One Acronym, Countless Stories: Exploring the Diversity Behind AANHPI-Owned Brands

For years, the term “AAPI founder” has been used as a broad umbrella. Some may feel that the term often overlooks the community's enormous cultural and identity diversity. In 2021, President Joe Biden updated the designation from AAPI to AANHPI to explicitly recognize Native Hawaiians.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 28.6 million people in the country identify as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander when including those who identify as a single race or in combination with other races. This population accounts for approximately 7% to 8% of the total U.S. population, making them one of the fastest-growing racial and ethnic groups in the country.

The AANHPI community spans dozens of ethnicities, languages, traditions, and lived experiences. Yet those nuances can disappear. Founders are often grouped together despite building from vastly different histories, industries, and cultural perspectives.

To better understand what identity and representation look like within the AANHPI community, we spoke with founders from our network about the realities behind the label.

Palita Sriratana, Pink Salt Kitchens

The foundation of Palita’s brand – Pink Salt Kitchens is her culture.

“I didn't set out to build a brand,” she said. “I set out to share what I knew, what I grew up eating, what felt like home.”

Thai cooking taught her that the simplest ingredients carry the most meaning, including palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind. Those flavors were inherent to her upbringing.

“Taking those flavors from my kitchen to pantries across the country was never a business move,” Palita said. “It’s personal. When someone makes my sauces part of their daily life, that's cultural exchange at its most real. Food is how we connect. I hope it makes our culture and identity feel seen. Knowing someone's food is the beginning of knowing them.”

For Palita, the idea of the model minority myth feels like a lie dressed up as a compliment.

Read our blog post “How a Long-Standing Stereotype Impacts AAPI Founders” for more context on the idea of the model minority.

“The model minority myth flattens an entire community into a story someone else wrote for us, and we're done with it,” she said. “We are chefs, creatives, storytellers, and culture builders. The broader business world needs to understand this: AAPI voices aren't here to exceed the bar. We're here to raise it. We are not paper tigers. We never were. And it's time everyone caught up.”

Suniti Ramanujam, Pure Mitti

Suniti’s brand ethos for Pure Mitti is rooted in Ayurvedic philosophy, drawing on centuries-old Indian rituals focused on wellness and prevention.

“Every product Pure Mitti makes is deeply rooted in culture,” she said. “This was never accidental. It was deeply intentional from day one. Our ancient rituals have protected skin, hair, and homes for centuries. We have simply brought them forward in modern formats that fit the way families live today.”

Pure Mitti products include soap, haircare, skin balms, and household products that use ingredients and preparation methods from the past.

“You do not need to grind fresh turmeric every morning or source herbs from a market you no longer have access to,” Sunti said.  “We have done that work for you, so the wisdom of generations is as easy as reaching for a bar of soap. Culture is not our brand story. It is our formula.”

While Suniti is proud to be a part of the AANHPI community, she admits feeling unrepresented.

“When people talk about AANHPI founders, the conversation tends to skew heavily toward East Asian voices and stories,” she said. “As a South Asian Indian founder, I often feel the depth of what the Indian community brings to the table is underrepresented.”

She thinks there’s a real opportunity to bring Indian entrepreneurs into the conversation.

“We want the world outside to see, feel, and hear the full richness of who we are,” Suniti said. “We are asking for a seat at the same table. What I have learned is that we need to stop waiting quietly for that seat. We need to get louder. We need to get bolder. We need to tell our stories and stand behind our heritage.”

Faith Anderson, Nouvie 

Faith’s identity has felt like a balancing act. She identifies as a Filipino American adoptee from Bukidnon, the Philippines.

 “Growing up, there was always this balance between trying to understand where I came from while also navigating where I was placed,” she said. “For me, being part of the AANHPI community means carrying both pride and curiosity. It’s about honoring roots, culture, resilience, family, and community, while also acknowledging that identity can be layered and complicated.”

She further reflected on the diversity and many cultures that encompass the AANHPI realm, as well as the challenges that come with trying to find a “label” that includes everyone of a certain background.

“As a Filipino adoptee and founder, my experience looks very different from someone who grew up deeply connected to their culture or within generational wealth or entrepreneurship,” Faith said. “I think there’s still room for more nuanced conversations around identity and representation.”

There’s also a maze Faith navigates regularly in how to present her heritage externally.

“There are moments where people want identity to become a marketing angle,” she said. Other times, you feel pressure to make yourself more ‘neutral’ to fit into certain rooms.”

For her, authenticity matters more than fitting expectations.

“I don’t want my identity to be a trend or checkbox,” Faith said. “But, I also don’t want to hide the experiences that shaped me as a founder. The goal is building something real and lasting while allowing my story to naturally be part of it.”

She wants others to understand the complexity around heritage and identity. There is an internal pressure that often gets ignored.

“There’s often this expectation to overperform, stay humble, not take up too much space, and prove yourself constantly,” she said. “For adoptees specifically, there can also be this underlying feeling of trying to earn belonging in different spaces. Entrepreneurship already requires confidence and visibility, so navigating that while unpacking identity can be challenging.”

Belinda Lau, Elims

Belinda is of Chinese-Burmese descent and lived in Asia throughout her high school years. Those experiences shaped every facet of her life.

For example, living in Myanmar gave her an appreciation for the planet and partly inspired the creation of Elims, a sustainable oral care brand.

“While traveling through rural towns and visiting my grandfather’s birth village, I saw firsthand the devastating impact of plastic waste on beautiful landscapes,” she said. “Those images of trash floating in the sea stayed with me. It shifted my mindset from 'someone should do something' to 'I will do something,' leading me to prioritize waste reduction in everything I build professionally.” Editor’s note: Belinda won the inaugural Planet and Purpose Grant. Learn more about her story in “In the Daily Routine: How Belinda Lau Tackles Oral Care Waste While Navigating Real Life.”

When she first started her business, Belinda chose to hide her immigrant story because she didn’t think it was relevant. However, she’s learned that representation is a powerful tool for inspiring others.

Belinda wishes that more people understood the struggles of AANHPI founders.

“There is a misconception that the AAPI community doesn't face the same systemic hurdles as other marginalized groups,” she said. “I’ve often encountered situations where I’m told I’m 'not minority enough' to qualify for certain opportunities. We need to move past this 'ranking' of struggle. I want people to understand that the AAPI experience is incredibly diverse, and we deserve the same access to resources and equity as any other minority group.”

Lita Lertlumprasert, Party Of

Lita, along with her three sisters, Lisa, Charlene, and Charlie, created Party Of to bridge the gap between Thai and American cultures. They grew up in Thai restaurants and decided that popcorn was the perfect food to showcase their culture’s flavors.

“Maybe someone hasn’t tried Pad Thai before, but they’ve definitely had popcorn,” Lita said. “It’s a familiar entry point that invites people in.”

The sisters confessed that they felt pressure to tone down their identities at school and that they felt self-conscious about bringing Thai food to school. The irony isn’t lost on them.

“Now, we’re doing the opposite, and we’re leaning into our culture,” Lita said. “With Party Of, we’re proud, expressive, and intentional about celebrating our culture, and that shows up in our brand personality.”

Bottom Line: One of the clearest takeaways from all these founders’ perspectives is how they feel forced to fit into a single narrative. Within the label AANHPI, there are three ethnicities (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander), and within those subsets, there are more than 50 distinct ethnic groups. The common thread – the why. “The AANHPI community is not a monolith,” Lita said. “There are so many different stories, cultures, struggles, and perspectives within it. A lot of us are building businesses rooted not just in profit, but in community, family, resilience, and creating spaces we didn’t always see for ourselves growing up.”