EQUO wants you to fall in love with using straws again

Nothing ruins a refreshing drink more for Marina Tran-Vu than a wet, soggy paper straw.

As the 35-year-old entrepreneur stands in front of a coconut vendor’s stall inside the famous Bến Thành Market in Ho Chi Minh City, she fishes the limp straw out of her coconut water.

“This is not what you want in your drink at all. This is a bad experience. This is a nightmare,” she says, examining the disintegrating paper straw before tossing it into a nearby trash bin. Then she rummages through her purse, pulling out an EQUO straw. It’s creamy beige and speckled with brown and black flecks, colors that come from natural fibers. The straw is thick like plastic. Only it’s not made of plastic. It’s entirely chemical free and natural—made from the pulp of sugarcanes.

“Having a sustainable option that also doesn’t get soggy, that’s what our straws provide,” she says.

Tran-Vu is the founder and CEO of EQUO, a small business that specializes in creating sustainable and compostable products such as straws, utensils, and stationery. The company’s goal is to help reduce the use of single-use plastic throughout Vietnam and around the world by giving customers products that are compostable—meaning they degrade naturally into the earth without any chemical waste or by-products, while also being sturdy and reliable for customers.

The company, which she started on her own, has now blossomed into a business with 15 employees in just three years. When EQUO first started, it offered four products—straws made from sugarcane, coconut, coffee, and grass—and they only sold on Amazon.

As EQUO saw growth and increased sales, they started expanding their business and product offerings. Beyond generating sales, the company was focused on building brand awareness on Amazon using advertising solutions like Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. By doing so, they have been able to reach customers in the U.S., Canada, and locally in Vietnam.

“We launched our business on Amazon in 2021, and I would say that was the biggest turning point. That really made our entire year in sales,” she says. She attributes her company’s success and growth to using Amazon Ads solutions.

But how she ended up in Vietnam—starting a company and developing a passion for the environment—was through an unexpected life event.

The Canadian native grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and had been working as a marketer for a decade when her father was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. Her family needed Tran-Vu to travel to Vietnam to help manage some family business. While in Ho City Minh City, now the headquarters of her company EQUO, Tran-Vu didn’t know a soul.

“I spent a lot of time alone in coffee shops,” she recalls.

There was one she particularly enjoyed—a tiny café squeezed between shops on a busy street with an outdoor terrace covered by a canopy of thick trees that tucked customers away into a quiet oasis. When a server set her drink down at her table, she noticed there was something unfamiliar sticking out of her juice. She took a photo of it and did a reverse-image search, and discovered that her drink was served with a grass straw.

She marveled over the product, wondering why she’d never seen something like it in Canada.

“Countries like Canada are supposed to be very forward-thinking when it comes to sustainability,” she says. “My initial reaction seeing this grass straw in Vietnam was, ‘Why hadn’t I seen this solution before?’ It just made sense. It’s natural. It’s better than a paper straw. Why not?”

Later that evening, those questions kept bugging Tran-Vu, leading her down a rabbit hole of research. She tried to learn everything she could about grass straws and discovered that they were popular among Vietnamese farmers who worked in the fields. Whenever it was hot outside, the farmers would pluck a hollow piece of grass that grew natively in the area and stick it into a young coconut, making it easy for them to enjoy a refreshing drink. Once farmers were done with the grass straw, they could simply toss it to the earth, where it would decompose.

Then she thought: What if she could create durable, compostable straws that were made from natural ingredients?

“I wanted to create a straw that you could throw into your backyard and it would break down in a few months rather than a few centuries,” Tran-Vu says.

Shortly after, she started talking to manufacturers across Vietnam and East Asia, found product designers who create straws from natural ingredients, and formed a business focused on producing compostable single-use products that consumers and businesses could easily purchase and use.

After Tran-Vu launched her product line, she discovered a new challenge: telling customers about her compostable straws. She needed to quickly raise brand and product awareness. Just three months after she started selling products on Amazon, EQUO started working with Amazon Ads.

Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display helped EQUO stay top of mind for shoppers who were considering single-use straws, cutlery, and stationery. The brand also created detailed product listings on Amazon and showcased their high-quality product photos to help shoppers better understand their offerings. They organized their product listings, photos, and brand story in their Brand Store, which helped them tell their story and convey the mission of the company.