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See the 13-slide pitch deck wellness startup Blume used to raise $1.8 million in 5 weeks

See the 13-slide pitch deck wellness startup Blume used to raise $1.8 million in 5 weeks

Amber Gibson

Karen Danudjaja, the founder of Blume.Courtesy of Karen Danudjaja

Karen Danudjaja founded Blume, which sells superfood latte blends, in 2017.
She recently raised 2.5 million Canadian dollars, or about $1.8 million, from investors like Judy Brooks.

Karen Danudjaja, the 32-year-old founder of wellness brand Blume, got her start in commercial real estate. During that time, she told Insider, she spent most of her day at local cafes drinking the same cup of coffee.

"It's a very relationship-driven industry and there were lots of coffee meetings," Danudjaja said, adding that eventually the long hours and caffeine started to take a toll on her digestion, sleep, and mental health.

As she explored her own sensitivity to caffeine and her Southeast Asian heritage, she gathered inspiration from proven ingredients like ginger, matcha, moringa, turmeric, reishi mushrooms, and rosehips to create ethically-sourced and organically-formulated superfood latte blends. "My wellness philosophy is less celery juice and guilt, more laughs, lattes, and balance," she said.

In 2017, she took her creations and started Blume. It took time to build brand awareness, Danudjaja said, and by March 2020, she was still the only employee. "When I first started Blume, we didn't have barcodes on our packages, and we hand-stickered the packages in my living room," Danudjaja said.

Today, Blume is sold in 1,500 retail locations across Canada and the United States, including Erewhon, Credo Beauty, Grove, and Nordstrom's holiday pop-up, and Danudjaja's team has grown to 15 women. In just five weeks this past summer, she doubled her goal of raising 1.25 million Canadian dollars, or $920,000, and brought on investors like Judy Brooks, the cofounder of SmartSweets and Blo Blow Dry Bar, and Ethan Song, the cofounder of Frank & Oak.

As a woman and minority, she said, she felt that the odds were stacked against her when it came to fundraising, even with Blume's proven sales record. "Fundraising was something I had avoided and was really scared to do," she said. "You hear stories about bad investors that lead you to question your mission and values. We were also heading into an unknown time with the economy and inflation, and I wasn't sure what impact that would have on the business."

To combat this, Danudjaja said she sought out investors who aligned with her company's mission and leveraged her network of other women entrepreneurs to get introduced to angel investors. "I knew that I wouldn't be for everyone, but importantly they wouldn't be for me either."

Danudjaja added that focusing on her strong business fundamentals rather than a lofty vision also helped to ground her pitch in reality. "I hate to oversell, and that's what investors are used to — the promise of a huge, big dream. I have that dream, but when I'm pitching, I focus on today — the sustainability of the business and attainable growth goals."

"Pitching did not come naturally to me," she said. "When pitching, there's such a weird power dynamic, but the more yes's I received, the more natural it felt."

Danudjaja plans to use the newly acquired 2.5 million CAD to further expand into the US market, scale her team, and host in-person community-building events and branded activations. Here's the pitch deck she used for her first raise.