Building Laurel’s Coffee, Isabel Washington

Jordan Buckner: [00:00:00] Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Isabel Washington, who's the founder of Laurel's Coffee, which is a brand redefining canned coffee.

So Isabel's journey from concept to cup has been really one of passion and persistence and purpose. Her focus on ethically sourced, high quality beans paired with using A2 dairy. makes Laurel's Coffee really stand out in the crowded coffee market that we're in. Isabel, welcome. 

Isabel Washington: So good to be here, Jordan.

Jordan Buckner: So I'd love for you to start by telling me about the origins of Laurel's and why you really decided to start the coffee company. 

Isabel Washington: Yeah, so I worked at McKinsey, large consulting firm, and I did a lot of consumer work there. Really working with brands who, luxury brands, think, you know, the Lululemons of the world, the Berries Boot Camps of the world, who are very customer driven.

I don't know if you've been to Berries, but they really, you know, have a luxury experience, red lights, people with abs, shirtless, sweating on top of each other. It's a very, like, curated experience. And I really, You know, admire the way that Joe and the [00:01:00] other, you know, founders and CEOs have put experience first and then, you know, they figure out on the back end how we're going to pay for our Tribeca studio or our Brentwood studio and how are we going to actually afford all these shampoos and the shower and like all of these things and they really are just like obsessed with the consumer and providing the experience.

Actually, I mean, I worked there in college too, so I can speak forefront to a lot of that. And then I was at McKinsey, I left, I didn't really like the grind of consulting. Excels, PowerPoint, I really like the people aspect. So I left to help some friends launch an energy drink company. And it really affirmed a lot of the things that I thought I knew.

There was no Excel or PowerPoint. It was really just very tactical linear way of thinking. You would pour something into a cup, someone would like it, find purpose for it, and they would buy it. Or they don't. Like, there's no back and forth. There's no problem solving. There's no thinking about it.

Like, either someone likes something or they don't. I never thought that I would work in consumer. Never thought that I'd own a company, which is really crazy because I'm actually quite risk averse. But, I kind of just put the pieces together and I was like, I mean, my own personal fridge looks like an Erewhon [00:02:00] fridge.

I love food and you know, probably too much. I actually grew up like literally with childhood obesity, so probably too much and saw kind of had to undo. I mean, my parents didn't really know the value of food, so I was eating Twinkies and you know, Ding Dongs and all of these things that people, you know, in the better for you movement could never imagine feeding their kids today.

So I kind of had to learn about food myself when I went to college. And, you know, balance, and, you know, I still work out regularly, so I can eat a lot of these things, but I kind of felt that the Better For You movement has over indexed a lot on zero. Zero sugar, zero this, zero that, and we've kind of lost the value and taste of food.

Especially when, like, at its root, sure, it's to, you know, energize you or fuel your protein or, like, all of this stuff, but it's also, like, comfort and gathering and experience and something that's part of your day, and I think that we've lost that. So when I was kind of leaving the energy drink company and looking at opportunities in the market I thought coffee was really exciting because I love coffee, and I felt that similar [00:03:00] to what Poppy and Olipop have done you know, there wasn't really an opportunity.

Someone had really thought, like, what if? the Starbucks glass bottle frappuccino wasn't that? What if it wasn't 300 calories and 45 grams of sugar but still provided a similar experience from like a taste profile perspective? And then similarly, like, so that was kind of thought number one. And then also it was like a lot of these legacy coffee brands, La Cologne, Illy you know, the list goes on.

It's mocha, salted caramel, and vanilla. But when you, or at least me, you know, a Gen Z female, goes to the coffee shop, specialty, or even the Starbucks coffee shop, you don't get a salted caramel latte, you don't get a mocha latte even really. It's one of the worst selling items on coffee shop menus. You get an either an iced vanilla latte, which is our classic latte, Or you get a dirty chai, or you get, you know, a lot of these other drinks that people have concocted.

