Certified Organic, Roasted to Order

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alex Garrett, Founder and CEO of Gripps Coffee, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Gripps Coffee is a certified organic coffee company with big dreams of changing how Americans approach coffee. Our customers appreciate that our coffee is made using regenerative farming techniques and is only roasted once an order has been placed. In addition to selling some of the rarest beans on the planet, all of our farms are paid above and beyond the market price for similar beans. We do that knowing that profits for the farm mean safer farms and the environments around them.

Tell us about yourself

Being from a family of entrepreneurs, I always wanted to start a business - especially in an industry I was already passionate about. I’ve been an avid coffee drinker for decades, and I knew there was better coffee than your typical K-cups and stale beans. I dug deep into coffee research and discovered the few farms that were using regenerative, certified-organic farming techniques. After discovering a roaster that’s known and trusted in the industry, Gripps Coffee was born.

Our mission at Gripps is and always will be to grow the certified organic specialty market in the United States. It is our belief that responsible farming starts with profitable farming. If we are able to grow the demand for organic coffee in the US, it will allow more farms to grow their businesses, keeping the environments that they exist in, in a healthy state.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our biggest accomplishment at Gripps thus far is our reviews from our customers. We are creating specialty coffee drinkers en masse, and it’s incredibly fun as a mission-driven company to watch people get immersed in coffee. Most of the coffee in the United States being marketed as premium is terrible, and when you see people’s faces light up when they drink the good stuff, it is incredibly rewarding.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Starting a business is not for the faint of heart. It can be easy to equate the success of your business with your own self-worth, and for that reason, many business owners struggle with their mental health. With that, I think it’s incredibly important that we work on building products that people want to see without imbuing our self-worth in those products.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

If you have any interest in starting a business, I won’t spend a minute thinking about your plan. I know how that sounds, and I stick by it. Starting a business is a lot of work. But the most important element is momentum. Paralysis by analysis is the most common reason people don’t start that business or project. I would encourage anyone with an idea to get as fast to a porotype as possible. The excitement you feel when you see your dream coming alive will be the fuel that keeps you going.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.grippscoffee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grippscoffee/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grippscoffee/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/grippscoffee

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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