Ep. 11 From Bread to Brew: Innovating Against Food Waste w/ Naman Tekriwal

In this engaging episode of The Conscious Cut, host Hoiki Liu chats with Naman Tekriwal, a dynamic student entrepreneur and advocate for financial literacy and sustainability. A recent HKUST graduate hailing from India, Naman recounts his remarkable path starting at age 13 with a startup teaching high schoolers about investing and saving, evolving into Rural Invest to empower rural communities with practical financial tools. Drawn to Hong Kong by serendipity, he co-founded Breer, an innovative upcycling venture turning surplus bread into craft beer to combat food waste. From dorm-room experiments during COVID to launching flavors like pineapple bun IPA and non-alcoholic cocktail bun brews, Naman shares how conscious capitalism can drive real environmental change. The episode even features a lively beer tasting! Listen in for motivating stories on blending innovation with impact, and explore ways to embrace sustainable habits in everyday life.

Naman Tekriwal is the co-founder of Breer and a champion of sustainable entrepreneurship.

Thank you for listening!

Chapters

• 0:04 Introduction to Conscious Cut Podcast
• 0:35 Meet Naman Tekriwal: Student Entrepreneur
• 2:05 Early Entrepreneurship Journey at 13
• 9:10 Birth of Breer: Food Waste Solution
• 24:55 Beer Tasting and Product Development
• 34:16 Scaling Internationally: Singapore and Beyond
• 48:34 Young Tycoon's Business Challenge
• 1:03:43 Learning Through Failure
• 1:12:32 Defining Success Through Impact

Transcript

Hoiki Liu: 0:04

Welcome to the Conscious Cut. I'm your host Hoiki Liu. This podcast is all about rethinking sustainability across fashion, lifestyle and everyday practices. Through conversations with entrepreneurs, policymakers, educators and changemakers in Hong Kong and beyond, we'll explore real solutions, from industry-wide policies to the small habits we can all adopt. Let's cut through the noise and create meaningful change together.

Hoiki Liu: 0:35

Welcome to another insightful episode of the Conscious Cut, where we spotlight changemakers who are redefining successful purpose. Today we have with us Namin Thakuriwal, a recent graduate of HKUST, a student entrepreneur, innovator and advocate for financial literacy and sustainability. So you started your first startup at 13, promoting financial literacy among high school students While you were in high school. You represented India globally twice While you were in financial instruments and co-founded Breer. How do you say it?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:31

Breer.

Hoiki Liu: 1:31

Breer yeah, breer, a food upcycling startup, beer from food waste, and I'm super excited to have you here because, besides a regular segment of this podcast, we'll be beer tasting. Yes, okay, maybe for the first question, we won't jump into the beer first, since we're talking about when you were 13 years old, but actually no, even before that. Why don't we go to a little bit about your background, where you're from, what brought you to Hong Kong? I always ask all my guests that?

Naman Tekriwal: 2:05

No, first of all, thank you so much for having me. You know it's a pleasure doing this with you. You know who's already running a successful business, so looking forward to learning from you as well. How did I come to Hong Kong? You know, I was just mentioning that it's like my life is a story of serendipity, right, everything happens because I was just at the right place at the right time.

Naman Tekriwal: 2:26

So I was born into a business family. So actually, before me and my sister, no one completed formal college education, right? And my dad had to join the family business when he was like 15. So he had to drop out of high school as well to join the family business, was like 15. So he had to drop out of high school as well to join the family business. And, yeah, for me, all my summer vacations was literally accompanying him to the office and you know that's how I learned. That was my first twist with like business sales and things like that. But he always really, you know, emphasized on the importance of, you know, self independence, financial independence, and you know like doing thingsependence, financial independence, and you know like doing things for your own.

Naman Tekriwal: 3:06

So, yeah, born in India, in Delhi, which is the capital of India and always emphasized on education. But I have an elder sister, so she got the opportunity to choose university first and she chose the US, so she went to the West and then, when it was my turn, my dad gave me the choice that you know, one child is already in the West, so I want the other to be in the East. So you get options in Singapore and Hong Kong you can choose. So then I applied to Singapore and Hong Kong universities, got into HKUST and thus took the decision to come to Hong Kong. So not 100% my choice, because it was a narrow choice done by my father but turned out to be the best decision of my life.

Hoiki Liu: 3:49

Yeah, definitely. Because I mean, I'm just going to jump straight in and say this you started beer while you were in school, in university. In my first month of university actually, so yeah, so you can't do that if you're in the US, I assume 100%.

Naman Tekriwal: 4:03

Yeah, no, you need so much more time to settle in Hong Kong. I came, I saw a problem and I was like you know why wait?

Hoiki Liu: 4:11

Also the fact that you'll be an underage drinker starting a beer company.

Naman Tekriwal: 4:16

Exactly. In US or Delhi right.

Hoiki Liu: 4:21

Yes, so Hong Kong worked out in my favor that way. Yes, Okay, so I'm glad you came to Hong Kong because we get to talk about this. Okay, going back to you starting your first entrepreneur journey when you were 13 years old, starting up a startup that promotes financial literacy Correct, what inspired you to do it? I mean, I know you already said a bit your dad would be very keyed on you guys being financially independent. But, like, like I told you when I met you, I still feel like I'm financially like illiterate, you know. So, like, why did you think it was important for everybody you know at the time and who were you promoting to yeah, so for me, right, coming from personal experiences, like, I bought my first stock when I was like 11.

Naman Tekriwal: 5:08

Because my dad really wanted you know that for me to learn these things, like, if you get money, there's a portion of spending and there's a portion of saving, right, so how do you save money, how do you allocate money? These things were taught to me at home, right, but when I was going to school and I was seeing my friends, no one was talking about money. And I think there's also cultural very similar between China and India, right, that there's like this taboo around money that it's the male superior of the house which will manage all the money, right, and the kids are not exposed to it. The females are not exposed to it. But my dad approached it differently. But when I saw that, you know, my friends are not talking about it, I'm like you know that's concerning, because India, one out of three people still don't have a bank account, you know, like, and like less than 10% of people invest in the Indian stock markets. The traditional form of saving is still cash denominated, so there are concepts like inflation, which majority of the India doesn't even understand. So I was like, you know, like this needs to start from the grassroots, which is from education, and it was not included in our curriculum. I don't know why we were learning about French revolution but not compound interest. Right, you know that's what we need to learn about the how does compounding work?

Naman Tekriwal: 6:29

So it really started as a social initiative that if I know something, I can go and tell that to other students. The first hurdle was will they take me seriously? That depends on the content, but I just started. I started reaching out to high schools, middle schools, that hey, I want to come and do a seminar, webinar about financial literacy, and my pitch to students used to be that if you start saving your pocket money today, in five years time you don't even know you might be able to fully finance your college education with the right investments, right? So then people started understanding the importance of it and then you know, after that, I think visited over 100 schools and a year later you know schools and parents started reaching out to me and saying that, hey, you know you encourage these students, but now where do they save the money? Because they don't know how to, their parents don't know how to, and I was like, okay, then we need to solve this. Right?

Naman Tekriwal: 7:28

So I partnered, because I couldn't get a license I was only 14 at that time right? So I went out and partnered with a company which had, you know, the right licenses, and then we started a microfinance platform where students, would you know, contribute like $1, $2, $10. And then that would be a portion of their pocket money saved, and then we would pool that money and invest it into mutual funds, and then the whole idea was that maybe they're not making significant return, but it is habit inculcation, right? You know, how am I saving is more important than how much am I earning. So that was the idea, and you know, I ran that with all the hurdles and challenges for the next two years, literally learning how to run a business, like how to make pitch decks, how to make presentations, how to talk, all of these things right, and that, like when I was 16, there was a larger mutual fund house in India which wanted to start a similar product which was like educational, but they also wanted high school students to participate.

Naman Tekriwal: 8:31

And I had data of over like 50,000 students, you know, who wanted to do this, which is like top tier cream of India, you know, like their parents' data, their data. So then they asked me that you know, like, can we buy out your company? Because we want the data. So it was predominantly a data acquisition and the saddest part of this entire story is I still don't know where that acquisition money is, because I couldn't have a bank account in India. So my dad did the negotiation and my dad got the money. But I hope it's safely invested for me, but I still don't know where that money is.

