Latest / Coffee People Podcast / S6:11 - Andrew Scott, Inflection Point Coffee

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S6:11 - Andrew Scott, Inflection Point Coffee · Coffee People Podcast

0:10
Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to season 6, episode 11
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of the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
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We're officially into the second half of the Season I'm Ryan Walt
0:19
bringing you the stories of coffee professionals
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entrepreneurship and coffee education.
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This week. I'm sharing my conversation with
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Andrew Scott. The founder and head roaster of
0:28
inflection. Point coffee.
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In the Mira Mesa neighborhood of San Diego.
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Andrew is a true garage preneur and occasionally during this
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show. You'll even hear his washing
0:37
machine doing work in the background years ago.
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I hosted an entrepreneurial blog that featured garage based
0:43
businesses and this conversation filled me with a bit of
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nostalgia, not just for that time in my life.
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But for the stories that I heard in the inspiration that I
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gleaned and also for time, when I actually had a garage of my
0:55
own, what I do have now is a closet podcasting Studio.
1:00
It is where I am recording this intro and drinking a cup of
1:02
coffee. I hope that wherever you are.
1:05
You've got a cup of coffee too and you're ready to get inspired
1:08
by the entrepreneurial journey of Andrew Scott of inflection.
1:12
Point coffee on the roast West Coast coffee podcast.
1:32
Listen to a couple of the podcast you got on your site.
1:34
They're so I've got a good feeling with the flow.
1:37
I'm excited for this. This is good.
1:40
I hope you listen to a couple of the good ones.
1:43
I should send some links from now on but I would say Andrew
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welcome to the roast West Coast Avi podcast, thank you for
1:50
spending some time with me. If you wouldn't mind though,
1:54
just let everyone know your name.
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What the name of your company is and your role there and maybe
2:01
like your favorite childhood board game.
2:05
Okay, so I'm Andrew Scott, I'm the owner and head roaster of
2:11
inflection, point coffee, that l, in inflection is critically
2:16
important, especially nowadays The childhood board game II will
2:23
call the Tribune there and then I love the Trivial Pursuit that
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was, that was my go-to. I like just being that, that
2:30
nerdy kid with lots of useless facts.
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I love that. I was a nerdy fact, kid as well.
2:36
The problem is nobody ever wants to hear them.
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So that was always always my problem.
2:41
I'm going to get into a couple of questions kind of about your
2:43
backstory and first, but I want to just point out right now that
2:46
you are sitting in your garage, which is also where you run your
2:51
company. I can see you on the video feed
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here, our listeners camp, but but I can, how does it feel to
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be one of those garage entrepreneurs, you know, like
3:00
Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg? Or somebody, who eventually?
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I'm assuming that's your trajectory, well, you know less
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evil but yes, eventually you know.
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So part of it was a necessity, you know, being in Southern
3:14
California, commercial industrial space to do this
3:19
outside of the home is very expensive, would have added a
3:23
ton to my overhead. And so part of it was just, I
3:27
needed to save costs and we had the space in the garage and it
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worked out There's also the convenience of it where I wake
3:35
up when I wake up, I roll out of bed and in the garage, get the
3:39
roaster preheating, I get the dogs going, so just that
3:42
convenience of being home and having that freedom to roast
3:46
when I want any hour of the day. It's, it's pretty nice.
3:50
It's pretty nice. And then it's been really nice
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at the farmers markets. It's incredible.
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How many people think it's such a cool thing that, you know, I'm
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just this, the small roaster just getting started still in
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the garage. Garage, you see like, the
4:03
biggest Grins and so many. Oh, that's so cool.
4:06
That's awesome. You're doing that.
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So I think a lot of people appreciate this idea of taking
4:12
this chance and yeah that that Mythos that that Legend of that
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American company started in the garage and built up to something
4:22
exceptional. I don't need to be Starbucks
4:24
but, you know, I'd be happy being dark, horse or but of
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those guys I'd be cool. I actually think that is a very
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kind of Southern. You're saying the working in the
4:34
garage in part because you can do it year round.
4:37
Would you can't do say even in Arizona where it's going to get
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too hot in the Summers or in the midwest, or it will get too
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cold. When I walk around my
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neighborhood, I'm always amazed at how many people are like
4:47
working on a computer or watching TV in the garage.
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Is an extension of the home because that is something we
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give up by living here is space. You know the cost per square
4:57
foot for rent or mortgage is just so much greater that we
5:00
maximize every inch of space. I mean, it's why I do this show
5:04
in my closet, right? Is why I built this studio in
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the closet and just got rid of a bunch of clothes.
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We moved here from Chicago, about seven years ago, I started
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roasting some there and yeah, you know, as much as I could,
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you get in the garage just for that smoke, you know, you didn't
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want the smoke in the house, but man, those winter months and I
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would basically go in the basement.
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I find someplace where it's just a little bit warmer it's a
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little bit easier to deal with but like this This whole system,
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this structure, I have using the solar power and the electric
5:36
roaster, that could not have worked, you know, in a place
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like Chicago or in Boston where I got my start, the energy
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wouldn't be there. The sun isn't there?
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The fact that yeah, I can do this year round, it's not an
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option everywhere. For sure, I knew I felt a
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connection I had my very first cup of coffee in Chicago at a
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place called Star lounge, and they were serving Dark Matter
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Coffee Roasters, which was a great local Chicago.
