This founder looks to disrupt brokerage

“As a teenager being raised by a single mom, I realized the influential power of money. We didn’t always have it and I was drawn to how it works, how it influences culture and, of course, how it could impact what I did in life. When I dropped out of school at 16, it struck me that I really needed to understand money. Without a diploma, people won’t hire you, so you have to always look out for business opportunity. I read everything I could about finance and later became a business journalist.”

That determination to improve his lot in life has served Canadian Julien Brault well. In addition to a notable journalistic career, he founded a publishing venture in Montreal aimed at self-learning and also worked for a venture capital fund focused on fintech. He notes Michael Bloomberg as a source of business inspiration.

But when Julien was writing about other business startups as a journalist, he longed to find the right opportunity to venture back into entrepreneurship himself. Today, he applies his life-long learning quest to being a business founder.

“I think information is power. I have always been a self-learner and a huge reader. Some entrepreneurs can use their phone to learn so much. And there are very smart entrepreneurs that learn best by talking to people. And that is important. But many entrepreneurs, like myself, have a natural propensity to read a lot – books, market reports. Entrepreneurs need more information than the average person. With Hardbacon, I get to apply that learning and experience what I wrote so much about.”

Hardbacon is Julien’s latest venture. It is the culmination of his lifelong interest in money, learning, and helping those who do not fully understand money’s ability to change the trajectory of their lives.

So what is Hardbacon? It is an app-based, decision-making resource aimed at disrupting brokerage. Hardbacon makes investing easy for everyone. The name derives from an old cliché referring to money as bacon – and the fact that money is often hard-earned.

In its initial entry-to-market form, Hardbacon is neither a brokerage/financial advisor telling you how to manage your money nor a robo-advisory making decisions for you. Ultimately, Hardbacon provides all the financial data you need to make your own financial decisions. It analyzes your portfolio and provides related educational insight.

Julien and his co-founders raised 68,000$ [CND] via crowdsourcing before the first line of code was ever written. With its early disruptor potential, Hardbacon has garnered the attention of Fintech and its intended target market of 25-45 year-old investors. More than 7,000 subscribe to the Hardbacon newsletter. The app recently launched across Canada.

“Hardbacon is geared toward the young, working professional who is starting to look forward and wants more control in starting and managing their portfolio. It automates a lot of the work portfolio managers and advisors do behind the scenes, so everyone gets the same advantages and has the same information to achieve their dream.

I discovered early in life that the poor pay more fees. When they don’t have enough money, they die poor and their children are poor. We want to democratize financial information and change the brokerage game, just like the travel industry did when ticket information became more readily comparable. We want users to be in the driver’s seat.”

Staying true to the vision of access for all, the monthly fee for the subscription-based service is very low. Because, as Julien points out, the real ‘why’ behind Hardbacon is about empowering people to change their social status.

Just like he did.

 

 

This software makes life easier for event managers

“We have event managers tell us they couldn’t do their job without GateStaff. We build software that actually makes people giddy for their jobs! And if you can make people happy in the hospitality industry while they are serving other people, you’ve got a win!”

Robert Reddick and his co-founders at Gate Staff, Inc., the company behind the GateStaff software, should know. Between them, they have more than 20 years of experience in the festival, music venue and sports arena marketplace ­– and they are putting that experience to work on the latest version.

GateStaff is a software-as-a-service [SaaS]-based application that enables easy, mobile check-in and management of the very large volunteer teams that it takes to smoothly run sports and music festival events. It has already been used at over 8,000 events, including at an NFL stadium and a pro-Golf tournament.

A quarter of a million people have successfully used GateStaff to check into work. Robert sees that – and the ongoing positive feedback from event managers – as a sign that they have carved out a highly-desirable niche.

“There is a lot of existing software within the HR technology marketplace, particularly in the time and attendance space. But while it is a busy category overall, there isn’t much in the festival and volunteer management subset. The few legacy providers are primarily out of Europe and their offers are very expensive and cumbersome. We saw an opportunity to simplify the volunteer hiring and check-in process and provide a much better user experience.”

