Marisa Poster, co-founder of PerfectTed, a matcha products brand, discusses the company’s vision and growth. Poster’s personal journey with ADHD has heavily influenced her approach to the wellness category.
She started drinking matcha as a better source of energy and focus, finding that it gave her a more balanced lift compared to coffee. This experience led to the idea for PerfectTed.
Poster views PerfectTed as a wellness brand built through a consumer packaged goods lens. The company’s product range includes 100% pure ceremonial-grade matcha, flavored blends, and more indulgent products, making matcha accessible to a wider audience.
They operate as a consumer packaged goods company, focusing on creating products that can reach people at scale through retail, foodservice, and hospitality channels. Poster believes that healthier energy should be as accessible as any other drink on the shelf.
The biggest challenge PerfectTed has faced is learning something new at every stage of the business. They had no manufacturing, retail, or matcha industry experience when they started.
Despite these challenges, Poster sees significant opportunities for growth. Most consumers still drink coffee daily, and many have never tried matcha or don’t drink it regularly. PerfectTed aims to make matcha a mainstream choice.
As the face of PerfectTed, Poster feels a responsibility to be honest about the reality behind entrepreneurship. She believes that having founders who genuinely live and breathe the mission creates a level of trust that’s difficult to replicate.
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Poster’s personal story is printed on the side of every PerfectTed can, and she believes that this authenticity is one of the reasons the brand has resonated with so many people.
The company’s sales are primarily through retail, foodservice, and wholesale channels, with only around 15% coming from e-commerce. Poster believes that being where the consumer already is, is the best marketing strategy, much like a commercial partnership can be beneficial.
Poster is excited about the company’s revamped Matcha Energy range, which features four sparkling, fruity flavors powered by ceremonial-grade matcha. She believes that the best ideas come from genuine consumer obsession.
The company’s new product development philosophy is to copy what customers are already hacking themselves. Poster is always excited by formats that remove friction and make matcha easier to incorporate into daily life.
As PerfectTed looks to the future, Poster wants the company to be undeniably mainstream, with matcha as normal as ordering a coffee. She believes that the company has a meaningful role to play in making this happen.
In three to five years, Poster hopes that PerfectTed will have entered the US market in a meaningful way and will have helped millions of people feel more focused, calmer, and healthier. She measures success by the positive impact the company has on people’s lives, rather than just revenue or valuation.
