Toucan Talks
Toucan Talks is a podcast for Wilmington-area business owners and entrepreneurs who are eager to learn from those on a similar journey. Each week, we talk with an area business owner about their successes, challenges, and experiences in business. Don’t worry – we keep it fun as we bounce from topic to topic.
Toucan Talks
14 - Nico from Maven Coffee Talks About the World of Specialty Coffee and Business Entrepreneurship
We explore the business side of coffee from growing to sourcing to tasting - and how Maven got featured on Buzzfeed.
Nico doesn't just talk about Maven Coffee, he also gives us a masterclass in coffee tasting. We'll learn about retronasal olfaction, a concept that will completely transform your coffee savoring experience.
If you've ever dreamed of turning your passion into a business, be sure to tune into this episode. Let's get started!
Check out Maven Coffee at:
https://mavencoffee.com
https://www.instagram.com/mavencoffee_co/
This episode of Toucan Talks in brought to you by More Than Clay.
Use code TOUCAN for 10% off your pottery order at:
https://morethanclay.com
Follow More Than Clay on IG at:
morethanclay
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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to the Chukan Talks podcast, where we bounce from topic to topic with our guest to give you an inside look at their life as a business owner. No question is off limits as we talk about what has led to the successes, the challenges and more.
Speaker 2:And this podcast is brought to you by Kickstart Studios. Kickstart Studios is Wilmington's newest video podcast studio, equipped with multiple camera angles and an in-house producer. Creating a high quality video podcast has never been easier. Don't let the tech and gear learning curve hold you back from jumping into podcasting or creating video content any longer. Our team takes care of it all for you, so you can focus on the message you want to share. You simply show up record and receive the final product. No more wasting time setting up and breaking down the gear, setting up lights or doing sound checks on your own. Our in-house producer will have everything set up and ready to go for you. So check us out at Kickstart Studios.
Speaker 1:Alright, welcome to the Chukan Talks podcast. Today's guest is Nico. He is the owner of Maven Coffee here in Wilmington. Y'all specialize in specialty coffee, so it's not, I'm going to say, a normal coffee shop, and we can kind of get into what that means and why y'all want that direction and all that with our lovely can of questions. Today we are also going to try coffee, which is exciting, and Luke is behind the camera and computers inside of Joshua today, which is a little bit different, but Luke doesn't drink coffee.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have conversations, and this is probably going to be the most important coffee of the year.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree because, for y'all that don't know, luke is my husband. I love coffee. He does not.
Speaker 2:We cannot enjoy that together, so this is a pivotal moment, yes, in our relationship.
Speaker 1:Can we get him on board? Not that he needs more caffeine, but you know we'll get there.
Speaker 3:Should we turn into a coffee counseling session?
Speaker 1:Yeah, luke actually just pulled up a chair.
Speaker 3:He just pulled up a chair and I'll bring you in. You'll be here to drink coffee.
Speaker 1:So, before we totally jump in, also want to shout out our sponsor for this month, which is More Than Clay. She makes handmade coffee mugs. I don't know if you guys can see on the cameras, but we have business card holders and little vases, all sorts of fun things. So you can use code 2KN again like the bird, not the 2KN for 10% off online at morethanclaycom. So, without further ado, how this little lovely game?
Speaker 2:podcast works. I'm like, yes, wait, what did I sign up?
Speaker 1:for You'll have these tokens. You'll drop them down the board. Sometimes they fly off. It's okay, it's part of the fun. If it lands on a one, we have our business questions. If it lands on a two, we have our more fun questions, and then we'll just roll through it and throughout the podcast, we'll let you make coffee and we'll drink coffee. I think. Luke, how did we get? I don't know.
Speaker 2:We had a few team meetings trying to figure out the concept.
Speaker 1:At one point it was almost going to be more of like not beer pong, but like that sort of style and like that's going to be too crazy.
Speaker 3:This is weird, though I'm saying that because as soon as I walked in, I'm like yes.
Speaker 1:We're playing a game. Also, I feel like it just makes the podcast in your viewportion easier because you can just the question kind of ends you just go the next one, all right, well, we can jump on in yes, so you can pick anywhere on the board and.
Speaker 3:There should be. I believe there might be a statistical deviation to where things fall. Yeah, so there is one extra like one like business just because you know it's supposed to be a business podcast, so why not?
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, well, we're jumping right in. Yeah, about coffee.
Speaker 1:So, two can our fun questions when it comes to coffee in general. So I guess backstory for this question when I was in college marketing course, we read a book called Everything but the Coffee. I don't know if you've heard of this book, but it was about how Starbucks kind of rose to being kind of dominant in the coffee world and at the time I was like this is interesting because it was talking about like the atmosphere and like the consistency and like the marketing and how everything about Starbucks that made them popular was everything but the coffee, which in my marketing brain I'm like this is awesome. But then once I got older and out of college and not drinking terrible coffee, yeah, I was like, oh, actually you're. I'm just going to say your product is kind of terrible, but you've rose to like being so successful because you focused on every anyways, all that to say what makes specialty coffee like specialty coffee and good and not just mass produced whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Starbucks coffee.