Robert and the team are now working on the next generation of GateStaff, aiming for expansion of their offer across the United States and perhaps beyond. They had been randomly adding features one-off as clients requested them, but now want to offer a robust platform with customizable, oft-requested solutions to common issues event managers face.

“For example, we know that some States – or countries for that matter – have different regulations regarding things like employee break time and other requirements that event managers struggle with documenting. While we can add a line of code to address that for one client, we want to get to the point where all of the dynamic regulations are already pre-loaded and will meet each client’s specific need with minimal training.”

Easy-to-implement training and easy-to-use software are critical requirements for the end-user, and the reason behind GateStaff’s success thus far, according to Robert.

“One manager who used our application for the first time was almost in tears because of how simple it was to do. She had spent days compiling staff information before and now she could do all that reporting by basically pushing one button. It’s like that out there. Out in the environment, the managers are struggling with basic requests.

With GateStaff, we are able to provide relief to the people who are hiring and the people who use it. We help resolve field management challenges, and provide a good and positive experience for the volunteers who use the software. Both parties really like being able to send and receive notifications about their work schedule. When you are a temporary worker, it is just awesome to get an email asking you to work and confirming the details!”

Thanks to his extensive development and entrepreneurial experience, Robert knows that keeping GateStaff elegant, simple, and reliable is important. It is something that is always top-of-mind.

“Experimentation is part of this team’s lifeblood. So doing this isn’t a leap of faith as much as it is a measured opportunity. The software business is a very dynamic target and sitting still is a bad thing. In fact, I believe it is a bigger risk to not do anything, especially in the middle of today’s AI [artificial intelligence] environment. Sitting still isn’t an option.”

After all, Gate Staff plans to check-in to even more opportunity and success!

 

 

 

How a soldier turned care into a business of hope

“I was in my senior year at West Point when 9/11 changed everything. Before that day, we weren’t expecting to go straight into combat; but just a few short months later, I was a military intelligence officer deployed to Iraq. Once there, fellow soldiers started receiving care packages. The positive impact of those packages stuck with me. I remember thinking there has got to be a way to scale this kind of care package giving to benefit everyone.

But at the time, I didn’t have any way to act on that idea. Even after my military career, when I consulted for McKinsey, I kept the idea to myself. Eventually, I joined my brother in another entrepreneurial pursuit. When we sold that business two years ago, the time was right to pursue my dream.”

That dream, born in the care packages sent with well-wishes from home, is fused with a faith Derik Timmerman devoutly advocates as a Christian, seminary graduate, and part-time preacher at churches in the Charlotte area. That dream is Hopebox, a subscription-based care package of handmade gifts and encouraging messages.

Faith is the heart of Hopebox because, as Derik says, it is only God’s truth that gives real, lasting hope to people.

“I wanted to share the gospel in a way that anyone could be encouraged and find themselves a little bit closer to saving faith. And we also decided early on that every Hopebox item would be handmade. Why limit hope to our downstream subscribers when we could give hope upstream to handmade artisans as well?”

With a background in operations performance transformation, Derik set about determining the best approach to operationalizing the concept. Research confirmed that the subscription box model is under-represented in the encouragement gift industry. He decided to focus on an affordable subscription box, while also providing one-time deliveries as an option.

“The reason behind a subscription model is that we believe encouragement gifts can support people better if given over time. With Hopebox, you receive encouragement care packages on a monthly basis. We all know someone going through trying times. Usually there’s an initial burst of sympathy and concern, but over time that fades. Imagine the impact when they receive encouragement over three months, or six months, however long you want to send hope.”

Each of Hopebox’s three co-founders add their strengths to the business which officially launched in February 2017. Derik’s brother Matt is the marketing guru and Matt’s wife Kristin brings artistic flair and a gift-giver’s heart.

