Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Greenspoon.
Hi Brandon, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a household where both parents absolutely loved coffee and as would every curious child, I used to sneak sips when nobody was looking. Needless to say, I hated it every single time.
During my college undergraduate years, coffee mainly served as a caffeine booster for those late-night exam crams. It was not until I secured a job with IBM as a Business Strategy Consultant that I fell in love for specialty coffee.
At the time my role had me travelling across North America to meet with clients and instead of working at client offices, I found myself working from local specialty coffee shops.
Not only did I start drinking higher quality coffee, I also began to educate myself as I expanded my coffee knowledge through shared conversations with coffee roasters, baristas, and other coffee lovers. I had fallen for the specialty culture, and he knew that if he ever had better work-life balance, I wanted to do something in the specialty coffee space.
Fast forward 7 years, I got employed by one of the Big Five banks in Canada, which supports a more comfortable work-life balance. When the pandemic hit, it was heartbreaking to witness the imminent closure of some of my favorite coffee roasters as they could not sustain the business after their wholesale accounts crumbled.
I wanted to help as many small business coffee roasters as possible through this period so I developed an online platform that funnels coffee lovers to the webshops of coffee roasters to bolster their online sales. With majority of the population working from home, it made sense that more consumers would be purchasing coffee for home brewing, and I wanted to entice them to support small local coffee shops/roasters rather than the bigger commercial brands.
It was important to me that I developed a program that truly provided undeniable value to both the coffee roasters and drinkers. From there My Coffee Marketplace was born! I interviewed hundreds (and yes, I am mean hundreds) of coffee roasters and coffee drinkers to build the most beneficial coffee program for everyone.
MCM’s mission is to support small business coffee roasters by offering an online program that encourages and funnels coffee drinkers to their websites with the intent to purchase.
For coffee drinkers, MCM provides exclusive coffee deals from some of the top coffee roasters from around the globe. We encourage our members taste and experience some of the highest quality coffee while saving big on their purchases. The average MCM members saves $120 a year on coffee.
For coffee roasters, MCM acts as a program that helps drive additional online sales while keeping it “as business as usual”. The program addresses the five key pain points coffee roasters face with other subscription companies: branding, quality assurance, fulfillment, data & insights, and profitability.
The program has grown quickly since it launched in October 2020, as it’s approaching its 4000th member. MCM has partnered with over 100 coffee roasters across the United States, Canada, and Europe and MCM has just started our Asian expansion.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges I face is getting my story out there, in the beginning, it was a whole lot of door-knocking, sitting down, and explaining the program to coffee roasters in detail the program and how the program is different and how it would benefit them. As well winning the confidence of specialty coffee drinkers which is why I rallied the support from other trusted figures in the specialty industry to generate traction.
There are many online coffee programs out there but many people don’t realize that they are not truly beneficial to the roasters or coffee drinker. It’s an ongoing battle to continue to educate the masses on why My Coffee Marketplace is different and setup to truly support small businesses.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I work for one of the Big 5 Banks in Canada leading large-scale enterprise-wide projects, from definition to implementation, by assessing the impacts to strategy, operating models, core processes, customer interaction, change management, and people.
My professional profile is a business strategy and transformation leader expert with over 8+ years of experience in leading multiple strategic initiatives focused on accelerating strategic priorities, optimizing operational models, delivering innovated customer-centric solutions, and business development.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
There are two main lessons I have learned on my journey.
1. Always be listening – No matter how amazing I think my coffee program is, I can always be improving it. Listening to my coffee roaster partners and my members is crucial to our program success. They will tell me what is working and what is not working and the more I listen to them the faster MCM has grown!
2. Meet people where they are in their coffee journey – specialty coffee has built this reputation of “snobby people” who look down on others if they drink commercial coffee brands. What I have learned is so many people are open to learning more about higher-quality coffee but it’s important to meet them where they are in their coffee journey and walk with them other than look down and insult their current coffee choices. Sadly, this still happens in specialty coffee today and I make it a point with MCM that we accept all type of coffee drinkers and will be happy to answer any questions someone might have!
Pricing:
- $10 – Lifetime Membership (one-time purchase)
- $20 – Premium Lifetime Membership (one-time purchase)
- All prices are in Canadian Dollars
Contact Info:
- Email: info@mycoffeemarketplace.com
- Website: https://mycoffeemarketplace.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mycoffeemarketplace/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mycoffeemarketplace/