Speaker 3:So the thing with Starbucks is like one of those things that people love to hate, and I particularly love them Anybody that it is taking away people from Folgers and their friends and also they really were pioneers. So, what they did was excellent and just how they big they are is just a testament of their success. Yeah, it's not considered specialty nowadays by any standards just because of the volume and also the focus.
Speaker 3:But specialty coffee really is. You have in. Coffee is a trade. I mean it's a commodity, so you trade it and there are commodity prices assigned to it. The price per pound is actually assigned by the stock exchange, so there are things that are have nothing to do with set by futures. Yeah, so it has nothing to do with coffee, so that's the set price. Specialty coffee Doesn't comply by those standards. So nowadays I think I haven't checked today but coffee is $2.30 a pound If you adjust inflation. It's the same price for the past 3040 years. So you have mass produced coffees from farms that produce high yield, some varieties that produce high yield because it's agriculture, so you are a farmer, you want to get as much fruit as possible, so that's your commodity coffee.
Speaker 3:Specialty coffee it's going to be a completely different segment that really started shining more and more in the past 25 years. So specialty coffee, it's going to be small batches of coffee, small in the sense that farmers will usually yield two or one ton, like physical ton of coffee, and these coffees are produced in specific areas. They undergoes specific processes to produce an excellent quality of cup. There's a term in coffee that has been borrowed from wine. It's called Terrar and it's basically the consolidation of soil, agricultural practices, climate, and that makes that product great. For example, what we know as bubbly champagne or champagne comes from champagne, and champagne here is just bubbly wine. But if we want to have champagne it has to come from that region, because the acidity of the soil, the grapes, the kind of grapes, how they're harvested, how they're pressed, like all of that Lucrabi knows a lot more so I'm not going to get into the wine side of things, but specialty coffee is so because it's excellent.
Speaker 3:This is a funny analogy that I give to people. It's like if you grew up thinking that a steak is what you find inside of McDonald's burger and then you go to a butcher table place and then you are served an aged ribeye. You're like oh, what's that? That's that steak Like no.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but what? No, that's not steak, this is steak. They'll blow you away. So also another aspect is the price. So price per pound is negotiated. There are several ways and there's a whole rabbit hole negotiating price.
Speaker 3:But on specialty normally it has nothing to do with that bottom price. To give you an example $2.30 per pound. There's been some coffees that we paid $75 per pound. That's green, that's just to say that coffee is mined on touch. You still have to transport that coffee. You still have process that coffee, roast that coffee, package that coffee, fray that coffee. So that's just the cost to say that's mined on touch. So there's a huge difference and to the farmer this means a livelihood. There's a really cool study by a guy called James Hoffman. He actually reviews some further studies into economics of coffee and say that if you're going to the store and buying anything less than a $10 bag of coffee, pound of coffee, you're making the farmers, putting them into debt. So there is no way to say that there is no way a farmer had been able to make any money. If you're buying a bag that is like Probably not 10, was probably like eight or five yeah, it's not 10, but eight or five.
Speaker 3:So you actually make them lose money so that's what makes in a nutshell, and of course, when you drink, it is at Completely different experience. It it's not about the caffeine and, yeah, boosts and energy, oh, it's there but it's more about the flavor. So that's it's a long answer, but that's why yeah coffee is special.
Speaker 1:That's cool compared to other coffee. Yeah, no, I love that's awesome Sweet.
Speaker 3:Um, all right, let's drop another one, let's shoot.
Speaker 1:One. Yes, let's see. Okay. Also, we have some questions. I don't know if I explain this, I can't remember. Some are standard for everybody, all the guests, and then we have some.
Speaker 1:Yeah you're specific business, so We'll see what we get. Okay, so when you guys Opened or like planning to open, and you knew you're gonna go this direction of like I'm gonna call it a premium brand, is that how you would? Yes, say it. What? How did you decide? Like, okay, we're gonna position Maven as a premium brand, like here's Like what we're gonna do to do that. What was like that thought?
Speaker 3:So my background is in government studies and Finances and international relations and commerce, so I wanted to import An export products with added value. I didn't know anything about coffee. I.
Speaker 3:Just assumed yeah, okay yeah it's like one of those things up, I'm Colombian, I guess that I'm like required to my citizenship test, like I get my ID, like. But I did know and this is looking back is so silly, but I would on school. There was a Coffee shop in college and I would always ask for the coffee, for a cappuccino. But yeah, can you make it from the machine, not from the pot that has been sitting there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's all that I knew, which is looking now it's like super silly, but I didn't know anything. So I Wanted to bring to export and import trade goods with added value. I have a friend who is the CFO of the biggest specialty roaster in Colombia and is one of the world Barista champions that that house has the wall breeze the champion. And she kind of like I told her, look, I just want to Import coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah because Colombian coffee special. I grew up knowing that, but that was the extent of it. So she said look, let me, let me, let me show you the ropes. So I think it was a blessing. I think it was kind of like supposed to jump into it because I was able to Start learning how to drive on a Lambo. Yeah like I was given the keys to something incredible, so I learned that. So from the beginning, the understanding of this is just not volume. Was just bringing a container.
