CEO and other founders separately. The recommended first product was swim shampoo.

SOOO makes after-swim care. The team described chlorine as the starting problem and positioned the shampoo around cleansing after swimming while keeping hair feeling soft.

The founding story is unusually direct. According to the team member, the team wanted to build a beauty brand and found the general market too crowded to enter. They looked for a segment where they could compete and landed on swimming. The CEO and other founders all swim and wanted a product centered on the care routine after the pool.

Three words for the brand: water stress solution. At the May interview, the team described pool chlorine as the first target and salt water and hard water as planned areas of expansion.

The product to try first was swim shampoo. The team described a formula using proteins and keratin, without silicones, parabens, or sulfates, and said naturally derived ingredients were part of its approach. Check the current product label for the exact formulation.

According to the team member, swim shampoo was the best seller at MAUM Market, with the kids shampoo and body wash drawing nearly as much interest. The team's interpretation was that parents were interested in the fragrance-free kids option.

Dahna’s read: SOOO has a specific place in someone’s day: the shower after swimming. That makes the product easy to put into a recognizable scene. The team’s account also points to two audiences worth understanding separately: adult swimmers choosing their own care and parents choosing a routine for a child. Their questions about the product may differ even when they shop at the same booth.

What we’d test: an adult swimmer’s pool-bag-to-shower routine and a separate parent-led explanation of the fragrance-free kids option. Give each audience a relevant product page, then compare qualified visits and purchases within that audience. Ask about swimming frequency and current products at the next event; those answers would help choose creator partners whose routines fit the product.

Each conversation reveals a different decision a customer has to make. For Birdie, it is which flavor feels approachable. For BEENUVO, it is how a bee-centered mission connects to a lip product. For OFFLOW, it is what a shade looks like on the lips. For IMUNIKA, it is how to try an unfamiliar coffee. For SOOO, it is where swim care fits into an existing routine.

Those are useful starting points for a content brief. Record the shopper’s question, the demonstration that helped answer it, and what happened next. With permission, capture the founder answering that same question on camera. A product page, creator brief, or short video can then address something a real customer needed to know.

A market also gives the team a way to choose its next experiment. Count how many people sample each product, how many buy, and which objections remain. Record starting inventory before drawing conclusions from a sell-out. If shoppers choose a trial format, follow up with opted-in customers to learn whether they used it and returned for more.

This is where Dahna can help: turning founder knowledge and customer questions into a focused message, a demonstration worth watching, and a test with a clear decision attached. The recommendations above are starting hypotheses drawn from the interviews. A working brief would also need the brand’s goals, pricing, margins, inventory, and current customer data.

MAUM Market returns to the San Francisco Ferry Building on September 20, 2026. Read our full guide to the event, then check the organizer’s vendor announcements before you go.