Who is Aisha?

Meet Aisha Chottani, Founder of Moment!

About Moment

Drink your meditation.

Moment is a wellness beverage brand that uses adaptogens — herbs that optimize stress in the body — and delicious flavors to encourage customers to relax, even in the middle of the busiest day. The drink is an entry point towards meditation, and a portion of the company's proceeds go to teaching students the benefits of mindfulness. Moment offers a wide range of flavors, including lychee mint, lemon turmeric, and blood orange ashwagandha, stored in aesthetically pleasing cans to promote a culture of stress-free living.

Aisha's Journey

Aisha grew up in several different parts of the world, including South Asia, where there's a big focus on mind and body health from an early age. Moment's ingredients were a part of her everyday life. 

Aisha recalls three pivotal moments that led her to create her wellness beverage brand.

First, she worked as a strategy consultant in consumer packaged goods, and her experience in the industry led her to realize that a lot of change is needed there—in terms of how the old-world and some Fortune 500 companies think about things and innovate in comparison to the community's needs.

When she began thinking about a career change, she discovered that some of the adaptogens and botanicals she has been using all her life had been scientifically proven for their wellness benefits. Many clinical studies outlined the benefits of those ingredients. 

Then, COVID hit, and Aisha came to a realization. 

She could use her experience and heritage to create a tremendous impact.. some of the powerful ingredients she used could support others through the chaotic and stressful times of the pandemic by balancing cortisol levels and allowing for better focus. 

It's remarkable that once you start thinking about something seriously, all the right circumstances fall into your lap.

Aisha finds Moment's impact to be incredibly unprecedented. "Customers and the community frequently share how Moment has transformed their lives. It's more than just the drink; it's the entire experience—the brand's message is that anyone can find a moment of calm amidst the chaos of daily life." 

Aisha put an entire experience behind the company, and given the focus on the end to end experience, the audience has really resonated with it and made it a ritual. They also feel very connected to the brand and constantly reach out and sharing personal experiences and how it affects their lives

She also finds being an entrepreneur exciting because it's a vast and positive-minded community that is constantly growing. Aisha loves that people are passionate about the transformative work they do. 

Crafting the Company

A lot of thought went into the product's branding. Aisha explains that it wasn't just about choosing beautiful colors or something that looks good aesthetically. Moment's colors resemble the first two cans that symbolize sunrise and sunset. Aisha chose these colors of the beautiful elements of nature. You mentally feel your best when you drown out the chaos of modern life with nature, and this idea inspired the brand's purpose. 

Even though the company has grown, the idea has remained the same. The imagery of rainbows, sunsets, and sunrises reminds customers of positive associations that encourage an experience of calmness and joy. When customers are happy, they can create new moments with the adaptations supporting them physically.

The Moment Team

The company launched during COVID, and since then, it established a truly global team. People from all over the world work for Moment, which makes the team very special. Aisha and her team have built out a way to work together and communicate despite conflicting time zones and distance by being flexible and accommodating everyone's lives.

Supporting the Team

One of Aisha's team members, a designer from Ukraine, has worked for the company since it began. She worked with the company throughout all of her country's turmoil. At one point, everyone on the team asked her how they could support her through this challenging time, and she told them that Moment is what keeps her going. Working for Moment was one of the only things that gave her joy. Aisha was touched to hear that her leadership and dedication to cultivating a collaborative team made such an impact.

The CX Philosophy at Moment

Customer experience is near and dear to Aisha's heart. She bootstrapped her company and handled operations, CX, and marketing during the first six months. She found it fun to do all these things and refine the type of CX she wanted to provide for each customer. 

During that experience, Aisha learned the value of understanding customers at the ground level. Additionally, she learned that small aspects, like how you build a relationship with customers, will make them loyal advocates and ambassadors for the brand. 

Aisha says working in CX can also help you look at the business differently. You can continue to refine it and grow the company in ways you wouldn't expect, and this all comes from the customer and learning more about them.

Going the Extra Mile

Aisha recalls a customer who has been with Moment from the start. He loves the rooibos blood orange flavor so much, puts it in his thermos every morning, and drinks it throughout the day. If he doesn't have his Moment every day, then he isn't happy. The company puts rooibos in the blood orange blend, and at one point, the ingredient supply was down, so the company went out of stock for a few months.

The customer was upset and emailed the company to ask what was going on. Then, the team hunted for the last few cans of blood orange available for him and created a production plan. Eventually, they collected enough cans to send to the customer and ensure he had a good supply until the company could produce more. 

The customer responded and told the team that as much as he loves Moment, Aisha and her team are very fond of Bob and have since then made sure he never goes out of his daily supply

Moment's Growth Strategies

Reinvesting into the Company

In Aisha's opinion, even though some people will say that reinvesting into the business is a strategic decision that leaders need to make, considering when they do it, how they do it, and how much they reinvest. No matter their long-term goal, any business needs to continue reinvesting in one way or another. Sometimes, it's the informal capital; at other times, it's reinvesting into the team through training, development, or mentorship. Building the culture of the company is essential. Leaders should create traditions that will take the team and transform it into an organization rather than a group of people simply working together.

Peak Season Strategies

During its peak season, Aisha and her team try to plan and think about how things will look when there's a high increase in purchases. The team considers capacity and resources and reaches out to partners to have those conversations earlier so everyone knows what to expect. The Moment team is moving from being reactive to creating a proactive sensibility. When a company is a few years into the business, it begins to know what to expect during peak seasons, which can be very helpful.

Elevating to the Next Level

Moment recently launched in Japan with cans featuring Asian-inspired designs. Aisha crafted new flavors based on ingredients local to the country. The company launched in hundreds of Lawson's, a Japanese-based natural store. 

Aisha is looking at other international markets and plans to launch new flavors with a seasonal focus. She and the Moment team love creating new flavors and practicing innovation. In the future, she will continue to scale the business and build the team and the culture as Moment grows. She also wants to expand the brand and include food services, an ongoing effort.

Aisha mentions that a company needs to do new things and should be based on teams of people who make innovation happen.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Experiment, experiment, experiment, Aisha says. Entrepreneurs should try new things and test everything! Because it's challenging to find a specific aha moment in e-commerce, leaders have to refine their brand through data and testing to continue improving. The key to success is understanding your customers and working to produce a better product.

She explains that it's all about mindset—a leader has to build the right capability in their team. A successful team should be able to analyze data and use it to inform company decisions. As an entrepreneur, you have to be resilient. Although it's a fun environment, it can be tough.

You have to stay strong and roll with the punches.