Door Knocking Your Way Into 100+ Retailers While Navigating a Difficult Raise with Rosa Li
Female Founder Collective's CEO, Alison Wyatt sits down with wildwonder Founder and CEO Rosa Li to how she navigated funding wildwonder (including financing her car to fund the brand), door knocking her way into 100+ retailers, managing her team and inventory at scale, and how to stand out in a crowded market to move product.
MORE ABOUT ROSA LI
Rosa Li is the founder and CEO of wildwonder, the world’s first sparkling beverage to combine both prebiotics and probiotics for a healthy gut. Inspired by the Chinese healing tonics her grandmother brewed for her as a child, each can is the perfect blend of the herbs and botanicals from her heritage and the bold fruit flavors of a California fruit stand, where she now calls home.
As a Stanford Business School Graduate and former private equity and venture investor, Li turned to food as the solution to her stress induced health issues while working on Wall Street. She uncovered that over 70% of the body’s immune system lies in the gut microbiome, giving our gut the power to impact mood, energy levels, brain function, metabolism, and more. Rosa turned back to the traditional herbal medicine that calmed her stress and digestive system as a child growing up in China, developing a line of refreshing flavors that improve gut health without the traditionally bitter taste of medical herbs and spices.
Her entrepreneurial journey initially began with Rosali Tea, an artisanal tea business she ran from 2015-2017. Li traveled across Asia to source the best teas and herbs. This experience led her to create a more convenient and delicious way to deliver the benefits of Eastern herbal wisdom. So in 2020, wildwonder was born. By 2021, the company raised seed funding and Li expanded her business outside of the Northern California area, where it was previously sold exclusively. Li showcased her bold, effervescent flavors on Shark Tank in 2023, winning over guest shark and Doordash CEO Tony Xu. The business has continued to expand and wildwonder can now be found at Sprouts, The Fresh Market, Erewhon Market, and select Whole Foods and Target locations.
Li is on a mission not only to establish wildwonder as the next big functional beverage brand, but also to create wonders in everyday life and for those under-voiced in our communities. Five percent of profits from every drink goes towards causes that empower women and marginalized communities. The wildwonder brand was designed by a diverse female-led creative team, and Li strives to bring more diversity and representation to retail shelves as well uplift marginalized voices through donations and partnerships.
She is a Fulbright Scholar and Tory Burch Fellow.