Fresh out of college, current Evening MBA student Lin Jiang was working long hours as a consultant and found herself leaning on unhealthy snacks. As a more nourishing alternative, she started preparing the black sesame porridge her mother used to make her in Northeastern China. The food reminded Jiang of home.
She realized that the nutty, semisweet comfort food filled a need in the hot-cereal market, bridging the gap between healthy, bland oatmeal and the sugar-loaded packs of instant oatmeal. Wondering if it could be a business, she whipped up batches of porridge in the office kitchen at Boston Consulting Group and gave samples to her coworkers.
“They loved it and encouraged me to move forward,” says Jiang, who’s now cofounder and CEO of Yishi, which makes healthy, Asian-inspired instant oatmeal that’s vegan and gluten free with no sugar added. Flavors include Taro Bubble Tea, Mango & Cream, and her classic Toasted Black Sesame.
Jiang came to Booth in 2019 to learn how to bring Yishi to life. Weekdays were for studying, and weekends for talking to customers and serving up porridge in paper cups, as she brought her product to local grocery stores, yoga studios, and farmers’ markets, running 50 demos in a year and selling more than 4,000 units of product. “People really liked the taste, and they were excited to see it on the market,” she says.
Jiang went on to be a finalist in the 2020 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, and leveraged that momentum, launching straight into a Kickstarter campaign. The combined $20,000-plus was the startup money she needed to buy packaging and hire registered dietitians and food scientists to perfect recipes.
Jiang knew she wanted her product at Whole Foods, so she tracked down local buyers to sample her porridge. She was able to launch, with packaging designed by her and her friends, in Chicagoland Whole Foods stores in fall 2020. That sales data helped her raise additional funding, and Jiang leaned on Booth professors and the alumni network for advice and connections.
“Starting a company from scratch is hard. You will make mistakes, things will go wrong, and you will feel frustrated and lonely,” says Jiang. “It’s a slow and demanding process, where grit is the key to success.”
In summer 2021, her business closed its seed round at $3.13 million. Jiang’s products are now in over 2,000 stores nationally, including Walmart and Target. Yishi is expanding fast: in July, it launched oat spreads in flavors such as Mango Coconut and Taro Ube; this fall, it will launch bulk-size bags of oatmeal.
“We had a slow beginning,” Jiang says. “It was a lot of learning, researching, and preparing. But Booth broadened my perspective, and meeting other entrepreneurs, having that community, gave me the courage that I needed. Now we’re hoping to make Yishi a global brand.”
Now in its 25th year, the New Venture Challenge remains one of the country’s top-ranked business accelerator programs. Three Booth alumni explain why every participant, regardless of the contest results, comes out a winner in the end.
Rising to the Challenge
It’s high stress, high stakes, and high rewards in Waverly Deutsch’s intense, one-week Global New Venture Challenge course.
Six Days to Pitch