Speaker 3:I saw and sell it. This is more about the experience, the farmers, the what goes behind the excellence. So it was focused in that. So it wasn't like, okay, we have a lot of competition, there's 50 coffee shops here, yeah, why should we do different? It wasn't like that. I just happened to be in at their Encounter, the right thing, yeah, right time, and have the the right mentorship, yeah. So that's when I decided to bring in Maven, which the name Maven means connoisseur and yeetish or expert in Particular matter. So we deconstructed to experts. In that case we said, all right, I don't want to sell coffee, I want to sell the best coffee experience. So it was more about let's just bring, let's start at the top, let's start with the whatever. If that's difficult, if there's little volume of that, we didn't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah so let's just start with that. Just because we love this so much, I feel a little coffee. So let's just bring the best of the best and let's just work with that where, wherever that takes us. So that's, that's all.
Speaker 1:I love it. Um, I Feel this is a good segue if you want to start the coffee making process for yes people and Specifically just for me, so I can drink some coffee.
Speaker 3:Maven, though, so yes, let's talk.
Speaker 1:Let's talk Coffee, whatever you yeah direction you want to go.
Speaker 3:So, speaking of coffee, so I'm gonna brew, uh, and you're gonna be a part of this as well, luke.
Speaker 1:So you gave us a thumbs up right here.
Speaker 3:Shameless plug, no kidding, but no. So this here it's a coffee. So when you have specialty coffee, when you're looking at it back so okay, what does this mean? So how do I choose a good coffee? So traceability is key. So traceability is expensive, but traceability matters. Like when you buy a wine yeah, you're. You say I'm gonna buy and have some guests, I'm gonna have a special occasion, let's buy a really good wine, something memorable. You're not gonna buy a carton to s wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look for a bottle. Go that trader Joe's box.
Speaker 3:No, but you look for a bottle that shows you the importer, the vintage, the region. When you have those things, you're like, oh, this is great. So instead of having the box to says one, you have this, this Argentine and caverné the year. You even have the importer, the name of the venue. You're like, oh, that's excellent. Yeah, that's called traceability. So that means there's a high quality product and that goes along with many things. Even I'm in blueberries as well, but in other quantities traceability is extremely important because it's something special, so therefore it matters to Trace it. So I'm bringing a coffee that has some slight cotton candy sweetness at the very end. Uh, it's a natural process, meaning that there's fermentation involved. Uh, and this is probably the most important coffee of the year, because this will determine whether or not we can get Luke on board the coffee train and he is hiding behind the monitor. Yes, so we'll see we had this conversation in charleson.
Speaker 3:But let's see if I can, if I can live up so.
Speaker 3:Hand grinding. So, uh, I mean basically in coffee, something really fun is. Also, I don't want people to feel that they need to spend thousands of dollars at home. Look, if you have an excellent coffee, you can strain, strain it through a sock and it's going to be delicious. So, um, I brought up hand grinder because fresh, fresh, uh, freshly ground coffee is great if you have great coffee, freshly ground coffee. I'm about to be finished, so we're going to brew, and this is called an origami.
Speaker 3:Um it's um, um, brewing method. Is this little thing over here? This is the base and this was, uh, designed in japan. This rig just matter, uh, there are. There's physics fluid Um, they are involved. Just super nerdy. But yeah, how fast the water flows and how close it matters, um, how much Contact time, how long the contact time is. So when you see it's like, oh, this coffee is so good, why, yeah, well, it's a combination of the coffee is excellent and also we're trying to do justice, buy it. It's like buying again with the steak, is like buying a very expensive steak and you're not going to throw it in the microwave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I um, we had leftover steak last night actually, and I was just Over everything and ready to eat dinner and I was like luke, I'm about to throw this in the microwave, you don't come heat it up. And he was like Don't you dare put that in the microwave.
Speaker 3:It was already cooked.
Speaker 1:It was from the night before but I was like what do you do? Just uh, what do you do, luke? He reheated it on the cast iron.
Speaker 3:Nice butter, nice yeah that's how it is.
Speaker 1:It's about to get in trouble.
Speaker 3:So also people tell me should I buy an espresso machine? Uh no, don't buy it.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 3:Don't buy it. Why do I say don't buy it? Well, actually going buy one is the best thing ever, but, um, chances are you don't have a scale at home. So if you want to make excellent coffee, just start with buying really good coffee and then things to help you pour it well. So a scale is everything. So we have hot water Was heating up.
Speaker 1:I broke. It's probably about a year ago. I broke our carafe on our coffee maker and it was out of stock. So in the meantime I bought a French press yes, at which point we do have a food scale. But then I was like, okay, this is not an easy morning, throw it in the coffee maker anymore. I was like way in the coffee, trying to do the water, and I was like Luckily the crack, because just for me in the mornings I'm like I just need a button.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just need a button. I bet it does the thing sometimes, the morning ritual sometimes. That's why starbucks is so successful. That's why uh, what are those pots? The?