The impact of Hopebox goes beyond individuals giving to individuals. Hopebox is appropriate for any organization that spends money on gifts for customers, supporters, or employees going through life events. In lieu of flowers, sending a hopebox provides a unique way to express care. That may be law offices, churches, organizations with philanthropic givers, medical practices, or corporations. And hopeboxes can be customized for each organization, providing the perfect hope-filled outreach.

Derik is optimistic and, yes, hopeful about the potential of this startup.

“I’ve never been more excited or passionate about an idea. Hopebox is a legacy I want to leave to my kids.”

So the solider turned preacher, once so moved by the comfort of a care package from home, offers a way to send hope to everyone. After all, Hopebox is delivering what we all need most… hope!

 

 

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A movie sparked a super storage fix idea

“I have always loved the business of working in tech and creating information systems, of organizing and immersing in information. But so much has been done with the internet now. I wanted to start a business that adds value to someone’s work or life and just makes their life easier. And I love, love, love fixing things.

You know that scene in The Incredibles movie where Lucius can’t find his Super Suit? The reality is, we all have stuff we have accumulated and packed away in the attic or a storage unit. And we just don’t have time to go looking for it, even if we remembered exactly where it was. That’s where I saw my opportunity to fix the what-do-I-have packed away problem.”

William Kassebaum speaks of his Packed Away business concept with all the enthusiasm of a startup founder on a mission to meet a newly-identified market need. It is the ‘aha’ moment every entrepreneur yearns for that sets into motion all the research, trials and challenges of starting a new business.

Packed Away is a cloud-based storage and retrieval system that allows users to catalog and index every packed away item by picture and by description. So when you want to retrieve Grandpa’s war uniform or that piece of artwork you couldn’t part with, a few quick keystrokes on Packed Away and you’ll know exactly what box and what location you put it in.

William foresees the service being a paid subscription-based plan, with fees increasing according to the volume of boxes you are cataloging.

If you are thinking, well, who is going to pack up all this stuff for me first? William has thought about that. He hopes to work with a large nonprofit already established in the second-hand goods space. In a mutually beneficial relationship, the nonprofit’s workers could be contracted to help pack and then easily remove any unwanted items to be donated. The workers get paid, William gets paid, the store gets donated items and the customer gets the packing done.

Another interesting aspect of William’s business plan involves the opportunity to sell unwanted items or donate them to family or friends.

“My mother was the clearing house for our extended family. She took care of making sure the ‘haves’ could send to the have-nots. With that in mind, Packed Away will allow you to provide relatives or friends 3-day access to your list of items that you no longer want. That list could also be shared with an eBay store that would help you price and upload items you want to sell.”

When asked about his motivation to pursue this new idea, William, who has had two prior businesses, reflected honestly on startup life and life itself.

“The analytical part of me sees the need and it is fun to meet that need and be rewarded for it. It is a natural human desire to want to be successful. Plus, I am always thinking that there is a better way to do things. The biggest challenge I see is creating demand and introducing customers to the service. It is hard to market in a very loud world where you have to stand out or grow organically.”

So the next time you are making a new pile of stuff to pack away, you just might want to take a look around and think as intently as William did about where you are putting all your stuff. And just what do you already have packed away?! Who knows, maybe you’ll find a Super Suit you never knew you had.

 

 

This owner wants her clients to be heard and understood

“My story is the plight of the immigrant child. In the beginning of every situation my Mom faced as an immigrant, there was always some form of concern or disappointment or being upset about something that could be resolved by the interpreting function. I quickly noticed, even as a young girl, that her whole demeanor changed when the interpretation happened. She’d literally go from upset to happy.

There were thousands of situations in my youth that had to be dealt with – my mother needed that help and I became her interpreter. Once she learned to speak the language, I had to speak ‘right’ for her. This is the plight of the immigrant. It causes a lot of children to be in an unfair situation. And it happens all over the world. The children just want to play but they become busy helping mom. That personal experience so influenced my life, it became my career.”

