DLISH—Mona Bavar’s Distinctive Gift Boxes Curated from Milan, Italy

M

ona Bavar is the delightful and engaging entrepreneur behind DLISH, a start up company specializing in curating distinctive gifts around food, art and design for the corporate market as well as for person-to-person gifting. We sat down for a virtual breakfast meeting, Mona in a café in Milan with her cappuccino and croissant and me in my office near London with a mug of instant coffee and a slice of buttered toast.

Mona Bavar

Italians have such a beautiful environment around their food culture. The social culture that’s behind it is very similar to the Iranian one.

Mona Bavar, founder of DLISH gift boxes

came to Italy to do my MBA at SDA Bocconi School of Management. After my MBA Italy became the perfect place to cultivate my passions—food, art and design. Italians have such a beautiful environment around their food culture. The social culture that’s behind it is very similar to the Iranian one. 

When I was a kid, before we left Iran, my summers were spent in Italy. My parents would bring me here so it was almost like reliving memories from the past. My appreciation for the ritual of dining with friends and family around a beautifully set table eating the perfect meal while sharing stories and creating special bonds inevitably led to DLISH. 

Daks: So, let’s talk for a moment about the original idea behind the company.

Bavar: DLISH is a gifting company which specializes in curating distinctive gifts around the world of food, art, and design. We work closely with designers, farmers, artisans, and craftsmen from around the world. Having access to such a vast number of talents has led to our bespoke services which caters both to our corporate gifting clients as well as individuals looking for a more personalized gifting style.

Most recently we added antiques and one-off items that are like our rare jewels. I think our unique and personalized approach to gifting helps to create that magical experience for both the giver as well as the receiver. This is our special touch. 

Daks: So, like they would say on the Actors Studio. What is your favorite food?

 

Bavar: Anything with truffles on it!

Daks: Favorite drink, I’m assuming that’s wine?

Bavar: No, a dirty vodka Martini with three olives.

Daks: Here we go!

Bavar: In a heartbeat.

Daks: So, what has brought you the most satisfaction in your life?

Bavar:  I would say the life I have created for myself. It is not conventional and oftentimes challenging, but it is my path, and I am proud of what I have built so far. I am grateful for a supportive and loving family and a group of dear friends who continuously give me the courage and encouragement to embrace my truth.

Daks: I think that’s a really good answer. Just giving yourself permission to live the life that you want to live and not feeling that you should censure yourself because of the expectations of other people. 

What is the next journey for you?

Bavar: Of course, I would love for DLISH to continue growing and it will; for my plans to come to fruition, and they will; to live in Paris and I will. But to be honest—the future will happen when it happens. I am really happy with where I am right now.

Daks: What would you say is the best reason to experience DLISH?

Bavar: To bring pleasure into your life and into the lives of those that are special to us, especially now when we all need some joy in our lives. Something that says ‘I was thinking of you.’ So, rather than the usual gifts, why not give something that’s rare?

Jen Batchelor’s Nootropics Cocktails

As more and more companies offer different artisan alcohols and liquors, the growth of non-alcoholic drinks has also picked up in recent times. Distillates, bitters, aperitif, spirits, and other non-alcoholic alternatives are now springing up all over the world.

Kin Euphorics and its founder, Jennifer Batchelor, took a slightly different angle, making “euphorics”—a new category that puts as much emphasis on wellness as it does on the social element.

Things started in 2016 when she headed to the local Whole Foods, looking for something to help relieve her stress. She was first directed to the supplement aisle and then the wine aisle. Neither, however, was what she had in mind.

Nootropics in a Cocktail

Ms. Batchelor wanted a different kind of product: a drink that makes you feel good with none of the downsides of alcohol. In addition to that desire, she was convinced she was not the only person who wanted it.

She started to research deeply into nootropics—herbs and synthetic compounds that claim to help the brain enhance memory, cope with stress, improve the way commands are fired, protect it from physical or chemical injury, and possess few or no side-effects.

Her background may offer some hint as to her interest. Despite growing up in Saudi Arabia, which has a ban on alcohol, she had second-hand exposure to booze thanks to her father, who worked as an airline mechanic and ran an illegal pub and cocktail bar out of their family’s home before moving to the United States. It is a funny coincidence that she is now running a company focusing on the non-alcoholic side of socializing.

“People were telling me that when they go to happy hour, they’re exhausted. If I see a date on the books that’s like drinks with clients, I’m usually groaning. I have to pound an energy drink, I have to get an espresso and then move onto cocktails just so I can be present with these people,” she said in an interview with Business of Business.

Launched in December of 2018, Kin grew quickly, having over 1 million of their functional non-alcoholic spirits servings sold in under a year. Teaming up with Matthew Cauble, who co-founded the meal-replacement drink company Soylent back in 2014, Kin Euphorics sold most of its products via its website. Despite the impact of COVID, it has also grown its wholesale operations to more than 75 partners, including over 40 restaurants and bars in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Kansas City. In addition, the product is also sold at select grocery markets across the United States. 

Their current three products each offer different flavors and feelings. Kin Spritz, the most popular flavor, tastes of fresh citrus, warm spice, hibiscus, and ginger. It offers an elevating blend of sensations including relaxed focus, replenished energy, and lifted mood. The High Rhode has notes of earthy florals, tart citrus, and warming spice. It balances the body’s response to stress. Last but not least, the Dream Light line tastes like hibiscus, rhodiola, orange peel, white grape, gentian, and licorice. It relaxes focus, replenishes energy, and lifts mood.

If the IWSR report’s expecting 118% volume increase in the sector by 2024 comes true, this is definitely an exciting space to be in. And investors seem to agree since in May 2019 Kin Euphotics landed $5 million in funding from venture capital firms Refactor Capital, Canaan, and Fifty Years.

