“The introduction of Afghan saffron into the international market has opened new doors for farmers and provided [the community] a pathway to a higher quality of life,” Kim said.Â. In Herat, where much of the saffron for Rumi Spice is grown, women are “sorely underemployed,” Patti said. They didn’t even have drying machines. This article was the first that CentSai produced in collaboration with Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit organization for U.S. service members who have changed paths to become entrepreneurs, originally published in 2018. But that’s what entrepreneurs have to do. I attended one of the summer preparation sessions, where I was able to preview what it would be like to be a part of a service academy. We recommend using one of the following browsers for an optimal website experience. We also had a group called Goldenseeds. It was such an adventure, to be really honest. April 6th, 2021 | Categories: Aggie Growth Hacks, Aggie Podcast | Comments Off. My experiences in Afghanistan working with the local population made me believe that we weren’t doing anything necessary to help Afghanistan in the long term. Entrepreneurs will go through so much pain to get what seems to be such little things done, so it’s exhausting. Can you disclose how much the other rounds were and in what years they took place? It was on the Skype call with Keith that it hit me there would be no other time in my life that I would be free to do what I want and have the financial independence to take the risk. DL: And who are your biggest distributors? But I was at the best business school in the country, and if anyone was going to make a difference, it was going to be someone like me, Emily, or Keith. Co-Founder/CEO Rumi Spice as seen on Shark Tank Member of MIT “Saw-Blaze” Battle Bots Team Masters in Mechanical Engineering from MIT 2020 Or was it a daily threat? My parents thought I was crazy. (Photo: Kim Jung/Rumi Spice) (Photo: Kim Jung/Rumi Spice) “Our favorite saying when times got tough was: ‘Drop by drop, a river is made,’ which is an Afghan proverb,’” Miller said. DL: Tell me about your time in Afghanistan. I was here a couple of years ago in a very different capacity, surrounded by armed men and women and trying to talk about political stability and now I’m actually doing something worth doing. In this episode, we are glad to welcome Kimberly Jong, the CEO, and Co-founder of Rumi Spice. Kimberly Jung, CEO and Co-Founder of Rumi Spice Kimberly Jung is an Army veteran and passionate international entrepreneur. Rumi Spice started with a conversation, but it wasn’t during a typical business meeting. By the end of the co-creation lab, the Rumi Spice team was newly invigorated to push their message and products out into the market through these strategies. Keith Alaniz ‘04 joins us today to talk about establishing his international spice company, Rumi Spice. Our bank extended us a line of credit about a year ago. While serving in the Army in Afghanistan, Keith Alaniz met Haji Yusef, a Herat farmer trying to sell saffron in his local market. That was super-frustrating, but we got it done. By giving farmers access to markets and an alternative to growing opium, Rumi Spice hopes to lay a long-term foundation for peace in Afghanistan. He has embraced me and Emily, and in turn, we embraced him. She was excellent at responding to questions so that the dialog at the end became the basis for further interest in start-ups for this group. Saffron is the dried stigma in the center of purple-flowered crocus. Being in Afghanistan was our moment of serendipity as entrepreneurs. KJ: There are three, all in Herat, Afghanistan. And in reality, you go into the military and you do serve your country and are a part of something greater than yourself. I remember one time we got shot at as we were maneuvering through a village, and we got to the house where the shots came from, climbed to the roof, and found all the spent shells from the RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. Rumi Spice helps stimulate the local economy and give women greater freedom by providing them with job opportunities and a way to earn direct wages. (Photo: Kim Jung/Rumi Spice) A place Rumi Spice CEO Kimberly Jung and CFO Keith Alaniz know well. You do things like bridge building and route reconnaissance and explosives. Doria Lavagnino: Before we get into your success with Rumi Spice, can you tell me about your background? 2 years old, Rumi Spice is already profitable, and it’s on track to reach its projected revenue of $500,000 for this year. And so I had to declare that to customs, and I didn’t want to use a customs broker. They invest only in women-owned-and-led companies. If you are interested in advertising on CentSai, send an email at  Advertising@centsai.com. Leverage Your Employees Spending with Cash Back Rewards Add Towards Their Retirement Savings. KJ: Yes. KJ: We raised a little under $300,000 in 2015 and a little under $450,000 in 2016. They were sitting there in their very traditional clothing, and I was not wearing body armor or a weapon — I was just wearing a hijab. People have this idea that Afghanistan is a scar, a desert — that nothing good comes out of Afghanistan except terrorists and IEDs — and that’s not true at all. I did go to private school, and I worked extremely hard. That doesn’t mean he needs to change anything about himself. DL: What was the most dangerous moment? You might fail, but what entrepreneurs realize is, Oh wait, that’s not a failure — you just have to try another way. So I bought myself a