Check Out David Sorensen’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Sorensen.

Hi David, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Originally from NY, i moved to LA working in Film and TV. I worked in Post production from 2011 til the pandemic. various projects from White Collar on USA, to Daredevil on neflix, my final project was Treadstone (a jason boure spin off). My wife is from the Phillipines and works in the health care industry. We met in Culver City. Eventually getting married nad having kids we bought a home in Long Beach. When the pandemic hit and the industry shut down; my wife and i sold our Long Beach home and moved to Fontana. I was a stay at home dad for a few years while my was a nurse. It came time for me to get back to work and instead of busting my self to make another person successful I started Boba Korner, a boba tea refreshment business. Starting in a small trailer in 2023 in Farmers Markets and pop ups in the inland empire. Eventually we acquired a small location in downtown Fontana. Since we have developed relationships with a few small businesses while we were at those markets and pop ups we now serve their products in our shop. We offer our main items which is Coffee, Tea, and Matcha in iced or hot form with various toppings like brown sugar boba, popping boba, and different jelly options. We offer cookies and pastries from a few different vendor friends. We also have a small business merch area that offers small batch roasted coffee from a vednros friend as well at hand stitch bags and pillows, teeshirts and various nick nacks. The city of Fontana is investing heavly to rebuild the down town area and Boba Korner in on the ground floor. As this city grows so will our business.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being that neither my wife and I never had food or retail experience our learning curve was steep. The only thing we could rely on was our taste and what we knew that we liked. Since we started in the trailer we were able to adjust our business and the product with every event. We were able to hone in our product over the course of 2 years. Learning our “audience”, which groups of people like what. Explaining to adults what Boba even is. Learning our machines, our POS, and website. Getting into social media which i still dislike but am forced to embrace since its the major mode of communication for the general public. Learning to trust certain people to help us, like finding an accountant to help with tax documents. There was quite a bit to learn. When we finally got a brick and mortar we needed to learn more stuff. We had to build the kitchen since the place was an insurance office previously. Learning and working with the health department on design and planning. Going back and forth with contractors to build our the place. Finally, hiring people, we got lucky with our first group of hires, but had to learn payroll and all those head aches. Now we are learning “how to keep sales up in winter time”. every week is something new. but maybe thats what it is. constantly learning and adapting to make this work.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Used to work professionally in film and tv on major studio network projects. But now i am a cafe/restaurant owner. I have become a barista, (the least qualified one here) 😉

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Plan, Plan, Plan. Write everything down and Never give up. people will tell you not to do things. people will project their insecurities onto your project or dream. just keep driving forward and concentrate on your goal. BUT you need a certain ability to see a bad idea and to be able to adjust. You are not alone and there are resources or others who have been in your shows. those people can help guide you. You can learn from others experience. You can compare your plan to others experience and see if you need to adjust.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.boba-korner.com
• Instagram: @bobakorner
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boba.korner
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/boba-korner-fontana