NY Launch Pod: Welcome to the New York Launch Pod, the New York Press Club award-winning podcast, highlighting the most interesting new startups, businesses and openings in the New York City area. I’m your host and New York attorney, Hal Coopersmith, and this is our June episode. We know it’s tough out there for New Yorkers, so rather than think about the down, I wanted to release this episode with Hector Castillo Carvajal, the founder of Don Carvajal Cafe. We recorded this episode before Coronavirus. So why release it now? Because Hector is straight hustle and motivation, he’s 23 and making his way in the competitive coffee industry. In this episode, we go behind the scenes as to what motivates Hector, how he got in the coffee industry, and a whole lot more that will be sure to inspire you. So with that, let’s go to the interview.
NY Launch Pod: So first question, how old are you?
Hector: I am 23 years old.
NY Launch Pod: You’re 23 years old. Why did you decide to get into the coffee business?
Hector: It was a very interesting time for me. Last year, around winter break I came back from the University of Rochester to the Bronx and my brother has an incubator space up in the Bronx and he has a small business and he said okay, your school charges $80,000 a year. You did one semester over there because I’m a transfer student. He said, how about you bring those somewhat skills that you learned in this $80,000 a year of school and put it into practice at my business. He didn’t go to college. So he’s trying to figure out what this whole college buzz is about. He’s like, let me let me put you to the test. So he brought me back and I was working for him, you know, building business strategies, marketing strategies and stuff like that. I’m in that incubator space. There’s many other businesses and every morning, every office has a coffee station. So I would drink coffee at the coffee station and there was this one Colombian guy who made coffee every morning. It turns out he imports coffee and many other commodities, right? So one morning I’m like, can I get some of this coffee from the supermarket to drink at home? You know, before I come to the office. He’s like, well, I tried to sell it here, but it didn’t really work out. So I just gave up on it and just kept on doing what I do. He’s a flipper, he flips, you know, commodities, stuff like that. Like you want bananas, he gets it from Columbia to Rome, makes his money, then he goes about his day. So then about two, three weeks later, he sees what I’m doing for my brother and I’m bringing him results. He’s like, hey man, you want to come up with a proposal based on the skills you’re learning in school to revamp my coffee business. I’m like, I mean, why not? You know, I got a month of break. I might as well put it to use. Right. Apart from what I’m learning from my brother. Three weeks later or two weeks later, actually I come back with a proposal. You know, I’m like, you know what? Let’s do this. I’m going to put my grandfather’s face on it and make it real authentic. Let’s make it more tailored to the modern demographic. Let’s make it organic. Rainforest Alliance certified USDA, let’s make sure we vet our farmers and we make sure they don’t use child labor or any pesticides or herbicides or any additives that change coffee or the profile of the coffee. He’s like, ah, I don’t really like that, man. I’m a flipper. I just want to make some money. You’re complicating things for me. And you know, I’m over here like, wow, I just spent two weeks on this and I’m like, you know what? It’s cool. You know, it was an experience. I got something out of it. I got to do some research and stuff. Now I know about coffee. So I go back to the University of Rochester for the spring semester and I’m sitting there, I go to my marketing two or three courses on the first day, the professor’s giving out the syllabus and one of the things he says is, you know, we’re going to give you many assignments throughout the semester, but you have one big assignment. It’s a long project and you have to make a business plan and a marketing plan for whatever brand is out there, you know, you name it or you can make your own, you can make it bogus or if you’re working on something, which is what I pitched, I said, hey, I already have something I was working on. Can I continue that in this course too? You’re more than welcome to as long as your other three team members are along with it. So I pitched it to my team and I met with them after class and I said, hey listen, I got 50% of the work done. You tell any college student that 50% of the work is done. It’s like, why not? So I said, 50% of the work is done, I have a ton of research on this already and we could just pick it up where I left off. They said, yeah. It turns out by the end of the term we got first place in the course. I applied for a grant from the entrepreneurship center on campus and they gave me about 200 bucks and with that 200 bucks we were able to buy coffee from Costa Rica locally. We roasted it with a local company in Rochester and we packaged it. I ordered sample bags. I ordered sample labels and I made a tangible product. I presented it in class. I actually brewed coffee and was walking around with a tray, you know, like at a gala, do you want some of this? And yeah, it was a really good turnout. We got first place. I got really good feedback. Some student raised her hand in the middle of the class and said, hey, can I buy a bag right now? And I said, wait, what? I mean, it was roasted and packaged, she could have took it home. And I said, sure, it’s 20 bucks. She said here, actually, I said, it was $17.99 she pulled out a 20. She said, keep the change. I said, well, she just paid 20 bucks for a bag of coffee. My mom pays three bucks for a bag of coffee. So it kind of blew my mind in that moment in time. Then in the summer I came to New York City. I was interning at the college board with their business applications department while I was here in New York City. I was working on the business as well. So in the middle of that and then it just kind of just boomed. And then here we are.