We're never going to go so far off to be, you know, a lavender latte in a can. I do think that, you know, they're not speaking and resonating with consumers. [00:04:00] And I knew that, A, with food movement generally moving back towards whole foods, I wanted to include dairy. in the product because, you know, almond milk and oat milk aren't full foods and a lot of them have oils and a lot of stuff that, like, people are kind of trying to avoid as of late.

But I had to do it in a meaningful way. So, A2 Dairy made a lot of sense for me to use. The only dairies from the only regenerative certified farm, organic, grass fed. If you drink a cup of it, it's like very earthy , and naturally more, sweet, more omega 3s, vitamin K, all that stuff.

And that's kind of how the product was born. 

Jordan Buckner: I love it. There's so much there, which I absolutely love. One thing that kind of resonated with me that you said, you mentioned being fairly risk adverse and never thought that you were going to start a company. Actually, I'm fairly risk adverse myself, especially when I got started, and I think that a lot of entrepreneurs are.

So I'm curious what you did to reduce the risk or understand the risk enough to feel comfortable going in and starting your business. 

Isabel Washington: So my dad actually started a few companies before I was [00:05:00] born and I mean you didn't exit any of them like they were all one with the internet cafe actually in like 1999 that was crazy to think about but he was onto something for sure and I think that he is my biggest fan always has been and he was pretty much the person like do it I mean to date he still texts me like updates how are things going he knows every single you know Problem and success with the company.

He's I think he's like living vicariously 13 a lot of ways So I think that was number one. And then the other part was, I mean, I am fortunate to have worked at, you know, one of the top consulting firms in the country. So I kind of was like, okay, you know, I'm 24. I've put my life savings, which I've only been alive 24 years, so it's really not that much money into this company and to date have raised like a little bit more money.

So like, it would suck to lose their money as well. But. What is, like, what am I really losing here? I don't have kids. I don't, like, I'm not married. I don't have a dog. No one's relying on me. And absolute worst case, if it doesn't work out, I can [00:06:00] be one of two things. Either I can be one of those consultants that charge people, like, out the ass for, you know, consultant advice, which is not a bad thing to fall back on.

Or, you know, I could just get a corporate job, like I still work for McKinsey, it'd be the same thing I would have done had I left McKinsey and not started this. So I think that , I'm very fortunate to have had at least some kind of professional experience, and I definitely recognize that.

And it's fun. Like, I think if nothing else, I am enjoying doing it. And that's of value, you know, itself. And I've met really great people who will be in the life from my life for the rest of my life. And that's, you know, invaluable. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, I think that's incredibly awesome. I think that I'm a big advocate of really building your life to enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

I think a lot of people end up, you know, some people really like their jobs, but it's like the job enables them to do something else. Either outside of work or after, which right, like totally valid way of doing it. But if you can design things where you're enjoying your every day and having fun not that comes without challenge, you know, there's going to be challenges involved, but it makes it [00:07:00] a lot more of a holistic experience.

I'm kind of curious, did you? 

Isabel Washington: Oh, sorry. Yeah. 

Jordan Buckner: I was just going to ask with your dad being an entrepreneur kind of before, did he kind of stop doing those businesses? Like, did you see, grow up seeing him running those businesses or just like heard about the stories? 

Isabel Washington: Yeah, I heard about the stories.

I actually didn't even know about them until, he's always been kind of entrepreneurial in spirit. When I was 15, he started like a t shirt company. Selling t shirts, you know, he probably sold like 5, 000 or something and then I think just like had sold out of them and was like, I don't wanna do this anymore.

So, you know, he always kind of, he's a super quirky guy and just always kind of like picks up things as they go. So I think that, you know, he is definitely someone who lives carefree. And I don't think, like, kind of what I was gonna say before is that, I did the consulting thing. I was making 60 years when I was 22.

