Shizu Okusa has resigned from her six-figure Wall Street job to found a health brand called Apothékary in New York City, where she uses herbal remedies to treat colds and other ailments. The company is projected to surpass $35 million in annual revenue by the end of February 2025.
At the age of 22, she worked as a trader and investor at Goldman Sachs. While it was a lucrative position, especially for someone her age, the demanding 100-hour workweeks quickly took a toll on her well-being.
Now 35 years old, Okusa said, “It was unsustainable. Looking back, I believe using nature as medicine is the real solution.”
Born in Vancouver, Canada, Okusa took an unconventional route to Goldman Sachs at the age of 19. She sent an email to her future boss, Ted Goldthorpe, about an idea she had regarding stocks.
To her surprise, Goldthorpe agreed to meet with her. She flew to New York and spent a whole day interviewing. The next day, she received a job offer.
She worked at Goldman Sachs until 2012, then went on to found her first company, a juice brand called Jrink based in Washington D.C.
Okusa mentioned that she took a significant pay cut – transitioning from an annual income of about $150,000 to paying herself $30,000 as a new entrepreneur. In the early days of Jrink, she and her roommate lived in a one-bedroom apartment, making juices in the kitchen. Okusa said that entrepreneurship was tough but rewarding.
Running the company full-time, she opened nine physical stores and sold juices in two Whole Foods supermarkets but couldn’t earn enough to sustain operations. “Our revenue could never exceed $5 million,” she said.
In 2019, she sold the company to Puree Juice Bar, which helped her launch Apothékary.
Despite sharing a common health lifestyle philosophy between Apothékary and Jrink, Okusa stated that she needed to do things differently for her second company to be more successful than the first.
“I think one of the key lessons is to carve your own path,” Okusa said. At Apothékary, she learned how to delegate effectively, leverage others’ strengths, and trust her team to drive the company forward.
Okusa also shared some cost-cutting strategies she adopted to help grow the business.
Apothékary offers over twenty products developed in collaboration with clinical herbal experts and is sold in 400 Sprouts grocery stores across America. Okusa and her employees did not spend money on finding large distributors but instead handled product shipments themselves. She also utilized subscription services to help boost sales.
Reflecting on her journey, Okusa believes that the real reason she works is to pursue a happier, healthier life for herself and others.