The Startup CPG Podcast

Bilal Othman
I think the core guiding principle of HUA is, like, how can I stay connected to. Back home, to my cousins back home? Because, like, as you get older, like, the nature of things is, like, you get married, they get married, they have kids, and, like, there's distance that forms, and that's very natural. And the second, how can I, like, stay, have an excuse to, like, essentially hang out with my dad on a random moment? And that's kind of the core ethos of who is. I think it's just like, I grew up at a certain age where I realized, oh, if I want these things to continue and I want them to be for the next generation, where you have a connection back home or you even just view the thing of, like, working with your dad, it's a very big ethos.

00:43
Bilal Othman
I think in, like, the neighborhood I grew up in, you kind of need to act on it now.

00:49
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, editor at Startup cpg. We are back with another founder feature. Everybody make space in your pantry, because today we're talking with Bilal Othman, founder of hua. HUA is an olive oil brand with deep roots. Bilal's family has been nurturing olive trees in Palestine for hundreds of years. Their extra virgin olive oil is some of the purest in the world, handcrafted with the indigenous traditions they are striving to keep alive. I left this conversation feeling inspired by the brand's family focus. From trees to Bottle. I hope you love this episode as much as I loved the unforgettable brand experience of receiving my first bottle of hua. You'll have to listen in to learn more. Enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Bilal Often, founder of HUA Boal.

01:46
Caitlin Bricker
Welcome to the show.

01:47
Bilal Othman
Thanks for having me.

01:48
Caitlin Bricker
So excited to have you here. I feel like your olive oil is such a standout product because I have never seen an olive oil with the branding and packaging that your brand has. So I'm really excited to dive in and get to know you and your brand. So to start off, I'd love for you to introduce us to hua. For anybody who's listening and isn't familiar with your brand, can you tell us what.

02:11
Bilal Othman
Who.

02:11
Caitlin Bricker
What is?

02:12
Bilal Othman
Yeah. So HUA is basically existed in my family for hundreds and hundred years at different variations. My family's been harvesting olives in Palestine for as long as anyone can know. So long that it's like past written history. It's like oral history, basically. So, yeah, basically, HUA is. Is my family makes good Olive oil from Palestine. We've been farmers for generations and generations. I'm the first generation to basically not farm. I work at an ad agency. So, like, the opposite of farming. And, yeah, we just kind of bought it to the US We've been selling it at the back of, like, mosque parking lots in my neighborhood growing up. And then we want a grant from the Queen's Economic Development Fund to actually put it into a bottle. And that's, like, what you see in front of you today.

02:51
Caitlin Bricker
This is going to be such a good story. I already know. So before we get deeper into your brand, I want to get more into you, since you're the foundation of the brand. I understand that Bilal Ahman is not your full name. Can you share your full name and a bit of the history behind it?

03:06
Bilal Othman
Yeah. So the way ought to be specific Palestinian names work is like, it's like your name and then your dad's name and then your grandpa's name and your great grandpa's name. And it goes on and on. And like, my full name is like, Bilal Omar Uthman Sl. It goes on and on. And then there's like a series of names, Lost history. And then it goes to Huawsha, which is part of where Hua comes from. And then it goes to Deri, which is like the clan name. So goes on a very long. Essentially a bunch of names listed, different people. And every single person in that lineage has been a farmer or worked or existed in, like, agricultural communities in Palestine. So that's the background of my name. That was your question, right? The background, My name.

03:43
Caitlin Bricker
Yes, you answered it perfectly. All right, so speaking of names, why Hua? I know you just touched on it a little bit, but I'd love to hear some more about that.

03:53
Bilal Othman
First of all, it's cute. Hua. Four letters. You know, it's like, I like W's and A's. Like, they look nice together. So that's like, part of it. The other part of it is Huawsha is kind of a funny name to have as a family name, Right. Because the name of it comes from the root word hosha in Arabic, which means, like, people who start a problem. So, like, I think it's a nickname that someone gave our family, like, way back that, like, is a negative connotation. But, like, someone was, like, really stoked on that negative connotation and was like, yo, our family name's the Hosha now. So that's like the backdrop, I guess, of like, the HW Osha name. And we just took that and just put hua.

