When Subin Hur's pediatrician told her U.S.-grown rice wasn't safe for her baby, she called her sister Suahn and started a company. For most Asian families, rice isn't just an ingredient — it's the first solid food, the thing that's been on the table at every meal across every generation. They could have just switched brands. Instead, they moved their families to Korea and built a new supply chain from scratch. That became BARI, America's first Asian baby food brand.
In this episode, Suahn Hur, co-founder of BARI, walks us through how they built it: organic rice porridges, roasted grain teas, Asian-inspired meal pouches, a 74% reduction in heavy metal levels, and #1 on Amazon in their category. Now expanding into U.S. retail.
🔧 Supply Chain as Brand Foundation — How BARI built its sourcing infrastructure before its product line: visiting farms, partnering with Seoul National University, and striking a direct supply deal with the Korean government before they had a single retail customer
📊 The Information Symmetry Playbook — Why radical transparency with suppliers and retail buyers — sharing margin targets, cost breakdowns, and growth forecasts — unlocked more room to grow than negotiating from opacity ever did
🤝 Cross-Border Manufacturing Operations — What it actually takes to manage FDA-compliant food production in Korea for a U.S. market: export-ready co-man selection, certification stacking, and navigating supply shocks like the Middle East oil disruption that delayed BARI's pouch production by months
⚙️ Packaging as a Mission Decision — How BARI discovered that most U.S. baby food pouches are aluminum-lined (despite brands recommending microwave heating) and chose a costlier foil-free material to stay consistent with the brand's safety thesis
📈 Demand Planning and Landed COGS from Zero — How two founders with quantitative backgrounds built forecasting models, locked in price stability with manufacturers ahead of retail conversations, and used a back-of-envelope retail readiness model to show up credibly to a national chain line review on one month's notice
🎯 Hyper-Narrow Positioning as a Growth Bet — Why BARI leaned into 'America's first Asian baby food brand' as its wedge, and why Suahn believes that label, which might have limited them five years ago, is now a cultural asset that's bringing in a multicultural customer base far broader than the Asian segment alone
Whether you're building a culturally rooted food brand, navigating overseas manufacturing, or positioning a safety-first product as regulation catches up to what you've already built, Suahn's frameworks offer a ground-level look at what it actually takes to make a supply chain the brand.
Perfect for: Food and beverage founders, DTC-to-retail operators, immigrant and multicultural brand builders, founders navigating overseas manufacturing, early-stage CPG operators
Guest: Suahn Hur — Co-Founder, BARI
Host: Samantha Rose — Managing Partner, Hologram Capital & Founder, Endless Commerce
This episode was recorded live and is part of our series on operational frameworks that drive real business results. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.