Hoiki Liu: 9:02

It's probably in your. Your dad's going to tell you it's in your college education right, which I already financed myself.

Naman Tekriwal: 9:07

So I don't know, I don't know where that money is right, so, but I hope it's being invested for the right causes and reasons. But that three-year experience really shaped my DNA as a builder. You know, like I realized that I come from this specific sect and part of the Indian community which is just business builders, and you know that's what we do. Like it's almost like doing a job is a sin. You know, like you cannot do a job, like it's just like your society will look down upon you if you do a job.

Naman Tekriwal: 9:40

So I think a part of it was. You know, every dinner table conversation was about business. But as soon as I did it myself, I was like this is what I'm made for. You know, like I want to take decisions, I want to be accountable, and the impact I can create with business is what really struck me. Because you know, at that time, this concept of, like social entrepreneurship was just coming up, that you know, like capitalism has created so many problems in the world because it was maximization of profit. Yeah, and I feel and I learned, and I experienced it myself, that it is only capitalism and conscious capitalism we're discussing conscious cut today, right, but it's like conscious capitalism which can also solve these problems. Yeah, that's why I see entrepreneurship as, in many ways, like an enabler for solving so many of these global problems, be it climate change, be it financial illiteracy or so many other problems which the world is plagued with right now right because, um, I would assume like not even assume I would say like financial literacy, especially for our kids at a young age, students.

Hoiki Liu: 10:38

It almost seems like such a luxury. You get it if you're from like a top tier family, you know. But, like you said, it's actually should be for everybody. But how do they get involved? And if it's just you know, like I said, I've done those silly competitions when I was young it's like, oh, pretend you have a hundred dollars and it fits in something. But when you don't really understand what you're doing and you're just being thrown to like experience and try with no understanding, it's basically gambling.

Hoiki Liu: 11:04

Okay so it's so great that you're actually putting it into a practical way for them to understand and then for them to actually be able to, um, practically invest, yeah, and and see the outcome. Because I feel like a lot of times, also for students I think this is for for me. I'm talking for myself, but if something doesn't feel real, it's hard to really put invest your time and your energy into it For sure. Yeah, so, having this in an actual platform, that must be so, so real.

Naman Tekriwal: 11:36

And so is that what shaped your later ventures, I guess, with Role Infest, yeah so like once, you know, like that company acquired the high school financial literacy company, right, I was just thinking that these students still had resources. You know, they had wealthy families, you know tier one Indian families. So they were well-to-do, right, and that's why they would have, in the end, figured it out. Yes, they figured it out early because of my assistance, but they would have figured it out. But the real problem lies with the rural population of India, which is the blue collar workers, the farmers.

Naman Tekriwal: 12:18

And that was the time when India witnessed one of the most significant global financial revolutions, witnessed one of the most significant global financial revolutions. Like we got access to democratized internet, like you know, like 5g being available in villages, and then, obviously, with the access of internet, the access of bank accounts, the access of, you know, this technology of united payments interface called upi in india. You know that's what ushered in a wave of like financialization in India. I was like, how do we now take this concept of financial literacy and bring it to people who actually need it? And that's what germinated the idea of rural invest, which is, go to tier four, tier five, tier six cities, right, and tell them how they can do it.

Naman Tekriwal: 13:06

But the challenges were completely different. Right, these people can't even speak English, most of them, right, and they will only speak their regional languages. And in India, at every 100 kilometers, the language changes. So the aspect that you have to be their friend, because in tier one one, you can still convince people that stock market is good for them, stock marketing is actually gambling. For them, cash is king. You know, that's the only investment, and maybe gold and real estate that's the only thing they invest in.

Hoiki Liu: 13:36

So like something that you can hold exactly like tangible like, yeah, like what is stock that's? Why we talk about like manufacturing, like that. It's a lot of times manufacturing is done by people who only understand the concept of physical items. Yeah, yeah 100%.

Naman Tekriwal: 13:50

So that's why this, like when I was building Rural Invest, right, it was really partner. It was really important to partner with the right government organization. So the first partner we got what was like a government body with the same exact mission of like doing what we were doing. So, like then we set up like rural camps very similar playbook, just like you know, like the scale and the impact was astronomically different, you know, because these were people who were probably on their last dollar when we were reaching them right. They were like hand to mouth to the extent that they were spending what they were earning the same day right and enabling them to, you know, take these decisions.

Naman Tekriwal: 14:32

Like I literally remember there was this one story of like a farmer who started to invest via the platform we built and then, due to bad monsoons, his like roof in his you know home fell off and then he all the cash which he had stored basically got washed away in the same house.

Naman Tekriwal: 14:48

But because he was investing with us, he had that emergency fund which allowed him to build his home back and I was like that's the impact I created. You know, like that is what is enabling farmers and blue collar workers to have that emergency fund which could finance lands, which that emergency fund which could finance lands, which could finance emergencies, which could finance education. So that was really, you know, like my moment to be. Like you know, I'm creating tangible impact, and that is when I was, like you know, like I want to do this for the rest of my life, but obviously, at the same time, I had to progress in my life as well and take the hard decision to come to Hong Kong Right. So then I passed on this business to you know, like healthily, to another organization to run. I still advise them time and again, but now it's doing incredibly well, you know, back in India, creating a lot more impact with the right partner and companies, and I'm so happy that I was able to be a part of starting something so big and so meaningful.

Hoiki Liu: 15:45

Yeah, that's why I highlighted you as a student entrepreneur, but also an innovator and an advocator, because you know you're able to just start up something, ensure that it's going to run smoothly and pass it on and you're on to your next thing. But it's so good that you can actually help the lower class, like the rural people that you say, like for them to be able to see past their day to day and just see beyond that, like you know, to actually feel like there's a future. It's giving them a lot of hope.

Naman Tekriwal: 16:12

Yeah, 100%, yeah, it's just you know powerful in so many ways.

Hoiki Liu: 16:17

Yeah, so I think, besides being a financial tool, it's just something that really lifts the whole community.

Naman Tekriwal: 16:24

Yeah, for sure.

Hoiki Liu: 16:25

All right, but so and then you're in Hong Kong. Now You're in HKUST. Okay, so your dad is the reason that got you to Hong Kong, but why? What did you study when you were in?

Naman Tekriwal: 16:37

university. So I studied management and marketing, but when I joined the university I did not declare a major and management and marketing I can get to that story right but for me the idea was that I had like because I just had heard things about finance, hong Kong, bigger finance capital, and my two startups previously were in finance. I'm like sure, finance is what I understand, finance is what I'll do, only for me to come and understand that finance in India and finance globally works very differently. You know, like in, like global finance is all about, like investment, banking and all of these things, and there's no like the problems which we're solving are not the same. So when I came to Hong Kong right for me, I was like, yes, impact is something which appeals to me. And for me I was like very exploratory. I like, literally I was that one student who would raise his hand up for everything and volunteer for everything and say no to you know nothing. I was like saying yes to everything.

Naman Tekriwal: 17:34

So when I came to Hong Kong, the first vivid difference I noticed between cultures was the food waste, because, as an Indian, we're raised with the value to not waste food. Like you know, it's like almost a sin to waste food. If you want to eat one bowl of rice, you take one bowl of rice and you finish it. Not take four bowls of rice, waste three and only eat one, right. So we were raised with that value.

Naman Tekriwal: 18:01

But Hong Kong was so fast paced that I would see students, you know, fill up an entire plate of food but they had to rush for a class and like leave everything else out and like just waste and the preferences of people in general. So I was like you know, this is something like it was just an overarching problem. I saw, not wanting to do something about it, but again, again, serendipity and I go hand in hand, right, so that's what happened. Like, literally, I was at this orientation for a social impact competition and there were in that room there were only two people who constantly kept engaging with the organizer, like I was. It was me and now the person who is my co-founder.

Hoiki Liu: 18:43

Yeah.