Speaker 1:like the cure egg and the nespresso. The nespresso.
Speaker 3:That's why they're extremely successful. They're the worst.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bought. No, I bought one and it's literally terrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they're so easy, it's so easy, it's yeah it's like when I just need it's in the office.
Speaker 3:There's a time and a place for everything. Look, do I buy? Do I drink the most expensive?
Speaker 1:coffee every single day.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't, there's a second most expensive. Just a second. Just a second now Um.
Speaker 1:What? Oh, yes, you know, jomita, do it.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you can show it the real price Call now First 500 callers. Yes we'll get a sign back. So this is a A drip method, so the ridges on this method Cause the water to flow a little bit different, okay, and this particular method allows for the coffee to be a little bit sweeter, um, and a little bit of fruitier, if those notes are there. So it's going to take probably another 50 seconds. So, while we let it through, just we, just we just watch it really but, no, but, but I'm, I'm curious because you, you guys been, you've.
Speaker 3:You, look, you've been Around, but you, you've probably drank the most coffee at Maven. Um, you, you haven't, but the laura you have, yeah, you're being around, so yeah, what was? Your. What was your impression when you first saw that we got Maven going?
Speaker 1:From the very beginning, Mm-hmm Um it was so quick though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it was funny because everyone was like, yeah, nico Is opening this and I'm like I don't, I didn't know he. I was like I don't know who Nico is and I yeah, you do, and I'm like I literally Don't know. But Jacob, my brother in all, obviously your friend and Spaces over there as well was like no, it's gonna be really good coffee. I'm like, okay, cool. And then I tried and I was like, oh wow, no, this is really good coffee and it was great. Location is great. I guess we could like that while we're here.
Speaker 1:So, you guys actually are right down the sidewalk from where we are now, but I always tell people just right behind the crepes place. Yeah, it's like the most.
Speaker 2:That and.
Speaker 3:Whole Foods on Oleander.
Speaker 1:That was. There's a beautiful cup waiting for you.
Speaker 3:Look, do you want to bring it to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have to, yeah, we have to run it to you.
Speaker 3:It's fine. So just do like you do to a wine, just smell it. It's a little hot, but smell it. There's this concept called retronasal faction. Basically means that 60 to 70% of the things that you perceive when you drink come from your ability to smell the thing. That's why, when you're sick, food doesn't taste good and it's a little hot. So I will leave it just a little bit, just let it cool down. So no, yeah, that was, that was great. So as a business, I had a honey, I had a everything started for me loving coffee. My wife Diana, when she was in Columbia. She actually manages. She managed the other franchises for this specialty roaster.
Speaker 3:Like no nepotism like she so happened to apply. I don't remember how it was, but I had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3:Things were just were meant to be and I just fell in love with coffee. We got married and it became our thing. She loves coffee, so that's great. That was a little ritual like her. Sunday brunch was our time and I really fell in love with it. Got an espresso machine, got into it like really deep, like got bit by the buck, started like educating myself, became a member of the specialty coffee association, which is worldwide entity. There's all things specialty. There's billions of dollars being traded when it comes to specialty coffee industry in general. So I just became really, really good at making coffee.
Speaker 1:Some people agree with that.
Speaker 3:So people said, dude, you have to start coffee shopping, and it was. It was always a pushback. It was the other way around. I didn't want it to. So I had a really good honeymoon with coffee. So I approached coffee with pure passion and love, but with no incentive to make it a business right away.
Speaker 1:Of course, that would have been really cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know how to import, I know how to trade, I know how to do this things and pretty much like commodity, commodity broker. But people say you have to open a coffee shop. Yeah, no, and I got that feedback. Do you have to do it? You have to do it. I started doing a couple of pop ups for fun, but the time I just didn't want to. And then, talking with Jacob, I used to work, I was, I used to do something completely different for a Swedish company and it was just, it was just not me. It was just not me. It was good, but I just I wasn't passionate about it and we decided to to build Maven. We had the brand, we have the domain, like everything was in place.
Speaker 1:We have the domain, we have the brand we have.
Speaker 3:We had everything, we had a supply chain. We were ready, yeah, and we said, all right, let's, let's, let's do it. Let's just not do a direct to consumer online. Yeah, let's have, let's have a showroom. So I said so. I talked to Jacob will be beneficial to have a coffee shop in the, in the lab, right at the office? And the answer was yes. So I knew from the beginning that I didn't want it to be a coffee shop. I didn't want it for people to come in and sit down for hours, because there are so many places that are valuable for that and there's about 250,000 people in Wilmington, I cannot have all of them.
Speaker 3:So when there's all their coffee shops. I mean, there's so many people for so many coffee shops that why should I do the same? Right, even if there's an excellent coffee shop, there's no competition. There's way too many people for competition to the present. So let me just do what I want to do and let's just excel at that, because I love it. Of course, when it's a business, you want to make sure that you're making money right, and we decided to build. We built it in the court. It was span of probably a month, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was like the wall was going up and I was like, oh, wow, this is happening.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, the actual build a month, yeah, I think it was like three months and I remember that I was. I left in great terms like when our separate ways that was a Friday, yeah, and Monday Labor Day. That Monday was Labor Day. I open, maybe.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh, it's about to be your. I don't know how many years.