Peruvian native Amelia Rodriguez founded Vocalink Global (formerly Vocalink Language Services) more than 20 years ago. She turned her love of language into a much-needed service to help others like herself. But she also grew it into a business-to-business service, meeting the translation needs of corporations doing business around the world.

Starting first as a freelance interpreter, Amelia established her reputation as a Federal Court interpreter. She enjoyed the respect for interpretation work in the courthouse setting, noting it is a very different type of domain. There is a certain challenge in interpreting legal topics, but she also enjoyed that the judges and attorneys knew and appreciated your work.

“Personally, I liked the high stress, high stakes challenge of court work, more so than other interpreting situations. But I soon realized there were others working there who had been at it longer and would always have more experience. That’s when I started looking at how to build a business myself and bring on talented interpreters. I realized there must be translation work out there as well.”

While interpretation is about being a third party liaison for the spoken word, translation services focuses on the written word.

Amelia secured her first major account by attending events with businesses she targeted. That opened the door to the Iams Company while it was still independently-owned. Even then, the pet care and animal nutrition company needed translation services for marketing and sales materials being sent all over the world.

In recent years, Amelia has seen a major shift in the language services industry, driven by technology. Remote video interpreting is coming into vogue, allowing a much more simultaneous interpretation session. But some of the more exciting facets involve changing point-of-service dynamics, the impact of cloud technology and the massive amount of content many large enterprises are trying to manage.

“In the early days, when you needed translation services, you requested whole translation files sent via email. With today’s cloud-based platforms, we no longer need to use the slow email process. Today’s file exchanges are very customizable and include status notifications. You can now have centrally-located files which can be easily accessed with password verification.

That really changes the world for both the client and the translator. You know the status of any piece of work immediately and you can also have a searchable pipeline. For example, we can include data intelligence that will let the client know to reuse already interpreted material that may fit a new project and avoid duplication. There are significant benefits for the customer to have that kind of access and availability.”

That need for access and availability in language services has helped Amelia transform her own immigrant child’s plight into an engaging, state-of-the-art business where every client can be heard and be understood.

 

 

Awakening and rejuvenating a sleeper tech

“This is really a Rip Van Winkle story about the rebirth of a proven technology that we’re now making even better! Back in 2007, we were working for a leading manufacturer who was bought out. The new company wasn’t interested in the software tech we developed and had already deployed to about a thousand customers. So it basically went to sleep. We went on with our jobs and other ventures,” said Joe Razum.

Flash forward a decade and suddenly I am asked about that old offering by someone in a totally different industry. So of course, I asked this prospective customer if they would be interested in an update. That was enough spark to pull the team back together. Now, it is like waking up and finding the technology has evolved and it is better than ever!”

Joe’s enthusiasm has been a catalyst behind the awakening of what is now TCO Toolkit, a Software as a Service (SaaS), vendor-neutral total cost of ownership (TCO)/value calculator. The new offering fills a gap in the marketplace to help sourcing leaders determine TCO in a uniform, scalable, and yet customizable way. The original product it evolved from was a Harvard Business Review Best Practice, and Plant Engineering Product of the Year when first introduced and companies clamored for it. Joe is sure the new offering will be even more successful.

That’s because TCO has been identified as the #2 criteria (behind product quality) in strategic sourcing, yet many still use cumbersome methodology, like spreadsheets, to determine this vital component of sourcing success. With its latest updates and cloud-based platform, the easy-to-use TCO Toolkit utilizes a single code for both mobile and PC application.

Joining Joe on this entrepreneurial journey are Sanjay Sharma and Brad Trapp, whose operational, architecture and coding expertise were critical to the rejuvenation of the old platform into its latest version. Each member of the team has slightly different motivations.