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Roaster if you're in that area, Let's back up a little bit
6:03
before we get into the solar and kind of all of the set.
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What about you? I mean, was there a first kind
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of coffee experience that made you think I want to to look into
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this further? I enjoy this.
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So that you remember something that's such you down this path
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that you're on now and my world of coffee goes back like 25
6:22
years when I was in college. I was on this committee that got
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a coffee house started on my college campus at Tufts
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University in Boston is called the brown and Brew.
6:32
So I was On the planning committee.
6:33
You know, we got all the furniture, we decided on the
6:36
vendors, we did all of that and then I was one of the student
6:38
managers for the last two years. You know, that I was there and
6:43
it was, you know, late 90s, very Central Perk, you know, friends
6:47
kind of vibe with a comfortable couches that Bohemian light
6:51
music, playing the funky Lighting systems, that kind of
6:55
stuff, but it was, it was more like that Community.
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Like, even immediately after we got started, you could see the
7:01
people that Like that was that missing piece of their college
7:05
experience was having that space that they could own essentially
7:08
as their own. I was a sociology major in
7:10
undergrad and so on some level looking at those group dynamics
7:13
and how people kind of group and the things that they do together
7:17
and how those experiences evolved that was interesting to
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me. So being in that coffee house,
7:23
having my own little laboratory where I could kind of, see all
7:26
of this happening. That was excellent for me.
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That was, that was where I spent so much of my college.
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I'm absolutely love that experience.
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And so when I graduated, I looked at coffee first.
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So, my first job out of college, I was assistant manager of a
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Starbucks in downtown, Boston. Yeah, that that in college, I
7:44
didn't drink coffee strangely enough, you know, some kids that
7:47
go to college and they dabble with, I'll be vegetarian or
7:50
maybe even go like vegan and explore some other religious
7:53
beliefs, I gave up caffeine and carbonated beverages odd.
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And then once I got to Starbucks through their Management
8:00
training program, they insisted you Have to drink their coffee
8:04
in order to get through that program.
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And so that was really where I got my first taste of coffee.
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Even though my first experience with coffee in the coffee shop,
8:14
kind of vibe and that sort of thing was in college.
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So those those years from like 19 to 22, 23, that was a pretty
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coffee intensive time. Both I like the small
8:27
independent College coffee shop, kind of feel.
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And then on the larger corporate It managerial side of things as
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well. And then it was, you know, I
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took a break, I did some other things.
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I was a tax attorney for a while.
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I was a middle school teacher for a while.
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I dabbled in a few other things, but I was always the coffee guy
8:47
everywhere. I worked every office.
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I was in every classroom. I had, I was the coffee guy and
8:52
so yeah. It was it was always in the
8:54
background in about 10 years ago.
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I finally got into the roasting side of things and that just
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completely opened my eyes to what?
9:02
Really could be. That's really interesting.
9:05
That you are always that guy, it hurt me a little bit.
9:08
When you say I had to do the math in my head, when you said
9:10
the late 90s or 25 years ago, I really had to think about that,
9:14
and then it's essential for our younger audience.
9:17
Central Perk was the coffee shop in friends, which I think the
9:21
younger generation has started watching friends now.
9:23
So, I don't know. I think I always grew up
9:25
thinking that Central Perk and friends, was what coffee shops
9:29
were supposed to be like, right? And that's what new New York
9:32
would be like when I moved there and when I did move there, I
9:35
realized that I could not afford those same apartments that they
9:38
had on that show. That was the most disillusion
9:41
anything that I had ever seen on television.
9:43
So you kind of gave us a little bit of this backstory, what
9:46
tipped you over the edge, six, seven years ago to make, you
9:48
think I'm going to get back into this a little bit more
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seriously, start roasting and then eventually you're going to
9:54
start your own business inflection point.
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Yeah. So on the roasting side of it,
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my wife was actually on a business trip and one of her
10:01
co-workers was About doing some home roasting.
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She just decided our thought that sounds like something that
10:08
I would get into. I started gardening when we got
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into our first house because I wanted to grow Chili Peppers, to
10:13
make my own chili powder. Like that's that's been my
10:16
relationship with food. And so when she heard this guy
10:19
talking about roasting his own coffee, she figured it was
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something that would resonate with me and so that was a
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Valentine's Day present. We said almost.
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Yeah, nine and a half years ago. I was my first be more.
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That's it. 1800, you know, one pound roaster and that first
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roast was again it was just it completely changed, what I
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thought coffee, could be what I realized coffee could be.
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And as limited as that first little roaster was, it was
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still, it gave me a chance to taste a different side of
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coffee, then I'd experienced before especially working with
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with Starbucks and basically exclusively drinking some of
10:57
those those big, you know, heavy coffees of there's so yeah that
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was my wife. Just had a hunch that I would
11:04
enjoy it and and I embraced it wholeheartedly.