Speaker 3:Three, three three from the concept being born and three from the from yes, about three years, I think, from the from the showroom, I mean still standing. Yeah, we actually. That was passed like through COVID, so yeah, and that's how it started. So right, how do you do, how do you drink coffee? Like a coffee pro.
Speaker 3:No no no, no, no, but seriously just smell it in. Your moms are going to hate me for this, but slurp it. Okay, be careful not to choke. So you slurp a little bit and you take a little bit of air Now I'm the one choking so that allows the molecules to move and then just focus on the sweetness. And when you're drinking water, when you're drinking milk, they feel different just for the amount of oils and fat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there are oils present in coffee, so that when you see fancy words like body, that's how it feels if it's heavy. Or when you're finished drinking it, are you left with that burn cigarette taste? Yeah, or there's like a fruitiness that just stays for a little bit longer. What's that residual that's called the finish? So so, yeah, this one's fruity there's. I mean, it's a great coffee, it's a. There's a little bit of interesting bitterness and at the very end this is very hint, like almost sweetness, that it's not like a strawberry sweet, not like a banana sweet, but more like cotton. Candy is sweet, but just a little bit, and it dissipates.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I did. Our friend actually had the strawberry one one day when. I walked down there to kill some grass today and I'm probably whatever else was to be doing, and I tried hers the star. That is literally crazy.
Speaker 3:It's insane. It's a coffee that tastes like strawberries. Yeah, it's. It's not, doesn't have any chemical added to it. There's there's no flavors added to the coffee. But it's this particular farmer in Colombia. He's renowned because he has provided the winning coffees for the Australian brewers competition. He's been in World Barista competitions. His coffee.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's a, it's a producer that I mean. I cannot believe that I get to work with coffee because they're like incredible and known all over the world.
Speaker 1:But yeah, very cool how?
Speaker 3:are you doing with that coffee, luke? Okay, okay, I'm not converted to a coffee guy yet. No, this is fun. Yes, yes, and this is just a very and look there's, there's some other things are insane, but this is like a. Really, I wanted to bring a coffee that had a little bit of funk, but it was still a very quintessential coffee, because there's some coffees out there. They're insane. Like coffee is a fun thing, like when you get down to the rabbit hole. It's.
Speaker 2:It's fun Like like yeah, the mouth feel when you swish it Lots of. I mean, that's where I get all the fruit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, just punchy. It makes you salivate. So when you have that salad like it doesn't dry your mouth or everybody makes you salivate, it's up, it's, it's drinkable, is like fruit punchy, so it's nice.
Speaker 1:Okay, my beyond, or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, that's right, but yes, that's pretty much how the showroom started and, of course, I had the blessing and let's not. One thing that is important is that it was not my main source of income and it was funny because there's a story and I cannot. You know, I'm Christian and a huge part, if not the quintessential part, of why the business is still standing is because God has a small story. Before the pandemic happened, everything was perfect. The finances were incredible.
Speaker 1:Everything was like you're like we have arrived. Yes, we have arrived. I need to.
Speaker 3:I'm buying a shotgun so I can get all the bankers that want to give me free money out of the door. Like it was insane, it was great and it was the perfect time to start the business.
Speaker 3:So, we sat down with Deanna, my wife, and we're getting, of course, people, people that love you, they spend time with you, they know what you're thinking about, so they want to champion you in a way. So we're working on no, go ahead and do it. This is this seems it's a wise decision and we're running numbers. This is a very prudent time to start it. Yeah, but everything was perfect, but it just I just didn't. I had this hunch is like it just doesn't feel right. Yeah, so I prayed about it and I didn't hear yes. So for me is do I hear yes If I don't hear anything? That's either no or wait. Yeah, so I waited and the pandemic happened and we were okay. We had every, all the signs were there to start business. So we would have failed, specialty in the service industry. We would have lost a lot of money because the pandemic was about to happen.
Speaker 3:I went to the Amazon and came back. That was January, february. We're looking to do things and the pandemic hit. We had nobody knew, not, nobody knew. We would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get something started and actually be in a lot of trouble if that would have been the case. So we realized that it was also timing. So probably hear from people they're either take a risk because they're catching that window or they are waiting for that right moment. So there's no rush and things are just working. You need to work a lot, but these are just going well. In our case. I had to push back the want, the need to get this started and we actually at the tail end of the pandemic. We were doing pop-ups just to get traction, just have fun. We were doing. Remember when we were opening the lab with the furniture around Before the walls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before the walls.
Speaker 3:We were just moving furniture around. We got this really nice. We wanted to just dip our toes in the water by doing events and weddings. So we got a little car, customized, very pretty cart and we just set up camp on Saturdays for three hours.
