A new coffee company by the name of Craft Coffee is a new tech startup that is focusing on coffee, but Craft coffee took a little different route to opening then the standard coffee purveyor: they are operating more like a tech startup, where the founder and CEO of Craft Coffee started working on the site at General Assembly co-working space here in New York. Craft Coffee participated in the Silicon Valley accelerator, Y-Combinator, where he lived and worked alongside tech startups that helped Horn to adopt a more tech-focused strategy to Craft Coffee.
“I’m pretty confident we’re the only true tech startup in coffee,” says Michael Horn, founder and CEO of Craft Coffee. “People have tried to sell coffee on the Internet, but what we’re doing is different.” In an interview that he did with Fortune.
Craft Coffee is selling coffee on the Internet since 2010 and they are interested in becoming the Pandora of coffee. While selling coffee on the internet is nothing new, the way that Craft Coffee is selling coffee is new. They are similar to Pandora in that they use an algorithm to determine which kinds of artisan coffee its customers might like. Once the coffee has been selected Craft Coffee then sells the customer the coffee.
“No one—not even Starbucks—can stock that many coffees in its stores,” he says.
In order to create these coffee recommendations, Craft Coffee uses the Agtron Coffee Roasting Analyzer. The Agtron Coffee as a company was started in the late 19th century with the aim of improving food quality and standards. Craft Coffee uses the Agtron machines to analyze the organic chemistry of ground coffee and assign it an integer so that they can compare different coffee’s.
Craft Coffee has tested coffee from Folgers Classic to Starbucks Pike Place Roast so that they have a baseline for its recommendations. For example if you tell Craft Coffee that you like Folgers then the site can recommend an independently-roasted coffee with similar characteristics. They employee a coffee sommelier that vets all of the beans that are sold by Craft Coffee.
Horn and Craft Coffee are looking artisan coffee that is roasted to order by small independent, American roaster. They are looking to follow the craft beer movement with artisanal coffee; which means that you don’t have to be a hipster in a Brooklyn Coffee shop to get a decent cup of coffee. This project is designed to take the hipster element and the intimidation out of drinking fancy coffee.
One floor down, a Craft Coffee worker measures, bags and heat-seals coffee bean bags for shipping to customers. Craft Coffee says that they are able to ship “millions of dollars” worth of coffee from this small fulfillment center.
Coffee Companies and Tech
Craft Coffee isn’t the first coffee company to take tech funding, with Blue Bottle raising $45.7 Million in venture capital as well as Stumptown Coffee Roasters, La Coloumbe Torrefaction and Joe have also attracted interest from tech investors.
Horn is at least thinking like a startup, grand vision and all. “What if one company could own the taste preferences on every coffee drinker in the country?” he asks. “We think it could be as revolutionary as Pandora for music.”
Craft Coffee Subscriptions
Craft Coffee has a monthly subscription that you can subscribe to their service on a pay as you go starting at $24.99. You can save 10% if you pay up-front for 6 deliveries and 20% if you pay up-front for 12 deliveries.
Get a subscription for yourself or your office here.
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