Noor Gaith, BS 17 – Bringing Palestinian Roots to Specialty Coffee

(Transcripts may contain a few typographical errors due to audio quality during the podcast recording.)

[00:00:00] Sean: Welcome to the One Haas Alumni Podcast. I’m your host, Sean Li. And today, we’re joined by Noor Gaith. Noor is a, I don’t even want to call you like a recent alum. I feel like 2017 was still just yesterday, but it’s been quite a while now.

[00:00:22] Noor: Still recent, yeah, yeah. Been a minute.

[00:00:26] Sean: Yeah, you’re a graduate of the undergraduate program here at Haas. First off, welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:33] Noor: Thanks so much, Sean. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:36] Sean: So, Noor is the co-founder of Jaffa Coffee. Is that how you pronounce it?

[00:00:43] Noor: Oh, nice. You pronounced it in Arabic. We call it Jaffa. I’ll get into why we did that. But yeah, Jaffa Coffee Roaster is also known as Jaffa, the city in Palestine.

[00:00:52] Sean: I read through your whole website.

[00:00:54] Noor: Oh, wow. That’s awesome. Thanks for doing some research.

[00:00:57] Sean: We’ll definitely include a link to the website, but before we dive into all that, Noor, we’d love to just really hear your background, where were you born, where you’re from, your upbringing, and all that. Let’s start there.

[00:01:10] Noor: My siblings and I were children of immigrants. So, we’re Palestinian, first-generation American. We’re very close to our roots. We grew up in Hebron, where my dad’s from, which is known as Khalil, the biblical city of Hebron. It’s mentioned in the Bible and the Quran many times. And it’s south of Jerusalem, where my mom is from. She’s from Jerusalem, or Al-Quds, or Al-Quds, as some people might pronounce, with the only American part of our big family. My dad left Palestine in the ‘80s after Oslo Accords and, basically, not seeing any potential for us to have any opportunity for, like, a life of education and career in Palestine.

He was the, I wouldn’t say odd one out in his family, but he’s the only one who didn’t see himself staying, because he was the educated one. He was the one who wanted to study engineering. And, like, he made that happen by finally getting a visa and leaving Philistine or Palestine and the 1980s. And he found himself in South Carolina after, kind of, feeling it out, he noticed there was still a lot of racism from just, kind of, like, 1950s America, and he just, kind of, set his sights on California, more of, like, a melting pot, more accepting of, like, different cultures, diverse demographics and backgrounds.

My siblings and I, we all grew up in American Canyon, Napa Valley. We’re all bilingual. We speak Arabic and English. So, we add that interesting dual identity of traveling back and forth from Philistine or Palestine. And, you know, also, growing up as American kids, watching Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and it was an interesting life, to say the least.

[00:03:07] Sean: What about, like, your mom’s side?

[00:03:09] Noor: My mom’s side is from Jerusalem. So, she’s also Palestinian. So, obviously, like, she grew up in Utz, which is East Jerusalem, which was, like, annexed by Israel. And, you know, they took away her passport. As someone who grew up in that city, that’s her home. And it made it difficult for her to even travel back and forth after my dad came to America. She was still there at the time. You know, I think I was, like, two years old. My siblings are older than I am. And then my sister is younger.

Going back and forth, when we finally all arrived in America, my mom was, like, a stay-at-home mom. She raised us. It was five of us. And my dad was working for Caltrans for, like, 33 years. So, he’s a bridge engineer. He encouraged us to do what we were interested in. The biggest thing for him was education, like, going to school. We were all, like, college graduates, and, like, that was really important to my dad. He’s an engineer. So, like, he naturally would encourage us to be engineers or, like, even in Arab culture, like, more, like, he was very accepting of whatever we were interested in. But the culture is, like, you know, doctor, lawyer, engineer.

One of the things we did together when I was 14, I always had this entrepreneurial background, always a salesperson somehow. When I was 12, I was selling lemonade and Kool-Aid on my block. And I used to play Lemonade Tycoon. It was, like, a game on PC. You would buy cups and lemons and, like…

[00:04:38] Sean: Yep. I remember it. I’m familiar with it, yeah.

