Rosa Li

Rosa Li is the founder and chief executive of wildwonder, a functional beverage company that produces sparkling drinks combining prebiotics and probiotics, inspired by the herbal tonics her grandmother brewed in Beijing.^[1] The brand is available in more than 10,000 stores across the United States, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Target, Kroger, and Wegmans, and has sold more than five million cans.^[1][2] wildwonder ranked No. 109 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States and appeared on the list for a third consecutive year in 2026 at No. 396.^[2][3]

Li was born in Beijing and raised by her grandparents until age twelve, when she moved to Indiana.^[4] She studied economics at Northwestern University, completed graduate work at the London School of Economics, and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.^[4][5] Before founding wildwonder, she worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and in private equity at Warburg Pincus.^[6][4] She is a Fulbright Scholar and a 2019 Tory Burch Foundation Fellow.^[7][6]

In January 2023, Li appeared on Shark Tank Season 14 and secured a $500,000 investment from guest shark Tony Xu, the CEO of DoorDash and a Stanford GSB classmate, in exchange for six percent equity and three percent advisory shares.^[3][18] In the month the episode aired, wildwonder sold as much product online as it had in the entire prior year, and sales grew 400 percent year-over-year in the following twelve months.^[3][1]

Rosa Li was born in Beijing, China, and spent the first twelve years of her life raised by her grandparents while her parents established themselves in the United States.^[4][6] Her grandmother, Xirong, brewed herbal tonics from wild herbs, rare spices, and medicinal plants — remedies rooted in traditional Chinese medicine that Li later described as the foundational inspiration for wildwonder.^[6][1] When Li was sick as a child, her grandmother poached pears as a healing remedy — a practice that would become the basis for wildwonder's first flavor, Pear Turmeric.^[4]

At age twelve, Li moved to Indiana, speaking no English.^[4] She later recalled being "completely mind-blown by the sheer size of American grocery stores" and searching for the globally inspired flavors she had grown up with in Beijing.^[4] She enrolled at Northwestern University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 2007.^[5] She also studied German and spent two summers studying abroad in Germany during college.^[5] After Northwestern, she completed graduate coursework at the London School of Economics.^[4]

Li later enrolled at Stanford Graduate School of Business, earning her MBA in 2014.^[4] At Stanford, she took courses in interpersonal dynamics and managing growing enterprises, the latter of which brought in founders to discuss scaling challenges.^[4] She has said she applied to Stanford not to study accounting or finance — she already had that background — but to develop skills in giving and receiving feedback and managing relationships.^[4] Tony Xu, who would later become the CEO of DoorDash and her Shark Tank investor, was a fellow Stanford GSB classmate.^[3][4]

Morgan Stanley and Warburg Pincus (2007–2012)

After graduating from Northwestern, Li began her career as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley.^[6][4] The high-pressure environment — which she has described as involving 100-hour work weeks — took a toll on her health.^[6] She lost fifteen pounds without realizing it and developed digestive problems that she later attributed to the stress of the finance lifestyle.^[6][1]

Li subsequently moved into private equity at Warburg Pincus, where she worked as an investor evaluating consumer and growth-stage companies.^[4][6] Her health issues persisted, and she underwent microbiome testing that she has said made her "a true believer in gut health."^[6] To recover, she returned to the herbal remedies she had grown up with in her grandmother's kitchen in Beijing.^[6][1]

Pomelo Fashion and Rosali Tea (2014–2017)

After earning her MBA from Stanford in 2014, Li moved to Southeast Asia, where she joined Pomelo Fashion, a fashion e-commerce startup, in a marketing and strategy role.^[4] The position gave her firsthand exposure to the operational challenges of building a consumer brand — supply chain, retail, and go-to-market strategy — and served as a bridge between her finance career and entrepreneurship.^[4]

During this period, Li traveled extensively across Asia to source teas and herbs, deepening her connection to Eastern wellness traditions.^[4][6] The sourcing trips led her to found Rosali Tea, a premium loose-leaf tea e-commerce business, around 2015.^[10] She ran the business for approximately two years, selling exotic teas sourced from around the world through Shopify and serving fresh-brewed teas and tonics at corporate events in Silicon Valley.^[10][1] Li discovered that American consumers, embedded in a coffee culture, did not have the time or inclination to brew loose-leaf tea — but they repeatedly asked her to bottle her drinks.^[1][10] That feedback became the direct catalyst for what would become wildwonder.

wildwonder (2018–present)

Li began developing wildwonder in 2018, initially under the name Tea Crush, and rebranded to wildwonder in 2020.^[10][11] The concept was rooted in her grandmother's herbal tonics: a sparkling beverage combining prebiotics and probiotics with fresh-brewed herbs and California fruit flavors.^[1][6] She bootstrapped the company from her kitchen, financing her car to fund the brand, and operated as a solo founder with no employees for the first two years.^[1][6] Early product development was improvised: she attempted to carbonate her herbal drinks using a SodaStream, but the machine could not handle liquids with a pH below seven — "the liquid ended up just exploding," she later recalled — and she eventually built a homemade carbonation rig with an engineer friend who owned a brewery.^[4]