11:07
And then when we move to San Diego, I was working for the
11:11
Princeton Review, you know that test prep and college admissions
11:14
company. And so when I was managing our
11:17
high school programs for San Diego County and so whenever I
11:19
would visit the high schools, I would bring samples of my coffee
11:22
with me, you know, for the guidance counselor's, I
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discovered that the the people who ran the front desk, you
11:28
know, The Gatekeepers if you gave them a little bit of
11:31
coffee, too. A lot of times you can get your
11:33
name to the top of the list, you know, you could get ahead of
11:36
some of those other companies that would come in.
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And so people just, they responded positively anytime.
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I brought my coffee, and I started to get the feeling that
11:44
they were enjoying my coffee, more than my talking about test,
11:48
prep and college admissions work.
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And so, when covid hit and, you know, everything, shut down, and
11:54
pretty much. Every College in the country
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went test optional, I decided. Well, let me see if I can take
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this this serious hobby of. Mine that I've gotten some
12:04
positive feedback and do something more with it.
12:07
So you decide to start a coffee, roasting company from what it
12:13
sounds like you had. Some experience in college with
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kind of a pre-business prep of setting up and college campuses
12:19
are a little bit different to how that works and be on that
12:22
committee. How did you get started in
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thinking, man? I think I can run my own
12:26
business. I'm not working for someone
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else, I can do this, there's so much more that goes into it than
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just putting beans in The Roaster and then passing them
12:34
out, right? You've got a whole operation
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running. And how did you decide, or how
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did you kind of work through that phase early in the, in the
12:42
beginning of inflection point? And then how did you decide on
12:44
the name and kind of The Branding and what does that mean
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to you? So let's start with the name and
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The Branding and that piece of it.
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Because that's a fun little story, that was easier.
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I originally had this idea, I was going to call it great Scott
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Roasters like GR8, I was going to have eight different coffee
13:00
varieties and that was the plan for it.
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And then I got my my first like slightly bigger roaster.
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The ilio bullet, this little guy, you know doing a kilogram
13:11
at a time and my brother-in-law is up in La, he does some
13:16
acting, he does. Some comedy still has a regular
13:18
job to pay the bills until it really takes off.
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But when I got this, the bullet in, I thought I can go up there
13:25
and maybe we can do an unboxing video and that would be my
13:28
launch, you know, on the social media and that kind of piece of
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it. So, I walk into his house with
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this, this box in The Roaster Orbach, roaster in the Box,
13:35
rather and he kind of Looks at his like, man, this is, this is
13:39
your inflection point, it is something.
13:41
I've been talking about starting a roasting company for a few
13:44
years, but buying that roaster, you know, investing in that
13:48
piece of equipment. That was the first real step
13:51
that concrete, step I taken toward that goal.
13:55
And so that was, that was how he kind of.
13:58
Yeah, he just he threw that phrase out there.
13:59
This is your inflection point and it just it resonated a kind
14:02
of burrowed into my brain. It was kind of lingering around
14:05
in the background for a little bit.
14:07
We never did make that unboxing video, but a couple days later I
14:11
got home and I just sent him a tax and I grow it.
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Look, I'm taking the name. I like it.
14:16
It just it resonated it stuck. All of this was also in 2020, so
14:20
at kind of the peak of the bad time of covid.
14:25
And when things were looking really rough, we were having all
14:27
of those, you know, racial Justice protests, you know, all
14:31
over the country. So things were looking a little
14:33
bit dire and so, inflection point for me, was also an
14:36
attempt to To try to be slightly optimistic.
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That, you know, we had reached bottom and now we're going to
14:42
turn the corner and things were going to kind of start
14:44
improving. So there was there was that
14:47
piece of it as well. And then on my coffee bags, the
14:51
label, I put a my logo on the labeling is a coffee graph.
14:57
The roast of a coffee, the graph of a coffee roast.
15:00
And so, you see that curve, the, the turning point on the curve,
15:04
which mathematically speaking is an inflection point.
15:07
Ain't so you've got, you know, these couple of different pieces
15:10
that all came together and that was inflection, point coffee for
15:14
me so much better and less, you know, narcissistic than the
15:18
Great Scott. I like it.
15:20
And then what was the first part of that?
15:23
Well, the first part of it was is, is once you decide that you
15:26
doing the roasting, but once you decide that you're going to
15:28
actually pursue this as a business, that's a whole nother
15:31
type of challenge. How did you kind of work through
15:34
those beginning phases of that to get to where you are now?
15:37
And that's where, you know, part of my history helped.
15:39
So I did the tax attorney work mostly what I was doing was
15:43
corporate structuring and restructuring the succession
15:46
planning to help those small and medium-sized businesses minimize
15:50
their tax burden, maximize their asset protection.
15:54
That was our pitch. So I had that in the background,
15:57
right? I had that piece of it.
15:59
I had that familiarity of reading through laws and
16:03
regulations and Licensing, and all of those Gosh, I mean it's
16:09
California, such incredibly regulated state.
16:11
It absolutely makes sense especially when you're dealing
16:14
with food production but it is difficult to get through all of
16:19
the the language and to make sure that you're doing
16:22
everything just the way it should be.
16:25
My father, was always a believer that it's easier to ask
16:29
forgiveness than permission. I don't have his luck.
16:33
So I knew if I didn't do everything right to begin with,
16:36
it was In to come crashing down on me.
16:38
So, I spent a good bit of time, just making sure that I had
16:42
everything lined up from financing to entity structure,
16:47
to all of the equipment. I was, I was good to go to make
16:51
sure that I was doing this legally.