[00:04:41] Noor: I’m like, why do I like this so much? I thought I was… it was, like, making money in real life. And then, in high school, I was buying candy bars from Costco and Staples, and I would sell them, resell them at school. And then I started selling iPhone cases. And people would just buy them from me. They just knew that I was, like, the, you know, like, the jacking guy. I was like, “What do you want?” And I didn’t do it for vanity or, like, even really for money. I just, kind of, thought, I’m like, “Why isn’t everyone doing this? Why isn’t everyone turning a profit or making arbitrage?” And my brain just understood buy low, sell high, and provide value. People want candy. People want lemonade.

[00:05:20] Sean: Supply and demand.

[00:05:22] Noor: That’s it. And so, I turned 17, 16. My dad had a background in engineering and computer building. He used to build computers. And for whatever reason, I found myself selling iPhones. I was buying phones and I was selling them, reselling them. I was making a lot of money, making, like, as a kid, like, I bought my own sports car. I bought, like, an E46 M3, and, like, what any other 19-year-olds with money would do.

So, I started selling phones. And then my dad actually taught me how to do it. We learned together on YouTube. So, it was, like, a father-and-son bonding thing. I got really good at it. I became very well known in the Napa Valley as the iPhone guy.

They called me Noor Cali, that was my nickname. But I used to customize phones, Noor Cali iPhone Customs. That was the origins, and later rebranded in Haas as NoorGlass.

So, moving forward, I started repairing phones and started offering a service. I used to do on-the-spot phone repairs I marketed at coffee shops. And it would take 30 minutes. Sometimes, I would mess up people’s phones, and I’d have to pay for a new phone. Like, it was intense. There’s like 100 screws. They’re micro screws. I bought my toolkit. I bought my mats. And I just, I made a lot of money, and I just was having fun. I never really needed a real job. I was studying at Napa Valley College, studying for business. And my brother went to Berkeley. And I, you know, growing up, always wanted to, kind of, follow in his footsteps. Like, he was playing varsity soccer in high school, and I wanted to play soccer. And he went to Berkeley, I wanted to go to Berkeley.

[00:07:00] Sean: What number are you, like, out of five?

[00:07:03] Noor: So, I’m the youngest out of the boys.

[00:07:06] Sean: Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:07:07] Noor: So, I’m 29. I have an older brother, Sammy, who’s 31. He’s a chemical engineer. And then I have Majdi, who’s 34. And he studied political science at Berkeley. And he, you know, is interested in more of, like, law. And he’s worked a lot of, like, policy and legal roles at, like, Facebook and different companies, Google.

[00:07:33] Sean: You’re not the youngest.

[00:07:35] Noor: I’m not the youngest. The youngest is Suzanne. She’s my little sister.

[00:07:39] Sean: Got it. Got it. So, you’re number four out of five.

[00:07:42] Noor: Yep. And then we have the oldest brother who passed last year, a very tough moment for our family, but may God rest his soul. Moving forward, I wanted to go to Berkeley. And my brother was like, “Hey, like, you can apply.” And I told him about Haas and, like, he helped me with my personal statements. One of the skills he had was, like, writing and, like, editing and, like, just knowing how to configure, like, essays.

And I got accepted. And it was very interesting, because I, kind of, almost, I wouldn’t say flunked out of high school, I didn’t take it seriously, because I was just chasing the wrong things. And I find myself, kind of, a little naive, like, “Oh, well, business school, you know.” Like, I started a phone repair company. And coming into Haas, it was such an oddball. Like, people were, like, bankers, consultants, accountants.

To be honest with you, I was very intimidated. I had a lot of inferiority complex. And should I even be here? I’m like, “What am I doing here?” I’m like, I was, like, I don’t know. This sounded all cool on paper, but I don’t know if I really like this. And I’m a social butterfly. I was, like, more interested in meeting, networking with people. And all these people I was meeting, I was like, “Wow, like, these are, you know, a lot of people have these backgrounds or specific niches.” And I’m like, “Am I… is this for me?” And I excelled in, like, UGBA 106, marketing, consumer behavior, social media marketing. We studied a lot about, like, psychology of consumer behavior and those sort of things.

What I was doing, I was just taking classes that interested me. I loved marketing. I love… we did a case study about Clorox and, like, Burt’s Bees and brand positioning, brand voice, brand tone, the psychology of colors, fonts. Like, that sort of thing just spoke to me. I could do that naturally.

