Goloka Story
The beginning
Goloka started as a small storefront offering fresh juices & smoothies in the vibrant East Village of Manhattan – New York City! We were serving customers by Fall 2013, and went on to do juice cleanses for customers in New York and other states. How did we get motivated? A few ways:
- The food cart scene in Manhattan, and specifically advice from Ujjvala Prabhu who ran a food cart for a while.
- The Bhakti Center New York, a cultural arts center around the corner on 1st Ave
- Radhanath Swami, a traveling monk who is the guidance behind the Bhakti Center
- Bud (Bradd), Rukmini, Zach and Ram from Stanton Street Yoga, who are awesome, and handle several revolutionary ideas & projects
- Adi, from Interfaith Community Services, a wonderful person who serves out free meals in Tompins Square park
Progression
Initially, Goloka juices were being co-branded with Master Juice, a startup in association with Stanton Street Yoga – we owe our cold press juicing experiences to Master Juice. We had a great time serving amazing customers for a little over 3 years and also providing wholesale to organic and health food stores in the city such as: Healthfully, Live Live Organic, High Vibe, and other great places. We also partnered with other businesses such as The Gem Hotel, New York Health and Racquet Club (Cooper Square), and Bhakti Cafe at the Bhakti Center!
We tried several (we mean it!) combinations and unique ideas of juices and juice blends, including coco refreshers and coco dobs – juices blended with healthy coconut water! That’s where we got our current logo in case you wondered. The coconut tree by the way is nature’s awesome offering.
Through our relationships especially with yoga centers in the city, we grew fond of the yoga culture, especially Bhakti Yoga taught at the Bhakti center, and wanted to get into the scene “whole and soul”! We attended wonderful kirtan sessions at these places where we served out free juice samples to loving crowds. A *lot* of people helped along the way to progress through the trials and formulate new branding for Goloka (they will be recognized in upcoming postings one by one). We had a blast meeting people and various organizations and learnt a lot from them. And so…
Goloka 3.0
Goloka 3.0 – our current incarnation, as a health and wellness portal, uniting the beautiful worlds of yoga, vibrant health, and the exciting energy of everyone wanting to lead a better wholesome life. We closed our NYC storefront location in early 2017 to redirect our focus, and by Fall of 2017, transitioned to an online portal.
Here and now.. for you!
We are now in close collaboration with our customers and partners in the city with whom we had wonderful interactions in the past. All the wealth of information on starting an online business that we went through, the dos and don’ts are captured here. Its yours to use and benefit from, so you can start your own business and succeed, in your own dream niche. You’ll find interviews and tips from successful entrepreneurs, so you can do what they did to get there faster, easier, and better.
Check out our upcoming offerings – we hope you’ll like them and benefit from them while having fun as we are. Onto success!
