Who are your favourite Asian Canadian brands? This is the question that (not surprisingly) stumped dozens of Asian Canadians—even those in the business space.
This past year, Cold Tea Collective has been connecting with dozens of Asian American-owned businesses who, directly and indirectly, celebrate their Asian heritage with the products they sell or in telling their founders’ stories.
The stark difference between Asian American and Canadian-owned businesses and leaders we discovered is that Canadians are too shy in celebrating our heritage and our own personal stories as business leaders.
This modesty needs to change to elevate us all and create a future where there’s more support for Asian Canadian brands to thrive. All while being able to celebrate our rich and diverse cultural backgrounds.
Cold Tea Collective hosted an intimate event in Vancouver with 50 guests in the e-commerce space or those servicing entrepreneurs. See event photos below to add some new Asian Canadian-owned businesses to follow.
Thank you also to our event partners ecomsquare, Asian Hustle Network, Asian Founded, and our photographer, Brandon Lin, for supporting our event.
Celebrating Asian Canadian brands
See also: Uncovering inspiration from Asian Canadian entrepreneurs at Vancouver Startup Week 2023
Asian Canadian brands you should follow
The first time we did an extensive series celebrating Asian Canadian brands was in 2019 through “The Entrepreneur Series.” The stories of these brands resonated with the community so much that we gathered over 125 people at an event in Downtown Vancouver, including returning guests and local business leader, Vivian McCormick, co-founder of Wilet (formerly known as Flax Sleep).
Recognizing that the pandemic brought both opportunities and challenges to businesses, we start the next phase of exploration in how we can support the growth of Asian Canadian businesses with a more grassroots…
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