04:31
Bilal Othman
It's also, like, we could be corny and be like, we disrupting olive oil, hua disruption, et cetera. Causing problems. I don't know. But yeah, it's just basically a family name.

04:39
Caitlin Bricker
I do agree that it's very cute. And it is just. It's an outlier in olive oil, I will say, not only with the branding and packaging, but with the name. It's not like. It's not a mouthful to me. It's very. It rolls off the tongue, which is not easy for me because I feel like I get tongue tied very often. So great job.

04:57
Bilal Othman
Thank you.

04:58
Caitlin Bricker
So talk to me about your lineage. What makes you an outlier when it comes to olives? I understand that your family has a history of being olive farmers, so why are you different?

05:09
Bilal Othman
Yeah, I think biggest factors are raised in the States. So my dad was lucky enough to, like, basically everyone has been an alpha, right? Like, doing it for a very long time. My dad grew up most of his life basically doing agriculture of some kind. Whether it's like, hurting sheep, like being an olive farmer, like, harvesting grain, like, all their memories. Like, when I talk to my dad, his childhood memories are like, it was almond season, and during almond season, we did this. And, like, it'll be like, stories that are always rooted back to kind of the harvest cycles of Palestine. The reason I didn't kind of go down that path is just because I was raised in the States. I was raised in little Palestine, Chicago, and like, a very small immigrant pocket community. But I was always exposed to oil.

05:46
Bilal Othman
So the way it works is every October is all of harvest season. So the whole community goes down in Palestine. Everyone's picking it. I'm in school, so I know it's happening. But, like, my dad's not obviously sending me back to go help anyone. But November hits, And basically these 17 liter tanks of oil come at our door and we start eating fresh olive oil. And, like, when we first get it's like a big deal in the family. Like, my mom makes certain dishes. Like, my dad is, like, super excited about, like, you know, this year's harvest was good. This year's harvest was, like, average. The rain was, et cetera. So even though I grew up in the diaspora, like, it still was a major part of the way the family saw the, like, yearly schedule.

06:23
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. I feel like I could picture just this bright, luscious, green oil arriving in a tank. It must have been like a real celebration to see that show up for your.

06:34
Bilal Othman
No. Especially it was like, yo, like, that's the moment that I think immigrant fathers. But, like, man, like, there's not really ways that they kind of dispense information about their lives. Well, like, they don't, like, set you down. Here's the story. It's always, like, through the vehicle of something. And it was always like, he would tell us these stories, like being a kid or, like, what his dad was like or what even, like, family members that I know from back home. But, like, what they were like, at like, 20, that it would pull things out of him, which I always really liked about it.

06:58
Caitlin Bricker
Can you share anything specific when you think about an olive oil memory? I'm curious if there's anything that stands out in your mind.

07:07
Bilal Othman
Trying to think of any that, like, I heard that I think are, like, funny. The one that I like is, like, my dad's older brother, who's, like a big part of hua, right? He's my uncle. He was kind of like a bully to my dad. So basically, like, while my uncle wouldn't be looking, he'd, like, sneak in, like, cigarettes and basically you would live on the olive grove in that two week period to go harvest, especially ones that are super far off in the Jordan Valley that are no longer accessible. So he'd basically try to sneak cigarettes or something like that. And then, like, when he'd get caught or in trouble, he'd always blame my dad. So I feel like that's one that I like, because when you see these two men hang out, they're objectively, like, one's 67, the other's 63.

07:46
Bilal Othman
They're older dudes, and, like, they still feel like children kind of bickering at each other in a way that's very cute and wholesome. And you kind of see those stories, like, oh, like, I kind of see the dynamic of, like, him being kind of a little bit of a bully in, like, a wholesome way, in, like, an older brother, siblings.

