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CEO Nailah Ellis is Leveraging Her Success to Help Others Find Theirs
By: Bianca Gracie
Nailah Ellis’ entrepreneurship is rooted in fearlessness. The founder of Ellis Infinity, LLC, the Detroit-based maker of Ellis Isle Teas, Ellis’ success is attributed to taking bold risks throughout her career. Launched in 2008, the line of naturally sweetened hibiscus tea beverages is currently the most profitable Black woman-owned beverage company in America, and Ellis wants everyone to be inspired to form their own success stories while indulging in each refreshing sip.
Ellis is a Detroit native, but the company has roots that extend far across the Caribbean shores. The tea is inspired by sorrel, a traditional Jamaican drink that’s equal parts sweet and tart with a hint of warm ginger. The initial recipe was crafted by Ellis’ great-grandfather on her paternal side, who migrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s from Jamaica—which also inspired the company’s name.
“It’s hard for Black people to trace back to their roots because of what happened during slavery. A lot of our identity records were destroyed. So, I’m on this journey to trace as far back to my roots as possible,” Ellis shares with REVOLT. “I wanted to connect to my paternal side, and my father was incarcerated for all of my adolescent years. This recipe was all I had to connect to his side. He would make it for all of the family gatherings. Before he got it, his mother had it. And every Thanksgiving gathering, this tea was made.” The first drink that Ellis Isle Teas produced happened to be the original recipe. With that, Ellis jumpstarted her company with ambition taking the wheel.
Eager to both fuel her passion and share her family’s story, the founder made a brave decision to leave Howard University after just a year. The hustle quickly began: Ellis took to selling small batches of tea from the back of her car. As with many entrepreneurs, she faced challenges trying to lift the business off the ground, but her determination never waned.
“I had no clue as to what I was doing, and there was no roadmap for me to follow. So, I literally built this company on trial and error. As you could imagine, it was scary in the beginning because there were no resources,” Ellis recalls. “So, everything was a challenge, down to simple things: How do you get nutrition facts on a bottle? How do you get a barcode? How do you commercialize the recipe? How do you scale? How do you keep the product fresh using real ingredients? How do you test the shelf life? How do I get a license to operate in a commercial kitchen? I had to figure everything out.”
Ellis took a major chance as she navigated a new business territory, but that risk soon paid off. She gained more traction after being crowned the winner of the first season of Centric TV’s reality show Queen Boss in 2017, but it was 2020’s nationwide call to support Black businesses where her company flourished even further. Ellis Isle Teas gained notable fans in former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Beyoncé (who shared the tea on her official website), and Kevin Hart, who soon became an investor. The rapidly growing interest secured $1.85M in capital funding.
“I was able to roll out with a national retailer [because of] the light being shed on Black businesses. This was a direct effect of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Ellis shares. “A lot more people know about Ellis Isle’s products, and that’s something I’m very appreciative of. We were awarded certain opportunities that we would not have been awarded pre-pandemic or pre-Black Lives Matter.”
After championing her own dreams, Ellis (who prides herself on being known for propelling others to greatness) aims to impart that mentality on others. One way she’s done this is by intentionally keeping her company’s facility in her hometown of Detroit, even though she currently lives in Atlanta. This bold decision led to providing jobs to hundreds of Motor City locals. “Most of them are people who no one would give a shot anywhere else,” she explains. “We’re talking about reentering citizens who have been written off by society and who have gone in for some petty crimes and some larger crimes. We’re giving them a second chance to bounce back in life. People just needed jobs, and it feels really good to be able to do that.”
Ellis Isle’s plant manager Jasmine is the perfect example of a Detroiter whose life was forever changed because of Ellis’ willingness to pay it forward. Jasmine went from living in a halfway house to owning her own home with multiple cars and plans to start her own business after her job at Ellis Isle charted a different course for her life. Providing resources and doing her best to ensure those around her can reach their highest potential, Ellis says, is her form of mentorship.
The founder’s boldness not only fuels her company management, but the actual products themselves. Health is a very important topic for Ellis, who is steadfast on providing better alternatives for herself, her family and her consumers. Rather than succumbing to the usual artificial syrups like her competitors, the initial Ellis Isle Teas line included natural herbs. That mindset remains true: 15 years later, Ellis Isle Teas plans to expand with the recent announcement of a new line of cold-pressed cane juices that comes in five exotic flavors and has zero added sugar.
“I aspire to offer products that I would consume myself and be okay with giving to my kids. Starting out, we launched a line of teas using real herbs that we steeped by hand, and I was not willing to work with syrups,” Ellis says. “This is how I ended up in production and opening up a plant in the first place because all of these plants wanted me to use concentrated syrups instead of real herbs. I just wasn’t willing to do that because I would not feel good about offering those products.”
One of Ellis’ best attributes is her tenacity: not only does she want to continue expanding her own company, but to grow as a trusted leader in her community. Her rapid trajectory is due to the fact that she’s always bet on herself—now she urges others to do the same. “I carry a certain energy about myself that I'm told it's contagious,” she says. “It just makes everybody around me want to push to be great as well.” Now that’s a level-up.
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Her great-grandfather was a chef who worked on Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line. When he came to America through Ellis Island, the recipe came with him. Before he died, his instruction was for the recipe to be sold and not told. But as Ellis’ connection to her ancestral heritage grew stronger, she realized there was a bigger story to be shared.
Ellis on the early challenges she faced
Ellis on providing jobs for previously incarcerated Detroit residents
Nailah Ellis at Ellis Isle's Detroit bottling plant
Nailah's great grandfather, Cyril Byron (center) was a head chef on Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line
Nailah's great grandparents
Nailah visiting her childhood home in Detroit
Nailah exploring the sugarcane fields in Colombia
Nailah visiting her childhood home in Detroit
Nailah's great grandparents
Click HERE for more stories of fearlessness and determination from Cadillac.
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