The 10th anniversary bash for Sheena Brady’s multi-million-dollar wellness tea company Tease was steeped in the spirit of women helping women succeed in small business and entrepreneurship.
Dozens turned out Friday night to help Brady celebrate at Parlour. Originally, the building was a funeral parlour. Now, it serves as a chic and stylish restaurant and event space on Wellington Street West. It’s also run by women: hospitality veteran Erin Clatney of DISH Catering and her daughter, Charlotte DePonte.
Brady welcomed a 60-plus crowd full of customers, fellow entrepreneurs, content creators, and close family and friends. “Every single person in this room tonight means so much to me,” said Brady. “This is really my chance to share a bit of gratitude for your support of me and Tease throughout the years.”
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Attendees mingled over tea-infused cocktails and food, including executive chef Mike Beck’s yummy banana brûlée with chocolate matcha truffles, served in tea cups. There was a floral bar from Côté Fleurs, owned by Gabrielle Hui St-Aubin, handing out custom-made bouquets of wildflowers.
Spotted was Marcie Murray, co-founding partner at all-women angels investor group Backbone Angels, which is focused on funding more diverse and women-founded companies. She’s a former director at global e-commerce giant Shopify, where another of the guests, David Gaylord, also worked before finding success with his side hustle, skincare brand Bushbalm.
Superette co-founder and former CEO Mimi Lam, recent founder of The Founder’s Edition, was there. So were Immigrant Entrepreneur Canada founder and CEO Karla Briones, who’s also on the board of the Ottawa Board of Trade; sisters Oresta Korbutiak and Laryssa Korbutiak, owners of organic spa and beauty boutique Oresta Clean Beauty Simplified; Invest Ottawa’s ScaleUp Program manager, Patricia Ip; and wardrobe consultant Mary Ciancibello and her coffee-loving husband Mike Ciancibello, who announced upon his arrival that he’s been broadening his beverage horizons, thanks to Tease. “You’ve got me drinking tea,” he told Brady.
The story of how Brady became interested in botanical wellness tea blends began when she was working long hours in the hospitality industry. She’d been relying on caffeine to get herself through her shifts, followed by wine once she got home. “It’s like that’s all I knew: coffee for 10, 12 hours a day, and then wine to unwind,” Brady told OBJ.social in an interview, acknowledging that her anxiety, sleep and digestion all suffered as a result.
By 2012, Brady was recruited to work at the luxury five-star Shangri-La hotel in Toronto. As a sommelier, she figured they’d put her in charge of the wine but, instead, asked her to create the tea menu.
“I thought to myself, ‘What do they want, Lipton and Red Rose? I didn’t drink tea at the time,” said Brady, who came to appreciate how serious the hotel was about its tea program.
Brady rose to the challenge and became certified as a professional tea sommelier. “What I didn’t expect was to completely fall in love with the world of tea,” said Brady while pointing out that tea and wine have more in common than one might think, both coming in a range of varieties and flavours, each influenced by environmental factors.
In her tiny apartment, Brady concocted her own botanical blends in her spare time, creating teas that are calming, boost energy, promote sleep and help immunity. “Really, it was for me a creative escape that turned into a hobby that turned into a side hustle,” said Brady, who continued to build Tease after she left the hospitality industry to join Shopify in 2015.
“I’m very privileged I got to work at a company like Shopify that celebrates entrepreneurship internally just as authentically as it does externally,” said Brady. She remained with the Canadian e-commerce giant until September 2022, when she decided to focus exclusively on Tease.
Tease has customers in 30-plus countries. It works with more than 500 retail partners, including Indigo, Bloomingdales, Well.ca and The Detox Market. It’s also been featured on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and on ABC Network’s Good Morning America and The View.
“Really, what’s really important for us now is continuing to transition, not necessarily as a tea company but as a beauty and wellness company,” said Brady of how Tease has diversified to include such products as face masks, exfoliating scrubs and hydrating bath treatments infused with tea and botanicals.
In 2019, Tease launched its sister company Founders Fund Canada to support diverse women founders seeking barrier-free funding, education and mentorship. Working with partners BDC and Futurpreneur, it’s to date raised more than $250,000 in its grant and program offerings.
Brady said she knows what it’s like to face challenges, in life and business. She grew up in a single-parent household in Cornwall. At times, she struggled in school. “I did Grade 9 math three times,” said Brady, who was “the first person in my family to actually graduate from high school, let alone go on to college.”
She’s also faced traditional and systemic barriers in business. In talking with other women founders, especially underrepresented women, she found their hardships “were just as real, if not even more challenging and frustrating.”
Tease, which sells fully biodegradable and refillable products, has demonstrated that it meets the highest standards for social and environmental responsibility by becoming B Corp verified.
In her thank-you remarks, Brady acknowledged the support of her husband, Patrick Cullen, who’s had her back “since day one”. Together, they have a five-year-old daughter, Camellia, named after the flowering plant used for making tea.
Her former Tease COO, Amanda Baker, led the room in a toast to Brady for creating a “successful, intentional, impactful business”. The two women are very close. Said Brady: “If I’m a Jedi, she is my Yoda”.
