Kevin Lee

Create every day. Teach everything you know.

Kevin Lee, 2023 AD

Kevin wears the Modena Shirt, Vanta Pant Pro

From developing recipes in his kitchen with co-founder Kevin Chantasiriphan in 2019, to raising a $10M Series A from partners such as Naomi Osaka, Usher, Apolo Ohno, Kygo just four years later... Kevin Lee's immi ramen has taken the US by storm. We sat down to discuss Kevin's journey to bring nutrition to the world, one bowl at a time.

All words by Kevin Lee in conversation with Seneca.

Kevin wears the Terra Shirt

I craved impact. Personalized. At scale.

Kevin wears the Modena Shirt

I’ve always loved teaching in every form.

In high school I taught guitar. In college I taught personal finance to underprivileged high school students and an accredited college class for investing. Now I love coaching our immi team. I’ve always loved teaching in every form. In retrospect, a lot of my life has been driven by wanting to make a positive impact on others.

My mother, an artist and accountant. My father, an ambitious dreamer and practical.

My parents grew up in a rural village in Taiwan in a place called PingTung. My grandparents grow rose apples, a fruit that's native to southeast Asian regions. A lot of my childhood summers and winters were spent picking, stemming and packaging rose apples for sale at the market. My parents didn’t want that for me and immigrated to the US. My mom is an accountant but loves making art; my Dad is an ambitious dreamer who became ultra practical after immigrating with no financial or social capital and surviving here. I’m a balance of both. I like the "in-betweens". One of my favorite companies is Pixar. They’re the most technical art company and the most artistic tech company.

It's about solving deficiency needs.

One weekend experience in a program called Hive changed my entire world view. 150 people from 80 different countries were brought together for a weekend retreat to help discover your purpose and introduce you to people from different walks of life.

There, I met Ajit George, co-founder of Shanti Bhavan. Shanti Bhavan is a residential school in Tamil Nadu, India which takes in children from Untouchable caste families. They house and educate children from pre-K all the way through college and post-graduation employment - all expenses covered. The child then goes back to their family and helps to break the cycle of poverty.

Ajit asked me “what's your purpose in life right now?” At the time, I dreamed of a “personalized education for every child in the world.” He told me, “I admire that. But that's a first world problem. You live in America where every basic deficiency need has been taken care of. You have food, safety, and shelter that allows you to dream about things like education and growth mindset. In other countries, people have nothing. You cannot think about education when you are starving or malnourished. You start at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy and you rarely make your way up.”

Looking backwards, that conversation completely changed my world view and likely influenced what I do now.

Kevin wears the Forma Jacket Pro

I seek impact at scale.

In my 20s, I pivoted back and forth between scale and impact. I started at a social gaming company, Kabam, where I ran products serving millions of users. Over time, I began to crave more mission driven impact. More one-to-one relationships. I went to AltSchool to focus on building education technology for personalized learning. The other extreme of the spectrum. With immi, I’ve found a balance between the two - mission driven impact at scale.

Chronic health conditions affect millions. Enter immi.

My co-founder and I have families plagued by chronic health conditions. The largest factor is their diet. My co-founder and I started discussing delicious but unhealthy childhood Asian foods that we grew up eating. Instant ramen was on top of the list. It’s one of the most popular foods in the world, yet it’s created health problems for so many people. We saw an opportunity to reinvent it.

So we started creating recipes in our own kitchen and made the first 200 recipes ourselves. We translated Chinese and Japanese research papers using Google Translate. We called noodle experts in Asia. We dove in head first without a plan.

To have my family eat immi, that’s what really matters.

Why would anyone pay more than a dollar for instant ramen? We heard this from investors over and over. It was hard to hear, because Asian food in America already has such a stigma of being cheap and unhealthy fast food. We’ve all heard the xenophobic tropes. But after we launched, we realized how much people were craving a healthier instant ramen option. Our team gets so much delight seeing people enjoy our ramen with childhood nostalgia while feeling great about their health. The week of his 65th birthday, 3 years after our launch, my dad texted me. He finally decided to try immi and he thought it was delicious. Best of all, he feels great after each bowl. It was a proud moment.

My cofounder? We didn’t like each other at first.

My co-founder and I met at Kabam and didn't like each other's working styles so we weren’t close. One morning on a project in Vancouver, we ended up at the same ramen shop for breakfast, unplanned. I learned that his grandmother ran a hawker noodle stall in Thailand. His dad ran a Thai supermarket and later opened a Thai restaurant selling noodles. We bonded over our shared Asian food family backgrounds. Since then we’ve lived together, seen each other through highs and lows and became groomsmen at each other’s weddings. The trust is fundamentally sound. Even when we criticize one another, it's coming from a good place. In the first year we’d carve out time every quarter to write out feedback for each other over drinks. It was our version of co-founder therapy, something I’d highly recommend.

Where next? We want to bring people around the world joy, make them healthier, and inspire them to live boldly.

Create everyday.
Teach everything you know.

Kevin Lee, 2023 AD

Measurements. All garments are hand-measured for accuracy.

It may be helpful to compare these product measurements to a similar garment you already own. To do this, place the garment on a flat surface and take all measurements from the outside.

Modena Shirt

Chest
40"
42"
45"
47"

Back Length
28"
28"
28 1/2"
28 1/2"

Sleeve Length
24"
24 1/2"
26"
26 1/2"

Shoulder Width
17 1/4"
17 3/4"
18 1/2"
19"

Lumen Shirt

Chest
39"
41"
44"
46"

Back Length
28 3/4"
29 1/4"
30"
30 1/2"

Sleeve Length
24 3/4"
25 1/4"
26 1/2"
27"

Shoulder Width
17 1/2"
18"
18 1/2"
19"

Forma Jacket 2

Chest
36 1/2"
38 1/2"
41 1/2"
43 1/2"

Back Length
28 1/2"
29"
29 3/4"
31 1/4"

Sleeve Length
24"
24 1/2"
25"
25 1/2"

Shoulder Width
17 1/4"
18"
19"
19 3/4"

Terra Jacket

Chest
40"
42"
45"
47"

Back Length
28"
28 1/2"
29 1/4"
29 3/4"

Sleeve Length
25"
25 1/2"
26"
26 1/2"

Shoulder Width
18"
18 1/2"
19 1/4"
20"

Vanta Pant

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
39"
39"
41.5"
39"
41.75"
40"

Inseam
29"
29"
31"
29"
31"
29"

Hem Opening
12.5"
12.75"
12.75"
13"
13"
13.25"

Vanta GPT

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
40"
40.5"
43.25"
40.5"
43.25"
41"

Inseam
30"
31.5"
33.5"
31.5"
33.5"
32"

Hem Opening
13"
13"
13"
14"
14"
14"

Vanta Pro

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
37"
37"
39.5"
39"
41.5"
40"

Inseam
29"
29"
31.5"
30"
32.5"
30.5"

Hem Opening
13"
13"
13"
13.25"
13.25"
13.5"

Cortina Longsleeve Knit

Chest
41"
43"
46"
48"

Back Length
25 1/2"
26 1/2"
27"
27"

Sleeve Length
23 1/2"
24 1/2"
25"
26"

Shoulder Width
18 1/4"
18 3/4"
19 1/2"
20"

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