Harvard students are often characterized by their potential to change the world. World leaders, innovators, business leaders, and countless other prominent figures have all graduated from Harvard, paving the way for future generations of notable individuals to come. There are numerous examples throughout history of Harvard students who have famously conceived world-changing companies from their own dorm rooms, and many continue, or attempt to do so, today. Lindsay Reed ’23, Fez Zafar ’24, and Noah Evers ’23 are just three examples of Harvard students that have experienced the duality of working as a full-time student and entrepreneur, attempting to invent something that will change the status quo.
Lindsay Reed ’23 is the co-founder and current CEO of KAWAMA, a tequila-soda company focused on whole food ingredients that people, from her own words, “could feel good about putting in your body.”
“There are so many malt or vodka-based drinks that are riddled with fake sugars and artificial flavors, and I wanted to make a simple, real drink,” Reed noted. “KAWAMA is made with real blanco tequila, real fruit juices, no sugar, lighter carbonation, 4.5% ABV and only 99 calories. Additionally, malt and artificial seltzers drink horribly at room temperature, and we set out on a mission to create a canned cocktail that no matter if you drink it ice cold from the cooler or at a balmy 70 degrees from the store shelf, KAWAMA drinks smoothly because of how simple the recipe is.”
She launched the company in August 2021 exclusively in Massachusetts. Since then, it has expanded to New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine.
“One of the most difficult parts of growing the business has been managing how fast we have expanded with such a small team, but we have been working on growing a team to better cover all our markets. I brought on my older brother, Kersey Reed, a St. Lawrence lacrosse graduate, and he quit his job in finance to also take on KAWAMA full time,” she continued. “We have KAWAMA-specific sales reps in NH/NJ/NY, and we recently hired a Chief Marketing Officer, Taylor Kearns, who has years of experience working for and launching marketing campaigns for Diageo brands.”
Noah Evers ’23 is a co-founder of the recently sold company Flow, which “optimizes coffee to help people think better.” Evers claimed he was always intrigued by the cognitive mind as he started conducting cognitive science research at the age of 13.
Evers’ startup drink, like Reed’s, is set to revamp an already popular drink, yet he focused on coffee. “When I got to Harvard, I really struggled. I didn’t have the study skills that many other kids had learned in high school,” Evers noted.“I felt my peers were brilliant, and the teachers expected so much from me. I just kept thinking, ‘If only I could think better….’ And then it hit me that I had the background to find a solution to my problem. Maybe I could think better? Maybe we all could think better?”
Like Reed, Evers started Flow whilst enrolled at Harvard, taking advantage of the nation-wide Covid hiatus to brainstorm recipes from his dorm room. He opted to take a year off where he “brought Catherine Beddingfield ’23 on as my cofounder. We both dropped out of school, started raising money, teamed up with Billie Thein, a beverage industry veteran, as our third cofounder, and we’re off to the races” Evers recalled.
Fez Zafar ’24 is the current head of business development and marketing at Zesti, a company created by a group of students who were inspired by Datamatch, The startup is currently run by Leon Chen ’24, the CEO and tech lead, Fianko Buckle ’23, the software engineer, Alina Dong ’23, the COO, and Zafar ’24, the head of business development and marketing.
“Like the popular campus service [Datamatch],” Zafar noted, “our app matched students for the purpose of love or friendship, was only open to Harvard undergraduates, and allowed students to access appealing discounts in Harvard Square by meeting in person.”
He explained that the process of launching Zesti started in spring of 2021, which mainly consisted of finding ways to perfect the software development. A year later, the team managed to “perform the iterative process of user testing in the spring of 2022.” Zafar explained that the app required dozens of interviews to be administered in order to determine which features the app would exhibit. The team created “comedic videos” for marketing purposes, and in April of 2022, Zesti launched a pilot on the Apple Store.
“We also built upon Datamatch’s efforts by adding an additional function for users to create a group profile and match with other groups. The restaurants we acquired as partners were El Jefe’s, Maharaja, Grendel’s, Mr. Bartley’s, and Amorino. Just by setting up an account, users could get free chips and guacamole at Jefe’s.”
In order to focus on both her academics and growing her business, Lindsay Reed, with KAWAMA, was forced to decide between her sport and her startup. She ultimately quit the Varsity Ice Hockey Team during her senior year at Harvard. “It’s common for student athletes to be asked how they balance sports with academics”, Reed replied, dubbing KAWAMA as her new “sport” that takes up all of her time.
“I wish I could spend 24 hours a day building KAWAMA, so the hardest part is striking the balance between business and school, as I pride myself in doing well academically,” she continued.
Evers explained his experience with Flow, which sprouted from an idea he had on a family visit in 2019. “I realized, on a long drive through the countryside, that other people might want the Flow coffee that I had created. I had no idea how to start a company, so I wrote out my thoughts. Between August 2019 and March 2020, when Harvard sent all the students home, I wrote up a 50-page business plan while in school, including extensive scientific research and a product development roadmap. When Harvard sent us home, much to my mother’s chagrin, I turned part of our kitchen into a mini-lab, where I kept a detailed notebook and ran my experiments.”
Since then, Flow has been acquired and the products will be on the market soon.
“In five years, I hope everyone will be drinking Flow,” Evers concluded.
When asked where Lindsay sees KAWAMA five years in the future, Lindsay says, “ I believe KAWAMA will be the household tequila soda name across the nation and beyond. The RTD (Ready to Drink) category is exploding in popularity, and we know we have the tools, branding, taste, and competitive spirit to come out on top.”
KAWAMA is currently available in seven states and is expanding to other states across the nation, including Bermuda.
Although Zafar explains he is no longer working on Zesti, he stated that his future self will “remain very passionate about entrepreneurship, and hope to one day launch another venture. This is an effort that will require a dedication to learning about new industries and technologies, identifying real problems, and ideating prospective solutions. It’s a process that I’m committed to.”
Reed, Evers, and Zafar are just three examples of Harvard students hungry for innovation. As a hub for creative thinking and promising work ethic, Harvard will continue to be home to company startups and product creations, and perhaps a few will grow large enough to change the state of the world we live in.
Samantha Mosconi ’25 (smosconi@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.