NY Launch Pod: So you certainly said a lot there and there’s a lot to unpack. What was the process like in terms of finding and sourcing the coffee and why is your coffee better?
Hector: It was one of those things where, I really tried to get into the coffee industry in Rochester and it was very rough because it’s just a small community. And I respect everyone in it. But you know, initially for me to get into the industry, I had to do a lot of research, a lot of networking. And you know what? I’m sitting on a podcast right now and my first step to get into the industry, or at least learn more about the industry, was to listen to people in the industry, listen to a ton of different podcasts who had coffee shop owners, coffee farmers, coffee importers, and exporters. And every guest that I liked or had some sort of connection to personally, I would add them on LinkedIn and I would send them a message, you know, two out of ten may reply. But those two out of ten gave me really good feedback and really good information and really good connections that developed me to develop it further.
NY Launch Pod: And so you networked, you got those connections. Where do you source the coffee from now?
Hector: Right now we source from three different countries. We source from Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Haiti as well. Initially we started with Costa Rican coffee and sold it out in two days. Then over the summer, a coffee shop in Rochester named Fuego asked me if I wanted to go to Colombia for a sponsored trip with the Colombian Culture Club. I’m in the middle of my internship. I’m like, well, why not? I spoke to my manager for the summer and then, you know, it was open doors. I went out there, met the farmers, got to see the entire process, really that form of transparency that I was mentioning in the brand. Then that was that. Then in August, made another trip to the Dominican Republic. Got to see what the industry is like and working and building that. So now we have three origins.
NY Launch Pod: And so when you’re in one of those countries, how do you select the suppliers?
Hector: My secret sauce is really networking. You know, I really believe in other people’s recommendations. You know, people in the industry, the coffee industry is very small. Everybody knows everybody. You know, like last week somebody connected me to somebody they went to college with. They own a coffee importing brand or company, it turns out they were on the same farm I was about a month ago. So it’s very small. But I would say there’s certain processes you go through to see what the farm has to offer. If they really are what they say they are or if they do what they say they do in terms of sustainability or sourcing and farmer life and stuff like that.
NY Launch Pod: And so you said that the coffee industry is small world and that some other people are using the same farms that you’re using. What makes your coffee different?
Hector: Well, coffee has a lot of science behind it. When you roast coffee, there’s a lot that goes into it, right? A lot of people have some machine that just might tell you the temperature and the airflow and then you might just go based off of that. But there’s other other machines that can really dictate or I would say record every single step of the process that can give you a consistent cup in the long run. Right? So there’s some people who just wing it, right? It’s like cooking a pot of food. You don’t really measure the temperature of what the steak is going at, right. Or sometimes how much time. So that’s something we really take into consideration in our coffee process. Everything is timed. The airflow is a consideration that heat, the bean has a lot of chemical reactions within it. So for example, I have a customer here in New York City. She lives on 28th street, I’m very close with her and there’s a farm in the middle of the Dominican Republic and it’s huge. It opened up in 1943 I was actually with the vice president yesterday sipping coffee here. He came to visit and the girl was telling me that there’s a brand in the Dominican Republic that uses the same farm. You know, these farms are huge. I got to have huge volumes to be buying out that whole farm and she was telling me, how come your coffee’s better and I had coffee from a different brand from the same farm? And it’s one of those things where the science behind it and really, you know, paying attention to the small details and roasting more small micro lots, it gives you that detail, it’s like going to a tailor, they tailor it to you as opposed to going to a retail store, buying the generic suit that you know, drags too much on the floor and your arms a little baggy. So you’re getting that custom suit from our coffee, I would say.
