BEE 562 From Wall Street to Beverage Founder: Taking a Risk on Yourself with Asim Khan

What happens when two investment bankers leave a 20-year career on Wall Street to build a purpose-driven beverage company?

In Episode #581 of Black Entrepreneur Experience, Dr. Frances sits down with Asim Khan, former investment banker and co-founder of ZYN, a beverage company inspired by the ancient wisdom of turmeric and holistic wellness.

Asim shares the personal "aha moment" that led him and his brother to leave finance and pursue entrepreneurship. After witnessing their father experience severe diabetic nerve pain during a family trip to Pakistan, the brothers began researching turmeric and curcumin and ultimately developed a modern beverage built around this ancient ingredient.

But Asim's story goes far beyond the product.

He talks openly about the realities of entrepreneurship, including entering an extremely competitive beverage industry, learning sales and marketing from scratch, being repeatedly rejected by retailers, navigating distributors and suppliers, funding the company themselves, and building a business around a social mission.

One of his strongest messages to entrepreneurs is simple: take a risk on yourself.

Asim also shares why he believes good ideas—not money—are often the scarce resource, how entrepreneurs can begin looking for capital, why persistence matters, and what he wishes he and his brother had known about the industry before starting.

In this conversation, you'll hear about:

• Making the transition from investment banking to entrepreneurship

• Turning cultural knowledge into a modern business

• Building a mission-driven company

• The realities of competing in the beverage industry