Red Bay Coffee Company

Founder CEO

founder @ Red Bay Coffee Company

Published on Aug 6, 2018

Hi RBC Investors!

I hope that you have been enjoying the summer months! We had a chance to touch base with the Wefunder team and wanted to share this update with you all as well.

Firstly, Red Bay Coffee will begin sending out revenue share payments this November 2018. When the payouts are ready, you can expect to receive an email from Wefunder prompting you to claim your return. Read on for more info on our progress and expansion…

Q: Can you provide us with a high-level update on how things have been going at Red Bay Coffee?

A: Things have been going really well! We’ve been continuing to grow in both our wholesale and retail channels. We have new accounts with Yelp, Google, and Salesforce and we have new retail operations and one roastery in the pipeline right now. By the end of the year, we’ll have 4 new coffee shops!

The first cafe will in a project called The Alice Collective which will open in downtown Oakland on 14th St, which is the future Black Arts District. We expect this location to open this September.

The second location will be a cafe and a roastery in San Francisco in the Dogpatch district. This  will be our San Francisco hub where we will roast, package, and distribute coffee primarily for our San Francisco clients. We expect to open this location by October.

The third cafe is located at the Richmond BART station in collaboration with the newly founded Co-Biz sponsored by Cheveron, which we plan to open by December.

We’re expecting to open the fourth cafe in Philadelphia before the end of the year. What makes Philly significant is because that’s where the Starbucks incident happened a few months ago where two men got arrested soon after they walked in. I went to Philadelphia and did a tour of all the black coffee shops. I really got to know the area and made some relationships there. In terms of an East Coast location, Philadelphia is really open to Red Bay Coffee. There is a huge need and a huge opportunity for us to be the first black coffee roasters in the state of Pennsylvania!

Q: What is the biggest challenge you’re facing right now?

A: I’ve really been focusing a lot of my time and energy on fundraising. We’re raising a Series A round from VCs, which will take us on a national expansion. With the raise, we will be expanding to at least two new markets every year, in addition to the locations already in the pipeline.

The main challenges are closing the round, negotiating the term sheets, and converting to a Public Benefit Corporation, etc. We’re converting to a PBC to make sure that we maintain our values and keep them baked into the entity. As we bring on new investors, we want to make sure that they know what they’re investing in. We’re excited to tap into the PBC community and see where it takes us!

Q: How can your investors best support you right now?

A: Investors continue to stay tuned with our progress. Come visit our new locations as they open and send people our way! Also, investors can promote us to office accounts and order our coffee online. Here is a code for 20% off. [wefunder20]

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to our East Bay friends Gaia Gelato. They are launching a WeFunder campaign to further their expansion. They have a great product and an experienced team. https://wefunder.com/naia

Naia has been around for sixteen years crafting gelato and sorbetto, including Bar Gelato. They make the gelato by themselves and distribute the gelato by themselves with a team of thirty employees.  They deliver the most intense flavors possible in a frozen confection! Find out more on their campaign page.

Best regards and thanks for reading!

Keba

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