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Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori's entrepreneurship journey has taken him from North Carolina to Madison, and from Ghana to Silicon Valley. Now, he's the founder and CEO of the Satori Food Project Inc., his Milwaukee-based company that's taking an iterative startup approach to natural medicine products.
Satori invented Twi Pods, a line of vitamin-enriched warm beverages that can be made in a Keurig coffee maker. Available on Amazon, the mocha latte and hot cocoa pods are designed to provide stress relief and mental clarity. The drinks are infused with magnesium, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and L-theanine.
Owusu-Ofori, who's originally from Greensboro, N.C., has a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduating, he completed an entrepreneurship fellowship with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and learned the lean startup approach, which emphasizes a process of building, measuring and learning in order to create viable products more quickly.
Inspired by a previous trip to Ghana where he learned about herbal tea that increased the potency of western medicine and also discovered the country's high-quality cocoa, Owusu-Ofori used the lean startup method to develop Twi Pods with initial funding from the National Science Foundation.
Along the way, Owusu-Ofori has participated in local accelerator programs including gBETA, which is run by gener8tor, and FaBcap, which is run by Food and Beverage Wisconsin. In June, he's participating in Lightship Bootcamp, a two-day intensive program in Cincinnati through Lightship Capital, a venture firm focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs in the Midwest.
Owusu-Ofori currently is the only full-time Satori Food Project employee. He's seeking funding to hire more staff as the company works to increase sales and secure a clinical research grant through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. His goal is for Twi Pods to be used alongside psychological therapies to improve outcomes for patients with anxiety.
The product: Twi Pods, coffee and hot chocolate Keurig pods that are enriched with vitamins and minerals designed to improve mental health and wellness.
How it makes money: Consumer and business purchases
Size of the market: $130 billion, which is the total addressable market for people who are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and who also have a Keurig machine and drink coffee daily, according to Owusu-Ofori.
Competition: Vitacup, Natural Vitality Calm
Competitive advantage: Twi Pods have better scientific development, better flavor and an easier form factor compared to competitors, Owusu-Ofori said.
Business it could disrupt: Pharmaceuticals (such as Xanax, Abilify)
Board of directors: Amy Chung, associate director of medical writing and transparency at Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Joseph Ewoodzie, food and culture sociology professor at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C.; Keenan Grenell, partner and CEO of Global Capital Group LLC and executive director of the Manufacturing Diversity Institute in Milwaukee
Advisers: Mark Webster for branding and public relations; Michael Zhang for business operations and Amazon support; and Savage Solutions LLC for marketing and branding
Investors: Manufacturing Diversity Institute, Alchemy Angel Investors, founder investment, friends and family
Capital raised: $160,000
Capital sought: $2 million
Ideal exit: Sell to Keurig
AT A GLANCE
Company name: Satori Food Project Inc.
Headquarters: Milwaukee
Year founded: 2019
CEO: Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori
Employees: 1
Website: www.TwiHappy.com
This article has been updated to note that investors in the company are the Manufacturing Diversity Institute, Alchemy Angel Investors, founder investment, friends and family. A previous version omitted the Manufacturing Diversity Institute and mistakenly named a different organization due to incorrect information provided to the Milwaukee Business Journal.