16:53
My wife also works in like regulatory in that regulatory
16:57
area. She works in biotech.
17:00
So she reads a lot of like the FDA requirements and
17:03
regulations. And so we just we had that
17:06
experience between the two Of us of being able to navigate and
17:09
read through all those requirements and understand it
17:12
and make sense of it to get it up and running.
17:16
I would take a moment. Just to say for anyone.
17:18
Listening, if you ever want to just be physically confronted
17:22
with the difficulties of regulation.
17:25
For opening a food business, find your health department
17:28
website and just download the PDF of codes that are required
17:32
to open a cafe or a food service business, and print it out.
17:36
And then way, It because it's not small.
17:39
No. And honestly for what I'm doing,
17:42
it's very easy. You know what I do it with the
17:44
coffee roasting. It's non-hazardous, there's zero
17:47
chance. I'm going to get anybody sick,
17:50
but you still have to comply just in case and it's I couldn't
17:55
imagine at this point. You know, that's that's part of
17:58
in the background. Is that awareness that
18:01
eventually? I may need to look into opening
18:03
a cafe and what that's going to entail and I am I'm looking
18:08
forward to it and not, you know, at the same time I know it's
18:12
just going to be a massive headache.
18:15
Well as a micro roaster you're working in relatively small
18:20
batches in your garage, so you kind of have that limit.
18:25
I wonder you mentioned it right away early on that your electric
18:28
based your solar-based coffee is known to be fairly intensive in
18:35
its impacts on our planet. When you really dig down and do
18:38
it, especially just based on sheer quantity of coffee being
18:41
drunk every day alone. Why was that?
18:44
Important to you. Why did you decide to go that
18:46
route with the solar-based? And did you was it were you able
18:50
to easily find Solutions as far as I having a roaster that was
18:55
solar-based? Or did you really have to
18:57
MacGyver your garage into a situation that worked for you?
19:01
So one I mean, just being in California, you know, moving
19:05
here from elsewhere, you're just more aware of the energy issues
19:11
at play. The push for solar here was Just
19:14
a much bigger idea than it was anywhere else.
19:18
You know that I had lived previously.
19:20
And so that was always kind of in the back of our mind and then
19:22
once we bought the house here, that was one of the very first
19:25
projects was to get solar installed just to try to
19:29
alleviate some of the electric bills.
19:31
You know just for our own personal use we started off when
19:35
I got the the bullet. The first roaster that's you
19:38
know a standard 110 volt plug. Its you know I can plug it into
19:43
the wall and That that was easy. Minimal draw, no problem, that
19:48
was pretty easy this year, I did expand, I bought a larger
19:54
roaster. I've got a 3 Kg electric roaster
19:56
now, and that was, there's a whole whole other thing.
20:01
One finding, you know, a larger roaster.
20:03
That was still electric. They're very few companies that
20:07
make electric Roasters, beyond the 1 kg size, and then, the big
20:12
company that I was aware of. Dicen or gysin their machine is
20:16
beautiful. They have a great 6 kg roaster.
20:19
I think they recently just launched a 10 kg electric
20:22
roaster. But man these Roasters to get
20:26
them shipped from Europe here between the exchange rate and
20:29
the freight that 6 kg electric giessen was going to run
20:33
somewhere in that thirty five, thirty six thousand dollars
20:36
range, which is That's a lot that's that's that's a big price
20:40
tag on there. Yeah, so I knew I couldn't quite
20:44
swing that one we're trying to do this with minimal debt, you
20:47
know, we're kind of running even but I knew the 1 kg roaster, it
20:51
just it was way too small to keep up with the markets that I
20:55
was getting into. So I needed something so I was
20:57
considering buying, you know, maybe one or two additional
21:01
bullets and running them together, maybe that could have
21:04
worked but I really wanted something that would allow me to
21:07
run just A larger capacity so you know, China makes
21:11
everything, you know. So Ali Baba, it took some
21:14
research, you've got to read through reviews, you really got
21:17
to dig and then ultimately keep your fingers crossed and hope
21:20
that you're getting what you're paying for.
21:23
But I found a couple companies there, that do a 3 Kg electric
21:26
roaster, much more reason, priced and that like, six seven
21:30
thousand dollar range. So, you know, yeah, that that
21:34
was, that was an excellent purchase, but that big a roast.
21:37
Torment that I now had 220 volt connection and so yes, we had to
21:43
get the garage wired again, we've got a subpanel that we had
21:47
to get installed. I've got a separate outlet for
21:49
it here, it took some doing it and again you know additional
21:53
expenses just more and more that you have to plug into this
21:57
thing. And I'm already thinking about
21:59
what my next Roasters going to be.
22:01
You know, if I'm going to be able to handle it in the garage,
22:05
you know, if we do a much Bigger remodel kind of plan for
22:10
industrial growth here or if I just have to take that next step
22:14
and look for, you know, separate industrial space, that is
22:18
already wired for heavier Machinery.
22:21
But yeah, these are these things.
22:23
You don't think of ahead of time as you're getting into it and
22:26
certainly not as you're expanding.
22:28
Its they're all of these expansions great.
22:31
But then there's the cost of the expansion and then, the hope
22:34
that eventually it's going to pay off.
