Back, back, back again!
This week, we wanted to share a few more details on something that sounds very corporate and boring, BUT is actually a pretty big lever for Brissta: wholesale. Translation: selling Brissta to other businesses, like hotels, offices, stores, and schools, so they can offer it to their customers.
What we're thinking about this week: Where do you sell something everyone drinks?
When you start a coffee company, the hard part isn't figuring out where to sell it. It's realizing there are about a thousand places you could.
People drink coffee every single day, basically everywhere. So "where could we sell Brissta?" has a very exciting and very overwhelming answer: everywhere??
But if you're a bootstrapped company (read: a company with limited resources), success doesn't come from going everywhere all at once.
Nespresso's playbook of being everywhere certainly works: George Clooney in the ads, around 800 boutiques worldwide, and billions in sales every year to pay for it all. Which, believe it or not, we do not have [insert sad face that I am deciding to put in every newsletter for some reason]. (Though if you have a few billion you're looking to rehome, lmk.)
So for us, success comes from picking our main go-to-market motions and staying incredibly disciplined about them. I'd much rather get an A+ in one place than a B+ everywhere. (Sound familiar? Same lesson as Brissta Brew #4, just for where you sell instead of what you say.)
Going where the bad coffee & upset stomachs are
From day one, we thought wholesale could be big for Brissta. Just think about where you drink really bad coffee: on airplanes, in hotel rooms, at the office, in a college dorm room, or grabbing whatever's on the shelf in a pinch.
Now think about when your gut is most likely to be totally off schedule. Traveling. Commuting. Early flights, long workdays, finals week. Funny... it's basically the same list.
Those are exactly the moments you need a coffee made for your gut, and exactly the moments you're stuck with whatever's around. So we started testing early, and saw real signs of life:
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College: We got Brissta on the shelves at Duke by... walking into the store and asking. Yes, really. That's the whole strategy. (Peep our old packaging below! Already retired because it had the structural integrity of a piece of paper, BUT look how cute!
- Hotels: We're in a couple already, which still feels surreal!! Somewhere, someone is waking up in a hotel room and making Brissta. And it's an easy fit: no machine, no operational burden on the hotel, no need for someone to wake up at 4am to brew coffee, and a coffee that's gentle on guests' stomachs after a long day of travel. Shout out to our very first hotel, Graham & Co!
- Offices: A couple of offices now order Brissta for their teams. Office coffee is its own special category of bad, and after a packed commute, your stomach deserves better.
- Local stores: And we're stocked in a couple of local shops, too.
So why not just go into every grocery store?
You might be wondering: if everyone drinks coffee, why not just get Brissta into every grocery store?
Because right now, we want to be where people need Brissta most to increase the likelihood they actually decide to try it (getting lost in the grocery store noise is an oh so real problem). The moments when your routine (and your stomach) get thrown off are when a coffee made for your gut actually makes a difference. Hotels, offices, and campuses put Brissta right in those moments, so people can try it, love it, and go looking for it again.
That's how we're growing right now: on TikTok Shop and in the spots where people need us most. We want to build a fan base of people who really get it (and really need it) first, then take on the grocery aisle once they're asking for it.
And honestly, the grocery aisle is a whole different beast. Which brings me to...
Random musing: being in a grocery store is harder than you think!!!
Next time you're in a grocery store, look at all the smaller brands on the shelf. Getting there was NOT easy.
I had no idea until I started working in CPG (consumer packaged goods). The store keeps a big chunk of what you pay at the register, and if there's a distributor in the middle, they take a cut too. Some retailers even ask for your first shelf of product completely free (the industry calls this a "free fill," which is a very cheerful name for something so predatory). And of course, there's no promise they'll ever order more.
So now I buy straight from small brands' websites whenever I can. And I have a whole new appreciation for local shops that take a chance on brands nobody's heard of yet. That's where so many small brands get their start.
Know a spot that needs better coffee?
If you own a local shop, hotel or B&B, or school store, or you're in charge of the coffee at your office, you can stock Brissta!! It's the same simple process for everyone: head to brissta.com/pages/wholesale, pick what you want, and check out. Your guests, students, or team get a coffee made for their gut, and nobody has to wake up at 4am to brew it. If you have any questions, let us know at hi@brissta.com.
Okay!! That'll do it!! And as ya know... I'll be back when I have something new to say :)
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