08:00
Caitlin Bricker
That's really funny. I see the smile that it's bringing to your face, and it's like, bringing me joy hearing that story, because I can totally picture that happening. Not knowing your dad or your uncle at all.

08:10
Bilal Othman
Yeah, both are funny people. That's awesome.

08:13
Caitlin Bricker
So what prompted you to take the olive oil and create hua? What was the moment where you thought this needs to be a brand?

08:21
Bilal Othman
Yeah, I think the core guiding principle of HUA is like, how can I stay connected to back home, to my cousins back home? Because, like, as you get older, like, the nature of things is like, you get married, they get married, they have kids. Kids, and like, there's distance that forms, and that's very natural. And the second, how can I, like, stay, have an excuse to, like, essentially hang out with my dad on a random moment? And that's kind of the core ethos of it was, I think it's just like I grew up at a certain age where I realized, oh, if I want these things to continue and I want them to be for the next generation, where you have a connection back home or you even just view the thing of, like, working with your dad, it's a very big ethos.

08:51
Bilal Othman
I think in, like, the neighborhood I grew up in, you kind of need to act on it now. So we had these basically, like, what used to be is like, kind of what I mentioned is every October, 17 liter tanks, people in the neighborhood started hearing our region is known for good olives. People be like, okay, bring me a tank over when you guys get it and we'll pay you guys. And it kind of catapulted into kind of being a bigger and bigger thing where, you know, we're bringing in a couple dozen, like, you know, 60, 70 tanks for people in the neighborhood. And, like, my dad's sending me off to the north side of Chicago to drop it off to some random guy who I don't know. And it was like, okay, let's formalize this. This is like good oil. People like it.

09:22
Bilal Othman
It's a fun thing to do with my dad. Like, how can we actually make this more legit into a business and bring in the skills that, like, I built, like, being in America to, like, work with the family, essentially. Like, I was texting my cousin earlier today and it was just like, probably wouldn't have been texting him today if it wasn't for Hua. That's kind of the backstory of it.

09:38
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. So would you say that Hua is a family owned and run business?

09:43
Bilal Othman
Oh, a hundred percent. Like, the whole point of it at some level isn't to make money. I mean, obviously, like, we all want money. Like, that's pretty obvious. But, like, the core of it is literally just like, yo, how could we hang out as a family? And like, if we keep that as a guiding principle, I think everything else will just fall in place.

09:57
Caitlin Bricker
That is so good and so refreshing to hear. I feel like I do not hear that often enough. I actually have not heard that yet, and I just love that so much. It definitely sounds like you're building quite the legacy with the brand within your family. And then for people who adopt the brand too and become who are all of oil users in their household. I love that. So this bottle, I think I've talked about it already a few times. I'm kind of obsessed with it. Feel like there's an olive oil craze. I would say the market is kind of saturated. But again, HUA is an outlier for me anyway because it just looks so different from anything else that you'd see on a shelf. So walk me through your design.

10:40
Caitlin Bricker
From the shape of the bottle to the way it dispenses, the cartoon, the stickers. This is unlike any experience I've had with a brand in general before. So talk to me about this.

10:53
Bilal Othman
Yeah, I think it was really fun to make because it was like the first exercise of like, okay, how do we do this as a family? And it's like kind of a silly thing to go bring. Like when I showed my aunt the bottle, she's like, bro, this is like one dish. Like this is not a portion of oils. And it was really fun to just like talk to everyone in the family and like get their ideas. And this is genuinely like aggregation of everyone's memories, I feel like in a design. So I mean, there was some part of like traditional market research, right? It was like, okay, I realized like, hey, if you want to be on a retail shelf, like you got to look unique to stick out. Like, that was a key learning point.

11:24
Bilal Othman
But then from there went and like, we're like, okay, how do we get the whole family involved in this process? Because that's creative energy that's never been tapped, right? Like no one's tapping in a 65 year old Palestinian woman to get her take on design. And I think what we came across is like components of different people's memories. The oil. So for instance, it's a clear bottle, right? That looks like a baby bottle. And the reason is my sister called this out of like when we used to get oil. When you go to Palestine in the summer, you always get back things of like zata cheese oil, like whatever it is. Like everyone's suitcase is always stuffed with these things. And the way that it's packaged is always in reused, like soda, 2 liter or 1 liter packages.

