It all started with bad coffee at a company offsite in Utah. We, Eli and Francesco, work in different departments at the same tech company, separated by oceans—Florida and Spain. Offsite events were the rare occasions we met face-to-face. It was during one of these trips that we bonded over a shared passion: specialty coffee.

As we sat in a hotel drinking less-than-ideal coffee, a conversation sparked. It wasn’t your typical water cooler talk—no one casually brings up their love for single-origin Colombian beans—but that’s exactly where we found common ground. While I (Francesco) rambled on about the coffee scene in Barcelona, Eli lit up, confessing he had the same passion.

The idea first started as a joke—"We should open our own coffee brand in the U.S." But something clicked.

A few days later, we started to talk and said: “We should seriously think about this.”

Eli responded right away: “Funny you should say that; starting a coffee company has always been a dream of mine.” The rest is history. Worst-case scenario? We’ll have a lot of amazing coffee to drink ourselves!