The Lertlumprasert sisters, Lisa, Lita, Charlene and Charlie, had talked about starting a business together since childhood.
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sisters → talk → childhood
That idea finally took shape in February 2023, after a family trip to Thailand left them with a suitcase full of snacks their American friends loved.
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friends → take → snacks
Combined with their frustration over the "better-for-you" snack options available in the US, the trip inspired their Thai-inspired popcorn brand, Party Of.
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trip → combine → brand
Here's how the Washington, DC-based sisters built the business from a homemade batch into a side hustle generating steady monthly revenue.
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sisters → base → revenue
How a trip to Thailand inspired the Lertlumprasert sisters' popcorn brand
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trip → inspire → brand
According to Lita, a data scientist, the sisters had returned from visiting family in Thailand with an abundance of Thai snacks to share with friends, who loved everything they brought back.
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they → accord → everything
As reported by Entrepreneur, what experience, paired with the sisters' shared sense that healthier snack options in the US weren't inspiring, led them to take classic, accessible snack foods and give them their own signature spin.
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options → report → spin
Lisa, who owns and operates Thai restaurants, brought culinary experience to the idea, while Lita's data science background, Charlene's UX design skills and Charlie's product management expertise rounded out the founding team behind what would become Party Of.
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what → own → team
Launching Party Of: branding investment and early recipe development
To get the business off the ground, the sisters began by defining what Charlie, a product manager, called the six dimensions of product-market fit, target customer, problem, value proposition, competitive advantage, growth strategy and business model.
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Charlie → launch → fit
Identifying branding as a key competitive advantage, they invested $28,000 to work with branding agency Outline.
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they → identify → Outline
Recipe development and inventory costs stayed low early on, since Lisa used ingredients already available at her restaurant, bought corn and brown bags, and applied a "ZingPop" sticker, later rebranded Party Of, that Charlene designed on Canva.
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Charlene → stay → Canva
The StartupCPG Slack group later became an invaluable free resource for learning and connecting with other CPG entrepreneurs.
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group → become → entrepreneurs
A production crisis during Compass Group's Retail Incubator Program
The sisters' biggest challenge came during their participation in Compass Group's Retail Incubator Program, which required them to produce over 30,000 units in under four months, more than they had sold in total during the seven months since launching.
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they → come → months
To hit that number, the team had to switch to a new pillow-pouch format entirely, which meant reworking the packaging design, getting up to speed on material compositions, and bringing on a different co-packer once their existing setup couldn't handle the equipment or scale required.
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setup → hit → equipment
Things didn't go smoothly from there either, bags weren't cutting cleanly on the production line, shipments got stuck at customs, and tariffs added another unexpected hit.
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tariffs → go → hit
The sisters got through it the way they'd gotten through everything else so far, calling on people in their network and trusting their best judgment even without all the answers.
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they → get → answers
Party Of's growth and the sisters' advice for other founders
By 2025, Party Of's revenue had grown fourfold from the year before, and the sisters trimmed their cost of goods sold by roughly a quarter, numbers Lisa points to as proof the harder years of building the brand are starting to pay off.
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years → grow → brand
Monthly revenue now sits at a fairly steady $7,000, though every so often a bigger order comes through, anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, on top of that baseline.
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order → sit → baseline
For Charlene, the payoff isn't just financial; having full say over every decision is a kind of satisfaction she never got from a corporate role.
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she → have → role
Lisa's advice to anyone starting echoes how they began, nail down product-market fit before anything else, because that early clarity spares you from wasted effort later.
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clarity → start → effort
Charlene's one regret, if she's honest, is not treating the books seriously sooner.
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she → treat → books
The Aporia
