Amidst the U.S. government’s crackdown at the border and a raft of anti-trans legislation in Texas, some coffee professionals are skipping the Specialty Coffee Association’s Expo in Houston.
For paid subscribers: Recent stories show the dangers of building too much of a coffee company’s image around its founder’s personality. When things go wrong, it can blow back on the brand.
For paid subscribers: Recent stories show the dangers of building too much of a coffee company’s image around its founder’s personality. When things go wrong, it can blow back on the brand.
Most coffee companies are started by one or two people. As they grow, more people may join, but the founder(s) generally remain the focal point of the business. For many, the founder is the business, using their personality and charisma to help build the brand.
James Freeman is a good example of this. Freeman started Blue Bottle Coffee in a potting shed in Oakland, California, using $15,000 in credit card debt and a meticulous focus on freshness and quality. Blue Bottle’s early appeal owed a lot to Freeman's personality and aesthetic, and he eventually grew the company to the point where Nestlé paid $500 million for a controlling stake in 2017.
Of course, it wasn’t all Freeman—Blue Bottle was a team, and raised $120 million in venture capital on its path to a hundred stores across the United States and East Asia—but from the beginning his personality was front and centre. “CEO and founder sounds official, and it is, but it doesn't quite capture Freeman's quirky brand of entrepreneurship”, Michael V. Copeland wrote in a profile for Fortune in 2011.
Many other coffee companies have done this (and why not—especially at the beginning, it’s an easy way to help garner attention and drive growth). But there’s a risk inherent in putting so much marketing emphasis on your founder/CEO: what happens when they mess up, or run into legal trouble, or their personal opinions and pronouncements begin to damage a brand that is very much reliant on their personality?
Three examples—two recent and one historical—serve as warnings.
The owner of Finca Esperanza and Two Birds Coffee talks about the challenges of growing coffee during the climate crisis, the price surge, and what it all means for the future of coffee in Guatemala.
For paid subscribers: some thoughts on the loss of USAID funding for coffee research, and the possibly misguided hope that corporations will step up.
For paid subscribers: analysis of the latest breakdown in contract negotiations between Starbucks and its union.
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