The five James sisters had a dream -- opening a raw juice stand in Detroit.
"Recently, all of us girls needed to have something to call our own. We just had the general desire to self-actualize and start something. We took our passion of health and wellness, and in particular, juicing, and turned it into a business," says co-founder Cait James.
They turned to
Kickstarter, the crowdsourcing website which has quickly become Ground Zero for several of the city's dreamers and creators -- and raised over $13,000 from 151 different backers.
"Our original plan, just based on being the most economical and practical option, was to open up as a specialty vendor in Eastern Market. That's the project we pitched on Kickstarter," James says.
The overwhelming support they've encountered from Kickstarter followers, local entrepreneurs and members of Detroit's food community have the DROUGHT sisters re-thinking their original plan to begin with a vending stall at Eastern Market. They're now pursuing a commercial food license to take advantage of bigger opportunities on the horizon.
"The food stall is still definitely in the plans, but we've had so much interest and opportunities open up to us, that we have to amp it up a bit," she says.
Cait is currently bouncing between Detroit and Manhattan, but she's excited to set up this business in Detroit proper.
"Our focus is still on the city and the Detroit area. We're from the suburbs," she says, "but we all have a natural inclination to go to Detroit -- everyone for their own particular reasons."
Find out more about DROUGHT Juice
here.
Source: Cait James, co-founder, DROUGHT Juice
Writer: Ashley C. Woods
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