Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alex Moen, Co-Founder of Match Made Coffee, located in Oceanside, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Match Made Coffee is a subscription box that pairs craft coffees and gourmet cookies. It is for coffee lovers that enjoy new flavors and experiences and tends to be purchased as a gift for the coffee lovers in your life.
Tell us about yourself
Match Made Coffee is a family business founded by me and my sister. I have had small businesses before, and she wanted to start a side hustle with me someday. So, we just decided to jump in and go for it. Coffee was a mutual love of ours, and we loved hunting down new and exotic coffees.
We also found that coffees were starting to go in a very similar trajectory to wines and craft beers, where there started to become lots of unique small-batch flavors that were very different from each other. And, seeing coffee beginning to head in this direction, we also realized that craft beers and wines started getting paired with foods to bring out the best flavors. The idea of being the first coffee-pairing-focused company struck a chord with us, and the rest is history.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Perhaps one of my most proud moments was being invited into a live news studio to do a solo segment for our area's largest morning news show. Not only that, but it was the morning of Cyber Monday.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
For small business owners, you need to develop expertise across multiple fronts, and you have to be really comfortable dealing with ambiguity. This can be incredibly difficult and is something that I feel is being constantly tackled. So long as you want to grow and improve your business, you're going to have to keep stretching into unknown territories. And that means risking failure. Just make sure that it's not a business-ending failure and seek out help when you need it, and you'll be fine, though.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- To literally start today. Too many people say they want to do something but never actually make that first and most important step.
- Don't be too stuck to your business model until you have a lot of customers. No successful business has an idea so well thought out that it doesn't change once exposed to customers.
- Constantly talk to your customers and prospects. Learn what's good and bad from them, test alternatives, and keep iterating until you have something that they love and that sells itself.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://matchmadecoffee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatchMadeCoffee
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matchmadecoffee/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/match-made-coffee/
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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