22:37
Well it's not just that one first inflection point that you
22:40
reached when you decided to start.
22:41
It's a series of rolling inflection points throughout the
22:45
entirety of your business as you're moving forward and
22:48
they'll always be those kind of points where your, where things
22:51
are pivoting. You mentioned earlier that in
22:53
some of the markets you are in, you are in the low.
22:56
The very famous and well-known, the Hoya.
22:59
I think it's is it the makers are Market.
23:02
You are in, I believe the Mira Mesa Farmers Market but how did
23:06
Get started with spreading the word and letting people know you
23:09
existed and they should buy your coffee.
23:11
Instead of buying the stuff from the store, or wherever, or from
23:16
one of the other many great Roasters in the neighborhood.
23:19
Yeah. No.
23:19
So I absolutely caught a couple lucky breaks early on when I
23:23
first started, I was just setting up a couple tables at
23:25
the end of my driveway and hoping to catch you, no foot
23:28
traffic or people driving down the street might catch the sign
23:31
and I think there was some posts on like a neighborhood Facebook
23:36
page. I might have shown up on next
23:39
door, one of those and so you try to find some of those
23:42
neighborhood, you know, connecting sites or ways to
23:46
reach your neighborhood first. And then, yeah, the first Market
23:49
I got into was the Mira Mesa Market and it is close enough.
23:52
I could walk there, you know, if the car is broke down, I can
23:55
throw my coffee and, you know, a wagon and walk my coffee there.
23:59
It's that close. So there was that convenience,
24:02
that was quick in super local super close and then It just so
24:07
happened that the guys that manage that market they had an
24:10
opportunity at a slightly larger market for somebody to sell
24:14
beans and so they offered me that and then yeah the La Jolla
24:18
happened and then Mission Valley happened and now we just started
24:24
in the last month the Leucadia market up in Encinitas.
24:28
So we're there on Sundays as well.
24:30
So no, I just I got a couple of really lucky breaks getting into
24:33
the local markets and then having those connections, Help
24:38
me out and get into like slightly larger markets and
24:40
spread from there my social media.
24:43
I'll be honest is probably the weakest part of what I do.
24:46
My coffee, I stand behind my coffee, 100%, it is excellent,
24:52
but my social media game is weak.
24:54
I will admit I did not do any personal social media before I
24:58
started this business. So I've basically been learning
25:01
how to use, Instagram and Tick-Tock and all of them just
25:06
in the last. Year and a half.
25:08
So, that's, that's been a learning curve, you know, trying
25:11
to figure out how to use that to spread, you know, the word le
25:15
message. And then I run into the issue.
25:18
Where, when I first started this, that same brother-in-law
25:21
that gave me the name of the company.
25:24
He sent me a link this roaster who was posting these videos of
25:29
her doing basically, like a gymnastics routine, in a sports
25:33
bra in yoga pants. In front of her roaster.
25:37
What the hell does that have to do with her coffee?
25:39
You know, that if that's, but it's that attention piece,
25:43
right? It's going to get the views,
25:45
it's going to help spread the word.
25:46
It's going to get eyes on the the company in some way and then
25:51
you hope you know, you brahmic drama in that way.
25:55
I struggle with that piece of it, you know, how much to do to
25:58
spread the word spread, the message I'm content.
26:02
And I'm fortunate to be in a position where I can be content
26:06
with where I am now. Now, but, you know, always
26:09
looking forward. Yeah, I'd love to expand a
26:11
little bit more. I'd like to get a little bit
26:13
bigger but I can take my time with it.
26:16
I can I can let it grow kind of organically, I got the time to
26:19
allow Word of Mouth to really spread to let other people use
26:24
their social media to get me out there.
26:26
I don't need this to be immensely successful and
26:29
profitable immediately, which has been probably the biggest
26:33
biggest help for me. That keeping the stress down.
26:36
Time is a luxury for Sure. Now that you've been roasting
26:39
for multiple years, you've worked through kind of the
26:43
beginning phases. Have you kind of settled into a
26:45
strategy for your roasting or how you're treating your beans,
26:49
what opportunities does working in small batches kind of offer
26:52
you? Obviously, there are challenges
26:54
to inconsistency and quantity but you know, what do you see as
26:58
the advantage of working in a small batch and how do you treat
27:01
that part of the business? Because it sounds like to me
27:03
that's the part that really got you going in the first place
27:06
that's like, Where the passion is working with the coffee.
27:10
Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the really
27:12
nice things about being at this size is you know if I get a bean
27:16
I really, really enjoy. I might buy two or three full
27:20
bags of it and so I get, you know, 250 300 pounds of a
27:25
certain bean and then that's it. Like, once that's gone, I have
27:28
to find something else that, you know, I enjoy that's good and
27:32
hope that my customers will come along with me and so, being this
27:35
size, it gives me that freedom Come to really, still get out
27:38
there and try different coffees and explore.
27:40
And so I'm currently carrying a coffee from the Congo.
27:44
I never had coffee from Congo before.
27:47
I decided to test one out and Sample it and roasted this year
27:52
it's fantastic. Last year I got this Vietnamese
27:55
coffee that. I you know it's a rare arabica
27:57
coffee to come out of Vietnam. It's incredible.
