Azikiwee Anderson was working as a private chef and had no experience as baker, but that started to change when George Floyd was murdered.
After the killing, Anderson said he had anger that needed to go someplace. So while other people were experimenting with sourdough bread to mollify their pandemic boredom, Anderson, 47, started doing so to channel his emotions into loaves. And it became a salve that he turned into a business called Rize Up Bakery.
Anderson and Rize Up just won a small business pitch competition hosted by Raydiant, a San Francisco-based startup that provides retail businesses with digital services like signage and a customer loyalty program.
Rize Up Bakery will now get a year of free year of rent to set up a small storefront within Raydiant's headquarters a few blocks away from Oracle Park. Winning the competition is accelerating Anderson's business plans by a couple of years.
"The day before, I was working a 20-hour day and didn't have time to put a PowerPoint together. There was a moment I wasn't sure if I would do it," Anderson told me, but then he pushed through the self-doubt and exhaustion to show up. "It was a transformative moment. Look, you have what it takes, don't give up on yourself."
Anderson produces his loaves in Fisherman's Wharf out of Rainforest Café’s old kitchen, which he converted into a commissary kitchen. The breads range from traditional country-style sourdough loaves to versions flavored with gochujang and masala. A loaf called "The 9th Ward" contains Louisiana hot link sausages, an homage to his hometown, New Orleans. And he also makes Japanese-style milkbreads including one that's flavored with ube.
He currently sells his loaves direct to consumers via his website and also through other retail storefronts like grocery stores and coffee shops. Eventually, he would like to open up his own small outposts around the city to sell Rize Up loaves directly to people alongside products from other vendors.
The idea, he told me, is to replicate the feeling and experience of an old school bakery with a small footprint that closes after the last loaf sells out.
Now he'll get to test out the concept out in SoMa where Rize Up will have around 200 square feet inside of Raydiant to set up his shop. Raydiant will also pay to build out the space and provide the company with a $10,000 stipend for marketing and operations expenses.
Raydiant CEO Bobby Marhamat judged the competition, which featured five Bay Area small food businesses, alongside Curry Up Now CEO Akash Kapoor and Square Pie Guys CEO Danny Stoller.
They originally intended to only pick one winner but also selected a runner-up, Kiss My Boba, that will get around 150 square feet of free retail space. This smaller area will also turn into a rotating market in July called the Raydiant RISE Market which will be used to showcase goods from the other food and beverage entrepreneurs.
“Choosing a winner was not easy for me or our fellow judges — which is why we made the decision to increase our investment to support not one, but two rising entrepreneurs. All five of our finalists brought the energy, passion and entrepreneurial hustle to their pitches and their personal stories were incredibly inspiring," Marhamat told me via email.
San Bruno-based Kiss My Boba was founded by husband-and wife-team Chelsea, 34, and Willy Tatola, 36. The menu is inspired by Willy's Polynesian heritage with flavors like Tongan Taro and Mangonada alongside classic milk tea.
They started the company in 2018 while juggling other jobs at Bayer and the Fremont Police Department. To get the business up and running, they converted an old U-Haul vehicle into a food truck.
In 2019, Willy quit his job as a subvisible particle scientist to run the business full-time, and a couple of years later, Chelsea quit her job as a detective as they were preparing to become first-time parents and open up Kiss My Boba's first retail spot in San Bruno
"We've never been happier than being on this entrepreneurial journey. It's something we both really enjoy," Chelsea said, "grinding and working as hard as we can to deliver the best product we can and interact with our customers."
Transitioning away from having steady paychecks was challenging, especially after dedicating so much of their lives to pursuing other careers, Willy told me, but now they're all-in on building out their boba business.
This second location in SoMa will kick-start their vision for something bigger, too. Eventually they'd like to have around eight to 10 storefronts across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Honolulu.
Why boba?
Chelsea and Willy met while studying microbiology at UC Davis and would often go on boba dates.
"We did it so much, we learned how to make it at home," Chelsea told me. And "we thought it was really fun."
Kiss My Boba currently has 10 employees who earn between $15 and $18/hour plus tips and the business generates $50,000 to $60,000 in monthly revenue, they told me. And sales average between 100 and 300 units daily, depending on the day of the week. Drinks start at $5.50 for 23 ounces.
Rize Up Bakery declined to disclose revenue figures but Anderson told me that the bakery produces around 150 to 200 loaves daily and even hit 300 recently. He has five employees including an office manager, two baking assistants and two delivery drivers, all of whom are hired in-house and earn $18 to $23/hour. And loaves are priced between $12 and $24.
Like Anderson, none of his employees had any baking experience before coming to Rize Up.
"I will pay you to learn," Anderson said. For him, it's not about what you've done before but whether you care about the mission and are willing to do the work.
The remaining three finalists that pitched at the competition were: plant-based cheese and charcuterie maker The Uncreamery in San Francisco; vegan donut producer Whack Donuts in San Francisco; and cold brew pop-up Calacala Coffee from Crockett in Contra Costa County.