12:00
Bilal Othman
So like were like, okay, how can we take that like idea of a repurposed bottle into the design of the oil? The stickers came from, like I was talking to my cousin about like, what's our most distinctive memories as kids when were in like, basically like when I had to go Visit Palestine. Like one of them was. It was a World cup happening. It was like 06 and it was like a thing to go collect the stickers of the different players in the World Cup. And were like, okay, like, let's try to figure out how to incorporate that. So it's kind of just like the design itself. Like, yeah, we worked with an artist overseas to basically draw it out.

12:28
Bilal Othman
But like the ethos when we gave him the creative brief was like, you'll make it feel like the magazines and the like kids storybooks that we used to have as kids, like basically this channel called Space Tunes that redid like animes from Japan and like, would dub them in Arabic, but then like cut out a bunch of scenes. So like the story is like, well, there's entire animes without like main characters in them because like that are making up like Islamic and wholesome for kids. And like, that's the kind of the art style and art direction we wanted. So that's the backstory of the design. To find the bottle was like a thing within itself where we just like scavenged the Internet to find unique shaped bottles.

13:01
Bilal Othman
And this is actually like a honey bottle from China that we then realized we could put like insert a disc in to be an orifice reducer. And the first like couple thousand bottles were just like manually inserting a disc and like destroyed my body. But like it was worth it because the design was cool. And. And now we finally have a mold where I don't need to insert an orifice reducer. Argue over engineered the design, but it was worth it because the way we see it is like from a business side, I guess it's like it's marketing within itself. Like you open it's an experience. You have a relationship with a product that you don't have anyway. And then on top of that, like it's very, you know, shareable or whatever you want to call it.

13:34
Bilal Othman
But that's how we justify the overkill and design. And we're still trying to figure out production for it. Like, it's really hard to figure out how to do this efficiently because it probably. We're not making money probably per bottle because of how complicated design is, but it's worth it. Look.

13:46
Caitlin Bricker
Again, I just love it. And you mentioned it. It's an experience when you open up that bottle. I did not realize what I was getting myself into when I got the bottle. Great. It's like a paper label. Like, okay, but now there's a seam here. There's A perforated line. What is going on underneath the label? I have never had a brand experience like I had with hua. Yes, people send stickers, people send swag, but it's always in the box. It's not part of the product. And for that experience of unwrapping the bottle, the label comes off and then you can decorate the bottle if you want to. I loved it.

14:25
Bilal Othman
Thank you. I genuinely appreciate it.

14:27
Caitlin Bricker
So well done. I've gone to restaurants before. They give you olive oil, they give you sauces, you dip the bread, you dip whatever you have in there. And you might be able to taste like a different flavor profile in the albs depending on where they come from in the world. So tell us about hua. If there are any people out there that haven't tried HUA or they're thinking about trying it, what would they taste with HUA compared to maybe more mainstream olive oil brands?

14:56
Bilal Othman
Yeah. So the agriculture process that you go through to make oil is what makes a unique flavor of oil. I didn't realize how unique it was until I went back and like, I talked to my like, basically people in Italy. I'm like, oh, how do you guys produce? And I'm like, oh, this is done in a completely different way. Unless it's done at a very small batch form. And we're doing it at like a very high quantity. Right. So the flavor of it initially is very fruity up front and then it's like peppery, almost spicy in the back. And the reason you get that is kind of what I mentioned, the way it's harvested. So first you start from the tree. The trees that we're planting are the same ones my dad planted, this one was my great grandpa planted, etc.