“Bringing this live again in a new form and format, with new technology is very exciting for me. That’s what got me onboard. I am inspired by the opportunity to come together again as a team, with our experience from the past and yet taking on the new challenges and requirements, and learning how we can improve.” [Sanjay]

“For me, it’s about the freedom being an entrepreneur brings. I’ve always been very entrepreneurial and while that isn’t a guarantee of success, doing this for ourselves is one of the primary ways to be free to control what I do.” [Brad]

“We were tasked with developing the original product to help us sell at a time when American manufacturers were getting a lot of competition from offshore manufacturers. So it was all about helping us retain and bring back work going elsewhere. It really felt like we were working on something important. It is satisfying to do that again, and the economic potential is nice, too.” [Joe]

TCO Toolkit currently has paid subscription users for its Beta offering, so Joe and the team are feeling good about that economic potential. And they have also received valuable insight from mentors at the Technology Incubator of Rock Hill, SC Launch and 1 Million Cups Charlotte.

This Rip Van Winkle story is proving technology can reawaken a sleeping opportunity!

 

 

Work For Your Beer Is Building a Beer Fitness Community

“When my co-founder Mel and I moved to Charlotte, we tried to find information about all of the fitness activities taking place at local breweries, but the details about these events weren’t readily available anywhere that we could find. We kept talking about how cool it would be if someone would start a centralized calendar. It just made sense to us, but no one was offering a guide to help you find all the yoga classes, run clubs, and other fitness activities, let alone how to find the newest additions.

After about a year, we decided we should just do it ourselves. We’d make the ultimate guide to beer fitness in Charlotte so people could find the details they needed to get involved in the community. That’s how Work For Your Beer got its start.”

Alicia Thomas and Melanie (Mel) Fox saw a need and acted on it. They recognized the one-two punch of breweries and fitness fulfills a social need that newcomers crave.

“I was intimidated by fitness before I moved to Charlotte. The idea of going to a fitness studio was terrifying to me. But breweries weren’t scary. I started doing yoga at breweries, then dance fitness classes, and I’ve loved all of it. The brewery scene has been a gateway into fitness for me.

Mel’s motivations are different. She’s always been into the fitness scene—she’s very athletic, but she doesn’t want to spend a ton of money on fitness studio fees. She likes to try different activities and meet new people, so beer fitness classes are a perfect fit for her.”

With a logo depicting a barbell and a mug of beer, their target audience – primarily millennial newcomers – gets it.  Work For Your Beer consolidates all the deets on the more than 85 fitness classes taking place every week in (thus far) 16 of Charlotte’s 18 breweries. And the list keeps growing.

Playing to their strengths and interests, Mel takes on events while Alicia manages content development and giveaways. Both are experienced in digital marketing, so knowing how to intuitively build an easy-to-navigate website was relatively simple compared to learning how to validate and grow a business.

“We started with an Indiegogo kickstarter to pay for hosting and launching a website. Doing a campaign like that gave us a great gauge on whether the community wanted this service. We easily surpassed our fundraising goals, so we knew we were on to something.”

Since its December 2016 launch, Work For Your Beer has seen tremendous audience growth. The business boasts nearly 3k email subscribers, more than 10k social media followers, and 13k unique website visitors per week. Their research validates why.

There are more than 260,000 people in the Charlotte area interested in beer and fitness. The continued population growth in the region means there are always newcomers on the hunt for the type of social interactions Work For Your Beer highlights.

Alicia and Mel have already expanded their services to provide digital marketing expertise to their brewery partners and have also expanded the team, adding a director of partnerships focused on community outreach and advertising. They also tap the enthusiasm of several student interns who help with events and researching the best cities for future growth.

“We have our pitch down pat, but we are still a new business. So we take advantage of all opportunities for feedback. We want to expand to other beer-centric cities, but we’re still determining the best way to do that. Our vision is to be the ultimate guide to beer and fitness in Charlotte – and then, other cities.”

These two determined entrepreneurs are already in-tune with what a successful business is all about: See a need, and meet it.