I’ve gained confidence throughout my time there. And I was part of clubs. I ran for, like, VP communications for HBSA. I helped start Bears for Palestine, which was not even business school related. It was just for my identity and my people. And I took Arabic electives. I took, like, Near Eastern Studies with Hatem Bazian. He’s a Palestinian professor at Berkeley. And those kept me, kind of, like, in normalcy.

Moving forward, I get out of Haas. I graduate. I find myself at Oracle. Like, just really disliked the experience. It was great, the people I met and the training, but the actual what we were selling, I was like, “Wow, like, this is like a sleeping elephant, this company.”

After a year, I let it go. Right before I quit, I was like, “You know what? I did all the titles, did Berkeley Oracle,” I was like, “I just want to be me. I want to be Noor.”

So, I took a… I think I had, like, an eight-month gap. I was driving Lyft and I was bodybuilding. Like, that was my job. And I was just paying my rent in SF. And I just didn’t care what people thought of me at that point. I didn’t care about all my, you know, my friends doing investment banking, his friends doing consulting, McKinsey, Bain, Google.

I tried all that. I interviewed for Google associate product marketing manager, the LinkedIn rotational program. I wanted that stamp. I couldn’t get it. I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to walk away from this.” I was like, it’s all good.

Lo and behold, I applied for one job, one job, on accident. I’m at a party, not even a party. It was like a more of a get-together in my house. I’m on my laptop. I use Square for my payments at Norglass. I used to charge people through Square. I was what was known as a micro seller. They invite me for an onsite super day three-round interviews. I get the job. They extend an offer.

I’ve thrown into this, what everyone wanted as a Haas undergrad — blue chip company, tech, San Francisco, HQ, food, dinner, breakfast, lunch, everything, like the trophy of, like, a graduate at Haas.

And I wasn’t even looking for it, like, the way it fell on my lap. This is serendipity. This job was the most interesting and difficult job I’ve ever done. I mean, I was in a full pace. I was supporting the mid-market team at Square. They were trying to move upmarket into different verticals and industries and not be known as the little white reader. They wanted to become the pioneers of the fintech space. And it was so competitive. And I’m like, “Man, I always find myself in these competitive environments.” And so, I get the job as an AE, and now I’m closing. COVID hits.

[00:12:19] Sean: Yeah.

[00:12:19] Noor: Here’s where it gets cool. I’m finally going to get to Jaffa. Throughout my tenure at Square, I learned about coffee. We had an Andytown downstairs in the HQ. I mean this HQ, this is where I learned about coffee and design, like, or at least… I wouldn’t say where I learned about coffee and design solely, but it definitely, spending five years there, I piqued my interest. Before, I was always interested in, like, design and, like, coffee in general. So, before I worked at Square, I was going to, like, Philz Coffee. And, like, they’re branded as Palestinian. I’m Palestinian. I thought that was cool. Start working at Square, and I get way more nerdy about it.

And then, you know, I got my brothers into it. I was like, “Hey, there’s this thing called specialty coffee. It’s different. We got to stop drinking Starbucks.” I didn’t say stop drinking Philz. I was on the Philz. Philz was like our Starbucks. That was our generation. And then, I was like, “Hey, there’s this thing called Ritual Coffee Roasters and Andytown and Blue Bottle and Stumptown and there’s Tasting Notes. And, like, this is different. So, like, we’re getting into it.

And then, we all come together, and then, I’m like, “Hey, guys, why don’t we start a coffee roasting business?” My brother’s a chemical engineer, so he understands heat transfer, air flow dynamics, fluid mechanics, and, like, things that have to do with roasting beans and, like, rate of rise and those sort of things.

And so, we put that together. And my other brother, Majdi, has food business experience. He started, like, an Afghan burrito concept. And he was working with different partners at the time and stopped working with them so we can build this together and, kind of, sold his share in Afghan Burrito.

Before then, me, Sammy, and Mezzi take a trip to Jaffa, which is it’s a city on the coast, would say northwest on the Mediterranean Sea. It’s a coastal city. It’s the bride of the sea, which means that it was at a time the cultural hub of Palestine. It was like the Milan or like the Madrid of Palestine. Newspapers, articles, culture, artists, like, it was the premier city.

We love Jaffa. We love going there. We’re not allowed as Palestinians because it’s present day, technically, an Israeli city. But it is an indigenously Palestinian city. You know, throughout the occupation, they have introduced more Jewish Israeli population, but it’s always been a Palestinian city, and it still is.