28:00
I had no idea what to expect going into it, that one's become
28:04
a regular on my menu now. So, One of the nice things about
28:08
being the small, as I still have the flexibility that I can still
28:11
go out and find you know, some fun exotic beans and play around
28:15
with it. And using my customer base is
28:17
going to go along with me now that I've, I've got a full year
28:21
and change at La Jolla, I'm pretty well established there.
28:25
I've got some good customers, some good regulars that, you
28:28
know, they look for my recommendations and that's
28:30
pretty cool. So there's there's definitely
28:31
that flexibility which is really nice.
28:34
The downside is I spend a lot of time in my garage Which being in
28:38
Southern California, it's not too bad.
28:40
The weather is nice enough, it's doable.
28:42
But it takes a long time when I'm roasting four and a half
28:46
five pounds per batch, and I need to roast enough coffee for
28:50
for markets that were currently in.
28:53
We get some online orders. Some people still stop by the
28:56
house to pick up some coffee here so just keeping up with,
29:00
you know, a hundred pounds a week, that's, that's a lot of
29:03
roasting so it's just, it's a lot of time.
29:05
I'm spending in the garage. So, yeah, the bigger Roasters
29:08
would be nice. They would free up some space
29:09
and some time compared to what I was doing at the ilio though
29:12
it's given me a ton of Freedom. Well, that's actually a kind of
29:16
a good kind of next question, which is being an entrepreneur,
29:20
as opposed to your previous career working for someone else
29:23
or going to work every day. How has that impacted you as a
29:26
person and kind of your mentality and just the rest of
29:29
your life? Obviously your wife is still
29:31
working out world. How is how is this transition
29:35
either worked out or challenge you or Or expanded kind of what
29:38
you view as your working life. This has been the best.
29:42
It's yes, it's been difficult, it's been stressful but it's
29:45
it's a different stress when it's for your own company, then
29:49
when you're stressed for somebody else's project or
29:52
business, that sort of thing, right?
29:54
It's it's that stress of ownership, it's okay.
29:57
Like I know that I'm dealing with this and it's mine and I'm
30:01
going to grow it or not and whatever it is.
30:04
It's my stress and I get to own that.
30:07
And my actions alone that are going to like shift that
30:10
alleviated, I only need to be as stressed as I want to be quite
30:14
frankly. So yeah, if I'm content where I
30:17
am here with these four markets this I can I can do this
30:21
indefinitely and be perfectly happy if I want to continue to
30:26
grow it. Yeah, it's it's going to add
30:28
some stress. I'm going to, you know, spend
30:31
some more time away from the dogs and love the dogs.
30:34
But it's it's it's my stress. If that makes sense, you know,
30:39
the other piece of it and I really don't talk about this too
30:42
much is when I was going through my teacher training program, I
30:46
started to develop this thing called cluster headaches.
30:49
So it's just this intense intense pain.
30:52
My neurologist here says, you know, that you get that.
30:56
How bad is your pain today? Like that sign, he says, they're
30:59
only four things. They expect to be tens.
31:01
There's childbirth and passing a kidney stone and amputation
31:05
without anesthesia. So, uh, Chop off a thumb or
31:08
something and then cluster headaches, it's just intensely,
31:12
intensely painful. And so when they first started
31:14
off, it was just at night and I could deal with that, you know,
31:17
that a bad pain. I could get back to sleep, get
31:19
through my day. Once they started happening.
31:21
During the day, though, that really affects the way I was
31:25
looking at the work, I could do, like the idea of me being in a
31:29
classroom full of 5th or 6th graders in all of a sudden, I've
31:33
got this debilitating headache that literally takes me to my
31:36
knees. And has me in tears crying.
31:39
I didn't want to do that in front of this classroom of
31:42
students, you know that that was a terrifying thought.
31:46
So like a regular nine-to-five that kind of job.
31:50
Just, it wasn't going to work for me for a number of reasons.
31:55
Regardless, finding this. And then the freedom of this,
31:59
the, the flexibility of roasting win.
32:01
I feel like I can and the handful of markets that I've got
32:05
that are four hours here. Five hours there.
32:09
I can do this and I know I'm my head's going to be fine.
32:13
I can deal with it and it's not an issue there.
32:16
So yeah, that freedom has been great, but this is only possible
32:21
and for me, you know, this this idea of starting a business
32:25
here. It only works here for me
32:27
because my wife works in biotech and makes the kind of money that
32:33
actually pays our bills. I could not survive just doing
32:38
this. At least, not at this level in
32:41
Southern California. There's, there's not enough
32:45
profit there. So, having her having our
32:49
relative level of comfort that we have.
32:51
It's the only thing that's made it possible for me to get this
32:54
thing going to this point. Sure.
32:57
And you can let me know if this is too personal question, but
33:01
does that ever caused you any anxiety or stress knowing that
33:05
she's taken on that part of the challenge?
33:07
Or do you feel like Like, this is part of the growth of what my
33:11
business will be. And I will get to a point where
33:13
I am also doing this. And I only ask that because
33:16
those are feelings that I have. Personally, I'm in a similar
33:19
situation and I grew up at roughly the same time as you
33:24
with this kind of Ideal that, like, I'm supposed to make a
33:27
certain amount of money, and I'm supposed to do a certain amount
33:29
of things. How do you manage that part of
33:32
of the emotion of being an entrepreneur?