And it's like, okay, you know, I got the nice apartment. I got the nice car. I bought, you know, this, that, the watch, whatever. And then, I kind of looked around and I was like, okay, now, what? [00:08:00] That was, I mean, it's like the flip side. I haven't been paid since I left that insurance company in January. So, it's like, okay, but I have so much fun doing, you know, Everything that I'm doing and I think that was you know, kind of the mindset and very much my dad's mindset as well He's like it can't just be about winning and making money Because he's like done that like he's lived a very Successful career and like his day job and he's like it has to be out more than that Like you have to enjoy what you're doing.

You have to enjoy who you're doing it with it can't just be about winning 

Jordan Buckner: No, I think that's that's so true And that was kind of asking is curious about your dad because parts of that resonated my dad was an entrepreneur his whole life, but like mostly active in it like before I was born, and so I grew up kind of hearing all these stories, but never actually seeing him living the experience.

And he was a lot older when I was born, and so he basically had like a full life experience and like all these things, I think it created this weird, weird image in my mind where I had this vision of like having this entrepreneurial journey and being inspired by him But also having never seen him go [00:09:00] through the motions of doing it I realized I like filled in the gaps of like oh I wonder like if he did this this and this I think over time I also realized that like I kind of like made a fairy tale a little bit around like the timelines and things like in my mind, I was like, Oh, I'm going to build a successful business in like five years and sell it.

And he's like, Oh no, I had, you know, five businesses over 50 years. And like, that is a much longer time span. So there's always here's a random aside. But , I'm kind of curious with, you know, you really started out. Stood out in your journey, come on, LinkedIn and everything that you've been building what has been kind of the highest moments in the past couple of months and some of the biggest challenges.

Isabel Washington: Highest moments. I mean, probably in the last, you know, 30 days I've started taking raising pretty seriously. And the best part isn't necessarily. The money. I mean, the money is great because, you know, it's a very capital intensive business, but I've been able to bring on very, Involved all women, actually, except one.

I think there's like seven, six or seven angels that I brought on and all women [00:10:00] except one, very mission oriented, like, you know, multiple times during the call, they're like, I'm supportive or I'm interested in supporting female founders, really just women like, you know, either in CPG or CPG adjacent companies who understand the vision and the need and the product and think that it's something that should exist.

Which, and, you know, I've honestly gotten, like, it went from a cold email, LinkedIn message, whatever, to I text one of my investors quite literally, you know, every single day. She's flying to L. A. to visit in a few weeks. Like, I think that it's, you know, women who are just really, really great people. 

Jordan Buckner: I absolutely love that.

And I want to dive a little bit deeper because a lot of founders are having a challenge fundraising right now. What have been some of the things that you've done to find those potential investors who align with you and the company and what you're doing? 

Isabel Washington: Post on LinkedIn, unfortunately. I think LinkedIn has Genuinely changed my life, which is so crazy and dramatic to say, but [00:11:00] I've started posting consistently the beginning, about the end of July, I'd say, I get 30, 000 impressions, 30, 000 plus impressions every single time I post and, you know, The 150, 200 ads from people who, you know, are growth hackers and Shopify and a lot of that stuff, but, you know, every now and then I've been able to connect with really, really great founders whose companies are in my fridge or, you know, that I've been buying and they're adding me on LinkedIn, which has been great.

But I think that it just gives and I tell every founder this and I think that some people Don't quite understand because a lot of people ask her like how do you like get so many likes and comments on linkedin? And always like I don't know just myself and we'll try to post things like I just don't take myself too seriously I think on linkedin like, you know For what and I think that it's kind of a breath of fresh air when everything is so curated And everyone's trying to put their best foot forward I And I just don't approach it from, you know, an angle that I'm selling anyone something.

I'm not selling anyone anything, quite literally. Like, [00:12:00] you know, here's the facts of why Laurel's is different or maybe better than La Cologne or Starbucks Here's Production Day and here's, you know, Erewhon and things like that, but I'm never just like, bullet points. Here is why you should buy Laurel's Coffee, which is like a lot of the bulk of what makes up LinkedIn.