ticket to Afghanistan. DL: How did the nonprofit veteran incubator Bunker Labs help? I grew up in downtown Los Angeles, in Chinatown. That’s when we take charge of the saffron. It was a seed of an idea that connected saffron farmers in rural Afghanistan to the international market, created jobs for women and helped drive economic development in the region. Then hiring women was a challenge. Rumi Spice | 816 followers on LinkedIn. It was getting dark as well. In the beginning, we bought dried saffron from the farmers. They had a lot of cigar moments. KJ: My GPA was a 4.5 or something. Willis met Kimberly Jung, the CEO and co-founder of Rumi Spice, in 2016 during the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California. The people [who shot at us] were contained in the house. They really took us in. In the end, they have to pitch in front of everybody, so it’s serious. I know many other nonprofits, and there can be a huge mismatch between the goals of the people running them and what they’re actually doing to have an impact on veterans. DL: The women are doing the actual fieldwork. There were no procedures for how to properly pick the saffron and dry it. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. Howdy Ags! We were deployed to Afghanistan to help with route clearance, meaning we would go slowly along roads and prepare them to be safe for infantry and logistic patrols. We were looking for IEDs and ambushes and neutralizing those threats. If there was a time to try something — to be involved in something greater than myself and to do something meaningful — it was now. “That’s a testament to our farmers, because they’ve been able to increase the quality of the saffron by so much,” Jung, the CEO, says. We came back with the purpose of put CentSai may be an affiliate for products that we recommend and may receive compensation from the companies whose products we recommend on this site. Kimberly Jung will share her journey from the Military to Co-Founder and CEO of Rumi Spice and now as COO of Pickle Robot Company Navigating Career Transitions with Kimberly Jung, COO of Pickle Robot Co. Tickets, Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite One Man’s Story, Jobs After the Military: How One Former Marine Started Podcasting. Learn Successful Management Strategies Through this Free Course Sign Up Today. Saffron, which can cost as much as $13 per ounce in specialty grocery stores, is considered to be the most expensive spices in the world and used mainly in cooking rice-based dishes. (adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle||[]).push({}); We are an affiliate for products that we recommend and receive compensation from the companies whose products we recommend on this site. KJ: One challenge was how much time I spent at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. So Emily — one of the other co-founders who had similar experiences — and Keith, and I got together and were talking over Skype. Review Our List of Top Business Loan Providers Get a Free Quote. We also provide tools to help growing businesses scale, … “Three years later, the farmers doubled and tripled production because they felt confident we’re able to fulfill our side of the deal,” Keith said. At this point, both Emily and I were at Harvard Business School finishing up our first year and looking for internships. I took a lot of AP classes that were weighted. And what greater way to connect ourselves to these post-conflict countries than to buy goods from them? It began as a small spark in the early 1900s as women in New York City demonstrated against oppression and inequality. The women help harvest the crops and work in the facilities to dry and clean the saffron. They are taking risks and focusing on sustainable change. DL: Tell us about the moment when you decided to head back to Afghanistan. “This investment from InFrontier enables Rumi to grow our saffron business, launch new Afghanistan spice products, and ultimately become spice as a force for good” says Keith Alaniz, co-founder and CEO of Rumi Spice. “A lot of the buyers that we’ve talked to are very sceptical,” Kimberly Jung, CEO and co-founder of Rumi Spice, told FoodNavigator-USA. That’s not part of our supply chain. On a larger scale, Patti talks of the global importance of women’s presence in the workplace and how their unique perspectives and approaches can help advance business success. They are a Chicago-based sustainable local food group, so they believe in sustainable food and being part of the food system. They have another program called CEO Circle. He’s a Republican; he will throw a cigar party and say things to me and Emily like, “It’s now time to put your big-girl pantyhose on,” and I actually love it. Co-Founder and CEO, Rumi Spice Kim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rumi Spice, a for-profit social enterprise importing saffron from Afghan farmers. I had to go through a series of physical and medical tests. KJ: A kilo would be $2,500 or more. You can’t have a mixed-gender facility, and so that’s an extra step. In 2017, we partnered with Purdue University’s agricultural faculty to do some actual training for quality assurance managers in Bangalore, India. Kimberly Jung: Sure. You could get hit by a bus. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at … Need a Business Loan? If anybody asks them, “Are Americans infidels?” they will say, “No, they are our customers.” That is a far stronger bond economically than anything we were trying to do in the military — which I would also argue is not the job of the military, either. That was pretty demoralizing. KJ: I sent in an essay about why I wanted to go to a service academy, about what motivated me to serve my country and become a leader of men and women in the armed forces. In the beginning, these farmers would not shake my hand — more as a cultural thing, not out of disrespect. Keith Alaniz ‘04 joins us today to […] Read More. She spoke with me about her childhood and her tours of duty, how her business has blossomed to a network of 350 farmers and 3,750 Afghan women, and how she transitioned from an Army veteran to a successful business owner. And the last thing would be Bunker Brews. Every year, women and men around the world celebrate International Women’s Day. By the most recent harvest (the fourth one), the team developed a network of more than 300 farmers and hired nearly 3,750 Afghan women. “He said he thought he could sell more if only he could expand to other buyers,” Keith explained. Out in the field, I’ve seen both men and women working, but they’re in separate groups. During all this, when was the moment that you became aware of saffron? “Agreements are all based on trust, and, understandably, the farmers were probably skeptical the first time they sold to us.”. KJ: Our platoon was a horizontal construction unit, so we had a bunch of loaders, grazers, dozers, and excavators. They dried it on the ground, and the women worked in their own homes as part of the family economy. It’s for working capital and to help with inventory purchases. We were going to enter the house and this woman came to the door with a dog barking like he was about to attack everybody. Getting investors is tough. I had the privilege of knowing Todd [Connor, CEO of Bunker Labs] from the beginning. It’s a very different mindset when you’re in Afghanistan. That was a critical decision that we made. DL: How much does a kilogram of saffron go for on the open market today? That’s why “Rumi Spice is dedicated to providing quality training and leadership roles to its Afghan women processing staff,” Patti said. But the idea stuck with me for a while. So how did Jung, an officer in the 54th engineering battalion of the U.S. Army, go from leading a 43-soldier platoon that cleared 348 miles of perilous IEDs to become the co-founder and CEO of Rumi Spice? But fast-forward a year later, and we had three processing facilities and had exported over 100 kilos of saffron. Ultimately, we made the decision not to go in because there were other ways that we could neutralize the threat. My parents are immigrants from Hong Kong, and like typical immigrants, they worked hard and prioritized education above everything else for me and my younger sister. This grant will not only help us improve our supply chain logistics as we transport saffron out of Afghanistan, but it will help build a sustainable future for peace through the economic empowerment of rural farmers across the country.” Meanwhile, in the U.S., Rumi Spice was selling saffron directly to restaurants — and business took off for both the company and Afghan farmers. [As per local cultural norms,] you have to have all-women or all-men spaces. But we sell 0.1-gram packets. Nearly 1,000 flowers are needed to generate one ounce of saffron, making it both scarce and costly. At the end of the day, I was going to graduate from Harvard Business School, and even if I tried something and failed, I would still have a safety net. You can commission as an engineer into the Army and not have an engineering background. It was an alternative to growing opium. Since 2015, Rumi Spice has been on a mission to use spice as a force for good. The farmers don’t just shake my hand now — they also take selfies with me. All we're doing is opening up markets of saffron for these Afghan farmers," said Jung, a 29-year-old Los Angeles native who serves as CEO of Rumi Spice. Bunker Labs is solely focused on improving veterans’ lives by helping them along the entrepreneurship path — allowing them to see how they can become great entrepreneurs, giving them the resources to do so, and connecting them to people all over, whether or not those people are veterans. It seemed like there was no other choice. I was there for three years, and during that time, I was deployed for one year in Afghanistan and four months to Bulgaria. DL: And these were all military investments? “We are very excited to have been named the grand prize winner of the 2018 FedEx Small Business Grant contest,” said Kimberly Jung, CEO of Rumi Spice. They have a 10-week program, so budding entrepreneurs have to sign up, make a commitment, and do these events and learn. Saffron gave farmers up to seven times more income than opium poppies. KJ: Not all of them. In 2008, when Kimberly Jung graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as a mechanical engineer, becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business was hardly on her mind. She made the Rumi Spice story easy to understand and exciting. Rumi Spice has also provided quality training to several agricultural students at Herat University. I grew up super nerdy. Rumi Spice started with a conversation, but it wasn’t during a typical business meeting. “He said he thought he could sell more if only he could expand to other buyers,” Keith explained. I took my entrepreneurship professor, Shikhar Ghosh, with me and met with Keith, who was still deployed. Rumi brings flavorful, ethically sourced and socially responsible spices from Afghanistan to the world. I decided I was going to try and import saffron myself instead of using DHL. KJ: We are the largest private employer of Afghan women. And while the company went through some changes over the years — Kim moved on to pursue a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT, and Keith primarily sits on the company’s board — its vision continues with Patti Doyle as CEO.