Start Small and Stand for Something

I was emailing back and forth with someone recently and they said, “By the way, I’m currently looking for the next ‘big thing.’ So if you have any ideas, let me know.”

Never look for the next big thing. If you find the next big thing, it’s because there’s articles about it and that means it’s already been found and people have been working on it for years now.

Start small. Have side projects. If one of them starts to get traction, then you know you’re on to something and adjust as you go. Confluence Coffee started as a side project making cold brew coffee for fun with a friend and then we got some interest from a grocery buyer. Then we saw a local opportunity to start canning our coffee and pivoted to something bigger.

But there’s a caveat with all of this. It’s not just about being an opportunist. You need to stand for something.

Why is there a glorification of the entrepreneur? Aside from the entrepreneur’s narrative ties to the American Dream, it’s because we’re jealous that every day there are people that get up and stand for something and are willing to do anything to grow that vision.

I felt this way for a long time. I was envious and I didn’t know how to go from “A” to “B.” 

I think the change agent in my life was that deep down I’ve always stood for something, whether I make that apparent or not. And I think, what you stand for by its very nature shows up in what makes you the most angry in your daily life. Here’s what makes me angry: going to the grocery store.

Every time I go to the grocery store I’m appalled. I look around and I see that:

• Everything is wrapped in plastic
• The produce selection is limited and often devoid of flavor
• There’s sugar, corn, and soy in everything
• What we do to the animals that become food is horrendous
• Things that are actually fresh and nutritious are maybe 10% of the store’s footprint

And more recently, I’m appalled that:

• Organic is losing its intended meaning
• As a consumer, we have to pay have to pay a premium for our health

So did I get up one morning, look at my list of grievances, and say I’m going to start a nitro cold brew coffee company? Of course not! Confluence is my current vehicle for changing some of these things and I’ve done my best to work with Terry Darcy (the other co-founder) and infuse some of my core beliefs into the products. For example:

• You don’t need added sugar. You just don’t. So we don’t have any in our coffees.
• The idea that you need milk every day is one of the best marketing campaigns ever pulled off and is just not true. So we don’t have any dairy in our coffee.
• Smaller is better. Food is not a commodity, as much as we as humans like to try and make it that way. Every farm is different, every coffee cherry is different. So we work with local roasters who do small batch roasting.
• Monocultures (growing one crop on a piece of land over and over again) is unsustainable and bad for the soil. So we source from farms that grow within the existing ecology, rather than ones that slash and burn all the crops around it just to grow coffee.

My goal with Confluence and its reason for being is not just make a boatload of money. It’s to steal shelf space from products that are doing all of the things that I can’t stand.

Think about what you stand for and start small. There are a lot of problems and the world isn’t going to fix itself.

Photo courtesy of Death to The Stock Photo