Cheers to a knock-out start!

 

Move over anthropology: Its time for cloud-based bookkeeping

“To me, bookkeeping is simply anthropology for business. I am determined to take what seems like a dirty word [bookkeeping] and turn it into an essential part of business. Great record keeping can show you how everything works, all those details that make your business successful.”

Jessica Myers is a founding partner for Digit Keeper, a cloud-based, California-grown digital bookkeeping service. Jessica approaches her business from the unusual lens of her education in Anthropology, which involves the study of everything a culture or individual does, and why.

“What we do for our small business customers is first determine what they value and what they don’t, and then what can we do to make their life easier. Looking at the detail behind the accounts puzzle really is like the study of anthropology. That resonated for me and is what got me so excited about helping small business owners.”

So how does an anthropologist end up in bookkeeping? Well, that is a study in culture and ‘why’ in itself.

“I graduated in 2009 at the height of the financial crash. Jobs in my major were few and far between. After a side adventure to Montana, I returned to California and began a whirlwind time where I got married, had my daughter and found myself suddenly living as a military mom adjusting through three deployments.

 Frankly, I didn’t adjust well. I went through an identity crisis and eventually realized that being a mom wasn’t enough for me, personally. So when my Dad, a practicing CPA, approached me with this business idea, I saw the enormous potential. I am determined to help it grow.”

That sense of determination wasn’t born through Jessica’s entrepreneurial venture, but rather, is something innate that was cultivated throughout her life, despite periods of adversity.

“My parents taught me a lot about the importance of knowing who you are and where you draw a line in the sand with your core beliefs. Yet, I never understood when people said to ‘know your why.’ As an adult, I finally realized I had already been given the key.

It is about being true to your core. And it is applicable to your business, too. We help our customers get back to business – the core of what they do best. For me personally, that means doing something that I would work on no matter what. Bookkeeping – and growing this business – is that something for me.”

Jessica also supports that core belief by spending precious downtime focused on actions that help her as an entrepreneur. She reads extensively – often two books a week – to learn more about topics that ultimately help her customers even more, like customer service, leadership and even mental capacity.

“Entrepreneurs and small businesses are vital to the American dream. We need to value and support them. That’s why I love this work and see the potential for Digit Keeper to grow on a national scale. We really want the customer to feel we’re there for them. We are simply an extension of their team.” 

And so Jessica, the anthropologist, now works in and on a business that uses the very latest technology to decipher the small business culture. And that helps her answer the ‘why’ behind her customers’ bookkeeping needs. With her husband set to leave the military in just a few months, she is putting it all on the line for her business and her customers.

Yep, true to her core. Again.

 

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Launching a business when you don’t know anyone

“I’m fascinated with people and how they respond to ideas. What drives them, what upsets them, why are they happy. That’s why I like marketing, because it puts people and their needs first.”

Seeking to understand people is nothing new for Belarus native Igor Gorlatov. After moving to Charlotte, NC in 2016 with his wife and young son, Igor connected by offering his expertise to a diverse cross-section of the community.

That includes helping the Russian-speaking community in Charlotte, founding a local chapter of Successful Negotiators Club, presenting his negotiation tactics as a component of organizational learning programs, co-leading TorchBearer Fractional CMOs, which lends in-depth marketing strategy expertise to mid-sized companies, and most recently, becoming a lead community organizer for 1 Million Cups Charlotte, a Kauffman Foundation initiative for early stage entrepreneurs.

Igor has the background to make it all work. He first came to the United States under the highly-selective Fulbright Scholar program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State. His exceptional curriculum vitae shows experience in languages, high-stakes negotiation, teaching, digital marketing and business.

He was a founding partner of a digital marketing and web development firm in Belarus, fractional director of an MBA program and also worked as a part-time interpreter for high-level talks with such organizations as the World Bank, United Nations, the Trilateral Group on Peaceful Resolution of the Conflict in Ukraine, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the EU Commission.

