Two founders.One origin.

I grew up between Djibouti and Canada — between the bun iyo salol gatherings in my family's home and the to-go cup on a North American sidewalk. In Somali tradition, coffee comes with popcorn. Bun iyo salol isn't refreshment — it's the signal that family is gathering, that conversation is starting, that time is being made. Buna House is what happens when those two worlds stop competing and start collaborating.

For years, I watched East African coffee become one of the most respected commodities in specialty coffee, with very little of the cultural identity travelling with it. Yirgacheffe became a flavour descriptor, not a place. Buna — what we call bun in Somali — became a single-origin SKU, not a ritual.

Buna House is the brand I wanted to exist — East African coffee, told by people who grew up drinking it, designed for the table I actually serve it on.

Buna House is built around long-term thinking, not launch-day metrics. My job is making sure every decision — packaging, pricing, partner — moves us toward being the brand that owns East African coffee globally, not just the bag of beans on the shelf this season.

We are building this in public. The wins are useful; the mistakes are more useful. If you are a founder, an operator, or someone curious about what it takes to build a brand from the ground up, the YouTube series below is for you.