Tim O'Sullivan on Bae Juice and Andie Body in eCommerce Australia Founder Series
In the eCommerce Australia podcast's Founder Series, Tim O'Sullivan sat down to talk through the two brands that now carry his name: Bae Juice, the 100% Korean pear juice he co-founded for hangover…
In the eCommerce Australia podcast's Founder Series, Tim O'Sullivan sat down to talk through the two brands that now carry his name: Bae Juice, the 100% Korean pear juice he co-founded for hangover relief, and Andie Body, the wellness and beauty venture he has since helped bring to market.
Tim is the co-founder of Bae Juice alongside Sumin Do and Liam Gostencnik. The idea began on a visit to Sumin's family in South Korea, where locals drink pear juice around nights out. Korean pear juice has drawn research interest for hangover relief, with a 2015 CSIRO report noting that Korean pears speed up alcohol metabolism and reduce blood acetaldehyde levels. Tim turned that discovery into a Melbourne-based, Aussie-owned and Korean-made product, sourced from Naju in South Korea.
The business has since moved into major Australian retailers including Woolworths, Dan Murphy's and BWS, and pursued expansion into the United States. The first US-bound container followed a $500,000 injection from Honan Capital and a distribution agreement with Gold Coast Distributors in the New York tri-state area. Tim attributes much of Bae Juice's growth to a high-energy, disruptive social media content strategy across TikTok and Instagram, describing a period when the team posted five to six skits a week at its peak.
The Founder Series format gives space to the full arc behind that growth. Tim describes bootstrapping the business, with the co-founders giving away their paychecks for six months and, in his words, 'burning ourselves financially' early on. A $25,000 loan from Sumin's father enabled shipping the first order of 50,000 units to Melbourne. Tim has also spoken about continuing to run Bae Juice with Sumin after their romantic relationship ended, keeping the co-founding partnership intact as the company scaled.
Alongside Bae Juice, the episode covers Andie Body, the second wellness and beauty brand Tim co-founded. For listeners following Australian consumer startups, the conversation sets out how one founder has taken an observation made overseas and built it into a multi-brand presence across retail and ecommerce, with an appetite for the next opportunity.