Speaker 3:We opened the doors and moved the furniture around and the pandemic happened, so we just stopped and we didn't do anything else, and then at the tail end, people were asking like, where are you going, what's up with you guys, which was really cool, and then we were able to. And I think that that's if I would have not been sensitive to the right timing to really see that, ok, everything's perfect, but that doesn't mean it's the right time. It might be good, but it might not be beneficial. That's pretty much the why we're still standing, or why we started when we started and not before or after.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome, I love it. All right, let's see.
Speaker 3:Let me shoot for another one.
Speaker 1:Let's see what happens.
Speaker 3:All right, I don't know, I'm going to do it for you, one One.
Speaker 1:Let's see.
Speaker 3:And as it cools down, that coffee is going to taste different. So don't, finish it Well, there's more.
Speaker 1:Luke said he noticed we need to add a mic for back there.
Speaker 2:It's on the list.
Speaker 1:Let our producers back there have an input. Ok, so what advice would you give to someone either about to start a business or early on in their business ownership journey?
Speaker 3:Be willing to change the name of the domain. It's not available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what we did was we didco instead ofcom, and that's obnoxious for people.
Speaker 3:We started as because I wanted to trade commodities, so the company started and the name is there and we have it as Maven imports.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Then it switched to coffee and we were blessed enough to have thecom, but we were willing to let go. So that's one advice especially when you're early, you probably have an amazing idea, but it's OK, let go. Learn to let go from the beginning. Make sure you try to get thecom, believe it or not. So people say I'm terrible. You might be the expert on this, so you might need to teach me. But I heard that all the six and seven, all the six charactercoms are taken.
Speaker 3:There's no room for phonetically making sense or in English so I started along with somebody else how can I put this? So I was helping. I'm part of the process of starting a company in overseas and we were able to find thecom of this company and it was like great and that helps. I am not into digital marketing, you are, so no it's.
Speaker 2:You might tell me that it's good to have a good.
Speaker 3:Yes, so that was nice. Another thing is you can make money any time. Don't rush it. And maybe the most difficult thing for me has been learning to let go. I have two kids. I have a three month old as of the time of this recording and a two year old.
Speaker 3:But I had somebody told me one day, because you always you, oh, it goes by so fast and everybody tells you that and I heard it, like everybody else. But this guy told me one day look, I had, I was working so hard so I could retire early and have a lot of money so I can hang out with my kids. So when the time came, so there was a time when they wanted to hang out with me and I wasn't available. So when I was ready, I wanted to hang out with them and they didn't want to hang out with me. That's when it clicked.
Speaker 3:So it's difficult because I want the business to be successful. That requires me to be there to work. But also for somebody who's starting a business for the first time, if you don't have huge capital, learn how to be flexible, learn how to ask for help and take input. That has been great. I mean, I had the blessing also to have great people with great input. Yeah, and that's not taking it away from me, that's just I have a generous community, so I have a community that can support you. Not necessarily, or it could be financially. If you have an angel investor, do it. That's going to force you to look good. So you need to have consistency in your finances. You need to have apply fiscal responsibility to what you do so you can be accountable. Get the dot com if you can Change the name.
Speaker 3:If you really want that com or not, it's fine. I'm not the expert, but I was told that that was a little nice thing to have and wait, you can always make money. Money is just a matter of one good contract. It only takes one good contract and you can have a lot of money coming in. But if you have kids, there's no other time in life. They're only going to be one year old once. There are some things that only happen once. Money, money, it doesn't exist. Money can come anytime it needs to and it will, but probably learning how to discern seasons, which is really like people to get paid the big bucks. I was listening yesterday that throughout the financial crisis and for the past 11 years, if you look at the CEOs of different banks, all of them have changed except for one, and this particular CEO is an expert on understanding what happens and when it would.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Or when it would not. So it's just discerning times and yeah, and maybe the most important one, have a honey. I call it the honeymoon Because what I do, not only I do retail sales and do coffee experiences, but I help all their businesses set up their bars and people that want to start their own coffee, because we do wholesale and I tell them before you jump into coffee. I have a woman that texted me she's a customer who wants to start a coffee business said please tell me the starting of coffee truck is a bad idea.
Speaker 1:She needs someone to talk her out of it.
Speaker 3:Yes, but what I say is have a honeymoon phase in the sense that spend the money that you can and just enjoy it. Maybe all you had was a drive to have a really fun hobby and not an actual business. You might love it, but you might not be good at it, or you love it and you need time to get good at it. So I think that allow yourself to have a honeymoon time when you're in the kitchen or out there, because this is like service industry, so food and service. So get to know people and just do it and save a lot of money, save up.
Speaker 1:Save up. That would be my two or three cents. Yeah, no, that was good.
Speaker 3:You want to do the next one? Yeah, let's do it. No, but you do it, I do it. Yes, yeah, yes, oh gosh, let's see.
Speaker 1:One time.
Speaker 3:It flew off.
Speaker 1:Yeah two. Ok, do you want to? Well, some of these are questions for you. Ok, I'll pick one that's not a question for you.
