Meet Devianna Surjana of HaiDonut in Torrance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Devianna Surjana.

Devianna, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I think that my obsession and love for mochi began all the way back to my upbringing. Growing up in Indonesia, my parents always bought me an Indonesian dessert which was basically mochi with peanut crumbs filling every weekend. Since that dessert is not widely available here in the states, I’ve been buying various mochis during my visits to any Japanese supermarket, from the traditional to ice cream to the ones with fruits filling.

Recently, I’ve been longing for that dessert which made me want to make one on my own. While I was digging for the recipe online, a friend of mine mentioned that she tried a dessert called “butter mochi” at her friend’s potluck and it tasted great! That’s how I switched my search focus and instead tried to find out what butter mochi was all about.

During my research, I found out that butter mochi is a popular Hawaiian snack. I was immediately intrigued! Soon after, I bought all the ingredients while kept searching for the best recipe online. Once I found the one that I liked most, I experimented and tweaked the recipe to align it best with my taste.

I continued to dabble in this until one day, I read online about people making this butter mochi into a donut shape. I saw the pictures and was drawn to the idea as I thought that they can be made into a pretty looking dessert. This was also the time when I found out that there was a bakery in the Bay area that sells mochi donut, called Third Culture Bakery which made me want to explore this idea even more.

Long story short, the butter mochi donuts that I made and shared became pretty popular among my co-workers and friends and they all supported me to start selling them. Some of them helped with encouraging words, while others taught me how to glaze and take good pictures of the donuts.

Based on their support and encouragement, I took a leap of faith earlier this year to start my journey and it’s been a great journey ever since!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it has not been a smooth road and truth be told, I am still struggling right now, mainly due to the lack of time. I am a mother of two toddlers who works as a full-time graphic designer on the weekdays. Most of the time I would only sell my donuts on the weekends, but when there are customer orders that would like to be picked up on the weekdays, I would have to wake up really early the morning to make the donuts just so that I can still start my full-time job at 9 am.

Due to this reason, I have been taking this slowly and treating it to be more like a hobby that I enjoy rather than a second stream of income.

My husband plays a significant role in ensuring that I received all of the help and support that I need, which has allowed me to take on more orders and continue to do what I love.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the HaiDonut story. Tell us more about the business.
My business is home-based, recently started and I sell Hawaiian butter mochi donuts as dessert. Many people haven’t tried this type of donut as I don’t think these are mainstream just yet but I know that they’re gaining popularity.

I would say that the donuts that I sell are healthier as they’re baked (instead of fried) and gluten-free.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck has definitely played a huge part in my life and my business. I’ve been lucky enough to have such good circles of friends and family that supported and encouraged me to take this leap of faith. Without them, I don’t think I would’ve ever started selling these donuts.

Pricing:

• Minimum order of 1 dozen for $35

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haidonutla/

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