New Coffee Ventures: Being a co-founder of Keurig has the added advantage of providing me with a seemingly endless supply of coffee and appliance related business plans. Entrepreneurs like to send me their plans and I like to read them. From tortilla makers, to alcoholic beverage dispensers, to dental molding devices, to energy bar gizmos, to make-your-own-supplement machines and more, the Keurig business model has been adapted to fit most anything. While some of these plans are not investor ready, and others are better positioned as lifestyle businesses, I find them all fascinating.
The $48 Billion US coffee market continues to grow . . . and coffee related business plans continue to flow (in).
All of which leads me to the Forbes.com article below; it describes certain high-end coffee products and their related companies, some of them quite successful. The author, Zoe Henry, writes about the roboticists, engineers, and computer scientists behind each venture. All are are chasing the same goal: A better cup of coffee.
It’s a good read.
Even so, it leads one to question why, among these entrepreneurs seeking a better cup of coffee, are there no chemists. After all, the brewing of coffee is essentially a process of physical and chemical change. Wouldn’t a chemist be better suited to tackling this coffee brewing challenge?
The answer is, “Yes.” Among my recent business plan receipts was one from a startup coffee venture not mentioned in the Forbes.com article, a company with a unique, US-patented, coffee technology. That company is Ichiban Java. It’s founder, Charlie MacPherson, has a PhD in Chemistry. It’s been a pleasure working with him these past few months. Ichiban is interested in licensing its category-defining IP. If you want to learn more, please contact Charlie directly @ cmacpherson@ichibanjava.com. He makes a great cup of coffee . . . every time.
Coffee snobs–in the form of roboticists, computer scientists, and engineers–are building businesses that claim to brew a better cup of coffee.
These founders are attracting major funding to engineer your perfect cup of joe.
Source: Coffee Snobs Geeked Out on Your Morning Cup–and What They Came Up With Is Badass
Entrepreneur Mentor and Startup Quarterback | Startups + Small Businesses + Home Businesses.
Specialties – Strategic Planning | Web Design | Digital Marketing|
Hans van Putten owner of 40parkLane,llc ran operations of his food manufacturing company for 17+ years building the Carolyn’s Handmade brand under the umbrella of 40ParkLane,llc.
After the successful sale of the food business, he took advantage of the years of strategic planning, operations management, web design, digital marketing and photography experience , to help startups, small businesses and home businesses and has been involved in a number of start-up ventures since.
Prior to founding 40parkLane,llc Hans worked for the Gillette Company for 10 years in various financial roles of increasingly bigger responsibility, leaving as Director of Business Planning for The International Group at Gillette HQ, Boston. Hans has an MBA (Marketing & International Business) from Aston University, and a BA in Business Administration from IHBO de Maere.