Speaker 3:Do I switch it? Do I read it? Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Or an Uncharted territory here, or you can just ask me any random question.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, and then I'll ask.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've already had this one. Okay, what is your spiciest opinion that most people disagree with? This is on the internet.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, coffee related.
Speaker 2:Business related.
Speaker 1:Anything. It could literally be anything. It could be business, coffee life.
Speaker 3:Business related. I don't think they disagree, but it can ruffle some feathers. The most important person on a shop it's not the barista, it's the cash register If you have, if your employees are a reflection of their owner, meaning that if they are not willing to share information, that's coming from upstairs and it's a really bad business idea. I don't have anything to hide and I'm generous with information because I own it and nobody it's here. It's unlimited, but that is a for me, that's good business. There's, there's. There's the secret sauce, but also there's no secret sauce. So when I go to a place and and you have bad customer service, you should not be in business because in in in the service industry, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean if you're behind a computer running numbers, okay, you can be a jerk, but if you're in customer service don't send them an email and hear the numbers.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 3:But if you're, if you're in service, be authentic. But you're there to to, to motivate people to. You're there to just reflect what you're passionate about, something that I. It's just difficult man. There are some, there are some really touchy subjects.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to go that route of it, you know.
Speaker 3:I'll go with. I'll go with. I'll go with. You don't need, you don't need a 16 ounce latte. Okay, you don't need it. Okay, you don't need it. Sometimes, if the coffee is good, I tell you this with authority if the coffee is good, you will be satisfied with very little. Yes, you don't need a 16 ounce latte, that's fair. I'll just spit in yeah, that's probably coffee wise. Yeah, I will see the spot. Let's keep it on the business side of things, Perfect.
Speaker 1:I do probably don't need a 16 ounce latte, but sometimes, especially if I'm working, I do want just a large amount so that I can just constantly be sitting sitting Gotcha, so more of like a habitual. I probably should just drink water.
Speaker 3:True that could be also not drinking now. That coffee for most people will be like you don't drink coffee that is cold, but drink it now. It almost tastes like a fruit tea. It's called almost, but it's citrusy. Good coffee tastes better.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let me do another one.
Speaker 1:Let's get it. Uh-huh, dun-da-da Two, okay, okay. So you guys were on Buzzfeed last year. Yes, how did that come about?
Speaker 3:That was amazing, yeah, unexpected.
Speaker 1:Okay, I didn't know if it was something that was like playing in some sort of way. Okay.
Speaker 3:This is what happened. So, just like any other day, I was there. Just like any other person came in. I am who I am. I want every single person, regardless of their barista, that have been in the industry for 10 years and they have traveled to origin, or if you're a college kid that doesn't know anything about coffee, I want them both to have the best experience possible. So this woman came in, this couple came in and they just had a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then at the very end she says so hey, so I am the food editor for Buzzfeed. I'm like, wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1:I didn't pretend, because sometimes I want to play it cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, it's very nice Me. You have a good day. I hope she talks back to me. She said something. No, I mean, that was like. I recognize that would have been and yeah, you can be like start, like all struck for a second. Yeah, I recognize that, but I was. I was just genuine and said, okay, I'm just not going to hide my excitement, Like yeah, like wow, that's amazing. And she said would you be okay if we featured you?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I was like, are you kidding? Like, are you freaking?
Speaker 1:kidding me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I'm okay, like please do, and, but I knew what she meant. They say we'll be, we'll be. We're built for the heat, yeah, so maybe that's another thing. And in the daily, have a rainy day fund in business. Be prepared for a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Don't overspend, right, but have your, your, your, be ready, yes, be ready, yeah, and you have your SPOs to be aligned. So if you get that big contract or if you get that big order you can deliver.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you just need to get the people to exit, you just need to execute. But you know what to execute. So we are built to. Our business is set to handle up to within within reason, because it's about shipment and fulfillment. Within a one week fulfillment, about one and a half tons of coffee to have tons of coffee. So we're built for that, we're ready for that Whenever it's ready. So I knew what she meant. I told her look, we're ready for the heat, we're ready for the heat, go away, go ahead. She said, yeah, I can't promise you anything. Right, nothing might happen or this could be a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I understood that. So, um, I was, I was ready for whatever. So I told her yes, uh, go ahead. We didn't pay for it, they didn't ask us any money for it. Um, and that was, that was beautiful, because I, it was very organic, it was a blessing. We didn't email them, we didn't, we didn't do anything.
Speaker 3:And then she, she sends me a message and say she sends me the. Of course I was looking, but I think this was Christmas, the 25th or so, and I I go on Buzzfeed and I find it yeah, and I'm like, and then I get a message from her is like go to number blah, blah, blah, cause it was less, of course it was not a front page, cause probably you have to pay for that a lot of money, but it was there like go to and it was a really nice feature and it was awesome.
Speaker 3:It was awesome, and that's how it happened. That's how it happened. And, um, yeah, I cannot get any stars for that Cause.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think you can cause you just like who you are in the business, like you are treating your customers well and like offered a good experience. If you were just like here's your coffee, yeah, probably what happened.
