Firebelly Tea

David Segal co-founded DAVIDsTEA in Montreal in 2008 and grew it past 200 stores before selling his shares and leaving in 2016. Firebelly is his second run at tea, this time without stores: it sells loose-leaf blends, strainers, travel mugs, matcha and bundles directly online, splitting its storefront between Canadian and US currency. His co-founder is Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, whom Segal first got drinking green tea as an afternoon replacement for coffee — the origin story the company tells on its own about page. Segal's argument, made to Modern Retail in 2022, is that the product has to carry the brand: "The key is the product, it starts with the product. You can have a great marketing message, you can drive trial, but when it's all said and done, people have to love the product and want to come back." He also notes that tea is the second most-consumed drink in the world after water, and that North America lags the rest of it. Both founders appeared together on the TechTO Montreal stage in October 2025.