And we wanted to reclaim that as our city, you know. Like, so, Tel Aviv-Yafo is a new made-up concept. And we’re not saying it’s not… there weren’t Jews in that city or even Palestine. We’re just saying that those people happen to be Palestinian, and let’s not forget that.

[00:15:00] Sean: Yeah.

[00:15:01] Noor: So, my brother is like a map in Palestine. He loves Palestinian identity and cultural. He’s a Palestine bug. And more than the average Palestinian, he loves it. He sneaks us into Jaffa. We’re from Hebron, so we have West Bank IDs. What that means is this green ID card subjects you to the West Bank.

You can’t enter present day Israel. The blue ID card, you have the privilege of being an Israeli Jew who has full access throughout Palestine. And this is a form of apartheid and segregation.

So, as a green one, you can’t enter Israel. So, we just… we tried to get on a bus one day and go to the checkpoint. We got caught and, like, thrown back into the West Bank, and then my brother sneaks us in through Beersheba. And we’re not really sneaking in, it’s our home. My mom was born in Jerusalem. It’s like our city. We just can’t, because as Americans…

[00:15:55] Sean: I was just going to ask, like, don’t you have an American ID or a passport?

[00:16:00] Noor: Yeah, we’re Americans, exactly. So, any American can enter Israel. They love when Americans go. They love American pop culture. Oh, but you’re Palestinian. So, you’re seen as a threat to the state of Israel. So, that supersedes that.

[00:16:13] Sean: So, you’re historically Palestinian, even though your passport is American?

[00:16:18] Noor: Yeah. It’s like you, if you were Chinese, but you were born here, like, your parents are Chinese.

[00:16:24] Sean: So, they have a record of that, basically. So, even though you’re entering Israel with your American passport, they have a record that you were historically…

[00:16:32] Noor: Oh, yeah.

[00:16:33] Sean: I guess they could probably tell by your name, first off, and then…

[00:16:36] Noor: Oh, yeah. Their whole security intelligence is some of the best in the world. And that’s not to Palestinian benefit. That’s actually… I’m not saying that as, like, a compliment. I’m just saying, like, they take in a lot of American aid. And they know who you are. Because we were going as Americans until they put two and two together and they find out that we were Palestinian through our dad, not that we were ever hiding that, but just to get into our home we needed to, as Americans. Any other American can go into Israel, but our Palestinian-ness supersedes that.

[00:17:07] Sean: Yeah.

[00:17:08] Noor: Even as American-born Palestinians.

[00:17:11] Sean: Your mother was from?

[00:17:14] Noor: Jerusalem.

[00:17:15] Sean: Jerusalem, yeah.

[00:17:16] Noor: But she was from Jerusalem. If it wasn’t for my dad’s him being from the West Bank, because my mom is technically an Arab citizen of Israel as a resident, because she was born in, they call it 48, which is just an area that is technically, like, Israeli. So, if it was just my mom, yeah, we probably would have the same privilege as people who enter through Israel. But we don’t even really want that.

Moving forward, we’re in Jaffa. We sneak in. I take my brother. He sneaks us in. He’s just so connected. He just knows the ins and outs of Palestine. I take him to the coffee quarter. I was like, “Hey, Tel Aviv is like, the, you know, I hate to say this, you know, they have that techness of it.” My brother even worked for Facebook once and he couldn’t go into the Tel Aviv office. I wasn’t able to apply for sales jobs in my own home because it was in Tel Aviv.

And so, we’re there, took them to the coffee quarter. San Francisco is the vanguard of coffee. That’s how I learned about coffee. I learned about Blue Bottle, the likes of Ritual, Andytown, all through my, like, the serendipity through Square, the coffee shop point of sale. I was selling this. It was like meant to be, almost.

Tel Aviv has that same kind of vibe. They have coffee roasters. They have this new modernness. You don’t find that in Palestinian cities because we don’t have the ability or opportunity to do so because we’re occupied. So, I was like, “Hey, let’s go enjoy coffee in our home, whether it’s from an Israeli roaster or not.” We must go on a coffee tour.

On the way there, we see this sign, it says, “The People of Jaffa.” And it’s, like, cartoons, but clearly White-looking people cartoons. And I was like, “Those aren’t the people of Jaffa.”

[00:19:03] Sean: Yeah.

