I love Jesus. Leadership. And Good Coffee.

When I travel, I am always on the hunt for a good coffee spot (thanks to my buddy Duncan Corby). Within a few hours of arriving to a new city, I am usually getting a coffee at a local café. I do this not only because of my love for good coffee, but also to get a good feel of things in a particular city or country. Mostly though for the coffee.

This past week, I spent time in Los Angeles drinking good coffee and also studying entrepreneurship. Before traveling to LA, one coffee company I heard a lot about was the Blue Bottle Coffee Company.

Blue Bottle Coffee Company

Blue Bottle Coffee is an artisan coffee shop based in Oakland, California with 19 locations throughout California, New York, and also Japan. What is very interesting about this coffee shop is that they operate much like a high-tech startup as opposed to a traditional coffee shop. Most recently, Blue Bottle secured a second round of financing with $70 million in VC funding.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit Blue Bottle Coffee’s Venice beach café.

While visiting Blue Bottle Coffee, I mulled over a list that our entrepreneurship professor gave us in class this past weekend. Dr. Vance Cesar called this list the “Six Keys to Business Success”. I would like to share this list with you and compare that to my observations at Blue Bottle Coffee:

6 Keys to Business Success

1. Discover a perceived unmet need people want to pay you time and money to satisfy.

2. Identify the one person who represents the unmet need and get to know that “stick figure” and help that person to believe your service/product is made for them.

3. Be branded in the mind and heart of your “stick figure” first-then the rest of your market segment as “best”.

4. Have a financial plan, including pricing and terms that strengthens your brand and sustains your enterprise.

5. Be passionate! Assure your purpose (why) and your venture’s purpose (mission) is aligned.

6. Have a team of complementary competent people who are aligned with your purpose and your vision. Have one person who’s “been there and done that”.

*Bonus: Have the discipline to keep the above clear and current.

I don’t find it as a coincidence that Blue Bottle Coffee embodies many of these keys to business success. They are living this out through their stores.

Blue Bottle Coffee seems to have locked down #1 – How to solve and meet an unmet need. Additionally, they have a very clear hold of #2 – Identifying and getting to know the needs of their “stick figure”.

The “stick figure” idea is about how entrepreneurs picture and define their primary customer (IE: my customer is a 35 year old male, has an income of $100,000, who is very conscience of his health, consumes excellent quality food, and wants to live a trendy, urban lifestyle).

If you look at the locations of Blue Bottle’s stores, they are strategically located in eclectic, transitional, urban-hip areas that are populated with the people desiring a certain lifestyle. This aligns perfectly with #3 – Be Branded in the Heart’s and Minds of your “stick figure”, as well as their value proposition of this single origin, high quality, organic coffee that is delivered by Blue Bottle. They know who their customer is, and where, as well as how, to deliver what they want.

Lastly, the founder of Blue Bottle Coffee, James Freeman, is a self-described coffee lunatic. James vows to only serve the finest, most delicious, responsibly sourced coffee – coffee that makes it to their customers in less than 48 hours from the roaster to insure its peak flavor. They also have a proprietary espresso machine and pour over method unique to their cafés.

It is clear to see how James Freeman and his team powerfully embodies these keys to business success, aligning perfectly to #5 – Be Passionate and assure your purpose and venture’s purpose are aligned and also #6 – Have complementary people who are also aligned to your purpose and vision.

During my time LA, I found one of the smoothest and most tasty espressos I have had in quite a long time. I also found some great insight into entrepreneurship.

Blue Bottle is serious about their coffee and it’s evident based on their business model and their amazing coffee. Now, we just need to get a Blue Bottle Coffee café in Dallas, Texas.