Mike Brown, an avid coffee enthusiast, started the iconic Death Wish Coffee company to supply coffee drinkers with a drastic increase in caffeine and boldness in each cup. Although Death Wish is currently a very widespread and influential coffee company now, it had a tricky beginning. Mike started off by owning his own coffee shop, which failed initially. He sought to discover what was causing his lack of good business. He experimented with selling various products, all of which never really took off.
It was when Mike started listening to the desires of his customers that he started experiencing success. His customers were seeking the strongest cup of coffee he offered, so he started experimenting and came up with a blend that has twice the amount of caffeine as a regular cup of coffee. He called came up with the name and the logo that Death Wish currently has, and his business began growing. In 2015, Death Wish won a small business competition in which they were able to have a 30-second commercial for the Super Bowl, which spiked their publicity and profits.
In mid-2017, Mike Brown was voted the Entrepreneur of the Year for his extremely successful business.
Mark Brown’s story seems to line itself with much of what we have learned in class. His tenacious in the business world, after a failed business, is something that young entrepreneurs experience. Also listening to customers feedback totally changed his business idea. Pivoting his original idea seems to helped pay off in the long run for Death Wish Coffee.
Simply giving the people what they want can go a long way. Mike Brown listened to his customers and pivoted to meet their need.
I just saw someone post a picture of their coffee on instagram – so it was fun to stumble upon it here to read about it – thanks Austin!
You know what they say, “if at first you don’t succeed…” I am glad that he did not let his first business failure stop him from coming out with a product that delivers value to caffeine junkies. I like how you gave a great overview of the timeline of events.