“We don’t see anyone in this adjacent category of mocktails to be a competitor. We really want to see that category expand across the industry and within Kin 3x,” Ms. Batchelor said in the same Business of Business interview. “Kin startles that world of alcohol alternatives as well as functional, better-for-you alcohol options. That’s how the market sees us. That’s how we’re placed on shelves. Both categories are explosive right now.”

And we can see that with a clear mind!

Written by Cary Wong

Empowering Women

Bogi and Shawnda, the team behind Girl Gang Garage

T

ech marketer Shawnda Williams has come alongside mechanic and technician Bogi Lateiner to lead Phoenix’s Girl Gang Garage. The Girl Gang Garage has three main goals—to create opportunities for women in the trades to work together and connect with each other, to provide hands-on training to women of all ages who would like to learn how to work on cars, even those who have little or no experience, and to showcase the many incredible women who are, or want to be, part of the automotive industry.

Bogi explains one of their offerings, classes to educate women to be better car care consumers. “We offer low cost introductory classes, like our women’s car care class, teaching women of all ages how to check their oil, change a tire, or jump start a battery. But also how to find a reputable mechanic and what questions to ask when they get there.”

They also offer hands on experience for women who wish to explore the automotive trades, from mechanical work to metal work, paint and body work, and electrical work. Women can also participate in regular large-scale complete vehicle restorations, where groups of women of varying skill levels come together to connect and learn and turn an old vehicle into a show car.

Shawnda Williams is disrupting the auto industry with Girl Gang Garage, a company that teaches women to fix and mod cars.

Bogi says the builds, which are free to those wanting to participate, are designed to also shine a spotlight on women in the trades and create opportunities for them to meet and work alongside one another. This is critically needed because according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are only 2.5% of all U.S. automotive mechanics. Also, Bogi points out that women are still often discouraged from entering the trades, and those who do often encounter challenges.

In her early days as a mechanic, Bogi experienced both extremely blatant sexism as well as subtle messages that told her she wasn’t welcome. She was often laughed at when applying for a job, has been angrily told that women don’t belong in the shop, and was regularly denied opportunities. On a more subtle and yet just as discouraging note, there were no uniforms or work boots that were for women. At her first dealer job there was no lock on the bathroom so she used the customer one and changed into her uniform in the file room.

“Women are less
than two percent
of people in the trades”

Williams joined forces with Bogi in 2019, leveraging her professional knowledge in brand development and design with her own gender diversity experiences within the tech industry to help make a more considerable impact and help the automotive trades evolve. “I saw lives transformed, women empowered. Hobbyist mechanics became professionals after working with the Garage, and professional female mechanics enhanced their careers.”

Bogi empowers the next generation of automotive professionals.

“I saw lives transformed, women empowered. Hobbyist mechanics became professionals after working with the Garage, and professional female mechanics enhanced their careers.”

Shawnda Williams

Society still tends to think of auto mechanics as dirty, uneducated, second-class citizens, something pursued by people who couldn’t cut it in college. But in reality, modern automotive technicians are highly skilled and educated. The average master technician may own 100k in tools and have gone through years of schooling. They attend continuing education classes to keep up with ever-changing technology. Today’s technicians need to understand and apply not only mechanical principles, but work with computers and programming, complex electrical diagnoses, and rapidly evolving technology.

Bogi highlights the intelligence and adaptiveness required to work on cars. “Car doctors work on hundreds of changing models, while human doctors usually work on only two models: male and female.”

Photo credits: Girl Gang Garage

Modern day car mechanics are like rocket mechanics. There are more control modules today in cars than in the 1st Space Shuttle. And there are over 100 million lines of code in a modern vehicle.

Bogi

She says girls need to see women working in the trades and feel confident they can bring something to the table. “Diversity makes any organization stronger. I know that from my own experience. I was smaller than most of the men I worked with, so while in some cases they were stronger, I was smaller and better able to squeeze and look into tight places.”

Bogi would ultimately like to see the day when she’s not a ‘woman mechanic’ but simply a ‘mechanic.’ Each year over 200 women take part in Girl Gang Garage programs. Their builds and classes attract a diverse group of women, from complete novices to highly skilled professionals, from all walks of life.

The first all-female build, dubbed the Chevy Montage, took place in 2017 and attracted over 90 women from 23 different states over the course of 10 months. Together they restored a 1957 Chevy Pick up truck and did a controversial engine swap, powering the truck with a BMW M5 engine. The choice was intentional, though Bogi knew it would ruffle some feathers. The build was designed to disrupt the conventional, be provocative, and initiate conversations with people talking about women in the trades.

As Bogi says, “Modern-day car mechanics are like rocket mechanics. There are more control modules today in cars than in the first Space Shuttle. And there are over one hundred million lines of code in a modern vehicle.”

Girl Gang Garage followed up the Chevy Montage with another all-female build named “High Yellow 56,” a 1956 Chevy Truck which, unlike its predecessor, contained a more traditional 350 small block engine, loaded with modern components, and was unveiled in the fall of 2019.

“These are overlooked jobs,
but they can’t be easily
outsourced or taken away.”

Bogi

They are now working on their third build, a 1961 Volvo, that they are working to restore, modify, and power with modern technology. Any women interested in participating in this are encouraged to connect with them and get involved. Bogi and Williams are both optimistic about the future for women in the industry as well as for Girl Gang Garage.  

As Bogi says, “Word about our builds and classes has been completely organic and from word of mouth. There is just so much interest from women in the trades to connect, and from novices and hobbyists to learn and participate. The support from the industry is also growing. I’ve seen a major shift in the industry from when I came up twenty years ago till now, I’m excited to see what the future holds and to be a part of that change.”

Written by Cristina Deptula