Coffee People ft. Will Reif, Roastar Coffee Packaging
Will Reif shares his path into enrepreneurship with Coffee People. We discuss how some post collegiate exploration led him home to Wausau to launch Roastar, a coffee packaging and manufacturing company.
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Guests: Will Reif, President of Roastar
Based: Wausau, WI
What they drink: A latte and a good croissant
Find On Socials:@roastar on Instagram • @roastarbags on Facebook • @Roastar on LinkedIn
Vist with the Roastar Team IRL at the upcoming Coffee Fest NYC (March 8-10) at the Javits Center. You'll find them at Booth 2716. Learn more about the upcoming event at: https://www.coffeefest.com/new-york
I went into this interview with Will not knowing what to expect. Despite Roastar's long-term support of the Coffee People (formerly Roast! West Coast) platform, we've only met briefly and in passing. I left it being even more appreciative of the Roastar/Coffee people collaboration, and inspired to reevaluate my own approach to business and leadership.
Will came to the interview with a willingness to be open and honest about his journey as an entrepreneur, including times of uncertainty, examples of entrepreneurial role-modeling, and a willingness to acknowledge how he has changed—and needed to change—his leadership style as his company has evolved.
More than once, I found myself nodding —not just in agreement, but because he was sharing a challenge he had worked through—like learning new operational tactics that have already been proven—that I've confronted but haven't yet accomplished.
Being a boss is much more than giving orders and signing checks. For a business to thrive, being the boss also means leading, learning, evolving, and creating an environment for your team to succeed. Listening to this podcast may inspire, guide, and serve as an example for those looking to grow an idea into a small business and beyond.
If you've been waiting for the right moment to order. Now is the time! Make sure to tell the Roastar team that Coffee People sent you.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Roastar is a manufacturing company. It is also an e-commerce company. The two operations don't always require the same strategy.
- After college, He wasn't quite sure what to do. Will went to Costa Rica to teach English, where he visited a coffee farm. It was his first experience with how coffee impacted a community, when he got into packaging, that first coffee experience inspired him to look at coffee as a potential industry to enter.
- There was a time when Will was a bit lost in his career pursuit,* but his father and family had been role-modeling entrepreneurship since he was a young kid. Talking about the family business wasn't hidden. It was discussed, optimistically, over the dinner table.
- In the early 2010s, while working for Wausau Coated, he was exposed to a new digital printing technique. It's more common now, but back then it was revolutionary—if not a bit controversial. Technological improvements across the manufacturing space have been progressing quickly!**
The new digital printing press just so happens to be the perfect size for a standard coffee gusset bag. Will started talking to coffee roasters to find out if there was an opportunity in the market. What he found was that the packaging pain points—speed, order quantity, customization—were the same ones the new digital printing technique could help alleviate. - Roastar made sense as an idea, and there appeared to be demand, but it wasn't until Will booked a table at Coffee Fest San Diego that he knew he was really onto something. He and Roastar came away with an award for best new product, and a list of interested new customers.
- Things have grown from there. The small business with a handful of employees has grown into a company with marketing, sales, manufacturing, human resources, and so on. Will went from being the sales, marketing, and idea guy to having to be a boos and leader. More on that in a moment.
- Will was effusive in his reflections on Wisconsin and the Midwest as a manufacturing hub, calling it an ideal place to be, but also honest about the challenges facing the e-commerce side of the business and the need to create flexible opportunities to attract the best talent.
The remote boom during Covid made it easier to hire employees who may not be based nearby. Also, it made it easier for tech-forward employees to relocate to places that offered affordability relative to coastal tech hubs, not to mention a range of other appealing amenities. - For Roastar, being midwestern is one of their values. When I talk to Roastar customers, one of the biggest points of feedback I hear is how, when they need help with a packaging plan, a human answers the phone and works with them through the process.
- As mentioned, digital printing offers certain advantages, but you may be able to find a cheaper packaging option, especially if you look overseas for vendors. However, their domestic digital printing operation allows them more control over packaging components, ensuring they are less impacted by the volatility of current (and changing) tariffs. Minimizing tariff impacts helps create stability and predictability.
- Will's motivation as a boss has changed over the years. The first few were about growth, innovation, and nimbleness, but as the company grew, he had to learn how to run a business. His focus had to change for the team to succeed. In 2018, he adopted a new operations system found in a book called Traction.
Some of the steps for operating a new or small business have already been taken. Anyone can access the paths you can follow to build business stability and professionalism, which can help keep your focus where it needs to be. Big companies can afford to build their own structure, but it doesn't have to impede your company's growth. - Will has used some of the time gained from the restructured business operations to focus on how to become the type of boss who will lead a growing business and on which learning style would work with his personality. Not everything is plug and play.
*Being a bit lost is the mark of an entrepreneur! It is a big world with lots of ideas to explore. Sometimes it is hard to narrow down the focus.
**Remember when playing Snake on your Nokia 5100 was the height of technological advancement? Good times.
• John Wooden”
JUST FOR FUN
Go draw a horse. Seriously. Do it.
FREE COFFEE? Yeah, No...Yeah! You want some. New paid Supporters of the Coffee People podcast receive a code for a free bag of Yeah, No...Yeah Coffee from our friends at Relative Coffee Company in Minneapolis, MN.
