After 5 years in tech, I wanted something new. An internship on a tea farm in Japan was the wake-up call I needed.

Cherie Luo interned at a matcha farm for four weeks, where she helped out with the business aspect of the farm. 

In June, I graduated from business school with a new career plan: tech was out, and matcha was in.

I grew up in Long Island, went to college in Manhattan, and worked in tech for five years before attending Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In order to graduate, Stanford MBA students are required to fulfill an international program known as the Global Management Immersion Experience. This can be done by taking a class about international business or participating in the work abroad program. I chose the latter.

I am a second-generation Chinese American and have traveled to Asia a few times to visit family and as a tourist.

I was eager to explore more and started looking at internships listed on the Stanford portal. There were opportunities to intern in Hong Kong or at a water park in Indonesia. However, the opportunity to work at a matcha farm in Japan for a month stood out.

Tea was an integral part of my childhood. Growing up in New York, my mom would bring my sister and me to Flushing, Queens, every other weekend to enjoy dim sum.

Whenever we sat down at the restaurant, the first question the waiters asked was, “What type of tea do you want to drink?” It was a way to reconnect with my Asian heritage.

Adjusting to life on the farm

The farm, D:matcha, is located in Wazuka, an hour from Kyoto. It’s owned by Daiki Tanaka, a Japanese farmer in his late 30s, who left his job as the president of a doughnut company to work in agriculture. It’s a small business with less than 10 employees.

On my first day at the farm, I remember being surprised by the sound of cicadas that filled the air. From my room on the farm, I could see expansive tea fields. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Room and board were covered during my stay.

Every day on the farm was different. Daiki-san’s farm also offered tea tours and had a bed and breakfast; my project was to determine how to improve the retention of guests on the farm.

As part of my project, we created itineraries for guests, including a mapped-out walking trail in the backyard and a schedule of cooking classes.

Luo (center) helped to develop matcha baking classes while at the farm. 

Having worked as a content creator since 2020, I was already familiar with content marketing. I helped Daiki-san create videos to post on Instagram. I also posted about my time on the farm on my social media channels, which was meaningful as I could use my platform to shine a light on his small business.

It opened my eyes to a business world outside the US

Living in Silicon Valley and working at LinkedIn as a product manager for almost five years instilled in me the mindset: How are we growing our revenue? How do we grow?

I had always been in hyper-growth mode, and that’s how I approached business. When I presented Daiki-san with ideas on how to grow his business, he would explain how that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

When I would tell him he could scale and have his tea distributed all over the world, he would reply, “That doesn’t sound fun.”

Daiki-san told me he was content with his company’s speed of growth and said he prioritized what gives him energy. For him, that’s focusing on the customer experience.

It was a wake-up call. As a business school student coming from the US, I was taught to optimize growth. However, I realized that there are different ways to approach business that do not prioritize growth, but happiness.

I’m starting a matcha business with my sister

The matcha farm was located in Wazuka, a town an hour from Kyoto. 

After a month, I had formed strong working relationships with Daiki-san and his team. So much of Japanese business culture is about person-to-person communication and trust.

In July, I came back to him. My sister and I had discussed leaning into our passions for matcha, which had been on my mind since leaving that summer. And now we got the ball rolling: we’ve started a matcha business together.

Our business is still in its early stages, but we’ve opened pre-orders for matcha powder on our website. We charge $58 for 30-gram tins of tea, and the first delivery is set to take place in December.

The internship changed my life. I wouldn’t have thought of starting a matcha company if I had not gone to Japan and spent time with Daiki-san. He showed me that even though it’s scary to follow your passions, it’s important to focus on what makes you happy and what gives you energy.