Features
Discover a Few of Our Favorite AAPI-Owned Brands
Interviews with the founders of Rooted, Diaspora Co, Poketo, and Soko Glam
To celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we teamed up with a few of our favorite AAPI-owned brands to share more of their stories — from reading as children to their current day-to-day of being business owners. (Plus a few book recommendations, naturally!)
Rooted is on a mission to reconnect people with nature, one houseplant at a time. Rooted started because of a firm belief in the positive mental, emotional and physical health benefits associated with having greenery in your space.
Tell us about your company!
Kay Kim: I’m one of the co-founders of Rooted, which is a modern-day plant company. We ship houseplants nationwide directly from our greenhouses. My co-founder Ryan and I set out to build this company with the mission of reconnecting people with nature, which technically makes us first-generation Asian American farmers. We’re modern-day farmers and the first of our kind in our respective families. You can only imagine the types of conversations that went down with our parents when we said we were quitting our great full-time jobs to pursue modern-day farming. However, jokes aside, they were extremely supportive, and we would not be here today without them. So thank you, parents.
What is one book you recommend the most?
You definitely have to check out Eat a Peach by David Chang. It tells his incredible journey as a young Asian American entrepreneur breaking into a foreign industry and I personally experienced a lot of parallels with his story.
Diaspora Co is building a better spice trade, equitably and deliciously. They source India’s freshest, heirloom, and single-origin spices, directly from their partner farms to bring you next level flavor and fragrance!
Tell us about your company!
My name is Sana Javeri Kadri and I am the founder of Diaspora Co which is a single origin spice company. We work with 30ish small farmers who grow organically all over South Asia, and we’re dedicated to sourcing spices that are grown for flavor and deeply rooted in equity.
Did you always love reading?
I have been a bookworm my entire life to the point that my family members would actually ban me from reading a book ahead of a big family function or when we were on vacation together because I would just cocoon and get lost in my book. I think for me it’s been a beautiful way for me to learn about history and cultures and understand the world through words.
What is one book you recommend the most?
My favorite book is America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo. I think the genre of immigrant, queer fiction is an exciting one that’s just getting started, and Elaine’s book is a revelation.
Founded in 2003 by husband-and-wife team Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung, Poketo is a lifestyle brand born out of the desire to infuse art and design into every day. Poketo’s collections of design-conscious goods cultivate joy and creativity. Angie Myung is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, dreaming up all of the beautiful products at Poketo. The name Poketo (pronounced “poh-keh-toe”) stems from the mispronunciation of “pocket” by Angie’s Korean grandmother. It tied in perfectly with the first product ever created under Poketo: a series of artist wallets that fit right in your pocket—and Ted and Angie just loved the way it sounded. In addition to its online store, Poketo has two LA-based retail locations in Downtown LA, each of which hosts art exhibitions and events that serve to foster the local creative community. Poketo’s debut book, Creative Spaces, is a celebration of creatives, their work, and their spaces. With stunning photography, intimate profiles, and unexpected takeaways, the book showcases an eclectic mix of designers in the spaces that inspire them.
Tell us about your company!
When we moved to Los Angeles in 2004, we were just starting Poketo, diving headfirst into something we had no idea where it would take us. Ted’s dad suggested we move in with them so we can work on the business. His parents lived in a modest-sized house. We took up one bedroom and crammed a desk and computer in there, we used the garage to store goods, we took over the living room to pack and ship orders. They had no idea that their invitation for us to stay with them would be a full-on takeover of the house. And not once did they complain or say anything about the cardboard boxes piling up, or the goods splayed on the floor. Only when we found our own place, Ted’s dad did a victory dance saying “We got our house back!” Fast forward 17 years later, Poketo has grown from that tiny house of our parents to a brand that we are proud to say has become an anchor in the LA creative community.
Have you always loved reading?
I started reading at a very young age, I think at age 3 or 4. Growing up in Korea my mom and grandmother always said that I was constantly asking them what the signs on the buildings, words on the books, and TV said and they were tired of answering and telling me the meanings of the words so they sent me to a tutor who taught me how to read in Korean. I remember the feeling of being able to read and it felt like magic like a whole new world opened up to me. I read everything I could get my hands on growing up in Korea. Korea at the time didn’t have a library in every neighborhood so I would borrow books from my best friend in elementary school. I loved reading and writing and I dreamt of becoming a writer and a journalist.
What books do you recommend?
Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Charlotte Cho is an esthetician, author, co-founder of leading skincare platform Soko Glam and founder of Then I Met You, a premium skincare line focused on a meaningful experience and quality ingredients. As a Korean-American expat living in Seoul, she discovered the world of Korean beauty and skincare and saw her skin and confidence transform. In 2012 she made it her mission to share her skincare expertise and a curated selection of Korean beauty products in the US.
Cho is the author of the international bestseller, The Little Book of Skincare and has recently launched her second book, The Little Book of Jeong which is a book on the Korean concept of jeong, and the current need for deeper connections in today’s hurried world.
What inspired you to start your company?
Growing up in America as an Asian-American, awkwardly straddling two worlds, I had never quite fit the mold of what was conventionally beautiful. I didn’t have any role models that looked like me, and I had always felt lost. When I saw magazines in Korea, where women had dewy skin—and it was always healthy, the most important standard in Korean beauty—and the same jet black hair and almond eyes as I did, I felt so much pride for my culture and like I finally belonged. I wanted to celebrate this type of beauty and share it with the world.
We decided to call it Soko Glam because I had always loved New York and dreamed of living in Soho, but I found myself in Seoul after college instead. So I used that to come up with the name: “Soko,” a portmanteau of the words South Korea, and “Glam,” because I always thought healthy skin was so glamorous and a confidence-booster that surpassed even makeup.
Excerpt from The Little Book of Jeong by Charlotte Cho
My dad could barely read and speak English and was working 7 days a week at his liquor store to make ends meet. Despite the lack of resources and time he had, one thing he was very consistent and adamant about was taking me to the Whittier Public Library to check out and read a mountain of books.
I was just beginning to learn to read, and he wanted me to read as much as I could. “See Sally run,” he would read slowly, enunciating his words for me. “Fox in socks.” He would read, and I would listen and practice. Together we read those pages, from those mountains of books.
It was not until recently, as I was reading to my own daughter, I looked back at this memory and realized how much he had actually struggled reading those pages himself, and he pushed on. For his daughter with a chance in America.
What books do you recommend?
Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Discover all their book recommendations!