[00:19:04] Noor: Israel has this way of marketing to the world that they are indigenous. And I’m like, “Hey, like, the people of Jaffa are Palestinians.” And so, I was like, “Hey,” like, you were thinking of a coffee concept. I was talking to Sami and Majdi, and I was like, “Hey, why don’t we call it Jaffa?” And they started saying like, Jaffa. And I’m like,
“That’s cool.” And my brother, Majdi, was like, “All right, we do Jaffa.” We got to talk about the oranges. Oranges are big. Symbolism of Palestinian resistance in Jaffa. Jaffa is known for some of the best oranges in the world, the Shamouti orange, similar to Florida oranges. They were exported.

[00:19:40] Sean: Thick skin.

[00:19:42] Noor: Exactly, thick skin, sweet taste. They were exported throughout Berlin, Paris, London, but they were Israeli-branded at a time. Before that, Palestinian, the Jews, are working together and Palestinian Jews, even, Palestinian Muslims to export these oranges, world famous.

75,000 acres of orange groves were seized after the Nakba, the catastrophe in 1948. And these Palestinian farmers were forced to leave their homes and their orchards. And they were exiled. So, we talk about that history and what the oranges represents through our espresso line, the land of sad oranges. Our drip line is called Old City to New City, which describes our mom coming from Old City, Jerusalem to New City, San Francisco, when she was 19.

So, we developed this brand, my brother’s roasting, he’s sending me samples, I’m living in Venice. I’m the barista. I’m extracting it. There’s coffee everywhere. And we did a big pop-up and you see coffee bags everywhere. And we’re on social media, and things are crazy. This thing just blows up. Everyone’s like, “Jaffa, Jaffa, Jaffa.” It’s like Jaffa mania. And my brothers and I are working around the clock.

[00:20:55] Sean: How do you guys source the beans? Are they sourced from Jaffa? Like, where are they from?

[00:21:02] Noor: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, coffee doesn’t grow in Palestine. What does grow in Palestine is olives and different types of fruits like mulberry. I’ll explain why I’m getting to this. The mulberry, cactus, figs, almonds, like, all those sorts of things. Coffee grows in the coffee belt. The coffee belt is under the Tropic of Cancer and above the Tropic of Capricorn. And in that coffee belt, you have Latin America, Central America, you have Africa, you have the Asias, and then you have, parts of Yemen.

So, you have these countries in the coffee belt. With coffee, you need hot days and cool nights. And you need elevation. Like, our drip coffee right now is from a farm in Ethiopia, and our espresso is, like, a blend from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico. And coffee… have you ever heard of, like, chocolate tasting or wine tasting?

[00:22:07] Sean: Yeah.

[00:22:07] Noor: Coffee has that same thing. Like, you can pull notes and perceive notes, perceive sweetness, what it reminds you of. And it’s arbitrary. You can’t tell people what you taste or what they taste or what they smell. It’s completely personal. Typically, when you do see notes, people will agree on them. That’s why you know you’re in the right spot.

[00:22:26] Sean: So, we got the story, the background story as to, you know, partially as to why and how you guys started Jaffa. I hate puns, but I don’t know if you can spill the beans. But what makes Jaffa different? How is it that you and your brothers, like the Gaith bros, looking to stand out?

[00:22:46] Noor: Coffee roasters in San Francisco are the vanguards. They bring some of the best. As you go up North, you’ll find that in Oregon and Seattle. They lack color. It’s a very white world in coffee roasting. There hasn’t been really one, like coffee roaster that has been Palestinian in the Ivy League status of, like, Ritual, Blue Bottle, Stumptown. That doesn’t exist. What we’re doing is, like, the Michelin star equivalent of coffee. Coffee doesn’t grow in Palestine, but it grows in the coffee belt. And we test all these coffees to find Palestinian notes that resemble Palestinian fruits.

And this takes a long time. You can’t manipulate it. We don’t add additives. We don’t add any oils or any sweeteners, any of that. We roast our coffee green. After the five layers are stripped, we roast our coffee green. We look for notes of cactus, of almond, of portokal, which is apricot in Arabic, of toot, which is mulberry in Arabic. We look for flavors of tea, which is fig, or olives, or, oranges, Jaffa oranges. Like, we look for these things. And then those are our tasting notes. Those aren’t arbitrary. That’s one thing that makes Jaffa different.

