A restaurant opened at 19. A quiet identity crisis during COVID. An MBA, a move to London and a jar of Pad Thai sauce that made her homesick. Here's how Vinita bottled a feeling and built YIMEE.

Key takeaways

• Confidence in your own creative vision is a capital decision, outsourcing it too early costs time, money and samples.

• Sample and test before committing to bulk orders; a unit-cost saving means nothing if the packaging doesn't work operationally.

• Bundling and wholesale both protect cash flow, one lifts average order value, the other smooths it out even at lower margin.

• Protecting cash flow matters more than making the business look established, release, gather feedback and iterate.

YIMEE didn't start as a sauce brand. It started as Little Turtle, the Enmore restaurant Vinita opened at 19, following in the footsteps of her parents, who own Doytao Thai in Sydney. Over the years, the menu changed and evolved, but the sauces consistently remained the bestsellers, the secret sauce people continuously returned for.

During COVID, Vinita stopped being vegan which contradicted the Little Turtle, a proudly vegan restaurant, ethos.   The restaurant too had become a public reflection of  who Vinita  was and her personal shift left her feeling ashamed and unsure how to talk about it, worried she'd let her community and customers down. It resulted in her questioning her connection to the restaurant and rethinking what her  future in food looked like. She completed an MBA and moved to London, running Little Turtle remotely while she took time to rediscover herself.

"The sauces made me feel connected to home, to Sydney and to my family and friends."

When her parents visited London, she'd ask them to bring her Pad Thai sauce so she could use it when cooking at home. That craving was the moment she realised the sauces could be something bigger than one restaurant, a way to bottle the feeling of home and share it more widely.

Vinita is candid that her biggest funding mistake was not trusting herself. Specifically, lacking the confidence early on to trust her own instincts on design and branding. Relying too much on feedback, trends and validation from others resulted in the business going back to the drawing board repeatedly before Vinita was happy with the final product. It cost precious time, money and countless samples before she found her way back to her own voice and YIMEE's original mission.

"My biggest funding mistake would be myself, it was literally too many cooks in the kitchen."

The most profitable decision she ever made
Not a single big bet, a structural one. Encouraging customers to buy bundles rather than single jars lifted average order value while spreading packaging, fulfilment and shipping costs across products. Alongside that, wholesale, while lower margin per jar it brought larger, more predictable orders that improved cash flow and lowered the cost of acquiring each customer.

What she'd do differently, if starting today
Vinita would start smaller. Sample everything: jars, lids, labels, cartons, shipping materials…before committing to bulk orders, since packaging that looks right online doesn't always function the same way in real life. She would also invest in gifting much earlier: repeated exposure built word of mouth and credibility faster than she anticipated.

"Protecting cash flow is more important than making the business look established from the beginning."

What Vinita wishes she'd understood sooner isn't just capital, it's too  systems. Recording every cost, understanding gross margin and being intentional about what the business can allocate to operations, marketing and founder pay, all from day one. And beneath that: the value of not waiting for perfection. Releasing the product and iterating with real customer feedback taught her more than any amount of planning could.

F5 Collective exists for founders making exactly these calls, where the brand has found its voice and the hardest decisions are still the ones about cash and control.