Mike Brown is the founder of Death Wish Coffee, an 11-person coffee retailer that started in Round Lake, New York. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Emerging Business in New York in 2017 due to his success with Death Wish Coffee. This company started in 2012 when Mike Brown saw the need for providing coffee that is both strong and tasteful for morning customers who are looking for a quick way to overcome the effects of their lack of sleep. His company won the Intuit’s ‘Small Business Big Game’ competition in 2015 which provided him and his colleagues with a 30-second commercial position in the Superbowl. They have progressively gained interest from customers from this very helpful experience and have been the official coffee sponsor of New York Comic Con, a sponsor of Nascar Driver Ty Dillon and have supported charities like the Special Olympics.
Mike was an accountant for the state of New York when he was in his 20s and decided to quit that job to open a coffee shop at the age of 28. He initially experienced failure in the company because of the plethora of options he offered. He simplified his choices to what the customers showed interest in and began to succeed. He began to work on making the strongest coffee possible by combining Arabica beans with Robusta beans, a popular bean used by old school Italian roasters. He marketed the brand by sending the product to news reporters, celebrities and bloggers. Since the Super Bowl commercial they have been selling 20 times more than they originally did. I certainly want to try this coffee after doing research on Mike Brown!
Mike really displayed great entrepreneurial attributes, redefining the product and pushing through those initial failures. Definitively want to try the product, big fan of coffee!
I love this product and I love how he was able to push a new product in a well established market.
This is a product that in its very name screams aggression, which is not an approach taken by other coffee roasters/sellers. Coffee is typically advertised as a comfortable, warm experience. This takes the complete opposite approach which is really interesting.
This is an interesting story. An accountant turned coffee maker? It goes to show that anybody can create a successful business whether it correlates with their education/field or not. It is interesting that this is a product that is branded as the more potent version of the beverage so many people already love. I definitely would like to try this.
It’s interesting that he is able to be so successful in an area that was already so crowded. I think he accomplished this by differentiating himself and providing something that other coffee shops / producers don’t offer. He realized that there was a lack of supply where people had a demand, so he filled it.
Deathwish is a brand I have heard so much about and i can see where the success is coming from. We are at a period of time where people seem to be shifting back from buying their Covfefe at big chains like Starbucks back to smaller coffee shops and making your own at home. Mike’s brand definitely has room to grow!