Coffee People ft. Brad Gutwein, Copper Moon Coffee & Manatee Coffee
Brad Gutwein is the Co-Founder of Copper Moon Coffee in Lafayette, Indiana and Manatee Coffee in Florida. He joins Coffee People podcast to chat about family role models in entrepreneurship, working with family, and why his businesses seek out projects to support.
Full video posted below, or watch and/or listen to Coffee People on:
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Guest: Brad Gutwein, CEO of Copper Moon Coffee & Manatee Coffee
Based: Lafayette, IN
What they drink: Double Shot Iced Americano
Brad's passion for coffee started early when he noticed how drinking coffee brought people together. In an earlier bird feed-focused business, he brought in a white-labeled private-label coffee to offer employees and customers as gifts, not to mention for office use. When he and his brother Cary sold that business, he turned his focus to coffee.
It wasn't the only industry he looked at taking on, but even though he was open to other opportunities, he kept coming back to coffee. It was what he enjoyed most, and he realized the world he wanted to spend his time in.
Acquiring Copper Moon Coffee, then Manatee Coffee, offered him a jumpstart. The businesses came with people, institutional and industry knowledge, and a book of business that enabled him to subsidize the learning period associated with entering any new field.
Of course, he wasn't alone. His brother Cary Gutwein was there, as he has been since they were kids, to face the challenge. They may not always agree, but the trust they've built over a lifetime of collaborating helps them move forward with what is best for the business and the people it supports.
Find Copper Moon Coffee on social media: Facebook and Instagram.
Coffee People is sponsored by our friends at Roastar. They can support your coffee brand by providing excellent service and custom packaging made in the U.S.A.
PODCAST TAKEAWAYS
- Brad worked for his parents' business, doing expected family chores to help out. That early childhood work experience offered a lot of skill-building, and the lesson that there is no work that is beneath you.
- By acquiring instead of starting a business, Brad was able to start with a book of business and be able to depend on a group of people whose institutional knowledge would enable Gutwein's to get up to speed quickly with fewer of the traditional start-up challenges that come during the learning phase.
- It helped that the private equity firm owners of Copper Moon Coffee didn't have a passion for the business or a long-term vision of how it should run. That, along with location, was a key reason Brad approached them about a purchase.
- I regularly peruse businesses for sale on websites like www.bizbuysell.com or Loopnet.com.
- The coffee category is big. There is room under the tent for every type of business.
- When building or acquiring a company, look for people who share your mission.
- A copper moon (also known as a blood moon) occurs during a lunar eclipse when the moon passes through the shadow of the sun, reflecting a reddish hue off the face of the moon.
- Copper Moon Coffee honors its name through social impact programs in the STEM and space categories. Learn more on the Reach For The Moon® page on their website.
- Indiana = "The Cradle of Astronauts: How Indiana Helped Get Us To The Moon." via Indiana Public Media/PBS/WFIU/WTIU/NPR
- The acquisition of Manatee Coffee occurred when Brad and Cary decided to look for a 2nd brand with a more Earthly cause affiliated with it.
- I'm generally cynical about cause-based coffees. If you're selling the cause, are you also caring about the coffee? More importantly, are you caring about the people behind the coffee? If you're launching a cause-based brand, don't sacrifice the integrity of part of the supply chain to further sales.
- When there are challenging days, Brad falls back on his faith to remind him that those challenges are not the end-all, be-all to life. He leans on the support of his wife and then tries to remember that the problems he faces in the moment are temporary.
To paraphrase Brad, they should be asking: What do I want to with my life? What do I want to do with my time? How am I wired up? What am I made to do? What level of risk am I willing to take?
Look for the area or industry that provides answers to those questions, then double check your answers to make sure that you’re in the place you want to be as it pertains to how you’re going to spend your days.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Friend and supporter of Coffee People, Joe Bettinger—a top notch green coffee trader—recently moved from Cape Horn Coffee to family-owned and Los Angeles-based Vournas Coffee Trading.
We've been collaborating with Joe almost since the beginning, but no more so than on the Marea Coffee* collaboration featuring a small-batch Mexico coffee from the Chiapas region that he sourced for us.
The transition will enable Joe the ability to continue his focus on small-batch specialty and indie producers that have long been a passion for him as he seeks to support "the little guys."
Interested in purchasing coffee? Contact Joe@vournascoffee.com
*Joe is a partner at Marea Coffee.
Ryan Woldt
The Simply Good Coffee Brewers are so cool we have two.
Just for fun-ish:
I don't know why I searched "Coffee While Skydiving." I wasn't surprised that most of the videos were recent, and either labeled or clearly made with Ai. However, this one from Libra Coffee from eight years ago, clearly wasn't! Not only that, but the founder of Libra Coffee, Eric Medina, was a guest on our podcast (Spotify stream below on the website) way back in January of 2021.
COMING SOON:
The founders of Third Wave Coffee talk Shark Tank, and we close out the season with in IRL interview with Kyle Layton at Prismatic Coffee in Salem, OR.