Â. I was speaking through an interpreter, and I was thinking, This is so surreal. KJ: I realized that at the end of the day, they [Afghan people] are not doing sales and marketing; they’re not doing trade shows; they’re not talking to chefs; and they’re not getting the product out there. DL: Can you give me an example of the challenges very early on? Keith was telling us about a farmer named Haji Yosef who was growing saffron and trying to sell it to aid organizations. Watching Bunker Labs grow and develop and flourish — watching a nonprofit do that was really great. It was absolutely all worth it. DL: The seed rounds that you raised — one was on Kickstarter right? I was stationed in Germany. David C Collins III, CEO David has worn many hats through his career including, soldier, governance adviser, consultant at a Big 4 consulting company, factory worker, and construction worker. KJ: When I was deployed in Afghanistan, I had heard about a spice named saffron that some farmers were growing. It could happen at any time of the day — 2 a.m., 6 a.m., the middle of the afternoon. Many Michelin-starred restaurants and grocery stores across the U.S. proudly First up: our 2020 Industry Expert Interview with Patti Doyle, CEO of Rumi Spice. All their investees were white males, and then they invested in us. How did you get in? It was during a one-year stint in war-torn Afghanistan, where she and her platoon were disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs), that the seeds of a business opportunity were planted — literally. Today, the company is building a global brand and connecting the global economy with Saffron. KJ: In 2008, I graduated from West Point and was commissioned as an engineering officer. Get Your Business an Unlimited Business Checking Account Plus a Bonus Feature Included Here. Doug Doan [a general partner of Hivers & Strivers] — he’s so great, isn’t he? For this month's installment of our Industry Expert Interview Series, we sat down with Patti Doyle, CEO of Rumi Spice. In Afghanistan, a country where women have few rights and face discrimination and violence, International Women’s Day is an official holiday. DL: When did you decide to join the armed forces? SLoFIG is another. They’re a group of mostly former military personnel who invest only in military-academy-graduate start-ups. Bunker is run by veterans, too, so they always have veterans in mind. We drank tea with Haji Yosef, and I remember we were bargaining over pricing. Get Access to an Online Accountant. While serving in the Army in Afghanistan, Keith Alaniz met Haji Yusef, a Herat farmer trying to sell saffron in his local market. KJ: In my junior year of high school, I was really struck by the service academies, and I decided I wanted to go to West Point so I could serve my country. We had to ask each father and husband for permission to allow the women to work in our facilities because it’s culturally sensitive. DL: When you started out as an entrepreneur, what was the biggest challenge that you faced? All of these fields has helped him gain a greater understanding of his true passion: local development. “She excitedly told my former boss and me about her company and its mission of peace Restaurants and retailers can buy larger quantities direct from Rumi Spice at wholesale pricing. on Season 3 Episode 1 – Cultivating Peace with a Little Spice w/ CEO & Co-Founder of Rumi Spice, Keith Alaniz ‘04. My parents understood this, and they did not foresee a future in which the military would launch me into a nice career as a doctor or a lawyer later in life. One of our other co-founders, Carol Wang, went to Afghanistan and brought back saffron that she hand-carried. How were you as a student? They were finally happy that I went to Harvard and that I was going to be some big businesswoman working for some large company or an investment bank, and now I was starting a saffron business in Afghanistan. Saffron is grown in only a few places in the world. According to CEO Kim Jung, “We believe the way to a sustainable future for Afghanistan is through economic empowerment of the “Contract law doesn’t exist in Afghanistan the way it does in the U.S.,” Keith said. KJ: We found our first accountant through Bunker Labs. DL: How many stores is your product in nationwide today? DL: So the summer program at West Point changed your mindset? KJ: The biggest stores are Whole Foods, Central Market, Home Shopping Network, and Market Basket. DL: Were they supportive of you entering the service? KJ: Yes. Jung, Miller, and Alaniz, who would later become co-founders of Rumi Spice, remember thinking that this meant Afghan farmers could make nearly seven times more than they were earning from growing opium if they chose to grow saffron. Get Your Free Quote. DL: Can you give me some sense of your growth from year one until now, from 2013 through 2020? Although Rumi Spice is a for-profit company, any conversation with Jung instantly dispels any delusions that the heart of her company is anything but its people. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own, and not those of any partner bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other partner. I aimed to attend an Ivy League school and become a doctor, in accordance with my parents’ expectations.