And the second is, if you look at our bags, if you look at our brand, I don’t think anything exists like it. We are making specialty coffee more accessible to people of color, people who don’t. You know, like even me being engulfed in coffee, at Ritual Coffee, I would do this as a hobby. It was, like, my library. I would go and I’d order a latte and I’d order a cortado. And I’d sit there and I would just think about coffee, because it was fun to me. And as someone who grew up in American Canyon, like, it’s not, like, really typical to, like, high end things, like, that, but I just, kind of, was drawn to it.

But I just, kind of, was drawn to it. I was paying $9 for, like, a latte, or not, like, $7, $8. Well, milk, tax, and tip. Yeah, eventually, like, almost 10 bucks. I would buy a bag of beans for 18, 12 ounces. I came home one day. My dad’s like, why did you buy 12 ounces of beans for $18? He drinks French roasts from Costco.

[00:24:55] Sean: Right.

[00:24:56] Noor: It’s three pounds. It’s from different roasters across the world. They’re not specialty and they sell it wholesale. He puts French vanilla creamer, cinnamon, sugar. It’s good when it’s hot. And it’s not, you know, but I was like, “Dad, you don’t get it. This is specialty coffee. This is my area. I know this is foreign to you, but there’s tasting notes in here. This is good quality coffee. He eventually is, like, wow, like, you know, it, kind of, gets converted. That’s hard for my dad.

[00:25:23] Sean: I love, kind of, the mission that you guys are after, similar to any reason why there’s representation in any industry, is that it accounts for different people, taste profiles, and whatnots. That’s pretty cool.

[00:25:37] Noor: Thank you, man. We do a good job at it. I think one of the things about us is our ability to see these things. Like, from just a skill set perspective, like  like building a retail, which is not open yet. It’s opening soon, May 15th. We built an online store. I have a lot of, like, eye for design. So, I, I worked with our illustrator to, kind of, showcase what we wanted.

Even going through our bags and, like, pantones and, like, learning illustrator, learning Canva, learning… like, what I’ve seen throughout the years at coffee shops. And this stuff has all been in my brain. With the help of my brothers, we were able to bring it to life. And we are a team, especially after our brother passed away. Like, we became more united than ever. And we were all coming together to do it.00

And my brother’s like, “Why don’t we call our espresso, like, let’s call it Land of Sad Oranges?” And I was like, “You sure, man, sad?” He’s like, “Trust me.” There’s a poem that was written by Kanafani, which describes why the Oranges in Jaffa became sad after Palestinians were exiled. And I was like, “All right, let’s put our mom on the bag,” after I’ve seen this photo.

[00:26:44] Sean: Yeah.

[00:26:44] Noor: So, we cartoonified her.

[00:26:47] Sean: Oh, yeah.

[00:26:48] Noor: That’s the old city to new city. That’s the old city to new city. We put our mom in the bag, and then we started telling the story of when she got married to my dad. On the social media, you’ll see this and her travels, her coffee travels. So, like, that’s what makes Jaffa different, to answer your question.

[00:27:04] Sean: I love that.

[00:27:06] Noor: We wanted the Jaffa brand to be colorful. So, this is what I studied in Haas, is brand positioning, brand voice, brand tone, consumer behavior, getting inside the minds of people, of marketing. Why didn’t Clorox put their name on the Burt’s Bees chapstick? Because it’s too abrasive. People wouldn’t buy it. Who buys coffee? It’s like the culture of Arabs. A lot of Arabs are Muslim. Not all, but a lot. Coffee is a social lubricant and wine equivalent of the Middle East.

So, with that, like, you’ll see a lot of Yemeni shops up and coming, and then there’s a lot to say about that. And we’re doing something a lot different. The interior design of our shop is going to be more West Coast influenced because we’re Palestinian, but we’re also American. So, in the bathroom, there’s going to be, like, kind of, like, a cave-looking interior design. Our dad was born in a cave in Hebron. And the interior design of the place is going to be Balinese. And there’s going to be, like, accents of, like, Palestinian influences and culture. And our drinks and the artwork on the wall, those things will be very present.

[00:28:18] Sean: Before we wrap up, I definitely have to ask you, where is your retail store going to be?

[00:28:23] Noor: We’re going to be in Berkeley, downtown Berkeley.

[00:28:26] Sean: Nice. All right.

[00:28:27] Noor: Our Alma Mater.

