Newsletter #1: Trust Your Beans

Bringing people together through the love of coffee, we understand the importance of transparency and accountability towards building a brand that consumers trust.

A newsletter in 2020? Scroll through the Facebook and Instagram feed to get updates, right? No. Social media is digital small talk, selfies, and puppies... The tiny fonts don’t capture what goes into some of the thought, concern, research, joy, love, and passion that we use to make decisions. This newsletter is a channel; a dialog for further detail on “why” we execute. We start with the mission statement:

 Beverage Genetics uses the best of science to build products that consumers love.  

1- Data gleaned from continuous research builds products that people love. This part of the mission means that we must bring partners, customers, competitors and consumers deep into our process. This is not easy and comes with risk, but it ensures that what we build is a loved application of data and traditional scientific practices. 

2- Building does not mean increasing efficiencies or going global. Building means innovation. Delightful innovation from trusted science that yields features that consumers empirically love. Building this way is evolutionary, and the positive feedback loop that evolution brings should be added to every process we have. Call us out on it if you don’t believe it’s there. 

Admission -  It’s important to admit hardships to fully reflect on them. This is hard because I like working with people who are passionate about new ideas, and pushing the status quo. I’m  wrong, but this is the phase where building a path to market is critical. I’m thankful for mentors, but it’s not the same. It’s me arrhythmically punching the keys stabbing at lab protocols and customer workflows (Fig. 1), products and packaging that people will love. Let the record show it’s slow, lonely, emotional, and challenging. 

If the cornerstone of transparency is admission, then the next jumping off point is accountability. We’re accountable to our partners, and customers. We are accountable to explain how we live our mission. Like most things that matter - it’s easier to explain by example. Transparency for our first product, coffee customized from your genetics, means that you should see where your beans are coming from. That’s better understood as Fairtrade , single origin and ethically sourced. Organically grown beans are free from additional variables that ought not be tested. Nature provides enough variability through terroir, soil composition, hydration and sunlight. More on this in future notes.

 

Operational Transparency - This is how we do it. One of the tenets of science is reproducibility. We start with the proven science and then apply it to what we know about how great coffee is loved. It’s a humble first step which we don't expect to be 100% accurate. We know it is critical to establish general truths to power the trek into unknowns and variables of enjoying coffee. What variables should we test and combine to create a coffee that people love?

Updates: Invest Ottawa Pitchfest winner “Crowd Favorite”

1 - Take a look at the sample workflow that our first customers will go through. Looks long, but it should take less than 10 minutes, or about the time it takes to enjoy a coffee. In lieu of a genetics test, which we’ve proven adds friction, we’ve got a plan for a quick start. We also want to be sure that we have a great connection with customers for the reasons mentioned in the mission statement, so that’s why we have 6 customer touchpoints along the way. How many times has your current coffee provider done that for you? Have they ever reached out? Our research tells us you care even if you don’t. 

2- Go to market and creating demand. We’re working on these two buzz words so expect info soon. 

3- New Newsletter Name. This newsletter name is boring. What should we name the newsletter?  Options include: “The Manusip”, like manuscript but with a sip at the end. What about “The Magagene”. Like Magazine, but with the word “gene” at the end. Recommend options that are not dad jokes to win a free month of coffee in the comments section of our Facebook Page.