Jordan Buckner: Well, you're bringing people along the journey with you and sharing the experience where they can, some of them I think live vicariously through you, and then for others it kind of shows the proof points of like why your success is along the way and the momentum that you have. So I think a lot of , this industry is around one, creating a really great tasting product with a good idea, and then also being able , to accomplish things, right?

Like I think it's really challenging and being able to have that for momentum really stands out, whether it's to an investor or just someone who wants to support you. 

Isabel Washington: Yeah, I think so. I mean, later today, I'm going to post something that went not so well because I think that's kind of the other side of LinkedIn is that everyone always posts, like, look at me.

I'm number one at Erewhon or so [00:13:00] far. I pulled out and I'm guilty of it too, but I think that part of what has made my content so engaging is that it's like, you know, the can exploded or, you know, like stuff like that, that is not necessarily the prettiest, but it's real. I mean, I kind of think of it, yeah.

I always tell people I'm not cute enough or creative enough, frankly, for TikTok. So LinkedIn has kind of been my way to, I take a lot of photos. Like, like I have like 33, 000 photos or something. So I take a lot of photos. And I think it's just been a way for me to like curate what I would otherwise post on TikTok if I was like cute enough.

Jordan Buckner: Well, tell me about these things that you mentioned that haven't gone so well. 

Isabel Washington: So first time founder things and honestly bootstrap founder things Made labels, I mean labels of the can, you know, well I didn't make them, but I didn't, everyone was like, get a lawyer to review them. And I was like, I don't even say anything on my cans, like, it's a very minimalistic can, there's like max 20 words on it.

Turns out, fun fact for anyone listening to this, it's also not gonna buy a lawyer if the product is not USDA certified, you can't use the word [00:14:00] organic in marketing text. Who knew? Everyone, apparently, except me. 

Jordan Buckner: They'll Only if you're in the industry for a while and have seen that happen. It's not a new thing, or a thing that new people would know.

Isabel Washington: Yeah, so, I, in the body of the text, it's like haunted me for weeks, or well, I guess just two weeks. But, in the body of the language on the back of the text, it says, Laurels uses organic regenerative dairy from A2 Dairy, I think is what it says. Which is true. I mean, we, like, literally do. you know, subject that's being referenced is organic and regenerative certified.

But Russell, shout out Russell from Erewhon, he was like, you actually can't do that. So, I was like, oh, okay. So, you know, it's 2, 500 later. We have new sleaze on the cans that just got dropped off at High Touch, the distributor, yesterday. But yeah, that's kind of been, you know, move fast and break things definitely broke that.

So that's 

Jordan Buckner: well, I mean, this was kind of wild, right? About most businesses, but especially like product businesses with expiring inventory is that there's so many decisions that you have to make on a daily basis that, right? Like, how could you know all this? Like, how [00:15:00] could you know everything about distribution, retail?

Packaging, design, regulation, compliance, marketing, so right, like there's just so much there and so there's bound to be, you know, issues that come up , and awesome, you know, at least you got that figured out relatively early. 

Isabel Washington: Yeah, I mean, Russell called me on Monday and I had sleeves done by Friday.

So, like it up quick. 

Oh my gosh, how'd you get exclusive so fast? You have a great bargaining partner. 

Not asking me how much I paid for that. Mortifying. And it could have been much worse. I mean, for this first run, there were only like 1300 cans that needed to be remade.

We're about to do our production run, which is going to be, you know, 5x what the original one was. So it could have been much worse and much more expensive. Fortunately the people supporting with ops kind of, you know, moved quickly. 

Jordan Buckner: That's awesome. What are you most excited about over the rest of this year and the next year?

Isabel Washington: Most excited about unlocking. So I'm very even when I was at McKinsey, I was this way where I would be like, I like working on clients whose products I [00:16:00] use or like places I go, like, I don't really care about working on, you know, Blue Shield of Wyoming. Like, that's not interesting to me. So I'm really interested in, like, unlocking distribution at places that I go or that I think are exciting.

