This week we closed our pre-seed round for Transcendence Coffee that I've been intermittently raising while building the company over the past year‼️‼️
I recognize the immense privilege I had to graduate from college debt-free because of my family and the advantage of using all my savings from Apple to start this company at 23.
At the same time, I became a first-time founder and walked into a world of unknowns, where 2% of VC funding goes to female-founders, and even less to women of color. I decided to be extremely thoughtful on doing a small party round for raising capital that would not force Transcendence to be something its not for the sake of top line revenue and short-term vanity metrics.
The idea for Transcendence is really a brand that is going to fill in a missing puzzle piece in Specialty Coffee and replace what is currently an afterthought category in coffee shops, bars, and cafes across the country. I knew Transcendence would be a brand that focused on enhancing hospitality groups, and bettering coffee programs. To build a brand like this, it wouldn't be about going into mass retail or following any D2C playbook. I wanted to follow suit the great, heritage food-service brands that take decade(s) to build and reach the masses based on quality, taste, and ultimately brand affinity.
I'm sharing this fundraising news because when I first started, I was in the constant search of stories of other female-founders that were once in my position, building thoughtful food & bev companies. So here's special thanks and shoutout to Sahra Nguyen and Sana Javeri Kadri who have supported and mentored me and showed me what's possible in the road ahead!
And a major shoutout to everyone who invested in this first round who's now apart of an incoming, major cafe culture shift 💪🚀