33:34
Because that is the risk you have to have.
33:36
If you have a partner, they have to On board because they are
33:40
fully impacted by your choices as well.
33:42
Absolutely, now again, so for us, it helped that I didn't have
33:46
to tap into our savings or take any money that we'd saved.
33:50
I sold my baseball card collection to fund this thing.
33:54
I had like seven Mike Trout rookies for Steph Curry's, a Tom
33:58
Brady, a Tim Duncan one, LeBron. And like a Justin Verlander like
34:04
these these incredible rookie cards that I got graded and sold
34:08
in 2020. Yeah, I made like 25 30 grand,
34:11
you know, selling those, those handful of cards so that that
34:14
was really the, the seed money to start this thing to fund it.
34:18
So that took a lot of stress off that, you know, I'm not kicking
34:21
into our savings. I'm not eating or taking away
34:24
from anything that we need to survive and to live.
34:27
It's reached a point where the business itself is
34:29
self-sustaining. I've taken a little bit of money
34:32
out of it. This year, not a ton, but it can
34:35
keep itself going. I've gotten big enough, so
34:38
there's Out point there. But like you said, I mean, the
34:41
big thing is having that communication having that talk
34:46
with your partner, you know, whoever you're with and having
34:50
that that realistic understanding of this is what's
34:53
you know what? We're going to go through.
34:55
Honestly, she's helping me out on Sundays, you know.
34:58
She runs one of my Sunday markets for me so she's still
35:01
does her full day. You know, her full week's work
35:04
and then she helps me out, you know, as well.
35:08
I do a lot of the cooking. Cooking, I take care of the
35:10
dogs, I do a lot of the house stuff and so it's finding that
35:13
balance that works for you. We've found a good balance.
35:16
She, you know, her degrees aren't electrical and biomedical
35:20
engineering, she's incredible. You know, she was always going
35:24
to make. Even when I was doing tax law,
35:26
like, doing that kind of work, she was making more money than
35:29
me. She's always made more money
35:30
than me. It's fine, I'm perfectly.
35:33
Okay with that, you know, it's a different world than, you know.
35:36
The, the Alabama I went to high school in.
35:39
This kind of dynamic that we have would have gotten some
35:42
stairs here for a while, but it works for us and that's the
35:46
important thing. You know, we've had this
35:48
conversation, we're comfortable with our life, you know, with
35:52
with how we're living. Yeah, a couple adjustments.
35:56
You know, I especially like my markets, my best markets are on
35:59
the weekends which means you know, normally we would have
36:02
those weekends to go do things and to spend time together and
36:06
those are gone now. So we have to find Time during
36:09
the week to make sure we eat together or we can do these
36:13
other things that you just you got to communicate you got to
36:16
talk it through and if it gets to be too much like she's
36:19
already let me know you know her helping me out at the Leucadia
36:22
Market on Sundays. It's okay for a while.
36:25
I'm going to have to find somebody to take that over for I
36:30
know you know there's only so much you can ask and then it
36:33
gets to be a all right we gotta we gotta change some things.
36:36
But I mean the fact that I've slowly been taking Over our
36:39
entire garage. You know, I started off just in
36:41
the front quarter of the garage. And now I'm probably take over
36:45
about three quarters of it. We've got the washer and dryer
36:49
and that's it for personal use. You know, she comes in and has
36:53
her mad organizational skills and gets everything set up for
36:57
me. It's a great partnership.
36:58
She's so much better than I deserve.
37:00
Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm also a little upset because
37:04
my 1985 tops. Dave Stewart cars weren't worth
37:06
anything. I think my brother ended up
37:10
selling my whole collection for like, 150 bucks for beer money,
37:13
once in college. So I was definitely very, it was
37:17
a tough transition for me. What did I miss today?
37:20
What should I have asked? You that I didn't and, you know,
37:23
what, should, what do you want people to know about inflection?
37:26
I've enjoyed this talk. We've had a lot of the big good
37:29
stuff. I think I've done, what I can to
37:32
pitch this little company of mine, you know, what it is, and
37:34
what it's becoming. Yeah, I just I hope people are
37:39
Open to trying some some new stuff.
37:41
It's I love it. When I can stop people at the
37:45
markets, you know, as they're walking by with one of their
37:47
branded cups whatever though the coffee company is and just to
37:52
have them try, you know, my sample or a cup of my coffee and
37:56
to see that light that, oh, I love that, I love that, that's
38:02
the best for me. But yeah, coffee is coffee is so
38:06
incredible, it's so vast. Like you said, mentioned earlier
38:11
in the conversation here there with in Mira Mesa, where I live,
38:15
there are easily 45, you know, Coffee Roasters right around
38:19
here. We all do different things.
38:23
You know, I I go like a solid medium roast other Roasters, you
38:27
know, they tend to like, you know, a little bit lighter at
38:29
the end of the day, we're all doing this because we love this
38:32
product, you know? This this beverage is delicious
38:37
and it seemed a few love. Parenthood and teacher hood and
38:41
so many other things. It just kind of keeps the road
38:43
running. Yeah, give me a shot, that's it.