NY Launch Pod: So you’re 23 you started this while you were in college and kind of worked your way up or how did you learn so much about what makes a good cup of coffee in a short amount of time? And how many iterations did you have to go through?
Hector: I’m still learning. I’m still learning. It’s a very huge industry, but there’s a good amount of people that know each other in a small niche. Right. But I’m still learning. Took me a lot, I did a lot of research, I watched a lot of videos online. I tell a lot of people now, you know, you have so many resources online. I know friends that want to do audio engineering. I’m like, listen, you could go to YouTube, figure out FruityLoops or whatever other program is out there, you know. But just learning online, mentorship. I got a lot of mentorship from those folks. You know, for example, I connected with somebody from Colombia Urban Liz. He has the Colombia coffee connection. That’s one of the people I got from a podcast and he decided to mentor me and guide me. You know, he really saw my hunger for the industry and my initiative to change the way coffee is cultivated, produced and distributed. And he decided to mentor me and he comes from an indigenous tribe in Colombia and they’ve actually been farming coffee for centuries. You know, they’ve been doing this for a while and he started to mentor me and then he connected me to other folks who import. And then those importers mentored me. And then companies here that are buyers for certain companies starting to mentor me in terms of what they use, what methods they use to pick out certain coffees, you know. So my main key to this success would be mentorship. Learning from people who’ve been doing it for years. And then I’m still learning to this day as well.
NY Launch Pod: And you said you want to do things a little bit differently and the way that it’s distributed and grown, what are the things that you’re doing with your brand now that are different than what other people are doing?
Hector: I feel like we tell tailor the experience to every consumer. When we partner with our farmers, when we vet the farms, for example, I was at a farm this summer, the one in Colombia and he was telling me that a typical farm in that region uses about 40 gallons to produce one pound of coffee, 40 gallons, right?
NY Launch Pod: 40 gallons of water?
Hector: 40 gallons of water to produce one pound of coffee. Right? Now they were able to figure out technology to reuse that water and produce one pound with one gallon of water. Right now that is the type of technology that I want to partner with certain farms that have that right. And then I learned from them how they did it, and then whatever other farm I’m looking to partner with in the near future or any other farm I’m looking to build, I can use that technology to enhance the industry overall. When we bring the coffee here, we really try to, when I said distributed, that’s the other side of it. All of our bags are compostable, biodegradable, the stickers as well are all made from recycled materials, the boxes that we ship and we actually measure everything out to the exact dimension of the coffee and ship it in that right. We don’t need to add any bubbling or any extra papers that a lot of companies, I don’t know if you’ve ever ordered something online and it was like a pair of headphones and you get this huge box that looks like you were supposed to receive like a desk or something. But we’re really trying to pay attention to the smallest details in terms of sustainability and reuse and repurpose materials that, you know, a lot of companies aren’t really using or try to do.
NY Launch Pod: So you came up with the marketing plan while you were in college. How did you get those customers? How did you get those first set of customers?