15:30
Bilal Othman
It goes on and on. And we're not plantings as the gmofied tree. It's basically the same trees, and we're just planting their kids. And like that's kind of how most of the olive groves are built. Some of the trees actually go back all the way to like the Roman Empire. Like we have like Byzantium trees and it's just these massive husks and like the veins on it or the husk is like almost veiny. And it's like this beautiful tree. And some of the oil that you might get is like in this bottle, like might be roomy trees and some of them might be newly planted trees. It's completely rain fed and there's no chemical fertilizer. So it's dry irrigation. Basically when we actually go down to harvest it. Everything is handpicked. We're talking about extensive.

16:05
Bilal Othman
As it gets is kind of handpicking machines that are like basically fingers and it like kind of whatever, it like hits the tree and it like takes it out. And essentially what we're doing is picking out the most ripe fruit. Compare that to what like traditional olive companies at the scale like that you see on a grocery store do is they attach a giant like machine to the husk, they shake it, and everything that comes out is basically what's in your oil. So in that sense, it's very unique. Then we take it down to the community press and the way we're doing it basically makes it that, like, the oil in this bottle is either from the same tree or the tree right next to it. It's not. When we say single origin, we mean genuinely single origin.

16:38
Bilal Othman
Some people would say single origin and be like, hey, you know, we're single origin. And it's the size of the entire, like the size of Chicago. It'll be like that single origin, any tree from this region. And it's like, no, we're actually very focused in on making sure that the oil pressed within that tree, the tree adjacent or like two trees over. It's not kind of looking at it from a very. And then when we go to presser, we're obviously pressing it very cold, very slow. If you're not buying cold pressed oil, basically what they're doing is they're pressing at a super high temperature. Olives are basically fruit, and olive oil is in some essence like fruit juice pressing a high temperature, basically cooking it before it even gets in the bottle is how we see it.

17:11
Bilal Othman
So that's basically what makes the oil special, and that's why you get that flavor. The last factor, the most important factor is just, it's just brush. Like this oil harvested in October, it's in front of you today. I don't want to sell oil that is like two, three years old. Like the majority of other oils that sit on shelves. Like, the way it's done is these companies buy massive amounts of olives at like very low cost from farmers, and then they like squeeze it in a mill and then like, it's a commodity sold the way that we sell petrol or sell, you know, any other commodity. And this is, at the end of the day, this is fruit juice. Like, this is not a raw resource in that sense. So yeah, that's kind of why you get that flavor.

17:44
Caitlin Bricker
So it truly is a craft. And I also just love picturing in My mind this idea of single origin, but then this generation of trees, of olive trees that have been planted that you're then just like really just taking from the family. So this is a, it's a family run business through and through, even down to the trees. That is just so special.

18:07
Bilal Othman
And there's also generations within who's picking the olives, right? Like you'll see a six year old out here, like you know, sorting the olives on the ground and then like a seven year old grandma, like my aunt or something like that who's very old, like she'll still be at the olive grove just chilling. And like her daughters and sons are like, you know what I'm saying? It's like the entire lineage is always there picking it also, which is really.

18:28
Caitlin Bricker
Nice and awesome that it really is just so special. I feel like the story that you're telling me now about your family and what you've been doing with the olives is like what many people dream of or it just seems like it's something you'd read about, but it's not a reality. And the fact that you're actually doing it and keeping that alive is. I'm very impressed. Jealous isn't the word, but maybe you get what I mean. I wish I had something like that in my family.

18:55
Bilal Othman
No, I mean I'm jealous too, right? Like I'm not there. I'm in the diaspora. I'll go in October. I don't have the core childhood memories the way that like my cousins do, but it's like yo, it's special. And it's like, yo, if I can, maybe I didn't have it, but if I can give my kids a version of it, like that's like the dream, right?

19:10
Caitlin Bricker
It's really cool that you've taken something that could be maybe just verbally passed down and now you're giving everybody something physical that they can pass down to each other for generations to come.

19:22
Bilal Othman
Hopefully.

19:23
Caitlin Bricker
Love it. So if there are any retailers who are listening to this episode, what is one thing that you'd want them to walk away with and keep in mind when they're considering who are for their shelves?