Naman Tekriwal: 18:44

Because I literally met my co-founder in a room full of, like students, but it was the two people who kept engaging with the, you know, the people who were organizing the session. I was like, okay, there's definitely a connect. And then we connected on the problem of food waste. But it was like, no, we don't have to start a company. That was just the idea, right. And then Serendipity would have it, we were taking the same course and this is when protests were going on in Hong Kong, right? So everything on campus was shutting down at like 8pm and there was this midterm exam which we took, and it ended at like 9pm and we didn't have any dinner options on campus. We were like, let's take a taxi, and this is HKUST, like far off in Sai Kung, right, like it's like it takes a decade to get there. So we had to take a taxi to go to, like TKO, which is the closest you know metropolis near us, and the only thing which was open was a bakery. Oh, okay, and then we literally went there and they were like literally closing, and my co-founder, who is, like you know, born and raised in Hong Kong, could speak Cantonese. She convinced them that please give us five minutes. We want something to eat. So we got whatever we could. But we were sitting there and then he was like I'll wind up the bakery. And then he took all the bread which was not sold that day and threw it into a rubbish bag, like a black rubbish bag. Yeah, and just out of curiosity, I asked the question right, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to donate it, use it the next day? What's the plan? He's like no, I'm just going to throw it. Yeah, and I was like why? Because in India, you know, we store bread for like two, three days in the refrigerator. Yes, I was like why would you throw it? Because he's like it's way too expensive to dispose it off carefully. It's not people's preference to consume not fresh bread, because I'd bake fresh bread tomorrow and people would want fresh bread. So the only easiest option is to throw it. And that is where I was like oh, this is a big problem. This is not a problem of like students, this is a problem which is existing at commercial scale. So then I was like we definitely need to do something about this. But we didn't know what, right? And then we was like we definitely need to do something about this, but we didn't know what, right. And then we were like exploring charities there's already Feeding Hong Kong, there's already Breadline, there's so much happening.

Naman Tekriwal: 20:53

And then the Eureka moment literally happened to me when I was in Lan Kwai Fong, so the midterm exams had ended. It was, they literally ended, and I, as I said, I just became eligible to drink. Like it was at the brink of my eligibility that I can drink now. And then I was still not drinking because I was like, you know, not the right day to start, whatever.

Naman Tekriwal: 21:14

But I was in a bar or club and I saw the bartender drinking something same color as beer, but was not beer. And then I asked him him, what are you drinking? And then he said this is a drink called kvass, k-v-a-s-s. Right, so this is a very popular drink in China. Okay. And then I, when I dug up history, it's like this drink originally used to be created for Egyptian pharaohs, okay. Then it migrated to Russia as a popular drink and now it's a very popular drink in China and kvass is basically alcohol made by fermenting bread. Okay, right. And I was like this is the Eureka moment. You know, you saw the problem last week and today you can see that you can make a product which is commercial habit-forming. You know, third largest consumed drink in the whole world why not do that?

Hoiki Liu: 22:04

so it's the biggest um food waste is also the biggest polluter, exactly yeah, one sort of carbon emissions is food waste, right?

Naman Tekriwal: 22:11

yeah, I was like this is what we have to do. We have to make beer from bread. Yes, that was that was the idea, right? And then, then what followed was like 10 months of pure r&d. And you know all the all the humble beginnings of breer, as to how we got to where we are today. But, as I said, breer is literally a business born out of serendipity. Everything just happened because I was at the right place at the right time, yeah, being in Hong Kong at the right age, at the right age at the right places, and it just happened yeah, that's so great because I mean actually the the episode before one.

Hoiki Liu: 22:43

I was just talking to Green Hour. So yeah, they also collect bread and we donate, we give it out on the same night to people on the streets, but yeah so many charities, like everyone's doing amazing work and you know like we didn't want to like impede on what they're doing, so like I mean it's a good balance because, you know, the truth is we approach a lot of bakeries that don't want to donate their bread to us.

Hoiki Liu: 23:10

They would rather discard it and throw it away, and you know, this is part of the reason why I'm always like it gets to an end of the day, either some businesses need to come in to make things make sense, because we can't, or the government needs to step in. It's also hard for the government to stand and be like, hey look, you know, as a business, you have to donate things, that it's wasteful and self-wasting and donate it. A lot of business, you know, from clothes to food. They don't want to do it.

Hoiki Liu: 23:31

And we all understand the reasons at the end of the day. But you know, as you guys come in and it's like, look, I'm going to buy your waste at a low price, oh, you don't buy, we don't buy, oh, and they fully donate it.

Naman Tekriwal: 23:42

They fully donate it. But the logic there is that, you know, we now obviously work with businesses who had to dispose it off properly, so it was a cost for them. So we replace that cost of disposition by, you know, using our logistics to do that. So it is a win-win. But we, they don't, we don't pay for the bread. And we are obviously eventually maybe we might have to, but right now we don't pay for the bread. Okay, we are obviously eventually we might have to, but right now we don't pay for the bread. But it's like the way we work with companies it is public relations for those companies, it is sustainability for those companies, so those companies want to do it.

Hoiki Liu: 24:17

Yeah, if they can document the data of how much food waste they're actually giving to you guys to save it from going into the landfill, it's it's actually very impactful. Correct, correct, um. Can we try the beer?

Naman Tekriwal: 24:28

sure, we, we, we must, you know. Yes, because, like our tagline in this company is literally called does good tastes better? Yeah, great. So you know, we in the end, with a beer, yeah, you'll buy me for the first time because, yes naman, sustainable, all good, but if it doesn't taste good, you're not going to come back the second time. Exactly as simple as that, right?

Hoiki Liu: 24:50

Okay, so what's the first one we have?

Naman Tekriwal: 24:53

So the first one we have is the most approachable beer we have. It's a lager, like you know. If I'm going to take a look at it, yes, please, if. If you don't care about sustainability at all, you know like and you just want a beer, okay, it's a lager. Okay, 4.8%. You can drink it all day if you want. So that's the logic of creating a lager, basically.

Hoiki Liu: 25:13

I love that how it's got a little beer like a few beer, but is it meant to look like a hole?

Naman Tekriwal: 25:19

No, so. So I mean, in the end I became a marketing student, right? So there's a lot of logic which actually went into the packaging. So there are three elements which are, like, quite unique about the. Wow, that's a lot of beer for lunchtime.

Hoiki Liu: 25:34

I know we should be tasting, but okay, I'll give myself less.

Naman Tekriwal: 25:38

Yes.

Hoiki Liu: 25:39

Here you go.

Naman Tekriwal: 25:42

So there's so much thought which actually went cheers. There's so much thought which actually went into the packaging, right? So, because when we started originally, it was like you know, we like intensively tested with customers and people were like you know, you have fancy packaging but the bread story does not come out. So we like how can we make the bread story shout? So there are three things in that can which is really important, right? So if I could really guide people, the first thing is the cutout.

Naman Tekriwal: 26:15

The cutout is that the idea was that, yes, it was cut out from the system and you can see yourself making the change. So that's the logic that we self-empower people, right? The second thing is this checkered line which represents all the supermarket bread from garden. So everyone who's ever bought bread in Hong Kong knows that there's checkered lines on garden packaging, right? So it's a instant resonance. And the third thing is the back of the can, which is we close the life cycle of bread. So when the can is closing, it's a bread packet closing, so it's like us closing the life cycle of the bread. And we have this QR code on the cans which, when you scan, you get to know the exact impact you made as an individual by drinking this can. So how much grams of bread did you save? How much carbon emissions did you save? How much water did you save? Everything.

Hoiki Liu: 27:06

That's so great. That's what the fashion industry is talking about when we want digital product passport.

Naman Tekriwal: 27:11

It's pretty much that. Exactly so that's what we do. So Brier stands for bread plus beer. Basically yes.

Hoiki Liu: 27:17

That's so great. Cheers, again Cheers. It's really crisp and refreshing. This one, it's called a crisp lager Right.

Naman Tekriwal: 27:34

So that's the intention and the one thing which we've been very thoughtful about. Right, my co-founder is a female.

Hoiki Liu: 27:39

Right.

Naman Tekriwal: 27:40

And beer is typically, you know, perceived to be an alpha male, machoistic drink. Right, but I was like no, you know, like it needs to be an equitable drink. So, like, we try to make our beer intentionally more light and easy on the palate, like, not like something which will hit your throat, because females don't like that experience. So, like, compared to other beer companies, my data shows that, like, we have a really balanced customer profile of male and female. It's not very male-heavy dominated, which is also something which is quite interesting.

Hoiki Liu: 28:14

I do think, I don't know. I guess even in my own groups of people I see like growing up it was relatively balanced in Hong Kong. I'll say Interesting yeah. Okay, and so I like this one, but should we keep trying the next ones so we can compare them side to side For sure?

Naman Tekriwal: 28:34

Yeah, so we will go up in alcohol content from now. Okay, they started at 4.8.

Hoiki Liu: 28:43

This is nice, yeah, and we'll end at like 6.3. So yeah, how long I'm going to keep asking you, you, these questions. And now I know how the idea came to you guys, but how long was the actual trial and error process? I mean, it seems like it all makes so much sense because I think you know beer ferments from wheat, yeah, bread, wheat, bread. You know, but how did you know? How did the science part of it actually come down?

Naman Tekriwal: 29:07

So that was the most humbling experience, like timeline of my life, right For me. I was a marketing student. My co-founder was an electrical engineering student, so no background in chemistry at all right. And no background in food At all right, Zero. So it was just very interesting for us, we. We were like, let's go and learn.

Naman Tekriwal: 29:31

But that is exactly when COVID hit, so the government banned alcohol sales. All the breweries shut down. I cannot go and learn. So I was like, well, nothing's going to stop me. So I, very proudly, am a YouTube learned brewer. I literally learned beer making on YouTube. So I ordered a $35 home brewing kit from Amazon.

Naman Tekriwal: 29:54

This is when I was in my dorm room and then I was like just tinkering around, so literally there have been times where I was in the common room of HKUST and I blew up the entire roof and the roof was filled with like wheat, right.

Naman Tekriwal: 30:07

So we've literally come from those days where we did not know how to do anything and then obviously progressing along that lines, and so that was when we made our home batches, very like extremely bad beer, but just trying to learn, right. And then, when the ban got lifted, then you know, we started reaching out to breweries that, hey, can we do come and learn from you and, you know, do a pilot brew with you. And Can we do come and learn from you and you know, do a pilot brew with you. And then, fortunately, one of the head brewers at a local brewery was an HKUST alumni. I was like perfect, you know perks of being at HKUST alumni, let's get them. So we started approaching them and we did 22 or 23 iterations before we even came to an edible product oh wow, I wouldn't say tasty before we even came to an edible product.

Hoiki Liu: 30:48

Oh wow, I wouldn't say tasty, I was going to say at first. I mean I was thinking I was like, oh, you were testing in the dorm during COVID. When everyone's on lockdown, you must have the most popular guy, like everyone's, coming to be your rapper 100%, 100%.

Naman Tekriwal: 31:02

You know it's because it was so cool that at 19, you knew how to make beer right and you were the only student legally allowed by the university to store alcohol in your dorm room, because the like, otherwise you can't store alcohol in your dorm room, right and like, my dorm room was my laboratory, it was my meeting room, it was my warehouse, it was everything right. So it was extremely amazing to be a student at that time, because everyone's like can I volunteer, can I? Yeah, you try at your own risk, you could potentially die also. Yeah, right, uh, but uh. So yeah, the iterations professionally took like a lot of time because every batch took three weeks, because it's beer right, it needs time to ferment right so three weeks into 23.

Naman Tekriwal: 31:46

you can imagine it was almost an year-long process before you know we really started making progress, because what we really had to figure out was that how is the bread affecting the recipe?

Hoiki Liu: 31:59

Yes, because you need to come up with specific flavors.

Naman Tekriwal: 32:02

Exactly so. It was difficult, like you know. The simplest example I can give you is if you're making beer regularly, right, you add a bit of salt for stability. However, you know, like, bread is already processed, so salt is added. But what we did not realize until very late in the process, right, why is the beer becoming salt? Because we're adding calcium sulfate plus the bread already has the salt. So thus the double salt makes the beer salty.

Naman Tekriwal: 32:29

So we made some which were sweet, some which were salty, some which were not even edible, some were like very bad. But as soon as we made a product which we were like drinkable, you know, it won't kill people I was like let's go and speak to customers. So we set up a pop-up booth. I remember our first pop-up booth was at a place called Explorium in Lychee, cork. And then we set up a pop-up booth and then, you know, we made people try and we're like please give us feedback, please give us feedback, right, with some packaging, whatever. Back in the day, and I literally had people like spit the beer out in front of me because it was bad. I was not proud of the product. I was like sure, you know, if you want, spit it on my face, I'm happy, but give me feedback, which is more important.

Hoiki Liu: 33:11

And you need the honesty.

Naman Tekriwal: 33:12

Yeah, I really need the honesty. So it was that feedback which then snowballed into becoming, you know, the product which we have on the product line today. So the product which we'll try today is actually our first product. So this is the flagship product, called Brewer Pale Ale, because pale ale is the most approachable form of craft beer. So this is the first product we created and for the first year, we only had one product, which is this, and then we literally went like store to store sir, please, test, please. You know, give us a chance, give us, you know, keep us on your shelves. So that's how we started. So this was literally our first product and our flagship product for the long.

Hoiki Liu: 33:50

And where can we find your products right now?

Naman Tekriwal: 33:53

So now we sell in over you know like 300 plus stores, so you can buy us in City Super. You can buy us in you know like Slow Vought. You can buy us on our website. You can buy us at a lot of like bars, bottle shops, restaurants, and we're available at a lot of like bars, bottle shops, restaurants and we're available at a lot of places. But obviously since then the business model has evolved. You can also find us in 7-Eleven, but with 7-Eleven the logic and the model is that we make a custom product for 7-Eleven, so it's still Brewer, but a product made by Brewer for 7-Eleven. So now there are a lot many different models at play which we can discuss, but our own products you can obviously find in bars, bottle shops, restaurants. You go to 99 Bottles, the most popular on Peel Street. You can find us there. So you can find us at a lot of these different popular craft beer places.

Hoiki Liu: 34:46

Okay, yeah, I guess it also makes sense that 7-11 does have, does sell, their own brands of baked goods. Yes. Do they give?

Naman Tekriwal: 34:56

it to you guys. So the logic with 7-Eleven is not baked goods, but it's something similar. So what we did with 7-Eleven is 7-Eleven has seven cafes, so what we do is that we collect coffee grounds from 7-Eleven, which is the powder which is left after you make coffee. Right?

Hoiki Liu: 35:13

And the coffee is actually not too bad.

Naman Tekriwal: 35:14

Yeah, it's $16. So, like you know, any day. But we take the coffee grounds and then we make a coffee stout for 7-Eleven. Oh wow. So we don't infuse artificial flavor. We actually upcycle coffee grounds, use that for the flavoring of the coffee along with the bread, and then we make a coffee stout for 7-eleven, which is now selling all 7-eleven stores in hong kong oh cool, all right.

Hoiki Liu: 35:40

Cheers to this one, first cheers, and this is the pale. Ale yes, it's definitely less citrusy and less crisp than the last one. The last one has a very bright hit, correct? But I almost want to say this this seems like an easier drink though yeah, so the pale ale and the like lagers are just more fermented.

Naman Tekriwal: 36:05

Pale ales are less fermented. So like, that's why it's different styles, right. Pale ale, it's more crushable. You can keep drinking more and more of pale ales. Lagers bloat you less, so that's why the germans drink lagers. Oh wow, germans. The reason why they can drink beer over water is because they drink like three percent lagers. So like that's why they can drink like 10, 15, 20 a day. Right, because they do 3% and it's a lager, so it won't bloat you.

Hoiki Liu: 36:34

How do you control the alcohol level?

Naman Tekriwal: 36:38

So you technically can't control. You do the pH testing after the alcohol is made, but you know, with the time of fermentation and the type of yeast and grain you're using, that what's your target range? Like, our target range for most beers is between the four to five percent, but bread has more sugar and processed than grain, so that's why you'll find all our beers to be 5.5, because you ended up having more sugar, right? So, for example, there are breweries in Hongong which, like add actual mango juice to make like mango beers, yeah, right, and those beers can be like 13 as well, because it's like actual solid fructose being eaten by yeast.

Hoiki Liu: 37:24

So that's why you'll create more alcohol in that process I see and so um, are you guys still looking to scale up BRR? Is it going to go international, I guess? Is there a chance?

Naman Tekriwal: 37:40

Well, we're speaking at the right time because we just launched in Singapore a month ago, okay, great. So after four years of operations in Hong Kong, we decided that there are other places where we can apply the same solution, but we are not the export model, because that is against the entire mission of sustainability. We don't want to export. What we want to do is take local bread from Singapore, make it locally and then make a custom product for Singapore. So the products we launch in Singapore will not be a mandarin sour, it will be a pandan lager, because Singapore loves not be a mandarin sour, right, it will be a pandan lager Because Singapore loves pandan.

Naman Tekriwal: 38:16

Singapore loves kaya toast. So why will I use white bread? I will use kaya toast, right, so it has to be localized. So we just launched in Singapore with our first pilot product, again in a similar collaboration, of what we do in Hong Kong and we're also going to launch in India by the end of the year. Oh, do in Hong Kong and we're also going to launch in India by the end of the year, oh, great. So, yeah, now we have plans of taking Brewer International.

Hoiki Liu: 38:37

Oh, that's exciting to hear. So how I mean to grow it in this kind of scale, how do you secure funding? How do you go to the different?

Naman Tekriwal: 38:51

areas. Do you approach in each area locally again. So Brewer is fully bootstrapped area locally again, or so breer is fully bootstrapped. We never raised external funding. Me and my co-founder own 100 of the company.

Naman Tekriwal: 38:58

But the caveat was that, you know, we raised a lot of money through grants and competitions. Like we pitched to a lot of government grants, we pitched to a lot of competitions, right, and I think that's a message to all you know, student entrepreneurs, because it's very you know like, lack of a better word sexy to say that you know, I'll go and raise funds, but we all I mean, we were also enamored by the sexiness we also went to a VC that, hey, we want to raise funds, we want to scale, they're like, sure, but you'll have to drop out. And how do I convince my Indian parents that I want to drop out of a university? Like it just doesn't work that way. So it was uh, I didn't even raise that conversation, right so that, hey, actually I'm on a student loan but I'm gonna drop out of university. You know like, so I didn't even raise that, but I was like, you know, like every student comes up to me and be like I have an amazing, brilliant idea, but I don't have money. I'm that's the worst excuse you can give me. You know, like, like, literally, the first check of 50K was written by HKUST to us. Like, you have to be at the right place and you have to have the right business plan. Right, hkust amazingly supports entrepreneurs. You know, like, that's why there's a reason that if Hong Kong has generated 13 or 14 unicorns, 9 or 10 are from HKUST Because of how the university treats entrepreneurs. Right, like the fact that we literally got an entire office to work at HKUST. They gave me special permissions to store alcohol in my dorm room.

Naman Tekriwal: 40:28

All of this helps, right? So that's the logic, that's the idea, idea, and we have never raised funding and we always ran this company with the idea of profit, right? So the one core philosophy of this company is the three p's, which is people, planet and profit, because without profit you're running an NGO, right? You have to generate profit for you to serve people and the planet. So we always wanted to be a profit-making company since the first year. So we, you know, we focused on that. We didn't want the burn to earn model that you keep burning for 10 years and then, you know, you finally take an exit. It's a model. People do it, I don't support it. Right, so we never raised money. People do it, I don't support it, so we never raised money.

Naman Tekriwal: 41:17

And now we are profitable enough to finance our operations. We don't need more money. We can easily scale into other countries because of our asset light model. We don't own any factories. We work with existing factories with strong IP and strong legal documentation and we don't need manufacturing setups. Thus, it is very easy for breer to scale as a concept, because we just go to other countries and be like, hey, we'll do the same concept. We find a partner and we become the r&d, we become the idea, you become the local logistics partner and the local support partner.

Hoiki Liu: 41:48

So that's how breer scaling globally now that is so, that's so, that's so smart and so clever. So I mean, I guess all of this did come to you because ever since you were a student, you've been joining a lot of different competitions and hackathons. I also want to try the next beer, but okay, so you've won. I got this from you on LinkedIn, but you've won over 35 hackathons, including by Grab, Haggadice, Deloitte. But when did you start and how many competitions were you looking at in a year? Or was it like how did you decide what competitions to join, when to join? What's that whole process?

Naman Tekriwal: 42:34

Well, the answer to it was simple right. For me, learning is experiential learning. Like you know, when people say that, naman, how did you manage the time to run a company while you were a student? I'm like it is so complimentary, you know. Like, whatever I was learning in university, I was applying to Breer. Whatever I was learning at Breer, I was applying in university. It is so complimentary and I feel university can help you.

Naman Tekriwal: 43:02

But university can't make you skilled right. The skills really come from you doing actual things. And I feel hackathons and case competitions are you getting a outlet to do that? For example, in hackathon with grab or hagen does right. It's like the company is facing a problem which is an actual commercial problem. How do you solve for it? That's the thinking which people should have and that's why, more than entrepreneurship, I'm an advocate for entrepreneurial mindset, because that you can apply even if you're an employee, even if you're an ngo worker, even if you're a housewife, even if you're a politician. Entrepreneurial mindset is more important, right than being an entrepreneur.

Naman Tekriwal: 43:49

So I think these hackathons really form the foundation of you know you doing and approaching problems in the right way. How can you break down problems? How can you structure solutions, how to pitch better, how to present better. You know, like when I participated in my first hackathon, I remember like our pitch was so bad. You know, because in india, you know, we're literally raised with the value that wrote learn everything. You know. Like wrote, learn the entire script and just blurb it out.

Naman Tekriwal: 44:16

But that's not how presentations are. There's a component of storytelling, there's a component of composure, poise. You know, literally, like now, when I write my scripts or when I practice my scripts, it's like an average human can speak 150 minutes, 150, 150 words in a minute. Right, that's the average. I try to speak 130 so that you seem more calm, you seem more composed. But in India you'll be like I'll go fast, as fast as you can. 200, 250, 300, just comprise all the knowledge you have.

Naman Tekriwal: 44:49

I'm like that's not how it works, it's not the quantity, it's the quality. So that's like just so many things which you learn out of these experiences, right? So I feel these hackathons and case competitions are what university can really give you and the opportunity to meet so many other like-minded students, the opportunity to meet, like literally, like because of that one competition orientation, I met my co-founder, right? It's like people say, how will I meet my co-founder? I'm like, if someone has taken the initiative to participate in a case competition, there are anywhere above 99% who haven't taken the initiative. So the filter is already there for you that the people who are taking the initiative are the people who you want as co-founders, and then you make cherry nitpicking after that. So I feel these competitions are really helpful for you to build a mindset of how to solve problems.

Hoiki Liu: 45:43

Right. So it's a great way to, I guess, set up your path for logic, yeah yeah, logical past. So, I guess, are these hackathons that you joined, were they in university mostly, or in high school already, because you already represented India twice while you were in high school? Anyway, right?

Naman Tekriwal: 46:05

because I just wanted again experiential learning, learning by doing. I just wanted to do that right. So, literally, like my my high school teachers infamously say that across 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade, I would have sat in class for one year because, because you're always out competing, exactly, I was like literally just going out and you know, representing india, representing my school in different things. So this is a sour beer. So different, this is a sour beer. So we, we saw like so this is a very unique beer. This was our chinese new year special, so it's bread, and what we do, uh, beyond the bread, is we we worked with juice shops in hong kong, collected mandarin peels and then the mandarin was zested in the recipe, so it was mandarin peels also being upcycled. This was a Chinese New Year edition.

Hoiki Liu: 46:59

I can taste the mandarin instantly, right away. And actually this is all they can say. I love how it says one can serves 20 grams of surface bread, 4 grams of mandarin peels, 0.3 meter square landfill space nice and 0.055 meter square of water. Correct? With this beer, you are supporting UNSDG number 12.

Naman Tekriwal: 47:26

Which is responsible? Consumption and production.

Hoiki Liu: 47:28

Perfect. Oh, I love, I actually love this. It's a little bit small for my eyes but, wow, this is like fine print that I actually want to read. So going back, oh, but cheers for us. This is really interesting, but I can totally see this being a Mandarin, like a Chinese New Year or any chinese dishes. It's like opening a dinner opener. Instead of your welcome champagne, you have your welcome and I mean sour beers.

Naman Tekriwal: 48:00

You know are very unique to the craft beer world because you find palers and lagers everywhere. But if you can do a good sour which is not overpowering and yet palatable, which means you did the right job right.

Hoiki Liu: 48:13

Because I will say most of the time and Joey knows this most of the time, I don't like citrus beers.

Naman Tekriwal: 48:18

Yeah.

Hoiki Liu: 48:18

Yeah, but this is really nice.

Naman Tekriwal: 48:20

Well, that's supposed to my girlfriend. She likes citrus beers. She only likes citrus beers.

Hoiki Liu: 48:25

I always stay away from it. Actually, I'm usually more of a red L drinker.

Naman Tekriwal: 48:32

Speaks the Canada.

Hoiki Liu: 48:34

There you go, yes, so okay, with all these competitions, challenges, hackathons that you've joined, now you've started your own right. What is this thing that you started? Yang Taikun Business Challenge. Is it correct and localized, or would it be localized?

Naman Tekriwal: 48:53

Yang Taikun's's business challenge. You know, honestly, if you ask me that, until, whatever I've achieved in my life till date, what am I most proud of? I would say it's by tbc, which is young tycoon's business challenge, and the reason I say that is because we started it, because there was covid right and and you started this while you're a student.

Hoiki Liu: 49:15

I get that.

Naman Tekriwal: 49:16

Okay, correct, so I started this when, in my second year of university right so it was COVID, peak of COVID right, everything was on Zoom Again, factories were shut down. This is when Omicron was taking off, like the second wave, you know, after the first wave was done, and we were, like you know, like, first of all, this was me and my high school best friends were separated in different parts of the world. I was like I need a reason to talk to you every day, right? So then we I was like, you know, we want to do something together and we, for me, you know, you, you mentioned about the, the business plan competition I participated in during high school and I feel, in many ways, that competition formed, like you know, the building blocks, or the Lego blocks, of my entrepreneurial journey, because that competition taught me what is a business plan, what is a pitch deck, you know, like all of these very, very basic things.

Naman Tekriwal: 50:11

So I was like you, you know, there are many opportunities like this for university students, but there are still not a lot of opportunities for high school students, and I wanted to do something and you had time on hand, right, because it was COVID, everything was online. That was like, let's start something which is a competition, but at the same time, it's a movement where I can get access to high school students anywhere in the world because it's online to experts anywhere in the world, right? So it was a competition where student teams got mentors, they got workshops, they got resources and we literally started it as a passion project, like you know, no intention, like it was fully non-for-profit we did not generate a single dollar of money with this and we literally started with the first and I was, like you know, like let's see if we can get 100 applications, and when we closed applications, we had over 20,000 applications from 70 countries in the world how do you even handle that so?

Naman Tekriwal: 51:15

yeah, when we saw the numbers, right, I was like, okay, we need a team. You know, I had four people, so, but then, to start this competition, I partnered up with an edtech company in India which had the right resources and then, you know, like brick by brick, we created a team of like 250 student volunteers, so at one point, there were 250 people reporting. We created a team of like 250 student volunteers, so at one point, there were 250 people reporting to me, all of them being students. So this entire competition was by students for students. Oh wow, and then we ran this and then we raised sponsorships, like our competition till date has been the competition which has awarded the most money in cash prizes for across high school competitions. So the winner gets 5000 usd, which is a lot of money for a high school student, right?

Naman Tekriwal: 52:00

So we ran this for, you know, two years online and then we downsized it to become offline because as soon as covid ended, people didn't want online stuff anymore. People wanted physical experiences. So we downsized it to be physical and I passed it off again, healthily someone else to run the physical operations. But the two years I ran it online, right, the the thing which really humbled me, or I'm like, really grateful for is it was not only students from the US or Hong Kong or India, which are more mature markets, but we had students from like Mongolia, sudan, you know, like Nigeria, and they probably don't even have access to basic education, but they had access to entrepreneurial education and that was so heartwarming for me that you know I'm able to create, like, at least just sow this seed, that work for yourself.

Naman Tekriwal: 52:55

Don't be a job seeker, be a job giver yeah and that was like you know, like when we ran this for two years, we, you know, changed the life and I still hear stories of like students that, hey, I became an entrepreneur now because of what you taught me back in the day. Right at one point we had over a thousand mentors as part of the program, doing workshops, you know, working with students, and I think everyone was just coming from an altruistic sense. No one wanted to make money in this.

Hoiki Liu: 53:24

Yeah.

Naman Tekriwal: 53:24

But the impact which we have created, we probably won't see it immediately, but 10 years down the line, when we see it like I see, like someone just pitched on Shark Tank who was a past participant of YTMBC, I'm like this is what I wanted you know, like if, even if we can create like one Elon Musk, yeah. From all the 40,000 participants of that competition. The mission was achieved.

Hoiki Liu: 53:46

Yeah, Because not to like crap on current education.

Naman Tekriwal: 53:50

But it's no, we shouldn't crap on current education, but it's no, we shouldn't crap on current education.

Hoiki Liu: 53:54

To be very honest, I need a few more drinks to do that properly. Yeah, but no, like I mean they can't help it. In a way, they're failing our kids because they haven't caught up. Exactly, I don't even. It's not that they haven't caught up with the future, they haven't even caught up with what's happening currently, you know, we're studying from curriculums that was built like how many years ago?

Naman Tekriwal: 54:18

For sure, and, like, honestly, I don't blame the universities or the schools, right, because it is too hard to catch up. Yeah, exactly, and that's why I feel the future of education has to be experiential.

Hoiki Liu: 54:33

And it also needs exactly what you say. It's those mentors who have the real-life experience to be willing to come in and participate and not work against the educators, but alongside the educators, so they can really bridge the knowledge of real-life experiences and what's teaching you being taught as theories. How does that actually play through in real life? So, with that said, how do students sign up for this going forward? Can they? Because now you say it's offline?

Naman Tekriwal: 55:02

Yes, so it's offline. So, after running it for two years online, we basically partnered up with Harvard Student Agencies, which is a student-run body out of Harvard University which basically took over the program. So now this program you can still apply for it via Harvard student agencies, but it's a much downsized operation because they have to do it physically at Harvard.

Naman Tekriwal: 55:24

And which is not necessarily a bad thing a lot of times, because if you're finding that group of students that's actually really keen and they're not just here to you know, to play, but they're here to get serious about something like via this platform, right, I will recommend students to just apply for anything right, you know, just apply for competitions, hackathons, anything which you can get access to, because the experiential learning and the knowledge you get from it like, like I always tell people right, as a student entrepreneur, like becoming an entrepreneur as a student is the best thing you can do, because you have nothing to lose, you don't have a kid to feed, you know you don't have any dependence on you. What's the worst which will happen? The startup will fail and you will have a degree and you can go and get a job. As simple as that, right, but not taking the risk is the biggest risk, because if you took the risk, like, a failed startup is still 10 times better than a successful MBA.

Naman Tekriwal: 56:42

Because I learned marketing in university. So I learned only about marketing, yes, about certain subjects, but when I start a company and I scale it to even certain extent, I learn about accounting, supply chain marketing, hr, manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, everything. So it is a crash course of what you will study in business school over four years. So why not start something? That's my thinking right? Pinking light okay.

Hoiki Liu: 57:10

So, um, I want to ask you and more more, a deeper um, I want to go deeper on your failures actually, because you've done so many, like you said, like failures it's how you look at it. It's not necessarily fairly, but it's probably a really good lesson. That kind of spoke you to where you are today because of what you've learned. You know, when you've done something that maybe didn't have the most favorable outcome, what are some of those experiences that's happened that's really shaped or given you this, you know, light For sure I mean first of all, right.

Naman Tekriwal: 57:49

This has, like, become my go-to saying in anywhere I do public speaking right. That for me, fail is an acronym which stands for first attempt in learning. Right f-a-i-n. First attempt in learning. Because a failure is only qualified as a failure if you don't learn out of it. If you learned out of it, it's a learn, it's not a failure.

Naman Tekriwal: 58:12

So, for me, I wear my failures as my badges of pride, because those are my learning steps, those are my stepping stones to, like, you know, learn and like. Even today, every day, I feel as an entrepreneur. Right, like, yes, we launched in singapore right now, but we're not doing well, you know, we're like, we have to do more. You know like, and I get rejections every day from bars and bottle shops till date that, hey, you're too expensive, hey, our customers won't like the idea of sustainability. But I think, formationally right, I think the ability to cope with failures is more important. Like, for example, I would say the one experience which really shaped my ability to cope with failures was that I was standing up for the student council elections in my high school and I did not get elected as the you know, like, the leader of the student council or whatever.

Naman Tekriwal: 59:04

And for me you know, like, because it's like people hyping you up that you will do it, you have that in your mind, that you will do it, but you set the expectation in the bar so high and you don't make it right. So there's a lot to do with how you manage expectations and how you manage those failures, but, like, how you come out of it right, like, for example, right even at HKUST there was this one. There's this one popular program called global business. Right, only 40 students accepted every year and I, you can apply for a major three times at hkust. I applied all three times to get into global business and I was rejected all three times. Right. And after, you know, I graduated with breer and all of these things.

Hoiki Liu: 59:47

The program director said it was our loss not yours yeah, right, because I was like you, well, well, you didn't get accepted a program. You were actually start to run global business, exactly, exactly right, so I was.

Naman Tekriwal: 59:59

Every failure has to strengthen you, so I feel there have been so many failures across brier's journey as well. Right, like I remember one of the biggest mistakes, failures, learning, was that I remember we had this contract with a big, large conglomerate for bread collection. Right, and you're still a small company and your resource constraint. So we had, like this, one small fridge in which we would store the bread. And I remember we had to do a test batch and we required like five kgs of bread. And then we spoke to this company. We went to collect and they gave us 10 kgs of bread instead of five. And now then we spoke to this company. We went to collect and they gave us 10 kgs of bread instead of five. And now, like, we have to take it right, we can't reject it, but we only need five. So our small fridge could only fit five. So we stored the five and we had no other option but to leave the five outside. And then this was like, already 2am in the night, we were like, let's go and sleep, we'll figure it out tomorrow. And when we came back tomorrow morning, the, the cleaners had thrown it away, the, the five kgs of bread, right. And then we get a call from the university sustainability office that you know this, this company who had the contract with is extremely anguished because their brand was tarnished. That you're. You know, people find their bread in the, in the garbage area and things like that, and the company took away the contract. Like they, they stopped giving us bread right.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:01:24

And it was such a big learning about how do you manage stakeholders yes, yes, like I am still an 18 year old, 19 year old, like how do I do board meetings? How do I go into relationships, like the fact that, how do you manage relationships at the corporate level, is such a valuable learning which I got when I was 19. Yes, right, that you have to manage expectations. You have to be truthful, you have to be honest and you know we could have maybe rejected the five kgs there at least we would have still saved the contract. But we were like, might as well, take it, we'll figure it out.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:01:56

But we weren't able to figure it out. So I think all of these learnings were really important and like forming you know, like now, what we do at brior or any of my other experiences, right, how do you communicate? How do you manage expectations and I feel, at end of it, all of it is really to do with integrity and value. You know like if you're able to deal with it, you'll make it, but some people get so bogged down by failures or so you know like overwhelmed by failures, that it's very difficult for them to come out of it, and I think the more you train yourself to deal with it, the more you can, you know, excel and scale in life.

Hoiki Liu: 1:02:32

Right, that's a really good way of looking at things. Can we get our next one?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:02:38

Next one and our best seller actually oh, really Great, so it's gonna. Once I introduce it, you will be like I'm so excited.

Hoiki Liu: 1:02:47

Because I want to make sure we have something great for my next question.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:02:52

Amazing. So this one is actually our best seller and it recently won best IPA in Hong Kong as well. So IPA stands for like Indian Pale Ale right. So these are again more like I'm very nuanced, but I would say the most popular choice for craft beer in Hong Kong. I was like, if it's the most popular choice, we will do it with the most popular choice, we will do it with the most popular bread of hong kong, which is bolobab I was just gonna say so.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:03:18

The pineapple, it's a pineapple bun beer, right, and I want to pan on his face right now people go crazy over it, yeah, and it's my favorite beer and it's like it's a beer when, when we launch, it's sold out before launch, right, like as soon as we restock, it's sold out before we even restock. So, and I would really recommend you drinking it first. Give it a smell. Yeah, you realize, um, how much nuanced this beer is oh, even the color yeah, it's veryzy.

Hoiki Liu: 1:03:51

It's the ball up our top. It does have a gosh. It feels like it has a pineapple smell, but it's the pineapple bun doesn't have any pineapple, exactly.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:04:09

So that's the story I was coming to right. So me as an expat, I didn't know. Pineapple bun doesn't have pineapple, right? So when we made the first beer from pineapple bun, I was like why does it not taste like pineapple? And then my co-founder, who is local, like she told me that it doesn't have pineapple, so it should not taste like pineapple. But I'm like do you really think expats will know that it doesn't have pineapple? And then we obviously did customer service for us to understand. Everyone thinks bolobao has pineapple, right? Yeah, and then we intentionally add fresh pineapple to the recipe. That's why there's pineapple flavor okay, I was just got.

Hoiki Liu: 1:04:47

I thought my eyes was tricking my sense of smell, you know no.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:04:51

And so now this is the most um alcohol beverage content in our beers. It's 6.3 percent because of the sugar in bolobo. So the bolobo is already so sugary, right? So if you look at plain white bread, you can start with the lager at 4.8, but the bolobo is so sugary that the beer becomes 6.3. So if I I tomorrow use a donut, it might be 8%. If I use a chocolate croissant, it might be 10%.

Hoiki Liu: 1:05:18

So yeah, what about the oils in the bread? Because in local Chinese bread like bolabao, they use often, they use lard.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:05:25

Yeah.

Hoiki Liu: 1:05:26

I guess when you go to India they use ghee.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:05:28

Yeah.

Hoiki Liu: 1:05:28

In Singapore? I have no idea what they do.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:05:33

So, yes, there in singapore I have no idea what they do. But so, yes, there is like we obviously have to use bolobas which doesn't have lard, you know, otherwise it becomes a non-vegetarian beer in many regards. Right, so we use bolobas which don't have lard. But at the same time, the reason you mention oils right, so oils disturb the stability of the beer, like you know, it won't be a stable beer, it'll have a very off taste. That's why what we do is, whenever we're working with a new bread, we first lactose the bread and we understand what all will this add to the beer, and then we figure out the recipe around that bread. So this bread intentionally has to have lactose, otherwise we cannot make a stable beer, right so it is a very nuanced process. That's why other beer companies can launch a beer in a month. We cannot, because there's so much R&D involved, right?

Hoiki Liu: 1:06:22

Well, I was just going to say, because it's like coming back to in fashion, when we talk about having your virgin polyester fabric versus your recycled polyester fabric. It actually takes so much more time and energy to get recycled materials into the fabric because you have to do so much cleanup. Basically, long story, short, right. I'm guessing with beer also, because when you're fermenting beer from the wheats, it's so easy, you know exactly what that ingredient is, right. But with beer, yeah. With bread. With beer, you have to first find out so much more, yeah.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:06:58

So that's why the process is much more longer, and then you obviously have to achieve the right balance of taste right balance is the most important thing and, like one common feedback I've heard across all of our beers is that there is slightly less carbonation compared to if you pour a chinkta or asahi, because there is oils in the bread so it will stop carbonation from happening. So we try our best to retain as much as possible, but I can say it openly that it won't be exact. The first one was super carbonated. Yes, because that's again the lightest beer, right, and the most simplest bread. So that's why it's that's literally the recipe of the first one is five ingredients. So, like there's no fidgeting going on with the recipe or different types of you know elements, but as soon as you make it more, for example, right.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:07:55

So last winter Mercedes was launching, like their EV or something like that, right, and they wanted a local product to give to like people who were coming to the launch event. They're like, can you guys do something? So we made like a egg waffle beer for them. Yes, that's interesting, it was like you know, know, they were like, we want something local and you know, can you do something? Because it's winter, so can you do a stout? So we did like an egg waffle stout for mercedes and now egg waffle right, it's. It's not even a bread. Yeah, it has sugar. Yeah, so you can make beer out of that. So it's like you have to do testing. But we already told them that getting fermentation, like getting carbonation in this, is going to be tough, you know, because it's like egg waffle, there's like so much gone into the batter, so much, so there are nuances there.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:08:41

But you know like brands love to work with us because it is their way of checking two very important boxes local and sustainable, yeah, right. So us working with swire properties. Like you know, they have rooftop farms and they had pandan leaves which were drying up, so we made like a pandan milkshake ipa for swire properties. There's hong kong tramways, which had their 120th anniversary and then, you know, we made like a egg tart beer and the egg tarts were collected across the tramway route. So, like you know, they got the story to tell. So, similarly, we just work with so many brands and enable them to be sustainable, like 7-eleven, max, sims all of these are same stories, right that?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:09:25

so we, our largest partnership in hong kong is with maxims yeah because maxims controls like 70 of the bread supply chain in hong kong.

Hoiki Liu: 1:09:32

Yes, right so and I've approached- maxims many times about brand donations or bun runs and Because Maxim's controls like 70% of the bread supply chain in Hong Kong. Yes, right, and I've approached Maxim's many times about brand donations or bun runs and they said they've already donated to somebody. So I guess that's you?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:09:41

No, I mean, there are many people. So they donate to Feeding Hong Kong, they donate to fish feed farms, they donate to us. They donate Because if you control so much, you have you waste so much, right so you have to donate so much. And maxims has been an incredible supporter for bria, right? So? We've made two products with them which sells in almost all their restaurants. So, like kagura, kikusan, sendrio, thai basil, wildfire, like you, have more 250 restaurants, right, soon we will sell in, like some of their other restaurants, like shake shack you need to be in shake shack because they have their food waste.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:10:15

That's the next step. That's the next step. So we're going to do that, and we're working with them on some really interesting products for their tea houses as well. So there's a lot of things which we're doing with them. They're also very experimental and one of our most trusted partners.

Hoiki Liu: 1:10:29

Great, let's get our last one.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:10:34

Yeah, most excited. Great, let's get our last one. Yeah, most excited about the last one, actually, because that's something which you probably wouldn't have had ever.

Hoiki Liu: 1:10:38

Okay, I'm excited to try because it's been very, very good so far, and it's so very interesting how, when you guys close this, it's actually all in like this is a mandarin, correct and this is both of them are breads. Yes, what's the?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:10:49

difference between that one and this one. It's the same one. It's the same one. Okay, cool. So the last one is something which you know I proudly stand for, because this is purely driven by customer feedback. So now, one thing I still like to do very actively is do pop up booths, because that's where you hear customer feedback, life right. So I remember this came to me in a pop-up booth that someone said that hey, I want to support your mission, but I'm muslim and I cannot drink. How can you help me? Or, like you know, I'm pregnant, or I'm lactose intolerant, or I'm this. Like you know, there are so many people who and, in general, there's a health trend where people are trying to like you to do away from alcohol.

Hoiki Liu: 1:11:34

So we were like let's create a, and I feel like in the whole motion of being inclusive, no one's ever thought about the person that doesn't drink alcohol. We're all like, oh, we're going to go party, we're going to have so much fun, we're going to have drink. What about the person who wants to beat up but doesn't drink?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:11:47

Exactly so. We created a non-alcoholic beer, and our take on non-alcoholic was very different from other brands. Right, we wanted to celebrate hong kong, but we we wanted people to feel like oh, you're not drinking beer, you're drinking a pina colada, you're drinking a juice. So we used uh gai mei bao, which is cocktail bun.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:12:07

You know it has a coconut filling, so when you drink it, it's like you're drinking pina colada, but non-alcoholic, that's awesome, so in a beer right so, and usually you know how it's like, uh, like semi-circle shape, so that's why this closes in that specific way, that's so cute so this is a non-alcoholic beer and now we're going really big on the non-alcoholic segment. We're launching another non-alcoholic beer really soon, so you'll see the color being very light because it has no fermentation. So it is.

Hoiki Liu: 1:12:35

It has to be a light color and I actually was at, uh like a coffee rave with my son okay, nice, he's nine years old, that I mean we're meeting one of my customers who ran the place. So he just stopped by with me and came by and, um, you know, coffee right being totally fine because they were serving cookies and coffees and you know he can get a iced chocolate if he wanted. But they had a sponsor that day, so actually they had no alcohol on premise and when it's it's summer right now, so it's hot. So when we arrived my son, I gave him the non-alcoholic beer Because you know it was given to me. I took a sip of it and I was like, oh, this is not really beer.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:13:22

I did it and I gave it to him and he likes it, but yeah, so let's see how this one tastes, cheers.

Hoiki Liu: 1:13:36

Oh, I can taste the coconut. It tastes like summer in a cup. It tastes like coconut water in a way, but like more crisp.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:13:46

Yeah, and a beer.

Hoiki Liu: 1:13:53

Yeah, but not alcoholic. So I mean honestly, namin, it seems to me like you're already super successful and you've only graduated for like two years. I knew that it's summer now we're almost there.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:14:05

Okay.

Hoiki Liu: 1:14:07

But even though I think you're so successful already, how do you define success?

Naman Tekriwal: 1:14:12

For me, the definition of success is impact. You know, for me, the companies I start, the impact they create is my success. Profit is a part of it, but it's the larger impact which they're creating. The fact that, till Brea's history right, we've been able to save close to 200 tons of bread not going to a landfill right, more than 40 tons of carbon emissions not being emitted in the environment that's success. Right? Profit is a byproduct it will come if you have a rice product, but for me, the success on a business side is definitely the impact I create. Right, because that is what is my purpose in life. On a personal side, success to me means how can I create more people who think like me? Right, because for me, like this is an effort to make more people aware that we need impact driven businesses, we need purpose driven businesses, and the fact that we have corporates like Maxim's working with three or four year old companies where they could have worked with a Carlsberg, a Heineken, an AB and Bev right with a Carlsberg, a Heineken, an AB and Bev right, just goes out to show that this has to change across all institutions government, education, corporates, startups, everywhere. Right, where one of the biggest challenges I faced when I start any company is like, oh, you're a baby, you're too young, you know how will you start. And I'm like I will let my actions speak for myself. I don't want to defend my age, right, I'm still learning. Learning will always be a work in progress. But on the personal side, right, I mentor so many students, like, for example, I'm a part of a program that I mentor ethnic minority students which are disadvantaged compared to other students. Right, so it it's like how can I just enable more people to you know, like that's my way of like giving back, that's my mission of how we can create more people with this mindset that, whatever they do, they think from the lens of impact, and that is what matters to me.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:16:29

Right, and in the end, there should be commercial success. Always, right, you know, don't do it out of a charity. Don't put your interests below society's interest. Always put yourself first. But don't maximize shareholder value, maximize stakeholder value and think about everyone who's involved in the supply chain, the people who are making the bread, the people who are making your. Yeah, for example, right, our cans because we get the bread for free could be cheaper, but the labels are soy based ink labels the can is recycled aluminium because it matters. You know like and like. Literally so many people have made the pitch to me that you know like now everyone knows you as a bread beer brand. Stop using bread, you know. Go to china, make it for like one-tenth the cost and then make so much money Like. That's not the purpose. The purpose comes first. Profit will be a balanced byproduct of the outcome. So for me, success professionally is impact and personally is how I can create more people with this mindset.

Hoiki Liu: 1:17:33

When I look at you now, I think success is how you can shape the world.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:17:38

How we can create more change makers, how we can make the world a better place to live.

Hoiki Liu: 1:17:44

Yeah, I'm so happy we had you here today.

Naman Tekriwal: 1:17:47

Thank you so much it was my pleasure being here at Conscious Cut.

Hoiki Liu: 1:17:51

Thank you.