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How West China Tea Grew to $650K-$800K a Year and Took a $160K Deal

So-Han Fan explains how his Austin gongfu tea house grew from a suitcase tea room to a 20-person business, and negotiates a $160K debt deal with Nathan Latka.

So-Han Fan · West China Tea

Published June 17, 2026
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What you’ll learn

So-Han Fan, founder of West China Tea in Austin, shows Nathan Latka his gongfu cha tea house, which grew from selling tea on a suitcase in 2013 to between $650K and $800K in gross revenue a year. He explains the backyard expansion, his inventory and debt, and Nathan offers a $160,000 debt deal with 1.2x to 1.5x payback multiples that the two adjust into an agreement.

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Key moments

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Selling the experience, not tea

“I was thinking, oh, people are gonna come, they'll sample the tea, they'll buy some tea, And that's the main event is them buying the tea. It wasn't. The main event was them drinking the tea.”
Watch at 09:19

The 2020 COVID website pivot

“We started the website in 2020 because you can't do what we do in a COVID environment. So we started the website and built out the fulfillment center in 2020 to pivot so that we could still be in business.”
Watch at 03:11

Inventory used to fund the build

“we leveraged the tea inventory, and whereas normally we would sell tea and then use the revenue from that to buy more tea, we just let ourselves run lower on tea.”
Watch at 11:20

Backyard cover charge math

“Looking at 24 ks per month and that's, you know, I don't know what the profit would be, but let's just gross estimate, like let's say that's 20 ks profit.”
Watch at 16:59

Tiered payback multiple offer

“If you pay it back between years one and two, you pay back a 1.2x multiple. If it takes longer and you pay it back between years two and three, it's a 1.3x multiple.”
Watch at 17:45

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About the speaker

So-Han Fan

Founder · West China Tea

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