Welcome to the second edition of Shoots, where I highlight examples of 21st century entrepreneurialism in unexpected places and / or demonstrating principles of increasing future importance.
I recently made my first-ever visit to Puna, Hawai’i, home base Big Island Coffee Roasters. While Puna is on the same island as Kona – Hawai’i’s known epicenter of coffee – it is a two-hour drive across the island and as distant from Kona economically. There are no posh resorts and multimillion-dollar villas. In fact, Puna has the state’s second highest poverty level – its rural population of 45,000 has a profile that mirrors our nation’s most at-risk communities – higher rates of smoking, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and distressingly lower life expectancy rates. Nearly a third of residents are native Hawaiian.
I turned into the driveway of Brandon von Damitz and Kelleigh Stewart’s idyllic home and farm and saw something that defied that data – busy roasting lines, smiling team members, a business plan and team roles meticulously outlined on whiteboards, baby lambs cavorting amidst seemingly endless greenery and views of the tallest mountains in the Pacific. Without exaggerating, it looked like heaven on Earth.
I learned so much from my two hours with Brandon and Kelleigh, who were so giving with their time. I will share a few gems I gleaned from this visit.
- Show Up: At several points in their decade-long quest, Brandon and Kelleigh were at the right place and time. Brandon found a coffee farm for sale on Craigslist. Together, they agreed to investigate and ultimately purchased it. They entered coffee and business plan competitions and to their utter surprise, have consistently won. They have been listed twice in Coffee Review’s Top 30 Coffees worldwide and won the Hawai’i Island Business Plan competition for their Espresso Bites product in 2018.
- Innovate and Incorporate Feedback: Taking a page from the sports world, where we are witnessing a shift from gut feel to data, Brandon and Kelleigh ignored conventional folklore that causes many businesses, even those featuring artisanal products like coffee, to become commodities. Rather than relying on geographical markers of quality, for example, “Kona coffees are the best coffees,” they focused on both Environment and Handling as key drivers of quality. In another example, they ignored a fixed mindset of “yellow coffee is no good.” By nurturing it and processing differently, their Honeyed Yellow Caturra was listed in Coffee Review’s top 30 coffees of 2013.
- Share Their Resources: Brandon and Kelleigh applied for and won a USDA grant allowing them to purchase a coffee bean grader. They shared it with others, allowing neighbors to also improve their quality. Their actions allowed them to bond with the tight-knit island community, even though they did not grow up there. The Hawai’i Senate recognized how they manifested “kuleana,” uniquely Hawaiian word defining the reciprocal relationship between people and things people are responsible for.
- Celebrate Genuine Diversity: The Hawai’i coffee market is extremely crowded. Brandon and Kelleigh’s farm is just three acres, with a little over half of it producing coffee. They looked at competitive offerings and coffee supply around the island and realized that by purchasing other coffee wholesale they could celebrate the diversity of the island’s coffees and curate regional differences from Puna, Ka’u, Hamakua and of course, Kona. But instead of offering blends alone, they also offer dedicated regional varietals across a range of intensity and taste profiles driven by weather, soil and altitude differences. For example, their Puna coffee grows in young, volcanic rock in an area with abundant rain and cloud cover. This is a much different environment than that found in Kona. By embracing and emphasizing diversity they exponentially grew capacity beyond their own property and reinforced their role in partnering with others.
- Build Knowledge and Networks: By what appeared to be sheer luck, Brandon and Kelleigh connected with Alan Tien, an entrepreneur active in the Hawai’i startup community and former executive at PayPal. They applied to an accelerator program and after some persistence, were accepted into the second cohort of Mana Up, a Hawai’i-based accelerator for consumer packaged goods and an e-commerce store. They attended East Meets West 2019, a startup conference organized by Blue Startups. At an event there they met Patrick Lee, co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes. Patrick helped Brandon and Kelleigh imagine what’s possible and challenged them to shoot for more.
- Refocus on Opportunities of Highest Potential: Brandon and Kelleigh also purchased a profitable flower distribution business as part of their farm purchase. This “cash cow” helped to repay the property loan, generated income for Brandon and Kelleigh’s sustenance and allowed them to incubate their coffee business. After a series of coffee successes, they shed that business. Additional experimentation allowed the couple to develop a new product, Espresso Bites, opening an additional, high-potential revenue stream. They forced themselves to move their focus away from the core coffee business, allowing other team members to grow into responsibilities without handholding. This courage has allowed them to build Big Island Coffee Roasters to where it is today.
Brandon and Kelleigh are poised for their next step, a funding round to further scale their business. They seek to grow their customer base and add scale and profitability to both their core coffee and Espresso Bites business. If anyone in my network knows of people who can provide support, please forward this article to them or contact me.
Mahalo, Brandon and Kelleigh, for sharing your inspirational story with me!
Mahalo for reading! If you enjoy reading these stories and seek to learn more about Market Junctions and how we work with businesses of any size, please reach out to me at kyle@marketjunctions.com.
Kyle Okimoto is the founder of Market Junctions, which helps businesses to ignite movements with authenticity, passion and clear direction. He is the creator of the Resiliency Map, a process anyone can use to increase their resilience by drawing from their own experience and that of others. He is an investor and advisor in startups ranging from Cadence (high yield short term alternative investments), AltoIRA (self-directed retirement accounts for alternative investments), Aris Technology (robotic quality control laser scanning). Kyle has no financial interest in Big Island Coffee Roasters.