38:45
It's track me down, try the coffee, and when you do, please,
38:49
please, please, try it black. I have, you know, creamer and
38:53
sugar if you need it, but at least try it.
38:56
Black. Before you start, loading it up
38:58
with all of the milk and sugar, please.
39:01
That's a great question then. Well, let's close it out with.
39:04
What is it that you are going to try when you go and stop at some
39:07
other roaster somewhere or some Other coffee shop.
39:10
What do you order for you? Oh boy.
39:12
Um, partly depends on the time of day in the mornings.
39:16
I like my just a hot black coffee.
39:18
So whether a pour-over. Drip, you know what?
39:20
They've got on untappd there, I tend to the medium roasts.
39:24
That's, that's my happy spot for coffee in the afternoons.
39:27
Give me a shot of espresso that I can just sip on.
39:30
So give me that Crema give me that good.
39:32
Syrupy thick, dense body. That's that's the good stuff
39:36
there. And you can tell a lot a lot by
39:39
a coffee place, especially with just a straight shot of espresso
39:43
without anything added to it, you know, pure unadulterated,
39:46
you can, you can get a good sense of the quality of their
39:50
beans, how? Well, their bar staff at
39:52
trained, you know, the whole thing, just one shot of espresso
39:55
tell you so much. That's my go-to.
39:58
Very cool Andrew. I really just appreciate you
40:01
coming on the show taking some time, out of your morning to
40:04
spend with us and, and I'm looking forward to trying your
40:08
coffee. I didn't know you were at the
40:09
Leucadia Market, which I go too far.
40:11
Hopefully, I'll run into you sometime soon.
40:13
Yeah, actually, looking forward to it.
40:14
Looking forward to it. Yeah, love it.
40:16
Love it. Today, I'll be Mira Mesa mime.
40:19
Just as soon as we sign off here, I'm getting all of my
40:21
containers. My bins, everything together to
40:24
go do that. Mira Mesa Market this afternoon.
40:26
Yeah, it's The markets have been excellent.
40:28
Honestly, that was a, it was a chance to remember how to talk
40:33
to people after, you know, some of the covid, lockdowns and
40:37
feeling like you're stuck inside.
40:38
And just with this one other person for so long, you know,
40:42
being in the farmers markets, I got practice having
40:45
conversations again. It was, it was fun.
40:57
Okay, to recap being small gives Andrew the opportunity to
41:01
explore different coffees with his roasting.
41:03
For now, his business is flexible and Nimble.
41:06
He's stressed. But the stresses of his own
41:08
creation, it's a stress that he claims ownership for which makes
41:12
it easier to manage. He also has the luxury of time
41:15
to grow his business organically, and without a huge
41:18
social media presence for now, the space in the farmers
41:21
markets, enables him to meet his customers face-to-face, and send
41:25
them home with some coffee. Their judgment good or bad will
41:29
show up when they do or don't to his booth at the market again,
41:33
according to investopedia.com, an inflection point is an event
41:36
that results in a significant change in the progress of a
41:39
company. It is a turning point after
41:42
which a dramatic change either positive or negative is
41:45
anticipated as an entrepreneur building a company.
41:48
Sometimes. The inflection point can be
41:50
predicted but often it is only seen in retrospect when the full
41:54
scope of success or failure can be seen.
41:58
The same goes for a coffee roast.
42:00
As you're following your roasting curve, in the
42:02
temperature, inside the drum and the Coffee Bean or changing
42:05
you'll see the DraStic turning point or inflection point in the
42:08
curve itself. As the bean temperature begins
42:10
to heat up the curves. Trajectory is headed up and
42:14
hopefully so is the future of Andrew.
42:16
And inflection point coffee, I checked in with him recently to
42:19
see if there was anything new going on and his response was
42:22
quote, this year has really been about the growth from hobbyist
42:25
home roaster to full-fledged. Business.
42:28
It's been a fun and terrifying process.
42:30
Ultimately, I'm just really excited for where things are
42:33
headed and qua. Finally, Andrew and his coffee
42:37
can be found at farmer's markets in the San Diego area.
42:39
Specifically, the Mira Mesa Market on Tuesdays Mission
42:42
Valley Market on Saturdays and both the Hoya and allocate Iya
42:46
on Sundays. You can find more details online
42:49
at inflection point dot coffee. Which is also where you can
42:52
order some beans for yourself. Just as inflection point is
42:56
growing. So Roast West Coast, helping the
42:59
show. Grow along with our awesome paid
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subscribers. Are the industry Partners were
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working with to grow the craft coffee Community.
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They include Cafe litter, most, your coffee company, Camp,
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roasting ignite, Coffee Company, Maria coffee, Cape Horn, coffee
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importers Ascend, Coffee Roasters, and first light coffee
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whiskey, you can still get 15% off first like coffee Whiskey's
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using the discount code. R WC on bar bank.com, that's
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capital letters. RWC obviously for roast West,
43:33
Coast on bar bank.com. Thank you, all for listening and
43:37
for supporting this show, this episode of the roast West Coast
43:42
coffee podcast is was has been written produced and recorded by
43:45
me Ryan Walt. I hope this episode is found you
43:49
happy healthy and with at least enough sanity to make it through
43:53
the day, always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink
43:56
it.