Dayli Coffee began with two lifelong friends — Daleep and I (Shawn) — who, in the midst of life’s toughest challenges, partnered to build Dayli Coffee and rise above adversity together. Like many others, our lives were flipped upside down when COVID hit.

My previous company, which I had spent over a decade building, was destroyed overnight, and my business partner of ten years fled the country after siphoning the company treasury. After losing everything and having no career prospects, I had no choice but to leave my life in the U.S. and move in with family in South Korea.

Daleep tirelessly built his career in finance, accruing over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. While building his career, he pursued and earned his MBA at night to qualify for senior positions. He eventually achieved his biggest career goal only to have it taken away shortly after due to his company becoming insolvent and financially collapsing.

After both hitting rock bottom, we began to feel that the work we had devoted ourselves to no longer carried the deeper purpose we once believed in. Disillusioned with the results of doing everything the “proper” way, Daleep reached out to me with a vision: to combine our expertise and create something that would allow us to live and work on our own terms.

We made a pact to get our minds and bodies right. During the COVID lockdowns, we had both gained significant weight and realized that an unhealthy body often leads to an unhealthy mind. As we started analyzing our lifestyles and diet habits, we discovered something we had in common: we were consuming an unholy amount of sugar and calories through cafe lattes.

So we began experimenting with making our own lattes at home, cutting out the excess sugars and unnecessary toppings. While we spent time brainstorming and testing all sorts of questionable business ideas (including a disastrous stint with dropshipping), we kept coming back to perfecting our latte formula since coffee was our fuel. One day it hit us: the idea that could change everything had been right in front of us the entire time.

And thus, Dayli Coffee was born.