Hector: You know, I always emphasize the power of social media. At the time I had about a thousand and some change, 1500 followers, more or less. Right? And I’m big on personal brand and also, you know, your company’s brand. And initially when I had those initial 50 pounds, I posted it and I was like, you know what, hey guys, I have coffee, it’s ready, if you’d like to buy it, you can Zelle me, PayPal, Cash App, Venmo, I take it all. If you have cash, I’ll take it too and those 50 pounds. I flipped it in two days via Instagram DM and then, you know, from there on I got those customers, right? Like my friends and family and friends of friends. And then that was that. And then a mentor of mine, I told them, I was like, listen, this is going to be successful. I sold 50 pounds in two days. He’s like, well don’t look at it like that. You know, those people just saw you and they might buy one bag today, but they ain’t coming back next week. They just wanted to support your initial steps. And I said, okay. He said, get 10 customers that you don’t know. I don’t know where from, but get them to come back every month and then that’ll fuel your boom. Right. So then I started, doing popups and all over my campus bringing awareness to it. Friends would buy some for their parents. Their parents would be like, oh, this is really good. I want to support that kid. They will come back. Then when I came to New York City, I started doing popup markets. So I would pop up with a little table, set up my little tent, and I would give out three to 400 sample cups a day. And you know, out of that three to 400 maybe 40, 50 people might buy a bag and out of that 40, 50, then 30 might come back every month or biweekly, you know? And then that’s how I’ve been able to build my customer base. And honestly, we have such a good product. That word of mouth gets us our newest customers. If you have a good product, I feel like people would genuinely come back and they will refer their friends. I have a friend that I met in college. I actually met him in San Diego. Then I bumped into him at the University of Rochester at a conference. He goes to Cornell, he bought a bag of coffee to give to his mom. His mom tried it, she loved it. She fell in love. Now she signed up for the monthly subscription. She’s in love with the coffee and she told her other son about it and he’s on the monthly subscription. So you know, it’s one of those things. Wherever you have a good product, people will back you up and support you all the way.
NY Launch Pod: Where are you distributed now? Are you in any coffee shops in New York City or is it all online?
Hector: We started online. I figured if we did D to C we would be able to have more cashflow. Right now we’re in eight, some markets, three in Long Island City: Food Seller, Urban Market of Long Island City. We’re at a coffee shop in Brooklyn it’s called, um, Drip BK and Drip Bevers Lounge and Flatbush. We’re also in Staten Island Key Food, Brooklyn, Prospect Heights as well, Food Town. We’re in Washington Heights, Superfood Town of Washington Heights. Yeah, quite a bit. A restaurant in the Bronx as well.
NY Launch Pod: And are you the one going around to the stores saying, you know you should sell my coffee?
Hector: I initially made a list of 25 coffee shops and I went to 10 I made this list of 25 I visited 10 and then I heard the same response in about nine out of those 10 and it was, we have a contract with X and Y company and we can’t really source your coffee, and I said, okay, cool. So when I got into the first supermarket, I used to actually work for that supermarket owner when I was 15 bagging groceries. Right. It just turns out the world just came back around. When I got into that store, it was the same idea. They love my product, they saw it moving. When I do a demo, I’m selling 20, 30 bags a day. At a little little table at the supermarket. For example, that’s a supermarket that got a really good response. Then my brand started bubbling in the supermarket world, right? It’s like I’m a business owner. I know other business owners. Supermarket owners know other supermarket owners, right? So they started talking and then next thing you know, one thing led to another. And then another supermarket called like, hey, come to my store, show me your product. I get there. I’m like, hey, I’m Hector. I’m the founder of Don Carvajal Cafe. They’re like, yeah, we know about you. Let me just see your product, show them our product. And then they say just bring me six cases by tomorrow. And it was one of those things where it just, it was a domino effect. I figured knocking doors, there are certain managers of stores to put you in there. They will charge you $2,000 just to put your product on the shelf. But for me it’s been very organic. It’s been very organic. The product speaks for itself, the customers love it and this has been a domino effect in terms of people just asking me to be in their store and I love knocking on doors.
NY Launch Pod: So you talked about your story, how you kind of got into the industry, how you came up with a marketing plan in college, how it’s grown and it all seems rosy. But what challenges have you encountered along the way?
