Catie Nunn met Jason Wang through Texas 4000 for Cancer — a non-profit organization aiming to raise money for research through biking from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska. Exercise science senior Nunn and chemical engineering senior Wang conceptualized Saja Drinks, a coffee startup specializing in bottled espresso, wanting to replace single-serve Keurig coffee cups.
Nunn said she discovered her love of coffee in Japan and Thailand in the summer of 2025. Wang brewed an espresso for Nunn with an old machine, not wanting her to resort to using disposable cups. Wang said he realized the potential of bottling espresso after doing it himself. Together, their vision for Saja Drinks is to provide a quality and more economic alternative to buying coffee each morning from a cafe or settling for a K-cup.
“I was full send the whole time,” Wang said. “All gas, no brakes.”
Wang said he came up with the name Saja Drinks after a conversation with his friend. Saja Boys, a boy band group from KPop Demon Hunters, initially inspired the name, as well as the Korean translation. Saja means lion, but based on the pronunciation, it can also mean “let’s buy.”
Nunn said she hesitated to invest time in the business, her unfamiliarity with entrepreneurship and lack of belief in the future of the company making her nervous.
“(Jason’s) like, ‘Let’s look way into the future when everything’s successful and great,’” Nunn said. “And I’m like, ‘But we have this event tomorrow, we need the stuff for tomorrow.’”
Nunn didn’t fully buy into the idea of Saja Drinks until January of this year. Nunn completed the necessary coursework to graduate last December, and chose to stay in Austin until her lease expires this August. She decided to invest her extra time into Saja, curious what the company could become in the next five months.
“My background in engineering … and Catie’s ability to keep my head on my body (and) not in the clouds … came together, and that’s why I think we’re the team to do it,” Wang said.
Most recently, Saja Drinks hosted Texas Hybrid, a hybrid athlete club, on the rooftop of an apartment building. Saja Drinks made lattes and gave out bottled espresso samples after Texas Hybrid’s morning run.
Roy Semaan, economics senior and founder of Texas Hybrid, said he reached out after he saw one of Saja Drinks’ reels, thinking coffee and morning runs would mesh well together.
“I’m inspired by the mission that Saja Drinks has to beat K-cups,” Semaan said. “I like ambitious goals, so I was willing to try their coffee and I loved it.”
While taking down K-cups is a part of their goal, Nunn and Wang acknowledge they won’t take them down overnight. For now, they want to dominate the Austin coffee scene and assess where they are at in August as Wang’s slated to begin his career.
“I think it’s really cool, not only to use my own creativity, to give and create things for other people, but also to allow other people to have their own creative moment in the morning,” Nunn said.
