Commoditeas
Tea was never something Katrina Anderson thought would shape her career. It was a long journey and a love affair that grew out of her early exposure to tea and drinking it with her dad.
“It was the males in my family who really introduced me to tea. I found out my dad fell in love with tea because my great-grandfather drank tea 365 days a year. He wanted to be like my great-grandfather, so he started drinking tea and that’s how I was introduced to tea as a young girl.”
“Generally, you think about tea parties and you’re thinking mother, daughter, grandmother—a bunch of ladies with hats on. For me, my tea experience was the opposite of that. It was my father and I sitting down and talking about what’s on the news or current events or something in history over a cup of tea.”
Over time this connection to tea developed into a real interest. A serendipitous visit to a tea shop one day opened Katrina up to a world filed with countless varieties of fine teas and the people who appreciate them. She started thinking about the aesthetics of tea—the conceptions of who drinks tea and how and when. She wanted to reimagine tea and something wonderful that anyone could feel comfortable enjoying.
“Hospitality comes naturally to me. I am a pastor’s daughter from Virginia in a military town, so all we know is good hospitality down there. Combining my growing love and respect for the tea industry with the ability to really take care of people and serve people and show them respect, care, and concern. Tea became a really good way for me to do to do that.”
Her love and respect for tea soon grew beyond the level of hobby. Katrina was running successful pop-ups all over the city, developing her brand, and toying with the possibility of lunching a full-scale business. It was around this time that she applied and was accepted into the ProsperUS 2008 cohort.
Detroit based ProsperUS uses a placed based economic development strategy that harnesses the talent, energy, and ability of community members to transform neighborhood economies from within. They offer entrepreneurship training that is about more than creating a business plan, it’s about fostering community leadership. The classes focus on solid business planning principles, network building, forming ideas and concepts, all combined with personal and professional development.
Walking out of the ProsperUS program, that’s when Katerina realized she had a viable business in the city of Detroit. What had started as a little hobby, a brand no one had ever heard of, would grow into a vibrant and unique business that sold to clients like Warfare, Macys, and Walmart. But in order to take on these new clients, scaling the business was essential.
“ProsperUS has been instrumental not just from 2008 when I first was thinking of the concept, but even to date they are still supporting Commoditea’s efforts to scale. I am so excited about the partnership and all the support they have given us.”
Growing a business amid a pandemic, transitioning to a wholesale model, finding a permanent brick and mortar location—none of it has been easy for Katrina. But she has felt supported through many of these challenges and wants to encourage other entrepreneurs to carve out a space in their neighborhoods.
“I want to spread the good news about the work ProsperUS is doing and just encourage small business owners to continue to push forward. There are resources out there and there are organizations that really want to see us succeed and we forget that at times.”