Today we’d like to introduce you to Elise & Derrick Vu. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Our journey began in 1980. Derrick was 2 years old and our mom was 8 months pregnant with me when our parents decided to flee the communist reign in Vietnam. I guess our story is like most child refugees… along for the ride for a chance at a better life. If you asked our parents, they’d say a “better life” wasn’t enough, we needed to find the American Dream.
It really is a bit of a cliché when we look back on it! LOL, it was my mom and dad, of course, grandma, our eldest brother and sister, Derrick, and me… and we had one car *facepalm* Sounds like every Asian immigrant family we suppose… Money was never a luxury, but we had a healthy supply of Kung Fu movies to reenact, a devote Catholic grandma, and parents who were knee-deep in the Vietnamese music industry.
Derrick – For a little while, our parents did pretty well with their business endeavor. Being in the music community, they opened up dinner and show restaurant called “The Palace…” How’s that for cliché? Lol, of course, Asian business means free child labor (kidding, but not really!), but Elise and I loved our jobs. Elise was my employee and she got paid in cocktail cherries!
Elise – It’s true, but I loved cherries and he was a great boss. Gave me piggie back rides and protected me from monsters.
Elise – After elementary our lives split up pretty drastically, Derrick was an aspiring Casanova and I, well, I was stuck at home hearing about all his awesome business adventures.
Derrick – My first job was around 12, I sold newspaper subscriptions for the San Jose Mercury News, door to door, and made five bucks per sale. At 14, I “borrowed” my older brother’s ID and got a job at a company that we won’t mention here… but that didn’t last very long… lol I really enjoyed problem-solving, and the extra cash didn’t hurt either.
After 1997, our lives really went in different directions, it would be many, many, many, years before we see each other again.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Derrick – What eligible bachelor moves from beautiful California to Utah? I ask myself this all the time lol!
Elise – Definitely the work-life balance, collectively our family has invested everything into our dream. Years ago my husband and I along with our two kids moved to the beautiful state of Utah in 2014 from California. But it was during our 10-year anniversary gala, that we really started thinking of investing in our future. And as the universe would have it, Mr. Universe himself blessed us with his attendance!
Derrick and I started brainstorming what type of business we wanted to kick start, only this time, I wasn’t working for Cherries… We kicked around all sorts of ideas, ranging from selling magazine subscriptions to auctioning off Derrick at charity events, LOL.
We’d strategize for nearly 2 years until we fell on the Presotea franchise. We really started to get the ball rolling in December 2019 and right when we were getting ready to pull the trigger in 2020, the pandemic knock the world flat on its back…
Derrick – Jokes aside, this hit us hard, everything was put on hold. The news didn’t help either… Every other day announcements of businesses shutting down, the economy tanking, continued to put dampers on the plan. For a few months, my work as a Senior Regional RF Technician was unaffected. But once April came along, everything shut down and we were all sent home.
Still the pandemic helped us to really pour time into our vision; it helped us put critical effort into envisioning what our client’s experience should feel like. Facetime meetings became a weekly schedule, and by summer we were on calls daily.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Derrick: Well it’s really not work, it’s a living craft with an incredible origin story. You really need to understand the origins to understand the Presotea philosophy. Let’s start there; Presotea was born from 5 generations of tea farming and like any well balanced company they wanted to get their product to a more diverse demographic apart from the Asian Pacific region.
The question was put to committee; “in a world of sugars and sweeteners, how do you teach the complex beauties of tea?”
That single question birthed the concept of the reduction principle. The very idea that we could teach those who are interested to walk back a dependency on sugars to enjoy a beverage… Now that’s revolutionary…
Now, from my end, it came from my first experience at Presotea in Westminster, CA… I walked in and literally said “Wow this is tight!” LoL
Talk about a craft beverage experience! Everything was different and believe me I’ve been to tea and coffee houses all over the country. Everything I was watching in front of me was different, the tea was being freshly brewed out of espresso looking machines one bag at a time. The staff were having conversations with the guest, real conversations about how they’d like their drink crafted. And the coffee… my world, the coffee, let me just say, you’ve never had Vietnamese coffee like ours…
Everything about what we do is beyond work; it’s difficult, confusing, and complex… and then one day, it just clicks… everything clicks, the movements, the timing, and the final hand off to our guests.
Do you know how exciting it is to see our clients smiles? I mean, the first smile is the most memorable, but it’s every smile that comes after the first that does it for me. We’re business owners creating experiences for our guest.
The Presotea philosophy was exactly what we were looking for. The brand was founded on diversity and inclusion. A unique experience in the sea of overnight popup Boba Tea shops.
Our business isn’t about pre-making large batches of anything. We don’t believe in bulk buying low quality ingredients to increase our margins.
Before we opened our doors, we test marketed nearly every major Boba establishment in the valley. The experience was the same, poor quality and poor customer service. Since we’ve opened our doors in August this year, we’ve changed the dynamic of our guests experience. And while I can’t say for certain, I’d like to think we set off the trend we are now seeing across the valley in neighboring Boba shops… friendly customer service. And that’s just it…we don’t see other Boba shops as competition, they’re not in the same category as us, we’re just that different.
We sent on a mission to improve our guest experiences for all demographics and we see that trend picking up. So I’ll just say it! Presotea raised the bar for customer service and overall client experience within the Boba tea business community! It’s our most important focus and contribution.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The void runs deep…
You have to be comfortable in the dark and you have to trust your partners. But what gets you through the shadows are the plans you put in place. See them through, even when you seem to be stuck, always see your action items through, they will get you through the dark.
You have to trust your instincts; sometimes it’s those snap choices that make all the difference. So many times we can get in our own way, your instincts’ are what you know, jumping out of your skin… learn to listen to that. There are going to be days where everything will seem pointless and you’re going to need to dig deep… remember why you’re doing this.
For us, it’s for our kids (and Derrick’s baby mama’s)! LOL.
But on that note, the most important advice, just to remember to enjoy the ride and laugh.
Contact Info:
- Email: socialmedia@presoteautah.com
- Website: www.presoteautah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/presoteautah
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PresoteaMidvale/
Image Credits
Sebastian Abril, Janelle Linares, Yolanda Shively, and Johnson Vu