All of which sounds complex. But the ever-entrepreneurial Igor assures it is not. Or at least not as complex as it is to integrate into the entrepreneurial community in a new place as an immigrant who does not know anyone!

However, there is a tried-and-true shortcut that Igor was able to take.

“I was very lucky to join Advent Co-working, which I have found to be the most community oriented co-working space in Charlotte. It was my way to plug into the bigger Charlotte community and start building my network and my business.”

At Advent Co-working, Igor met his now business-partner, Adrienne Craighead, who’s networking skills are a solid match to Igor’s big picture approach to marketing.

“A lot of businesses gravitate toward complexity, especially with regard to marketing strategy. They tend to focus on so many tactics and metrics that it becomes harder and harder to see the big picture. We listen and look for the misalignment between what they do and what they say they want to do. Figuring out inconsistencies and casting a bolder vision allows companies to grow to the next level.”

Igor has found some differences in the approach to business between entrepreneurs here and in his home country.

“The business environment here is more open to experimentation, more optimistic and opportunistic. I enjoy that. It is one of the reasons I fell in love with America.”

But it is the similarities that he finds truly inspiring.

“I have found people have many shared experiences, hobbies and interests. Everything is coming full circle now between my interest in understanding and helping people, our business approach and the ability to quickly get connected in our new home.”

Launching a business when you truly don’t know anyone locally is a challenge. But Igor is proof it is not insurmountable. Especially when you have a bold vision to put people and their needs first.

 

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Coffee with a mission: that’s Mokafe!

“We’ve seen first-hand what can be done when you think of someone else in front of yourself. Our father started Haitian Christian Mission in 1974. He taught us that if you do for others, your blessings in life will come at some point. So philanthropy is within us. It is who we are. But we have also always had a mind for business.

Marcus and Edwens Prophete adopted the sentiment of teaching a man to fish verses providing a handout with their Mokafe Cup of Hope initiative, a partnership with the inventor of Mokafe, Stephane Martin.

“We want to empower the Haitian people and show the beauty of Haiti. Every 25 bags of Mokafe that are sold supports a local farmer for an entire year.” [Marcus]

Since the late 1800s, Haiti’s coffee crop was considered among the best in the world, comparable to Jamaican Blue for premium, top-of-the-line coffee beans. But due to political turmoil, embargoes and devastating natural disasters, Haiti now exports only two percent of its coffee production. Edwens and Marcus are determined to change that.

“The best we could do for the country is to impact the economic condition of the people. Coffee is Haiti’s legacy. And our research tells us global demand is expected to double over the next 30 years. So we set up a coffee growers cooperative which gives our local farmers five to 10 percent over fair trade market value. With the extensive needs in Haiti, we knew that the standard fair trade rate wasn’t universally good for everyone. It differs by country.

Revitalizing Haiti’s coffee industry is critical to helping the country and its people. We now have 8,000 small-holder farmers participating and will soon add 6,000 more. Our goal is to reach 40,000 small-holder farmers in three- to four years.” [Marcus]

“What we were put here for is to add value to people’s lives. We’ve seen the impact of the economic struggle. We know we can empower Haiti by offering this crop, this fruit that people love all over the world. Each cup, one cup at a time, creates economic impact.” [Edwens]

These two brothers, raised and living in the U.S., hope to soon crack the biggest barrier of getting into retail so they can bring this taste of Haiti to grocery stores worldwide. On-location sales are already going strong in Boca Raton, FL and Charlotte, NC (Enjoy free samples at the monthly 1 Million Cups Charlotte events!). Online sales are available on Amazon and via the Mokafe website.

These Mokafe founders are confident the exquisite taste will keep customers coming back. They want everyone to experience that first sip, when you are left thinking, “This is magical.”

Because it is. Driven by a passion for people, Edwens and Marcus are making magic happen for Haiti’s farmers – and in your favorite coffee cup.

 

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