[00:28:29] Sean: Bring it home, all right. And what’s, kind of, your expected opening date?

[00:28:33] Noor: Hoping for May 15th.

[00:28:35] Sean: Yeah. We’ll just put it as a soft, soft date, soft opening.

[00:28:40] Noor: Yeah, hopefully.

[00:28:41] Sean: That’s awesome. Noor, final question, as I always like to ask people, was there anything that, you know, I didn’t get a chance to ask you that you, kind of, want to talk about?

[00:28:52] Noor: I guess one thing I’d like to say is free Palestine, first of all. Don’t stop talking about Gaza and don’t stop talking about the injustice that takes place in Palestine. You’ll see a lot of the encampments at Harvard and Berkeley. This is what stopped the segregation apartheid in South Africa. We will not be forgotten or ethnically cleansed. And so, don’t stop talking about Palestine and how important it is. In the people of Gaza, there’s been 30,000 who have been slaughtered through a genocide to prove that it’s a genocide to people and that it’s targeted. So, I would say that.

And more related to the business, in relation to me, always follow your heart, you know. As I talked about iPhone sales and coffee, you know, God is the greatest of planners. If you don’t believe in God, you believe in the universe, by the law of attraction, bring you to what your purpose is in life.

And you have to follow that. You have to take chances. And you might fall and scrape your elbows and fail, but follow your heart. Like, I followed branding and marketing and design and coffee and Haas. And, like, I went against the grain, even when it was, like, you know, nah, I was an oddball out. I wasn’t afraid to be myself boldly.

So, don’t be afraid to go outside the lines and think different. And obviously, quoting Steve Jobs here, like, the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do. That’s so much truth. And I think one of the things I’d like to leave off with is, like, just listen to your soul, follow your heart. What do you like? What are you interested in? If you’re a computer science major and you, like, let’s say you like marketing, go do marketing. Follow your heart. Don’t label yourself. These titles, don’t let them parade you. Don’t get…

[00:30:38] Sean: Don’t let them define you.

[00:30:39] Noor: Don’t let them define you. Go outside the bounds and do what makes you happy.

[00:30:43] Sean: Love that. Noor, thank you so much for sharing that message. I do want to add one thing and, kind of, put what you mentioned twice now, you know, about inferiority complex and all these things. And I hope for our listeners, this is pretty near and dear to me as well, growing up also as an oddball, but, you know, having done this podcast for seven years now, I’ll tell you one fact that I find extremely interesting is that everybody that comes on this podcast, no matter how successful, no matter what stage or age, everybody has a chip on their shoulder. And it’s crazy.

[00:31:17] Noor: Yeah.

[00:31:18] Sean: It gets me every time, because you would think, you know, sometimes I’m interviewing, you know, 60-year-old CEOs and just, like, everybody has a chip on their shoulder about something. And so, point is just, don’t let that get to you. Just keep going. Embrace it. Keep trying. One of my favorite quotes is, not that fortune favors the bold. My favorite is, fortune favors prepared.

[00:31:41] Noor: Fortune favors the prepared. I love that. My quote is, you never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory. Like, some of the best times of my life were when I was a BDR at square at bottom of the totem pole. I was broke. I was living in SF. I was paying $1,500 for a room. Wasn’t glamorous, even though it is privileged, absolutely, I will admit, that I have to work for a tech company, but I was at the bottom of the totem pole. And some of those days, like, I learned about what my life is today — coffee, sales, design, entrepreneurship. And I always look back and, like, wow, those are some of the best times of my life.

[00:32:23] Sean: Yep.

[00:32:23] Noor: And I didn’t know it. That’s done.

[00:32:25] Sean: Agreed. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Noor. Really, really appreciate having you on and sharing your story. Hopefully, we get to have you back again.

[00:32:37] Noor: Thanks so much, Sean.

[00:32:43] Sean: Thanks again for tuning in to this episode of the OneHaas Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed our show today, please hit that Subscribe or Follow button on your favorite podcast player. We’d also really appreciate you giving us a five-star rating and review. If you’re looking for more content, please check our website at haas.fm. That’s spelled H-A-A-S.fm. There, you can subscribe for our monthly newsletter and check out some of our other Berkeley Haas podcasts.

OneHaas Podcast is a production of the Haas School of Business and produced by University FM.

Until next time. Go, Bears!