Runa Making Americans Taste Guayusa

Runa: A New Taste for Americans and Sustainable Development for Ecuadorian Indigenous
Saúl E. Jarrín
Post University















Runa: A New Taste for Americans and SustainableDevelopment for Ecuadorian Indigenous
Background
Tylor Cage a young volunteer working with indigenous communities in Ecuador and Peru was introduced to guayusa in the early 2000’s, a tea likebeverage from a leaf in the Amazon forest of Ecuador, he noticed that this tea was smooth and provided him with the much needed energy to go through the day. He observed how people in the communityshared the beverage at early morning like 4:00am or 5:00am, this tradition was to get the families together and pass on customs and language; he also noticed that these communities have a delicacy notavailable in the urban areas.
After his volunteer time finished Gage returned to the United States and continued his education at Brown University School of Business, where he met DanielMacCambie, a follow classmate with whom he wrote a business plan for a class, there they gave birth to “Runa,” which later won as best business plan at the University and was awarded some money to continuetheir research. Both senior students had job offers at corporations securing some success in one hand, but in the other hand they had an unknown product which could be an opportunity to strive.Gage who now serves as President of Runa Inc. was motivated to continue his venture, persuaded his partner to stay with the team and started raising funds to make the idea become a reality. Betweenwinning competitions at Brown University, State of Road Island and New York, the team of two young men went to Ecuador and right to the forest, present the idea to locals and top into EcuadorianGovernment reputation of environmental conservation, as a way to integrate indigenous communities and protect the forest, so the Ecuadorian government grants contributed to advance the new founded company...