So, next month, I guess, November, we're launching in Meta offices up in San Francisco. We're launching Equiblocks Hotel over in New York in their minibars. So, unlocking a lot more on premise stuff like that. 

Jordan Buckner: Like, I think And how did those opportunities come up? 

Isabel Washington: It's actually inbound like email me, which is crazy.

They also emailed leisure leisure's also going to be there. So shout out leisure to for being many of our buddies. And then meta actually, one of my friends is in meta and just like I called email the distributor and he responded and moved, you know, pretty quickly. So I think that, yeah. 

Jordan Buckner: Well, you know, it's interesting.

I think one thing that honestly stands out about your product is. That is incredibly easy to understand. I think a lot of people take that for granted, right? And that's not a bad thing because when I launched my product, [00:17:00] TeaSquares eight years ago or so now, we, it would basically, we call it like a tea infused energy snack.

Essentially they were bite sized energy bars with tea for natural caffeine, like a caffeinated energy bar. But we didn't like have the language to talk about it. No one understood what it was. And when people tasted it, they're like, Oh wow, these are like really good. It's like a fun, crunchy texture with some great flavors and the energy boost is awesome.

But it was really tough to kind of get that initial interest because even like consumers are like, what the hell is this? And. I think I like erroneously went in trying to like build a moat around our product. You're like, let's have four things that are different. And then realize that it was building a moat around consumers as well.

Cause they're like, the hell is this? So in serious, like they were like, we had customers during demos where you're like, they're like, Hey, I actually saw this on the shelf. It looked really interesting, but I didn't I didn't like know what it was. And let me try to, that the demo and liked it.

And I was like, ah, that's like one of our main. Problems is like people didn't really understand what it was versus I think what you've done really well with your packaging It's like you get that. It's a coffee latte Mate with [00:18:00] dairy. It's like a better version of dairy, but like it's super easy to understand the flavors are Easy to understand.

It's very simple for someone to pick up and buy and try. You don't have to like sit there, the demo and convince them like, Oh, some special thing and like why you should buy it. 

Isabel Washington: Yeah. I mean, I think for a really, really long time when I first started the company, I was like, we're going to be the A2 milk.

You know, A2 coffee company. That's gonna be our thing. That's what we're gonna do. And then March and April, you know, when I was kind of going through product development, I would spend time on calls with retailers or funds or investors or what have you, friends, and they were like, I don't understand what A2 dairy is.

Yeah. And I'd spend five minutes, beta casein protein, genetic mutation, like all this stuff. Like, they're like, huh, not listening. Certainly. And I was like, okay, I don't have that time in store. I can't do that with everyone. Honestly, I don't want to. Like, I don't even like explaining it because it's so sciency and long.

So I was like, okay, I mean, obviously, we still use A2 Dairy. It's still in the front of packaging. If you know what it is, which consumers in the natural [00:19:00] retail, like, in the natural channels might have seen it, you know, be familiar. It's growing for sure. But if nothing else, you're like, I mean, why is this cow staring at me?

Like, this cow in the front of the packaging is probably looking at me across the aisle. Or, you're like, happy tummy coffee, I don't under like, how is this happy tummy coffee? What does this mean? Or you're just like, you know, grabbing and going something because it's new. So I think there's like a variety, and then like, in demos, we actually start, like, 40 day straight of demos at Erewhon tomorrow.

But I think kind of like the hypothesis, Is that people who know know, and then if people don't know, it allows, like, an avenue for conversation to educate, but it's not fundamental to buying the product or not. You're gonna buy it because it tastes good. If you have digestion issues, if you avoid dairy, you're also gonna buy it because it tastes good and because it's not gonna hurt your stomach.

So it kind of goes both ways. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, I love that, right? You can just be like, hey, it's a great tasting canned coffee. Well, and they're like, Oh, but what's this? Then it opens up those other avenues. For those additional use cases. But I love the simplicity. One thing I'm curious about, being a canned [00:20:00] beverage, it's expensive to sell online.

