Benjah Box: my entrepreneurial dream

Saber Benjah, current student of BSc in Business Administration, describes his entrepreneurial journey to develop the first online mint tea delivery service.

A few years ago I noticed that many people drink coffee or mint tea in cafés in the Netherlands. In relation to that, I always had a dream of bringing people together with a world-known mint tea brand. The first time I pitched this dream was during a challenge at Nyenrode. As a winner of this challenge I received a scholarship which gave me the opportunity to follow the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program. 

In order to make my dream become a reality I went to restaurants and cafes trying to sell my mint. I was declined. I went to Catering Companies. I was declined. Eventually I wrote an email to Ahold. They believed in it, but they also gave me no for an answer. So eventually I got frustrated... I asked myself all the time: there should be a way to sell mint tea online.

One day, my roommate entered the room with a small box and an idea struck me. I immediately went home and grabbed some fresh mint, put it in an enveloppe and showed it to my father. Look! Fresh mint, online delivered! His response was: genius! From that moment on, I started to work on a prototype. During that phase I got a lot of feedback from many people all over the Netherlands. Also a lot of students and teachers gave me strong feedback. I even managed to get a small storage space on campus. 

Two months ago I launched my startup online: the first online mint tea delivery service. Each Benjah Box contains fresh Moroccan mint tea, green tea and cookies. We donate 10% of the revenue to charity. The launch went viral on social media, I was on tv and we got nominated for a business award. 

Three weeks ago from the 100 startups, we had to pitch in the finals of the Funx Media Business Award and we won an advertising campaign worth €10.000. 

Even though we are a small startup, the future looks bright! Business is going well and I believe that we have a great potential. We need to focus on growing and joining more pitch competitions. We want to become a big Dutch company that will do awesome things worldwide.''

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