From 2016 – 2018 I embarked on a journey that I had been considering for a long time. Frustrated with both ethical challenges and a toxic leadership culture, I decided to resign from my executive position and head out into solo waters—entrepreneurship exploration.
For decades I had wondered, “What would it be like to master my own ship?” I wanted to test the waters, but I didn’t have enough financial slack to take the risk. Exiting with some long-promised bonus money, I left with excitement. I was proud of our accomplishments there; we doubled our revenue in just two years and made some transformations that would position the business well to be acquired.
I had a list of things I wanted to try, but first on my agenda was to ‘office’ from a coffee shop. Cell phone and laptop in hand, I made my way to Starbucks at least four days a week. I met people there. I took calls. I provided pro-bono go-to-market counsel. I coached businesses, mentored people, and had a lot of random conversations and a lot of espresso drinks.
I formed my first LLC while at the coffee shop. I watched my son go through his senior year of high school from that coffee shop (closer to the school than our house). My wife teaches at the school, so I visited her more often and brought her coffee drinks.
I have a home office. It is well outfitted, but for this season I wanted the energy of the coffee shop. Heck, I even wanted to see if I wanted to open a coffee shop.
I honed my decades-long love of and journey with product development and refinement. I formalized it, informed it more, and finally, matured it.
However, the most interesting thing that I learned while sailing solo as an entrepreneur was that I was paying too much for espresso drinks and that Starbucks was becoming a McDonald’s of coffee. The baristas were slowly becoming assembly-line coffee dispensers. I now knew much more about coffee, beans, and espresso drinks than most of the Starbucks beverage makers I met.
As the quality decreased and my coffee shop budget swelled, I started exploring alternative ways to get my espresso drinks. I stumbled upon two machines: the Flair manual espresso maker and the Breville Barista Express—a home espresso machine.
The Flair was completely manual, and I wasn’t quite ready for that much work, so I opted for the Breville Barista Express, which I have now been making multiple espresso drinks with daily since the summer of 2018.
I like to learn new skills, but due to my disappointment with the disappearance of the Starbucks baristas, I dove headlong into espresso culture to learn how to make drinks well and learn what goes into making good drinks.
Coming out the other side of this journey, I am no longer a solo entrepreneur. I now use bottomless portafilters to diagnose ‘pull’ problems, I am much pickier about my roast dates, and I know a lot more about coffee, running a consulting business, and the formal product development process.
Have a nice day! 🙂
Between the Espressos 