WHY COFFEE?
Coffee, in a way, chose us. When starting the business, we began thinking about what product or common good intersects with real life. What do people center their lives around outside of work or home life? Various things came to mind like food, sports, pubs and …coffee.
A term we learned along the way was “third place” environments. In other words, a place that is not your home or your work, but a third place where you spend your time. Coffee shops not only fill that category, but they also meet that criterion on many different demographics and social levels.
Coffee is a beverage enjoyed worldwide by all types of people. Research has suggested that 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day! Once we began to see how common coffee was in everyday, ordinary life, our hearts were inspired to dive deeper.
Our team began researching coffee and the world that surrounds it. We got a little obsessed with coffee! in our journey, we discovered how coffee was also a global commodity. Almost every place on our globe either drank coffee or grew it! We found that coffee was one of the top traded goods in all the earth.
There was this inspiring moment when we realized how coffee connected people throughout the world, and we were sold on the idea that coffee was for us.
WHY SEEDS?
It was important from day one of creating a business that we answered the question, does our business meet the needs of the community around it? Is not that the basic idea of why business was created? Why were clothing stores and grocery markets established? They were built because people needed food and clothing. Our business had to serve a similar purpose.
While it is true that coffee is not essential to life and it is not a basic necessity, the way coffee provides community and a purpose and place to belong makes this product meaningful in so many ways. Creating a coffee shop and roastery laid the foundation for relationships, connections, and a place to belong. It is like the phrase that the TV show Cheers coined a place “where everybody knows your name.”
Inside us, all is this internal instinct to be known and to be welcomed. That concept was one of the driving forces in making the decision to start a coffee company and retail location. The idea of coffee shop was built out of the need of a community wanting a place to come and find commonality with people while enjoying an amazing beverage.