Li's first customer was Square, the payments company, which she landed through grassroots sampling events.^[1] She built an early business selling to Silicon Valley corporate offices, including Facebook, Uber, and Google, as well as universities including Stanford.^[1][11] When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, those purchase orders evaporated overnight.^[1] Li pivoted: she spent three months loading her car with bottles and knocking on the doors of more than 100 independent grocery stores in San Francisco, volunteering to stock shelves while pitching her product.^[1] By the end of 2020, wildwonder was in more than 100 local stores, including Whole Foods Northern California.^[1][10] She later described the pandemic as "a blessing in disguise" — the forced shift to direct-to-consumer sales via Shopify revealed that customers preferred cans over glass bottles, a finding that reshaped the company's packaging strategy.^[1]

In September 2021, wildwonder closed a $2.1 million seed round, oversubscribed from an initial $1 million target.^[11] The capital funded a transition from glass bottles to twelve-ounce aluminum cans and enabled national retail expansion.^[11][1] Li described the switch to cans as transformational: "People were buying more and they were drinking more often, and it was so much easier with shipping."^[1] In 2022, wildwonder launched nationally at Sprouts Farmers Market and introduced new flavors including Strawberry Passion.^[12][17]

On January 13, 2023, Li appeared on Shark Tank Season 14, Episode 11, pitching $500,000 for five percent equity — an implied $10 million valuation.^[3][18] At the time of the pitch, wildwonder had generated $1.4 million in revenue with a $2.5 million run rate.^[18] Guest shark Tony Xu, the CEO of DoorDash and Li's Stanford GSB classmate, recognized her during the taping and offered $500,000 for six percent equity plus three percent advisory shares.^[3][4] Xu was the first East Asian guest shark in the show's history.^[3] Mark Cuban, who did not invest, tasted the Strawberry Passion flavor and told Li he would order it.^[4]

The Shark Tank episode, which reached approximately four million viewers, produced an immediate inflection point.^[1] In the month the episode aired, wildwonder sold as much product online as it had in the entire prior year.^[3][1] The company increased production capacity fourfold to meet demand, grew its team from four employees to ten, and expanded to forty U.S. states.^[3][1] Sales grew 400 percent year-over-year in the twelve months following the episode.^[3] In 2023, Google replaced its kombucha selection with wildwonder in community fridges across its offices.^[3]

By late 2023, wildwonder had sold more than five million cans and was available in more than 3,000 retailers across forty states, including Target, Kroger, Wegmans, Erewhon, and The Fresh Market.^[1] In early 2024, SPINS data showed wildwonder as the fastest-growing brand in multi-outlet retailers and the second-fastest in the natural products sector.^[3] The company debuted Raspberry Lychee in March 2024, blending jammy raspberry puree with lychee and fresh-brewed honeysuckle flowers.^[13] In August 2024, wildwonder launched Banana Queen, a collaboration with Nymphia Wind, the Season 16 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, which won Best New Product at the 2024 BevNET Best of Awards.^[15][2]

In January 2025, wildwonder announced a nationwide expansion into Whole Foods Market.^[2] The company ranked No. 109 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list — the fastest non-alcoholic beverage brand on the list — and was named No. 36 on Instacart's Fastest Growing Emerging Brands of 2024.^[2][3] In 2026, wildwonder appeared on the Inc. 5000 for a third consecutive year at No. 396, and Li rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq in Times Square to mark the occasion.^[3] In April 2026, the company announced an exclusive distribution partnership with Dora's Naturals for Whole Foods Market Northeast.^[8] In August 2026, wildwonder introduced Apple Yuzu, its latest flavor.^[16]

Li was selected as a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in 2019, one of fifty women entrepreneurs chosen for the program, which included a $5,000 business education grant and access to the Foundation's peer-to-peer network.^[7] That same year, she participated in the Stanford StartX accelerator program.^[4]

wildwonder was named a finalist for Emerging Organic Brand of the Year at the 2024 "Organic Oscars" at Natural Products Expo West.^[3] The brand's Banana Queen flavor, developed in collaboration with Nymphia Wind, won Best New Product at the 2024 BevNET Best of Awards.^[2][15] Instacart named wildwonder one of its Fastest Growing Emerging Brands of 2024, ranking it No. 36 out of 75.^[2]

Li has spoken at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CO— Ready. Set. Scale. Small Business Day in 2024 and at BevNET Live Winter 2023.^[1][14] She has been featured in Northwestern Magazine, The Story Exchange, Food Republic, and Food & Beverage Insider, among other outlets.^{[5][6][3][20]} She is a member of Gold House, the AAPI nonprofit and venture collective.^[6]

Li was born in Beijing and raised by her grandparents, including her grandmother Xirong, whom she has described as her most important role model — a self-taught woman who never attended school but educated herself to read and write, took on leadership roles after raising four children, and began learning English at age sixty-five.^[4][6] Li moved to Indiana at age twelve and has described the experience of navigating American culture without speaking English as formative to her belief in the importance of representation in business.^[4]

She has described wildwonder as "a love letter to her grandmother" and has said that landing the brand in Meijer — the grocery chain where her parents shopped when she first arrived in Indiana — held particular personal significance.^[4][1] Her father has become an informal brand ambassador, volunteering to stock wildwonder on Whole Foods shelves in Indiana.^[4] Li is based in San Francisco.^[1] wildwonder donates five percent of its profits to causes that empower women and marginalized communities.^[3][17]