19:36
Bilal Othman
I think the biggest thing is your consumers once especially as like people are elevating the things they want ingredients wise people are starting to realize that olive oil is more should be in the produce section and shouldn't be in the aisle in the back next to the canned beans. And maybe I'm not saying let's change the shelf location. What I'm trying to say is I think increasingly people are demanding products that align to how they're actually manufactured and produced. And I think this oil pushes, essentially my goal is like hopefully pushing the category more into that direction of you want fresh oil, like from this year that's like really high quality and tastes unique and like nothing else. And try it. Like open this oil and open the six other seven other bottles you have on shelf.

20:20
Bilal Othman
It tastes different and we can price we could afford because it's like all internal. I'm not paying marketing firm 300k to go design this bottle. Like, we're doing it ourselves, we're importing ourselves. Right. The supply chain itself is very small, so we could compete price wise, but produce a significantly higher product. So that's my takeaway, I guess, to retailers.

20:38
Caitlin Bricker
I'm kind of stoned right now.

20:40
Bilal Othman
Picture take too hard of a shot. No, that was okay.

20:44
Caitlin Bricker
That was great. I think. I mean, for me that just transforms the idea of olive oil because yes, like you're saying it is a fruit at the end of the day and if you're going to be harvesting it, pressing it as if it is a fruit, why wouldn't it live in the produce section instead of like on a dusty shelf somewhere?

21:02
Bilal Othman
Will taste different. Like this oil tastes different already. Yeah. I'm saying that even like this oil, like, who is oil, tastes different now than it did in November. Like it evolves in flavor. Like evolution of flavor, gets lost completely in like the olive oil section because it's kind of like two year old oil just sitting on a shelf or whatever it is. It's just kind of like super processed and refined where it's like any flavor of it is gone.

21:24
Caitlin Bricker
You're blowing my mind right now. It's a good thing. Okay, we're coming up on time, so I'd love to know, how did you find startup cpg?

21:32
Bilal Othman
That's a good question. I think I was just looking for podcasts about CPG when you first started this because I was like, okay, if we want to do this, let's do it right. Like, let me apply the skills I learned in college and like in like my career and like actually do it. I think I was just googling like, who are the media publications that are kind of centers of information, etc? And I think I landed on it there. What I'll say is every single person I've also talked to, like, I think a big thing when like starting Rand or like anything, like, you're not the first person to do this. Just talk to everyone. You can Everyone has been like, oh, you should check out Startup cpg.

22:03
Bilal Othman
So I think eventually I would have heard about it, but I think I just like looking up look in the podcast app, like CPG Podcast or something like that to just listen to all I drive so I could like learn the industry.

22:16
Caitlin Bricker
And look at you now you're a guest on the podcast. Full circle.

22:20
Bilal Othman
Dreams come true.

22:23
Caitlin Bricker
Dreams do come true. Okay, let's make your dreams come true. Let's get more people to hula. So tell us where our listeners can find you. Where are you online? What's your handle? Drop everything for us.

22:36
Bilal Othman
Yeah, everything is hua tasty. So h u w a and then the word tasty on Instagram, on TikTok, on huataty.com I guess. Yeah, like that's where you can find us if you want to see like cute videos of the family or harvest what it looks like. If you want to see like people on like a ladder hitting a tree with a stick to get olives out that then end up in your bottle, give us a follow.

22:58
Caitlin Bricker
I love following you and I've loved talking to you. This was so fun and you've definitely given me some things to think about when it comes to putting traditions in place for my own family. So thank you for being a guest and thank you for giving me some food for thought.

23:14
Bilal Othman
Thank you so much, Caitlin.

23:15
Caitlin Bricker
It was great talking to you. See you soon.

23:18
Bilal Othman
Yeah. Thank you.

23:21
Caitlin Bricker
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a solid and leave us a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startup cpg I'm Caitlin Bricker, the host of the Founder feature series and editor at Startup CPG. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack and get on my radar. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and emerging brands to spotlight. If you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our free CPG community on Slack. You can sign up via our website@startupcpg.com see you around.