Mum Bet $60K to Bring a Business Idea From the UAE to the US, Now Her Business Is on Track for $10M

Colleen Sundlie was exploring a market in the United Arab Emirates, her infant son in a sling, when she pulled a bottle of date syrup off the shelf. The company she built from that discovery is now on course for $10M (£7.4M) in annual revenue.

The American mother of five, now 50, spent roughly $60,000 (£44,400) to import her first shipment and set up a small bottling operation after she moved home and found the syrup she loved nowhere on US shelves. Her brand, Date Lady, has since grown from a suitcase habit into a business stocked in Target and Walmart, she said in an interview with Entrepreneur.

The gamble was not an obvious one. Sundlie and her husband, Ryan, had discovered pure date syrup while living in Al Ain, where he taught at United Arab Emirates University. Dates are woven through daily life across the Gulf, offered alongside Arabic coffee in homes, malls, and health clubs, and the couple grew attached to a product that was largely unknown back home.

From a UAE Market Stall to an American Kitchen

A self-described foodie, Sundlie was struck as much by the nutrition as the taste.

In the video for the brand, she recalled being 'totally blown away by the flavor profile,' describing a syrup that was less sweet than honey yet 'not as strong and offensive as molasses.'

Those health credentials became the pitch. Date syrup carries 'more potassium ounce per ounce than a banana,' she said, along with magnesium, antioxidants, and trace minerals.

The recipe stays deliberately spare. 'We don't use any kind of gums or additives or preservatives at all,' she added, a selling point for shoppers hunting for alternatives to refined sugar. The original bottle lists a single ingredient, organic dates, and is marketed as a swap for honey, maple syrup, and molasses.

A $60,000 Bet on an Unknown Product

Before committing, the couple checked that no established brand was already selling it. The only date syrup they could find sat in obscure import shops, often cut with sugar it did not need. They flew to Nuremberg for BioFach, a major organic food trade show, then on to Dubai for Gulfood, spending about $5,000 (£3,700) to meet their first supplier.

Founded in 2012 and based in Springfield, Missouri, Date Lady bills itself as the first date syrup company in the United States. Friends, family, and their local bank put up the money, backing what Sundlie admits 'seemed like a pretty crazy idea to some of them.'

She has never taken venture capital. 'It seemed like a no-brainer for the American market,' she said.

How a Ruined Batch Became a Best-Seller

Not every decision paid off cleanly. One production run of 60,000 pounds of dates in California came out higher in a naturally occurring acid than expected, nothing like the syrup the family knew from the Arabian Peninsula.

Rather than write it off, Sundlie began experimenting at home and turned it into a barbecue sauce that became one of the company's signature products.

That range now spans syrups, spreads, sauces, and date sugar, sold through Target and Walmart, where the original syrup holds a 4.7-star rating.

Sundlie has also opened Café Dhibs, a small Springfield coffee shop named after the Arabic word for date syrup, serving drinks and desserts built around the ingredient.

Growth has been steady rather than sudden. Annual revenue passed $2M (£1.48M) in 2021 and climbed to about $6.8M (£5M) over the following four years, with the $10M mark set for this year.

Sundlie credits the slow build with keeping the company out of debt and true to itself, right down to a refusal to hand its recipes to outside consultants. The products, she noted, started life in her own kitchen.