What's your thoughts between e commerce and the role of it in your business, versus focusing on retail? 

Isabel Washington: I agree. I mean, I am shipping a 12 pack to New York today after this call and it's like 11 to ship. And like anyone's, everyone's like, margin, margin, margin any margin that would exist is gone by me shipping this 12, by me shipping to New York.

So I agree. I mean, sure, there's like better rates. I literally, like, all the packages are behind me. Like, I can onboard the 3PL maybe and like figure things out, whatever. But I agree. Like, I think that a lot I know a lot of people who have scaled businesses 100 percent online. That's great. I think that with coffee, it's really hard for me to make creatives, like, for meta and whatever, to convince people that this is, like, actually different.

And a lot of people are like, I mean, a lot of people I talk to are like, Can coffee? No, but it's good. And they're like, Okay, but it's canned coffee. I'm like, No, but it's good. And that's exactly the conversation I would have if I was cranking meta ads. And when you get in, [00:21:00] shipping is 12 across the country.

Meta ads are expensive to run, plus figuring out creative, plus trial and A B testing and blah, blah, blah, blah. It is, like, negligible. And I really do think that where we win is in retail and driving trial. And that is, like, 100 percent my focus. TikTok shop, they have a representative, multiple, in my email every single day.

They're like, this would crush. It's so photogenic. Like, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I just can't. It's another thing to figure out. I'm a first time founder, like, let's figure out retail, and then 

Jordan Buckner: You already said, like, you're not, like, the biggest person on TikTok anyway, right? Like, it 

Isabel Washington: Right. Yeah, so, like, let's, let's figure out retail, and just get through Black Friday, because then I'm sitting caught up in all these Black Friday promos and all this stuff.

And then maybe Q1, you know, when this round closes, and I have more time to think, then we can think about TikTok shop and affiliates and blah, blah, blah, but it's a total different beast. It's not interesting to me at all. 

Jordan Buckner: Well, I'm excited that you're launching with Meta as well because food service [00:22:00] and selling to corporate offices and universities was a huge channel for my business.

And I think that was, Pre COVID, obviously when like, basically we were 70 percent food service in our business. And then like COVID happened, ended up shutting down because that went away. But I think it's back in a lot of ways and it's kind of changed a bit, but really what that unlocks is selling to like, usually like a single buyer in a lot of cases, and then being able to get free trial for your product with hundreds or thousands of customers.

And you get both the sale and the trial. So it's like marketing plus sales. And it's one of my favorite growth avenues. And so I would love to, in the retail, right, like continue to see you exploring into food service and being that grab and go kind of canned coffee item at universities, micro markets, and businesses.

Isabel Washington: Yeah, I mean that's literally the thing. Like, obviously, you know, Meta's gonna add five figures in top line revenue. A lot of companies just take that and run, which is great. But it's like, okay, you've given all of these people an opportunity to try your product for free. How are you going to [00:23:00] then tap into, like, where they go on the weekends?

So now, alongside Meta, I'm looking at San Francisco Distribution, Berkeley Bull, Buy Right, Nugget Market, like, all these places, so that once, you know, for whatever reason, like, you know, they go to the grocery store, like, Oh, I actually tried this at the office for free, a whole can of it. This is really good.

I'm actually gonna buy it on the weekend. Yeah. So, I think, also, like, adding dimensions to that, or, you know, where do the meta people, maybe not work out, cause it's, you know, a latte, but, like, Where do they go, what bars do they go to for an espresso martini or, you know, other opportunities for people , to interact with a product that they've already tried.

So. 

Jordan Buckner: I love that. Laurel, I'm really excited for your journey. Thanks so much for being on today and we'll love to follow up with you in a few months to see how things are going. 

Isabel Washington: Yeah, let's do it, Jordan. 

Jordan Buckner: Best of luck.