Hector: A ton. A ton of challenges. Well initially, you know, I don’t know how many nos I got, but my favorite line is I turned 15 nos into one yes. And that one, yes, it got me here today, but a ton of times just, me trying to be more ecofriendly or actually being more ecofriendly and sustainable, trying to be a sustainable brand in 2019 you would think it’d be easier for you, but it’s very hard in terms of finding packaging that actually is compostable. I did an event earlier last month with the Department of Sanitation and I have my cups that I serve my coffee and are compostable, my sample cups are, everything that I use. Even, you know, the filters to make coffee are compostable. The bags that I throw my trash out in are compostable. And I asked the Department of Sanitation, hey, I’m coming to your compost facility. I collect all my trash, that I make at popups. She said, send me the brand of your product so I can make sure they actually are compostable. Cause a lot of brands out there say that they are in the market that they are, but they’re not. Right. So a big challenge for us is finding products that we can package in and actually serve our coffee in are compostable. And luckily we’ve been very fortunate to find about 90% of that and the stuff that we cannot find, we don’t use. But other than that, you know, just getting the brand out there. Initially it was very rough. It took me a really long time to get into some markets, figure out how that side of the business works, you know, how to price it and things. The wholesale game it’s just really been me on my own figuring this stuff. It was not like I had a major master mentor who was like, this is how you’re going to do that and that and that and this is the blueprint. You know, it’s been more trial and error and then just making the right formula.
NY Launch Pod: So a lot of trial and error. What do you want Don Carvajal to become?
Hector: Well, I want Don Carvajal to become one of those brands that I feel like people can connect to. You know, I feel like me being an immigrant myself, I feel like I don’t really have, or my family never really had an authentic coffee brand, we drink a lot of coffee back home. You know, we farm coffee, we cultivate coffee in our countries and I feel like people, my community don’t really have a legit coffee to connect to that connects to their culture or ethnicity. Right. Other than that, I feel like we can bring a really good cup of coffee to anyone who loves coffee really. And I want it to be somewhat of a lifestyle brand, somewhere that people can order coffee and trust the brand, trust the product, and actually know everything about it. You know, who does it come from? What farmers, who’s Jose and you know, where does he live in Colombia? Who is his family? How many generations has his family done this, you know, and just being very transparent about the process. And just growing little by little, opening up little coffee shops, being very open to the product, to the process.
NY Launch Pod: You want to open up shops?
Hector: I want to open up shops at some point and sources and supply as much coffee as possible to whoever’s looking to be greener, more sustainable and you know, just better for the world in the future.
NY Launch Pod: What are your sales in New York versus not New York?
Hector: Ooh, interesting. New York City, upstate’s a different world. You know, New York state is very big. New York City has been treating me amazingly well. Right now we’re tapping into Long Island, Westchester, upstate Finger Lakes and I’m just getting these orders. I don’t know where these people are coming from, but I have a form that tells me how did you find out about us. They say Instagram, some say popups and we’re tapping into that, but we also sell in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, you know, but our mass sales come from New York City.
NY Launch Pod: How do people find out more about you and Don Carvajal?
Hector: People can find out more about Don Carvajal at doncarvajalcafe.com or Instagram @doncarvajalcafe Facebook as well and they can check us out there. Quick tip for our listeners, if you sign on to doncarvajalcafe.com you can get 10% off using the code NYLaunch and it will be active as of right now.
NY Launch Pod: I think our listeners will certainly love that. Hector, thank you for stepping onto the New York Launch Pod and sharing your time with us.
Hector: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I truly appreciate it.
NY Launch Pod: And if you want to learn more about the New York Launch Pod, you can follow us on social media @Nylaunchpod or for transcripts of every episode, including this one you can visit nylaunchpod.com and if you are a super fan of the show, Hector, are you a super fan of the New York Launch Pod?
Hector: I already am!
NY Launch Pod: If you are a super fan like Hector, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated and does help people discover the show.
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