Speaker 3:That's very true, that's very true, and it's a center about the experience I want people to to fall. Our motto, um, our my motto for business is something that I took from a very famous bass player called Abraham Labariel, and he says that music is not a sport. To compete is, in art form, to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think the same way about coffee. For me, coffee is not a sport to compete is an art form to share. So I want everybody to walk in the door to fall in love with coffee. That's, that's our motto for the company for for last year is fall in love with coffee and this year as well, fall in love with coffee. So I think that that was that was, that was really cool, and that that cost that or it was ready for for the right opportunity to arise. So, yeah, that's how bus feed happened. We got a lot of really cool feedback from that and it was, it was fun, it was a blessing. I'm not going to, I'm not going to downplay it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from the. I guess the business side was that like successful. Yes, it generated.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I actually didn't know how to really capitalize it, because I was looking at it on a very not naive, but I was just enjoying it. Yeah, and I wasn't so. Alright, this is an opportunity, let's execute something out of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which I recognize that I might have done a better job. I could have done a better job if that, if that would have been some of the headspace, yeah, but yes, it draws some people, we draw some attention because that it's a huge platform. We got orders, of course, online traffic went up and it's also a really cool thing that I didn't know, it was a thing, but I get to say as featured, as featured.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do. Yeah, it's a thing that's awesome, cool. Well, we normally end with the same three questions. Obviously, one of them will be great for you guys, given the future. First one where can people find you yes or Maven?
Speaker 3:Yes, so we are at 3816 only under driving. Welcome to North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Behind dark rape, some more.
Speaker 3:Mavencoffeecom. Mavencoffeeco Also Instagram, if you can get the right handle. We were trying, but so I think I have the Maven coffee and I lost it. Oh no, it's a Maven coffeeco. Mavencoffeecom. You can find us if you're in Wilmington. Now we ship coffee all over the world, but it's faster all over the US and Canada, so yeah, Maven coffee.
Speaker 1:Puerto Rico takes a second, especially if you have to go to the post office to pick up your mail.
Speaker 3:Ashley got. This was bizarre, ashley. When she was there they ordered coffee on Thursday. I think I shipped at Friday and it was there Monday.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. She said like yeah, what. They did it.
Speaker 3:How I know. Hawaii is the longest transit takes seven days.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's not bad though.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Thanks, love it. Okay, what is next for you guys?
Speaker 3:What is next World domination? Next we are upfitting, changing the experience at the Pioneer Lab, which is our showroom. We want to focus on showroom experiences. We want to. We want to service specific and strategic spots instead of just having the one coffee shop. We want to partner with businesses that will enrich us and that will be enriched by us. So we're expanding. It's about two weeks that you guys take to release this episode, so this will be out actually next week, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:Next week there will be. We're going to have a second location. It's going to be in a really cool part of town we're blessed by, where it's a great partnership with. As you say, next week is fine, we're going to. We're going to build a second store at Luminous Station.
Speaker 1:Oh cool.
Speaker 3:So that's us as far as the store and businesses concerned. We are starting to work with some trying to source some different coffees and trying to get more involved with other companies in Germany to push some really cool products and really, really tech, like really tech focused coffee things. And next we'll be also be a little bit more involved in coffee education and competition because, believe it or not and this is not like trying to, does not hyperbole there's been instances in the last year, in the last couple of months, where the best coffees in the world have been. Here in Wilmington we had the blessing of having the coffee that was used for the World Barista Championship. We had it, we sold it by the cup and it was the best coffee in the world. So people here in Wilmington have from time to time the opportunity to taste no hyperbole the best coffees in the world.
Speaker 3:So we want to open those experiences for people. So that's pretty much what's next.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. And then, lastly, is there any thoughts you want to leave our lovely guest with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, go and drink some great coffee. You don't need to buy an espresso machine for, like coffee consumers, go and buy a really good coffee. If you're not in Wilmington, support. Or even if you're in Wilmington, support local. That's great. That means a lot when you leave a good review or talking with a camera about reviews. Yes, don't leave for Star Review and say everything was great Just four stars, just do the five.
Speaker 1:Just only leave five star reviews. If you have feedback, just contact the person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no, seriously, feedback is so important, but you know that big companies like Walmart, Costco, they will actually drop their marketers if their customers will do really serious feedback. When they get feedback from customers like, your feedback matters and this is like, oh, it's a huge company. No, it is a thing, because I had to deal with that on another end. So that, as the business side of things is concerned, be patient, safe, physical discipline. It's extremely important because that'll get you out of trouble. We had the blessing of having any issues, but just timing, and if you just you have the blessing to do what you love, keep doing it. You don't have to live your job right away to pursue your career. You can test the waters.
Speaker 3:Nobody's telling you no and nobody says that you have to leave everything. Just be wise with your time and save up, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's awesome. Well, thank you again for joining us and for the coffee and for having Luke drink a whole little.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's empty. It's empty. It's looking like this.
Speaker 1:So five stars all around.
Speaker 3:Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks.