To keep calm, most people live life in moderation.
Jeffrey McIntosh doesn't take life in moderation; he takes it to the extreme. His extreme, almost nutty personality, translates to his new company, Teabook. His life before starting Teabook was extreme, but in a negative way.
An Inspiration That Seeps
McIntosh, a Graduate from the Seattle Founder Institute, used to live the good life. He was 16 years old, going to school, and working at a good-paying job. On the outside, his life was good. Yet, he never had an avenue for dealing with stress and anxiety. His outlet was drugs and alcohol.
One day, he had a sip of loose-leaf tea. That sip would change his life. "When I had the chance to actually be calm for that moment," says McIntosh, "[the tea] brought me a lot of realization and clarity."
From that moment on, he was hooked on tea. McIntosh dropped out of school, quit his job, and starting working at a tea shop, a place where he "would have worked for free." After working a few months, he was assigned to go to China for a couple of months. McIntosh either couldn't do math or loved China so much, he stayed for twelve months instead of two. The year in China helped McIntosh establish long-lasting business relationships, partners he still works with today.
The Busy Business Man
Once back in the States, he went to work. He started two other tea companies before founding Teabook. The 25-year-old CEO of Teabook is so passionate about tea, he says "nothing is going to stop me." To this point, nothing has stopped him.
His business model for Teabook is simple; consumers buy a monthly subscription to receive tea every month in a box. People who buy the monthly subscription will receive a free tumbler. The tumbler is a double-walled container that looks like a travel mug and works like a tea infuser. The loose-leaf tea comes in a packet, measured perfectly so tea lovers can pour the entire packet into the tumbler, along with hot water. The tea will naturally infuse in the tumbler, which can be carried around like a travel mug to different destinations.
What sets Teabook apart from the rest of the crowd is the source of his tea. His tea comes from over 30 different farms in China. His partners in China cultivate the tea-plants without chemicals or pesticides. Every month, subscribers will receive a different tea (either white, green, oolong, red, or a special tea), depending on the season. Also, the tea-plant is self-sustaining.
A Sustaining Future
While the tea-plant is self-sustaining, there are some improvements McIntosh wants to make in order to create a sustainable business. The first step for being sustainable is to create bio-degradable boxes and tea packets. To create more trust between the growers and the subscribers, there will be videos every month to feature the farmer's gardens in China. Also, starting next year, subscribers can design their own box they receive each month from Teabook.
McIntosh believes the future is in millenials, so his minimalist design and simple business model attract the millenials in the thousands (he has over 10,000 subscribers, who each pay $24.99 a month for a box of tea).
He's also a simple guy.
"I'm simple. I want to get good tea to people," McIntosh says.
With his focus and passion, he went all in on tea, the one drink that calmed him down. Teabook has given McIntosh the opportunity to share his passion with the rest of the tea-drinking world, beginners and experts alike.
