Ep. 029 - Matt Greenfield, owner of QED Coffee

01/09/17 • 38 min

THE SEA-TOWN PODCAST: Interviewing Seattle's Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs

This week’s guest is Matt Greenfield, owner of QED Coffee. QED Coffee started as a wholesale coffee roaster and now has multiple locations in the Mt. Baker and West Seattle neighborhoods. They really excel at perfecting the flavor of their coffee through the roasting and brewing process, while also providing the customer with a great experience. Highlights From This Episode:

QED started in 2012 as a wholesale coffee roaster.
Matt met and partnered with Jason Venhuizen in 2013 and decided to put together plans for opening a cafe, which they opened in 2015 in the Mt. Baker neighborhood of Seattle. They just opened their second QED Coffee cafe close to the Morgan Junction in West Seattle at the end of 2016.

What do you love most about what you do? There are so many facets to owning your own business and since the gourmet coffee industry is only about 25 years old, there are still a lot of things to be figured out and not a lot of absolutes... So there is this aspect of getting to play with things and experiment with all the factors that make for a great coffee (different coffee beans, from different places, processed differently, different roasting techniques and brewing techniques... all have huge impact on the finished coffee's characteristics and taste).

So from the technical side of things, there are many ways to geek out over the roasting and brewing of the coffee but at the end of the day, it's just coffee that tons of people enjoy daily. He being able to simply make that connection with people by handing them a delicious cup of coffee for them to enjoy.
Matt also really enjoys serving people and making connections. They have their cafe's in neighborhood locations so they can be part of those neighborhoods and build the community connections with their regular customers.

Matt has a Bachelors Degree in Pure Mathematics and the name his business, "QED", is a mathematical term used at the end of a solved mathematical proof. It is an abbreviation for a Latin phrase, meaning "That which was to be proven"... which is basically a sign of completion (not to mean it is the best thing period, but rather that this is what they decided to show and share with their customers... this is what they wanted to do with these coffees). Matt gives a little history lesson on the relatively new rise in popularity of gourmet coffee and the "waves of coffee" trends.

There are examples of pockets across the nation (and in Seattle), that have been making espresso 25 or 30 years ago (before the rise of Starbucks brought it to the masses.
First Wave - Black coffee at home.
Second Wave - Lattes, Macchiatos and such (Italian made machines imported for specialty coffee drinks)
Third Wave - People started modifying the equipment to do different and customizable things.
While there are some places with high-turn over (more of a job) but being a barista and working in coffee is now a viable career option... and that is what places like QED, Stumptown, Victrola and Cafe Fiore do, where they have employees that have been there for a very long time, providing a wealth of experience and coffee knowledge.

What in your estimation is the difference between what creates a "this is just a job" environment vs. the longer term invested employee?

The management and owners need to create a culture that takes care of their employees and strives to understand the unique challenges that people in the service industry have (inconsistent hours/shifts, no-paid vacations, avoiding employee burnout, etc).
The engagement of knowledge - Providing employees opportunities to learn about the product, how it's made, tasting it, asking questions of them... so they are engaged in what they are doing, who they are doing it and how to best serve and engage with both the product and customer.

Summarized: Matt's vision for QED Coffee is to have a high focus to detail... both on the details of taking care of people; their employees and customers and the details that go into roasting and serving delicious gourmet coffee. One issue with the top 1% of quality coffee places in the country, are not enjoyable places to get coffee due to their pretension... the customer may not be familiar with how they are suppose to order there drink and the barista will be condescending and snarky that the customer doesn't order "right" or use the right terms... And QED Coffee will never tolerate this sort of attitude.

He uses the classic example of the "Carmel Macchiato" (which was popularized by Starbucks but is different then the classic Italian beverage) and how some specialty coffee sho...

QED started in 2012 as a wholesale coffee roaster.
Matt met and partnered with Jason Venhuizen in 2013 and decided to put together plans for opening a cafe, which they opened in 2015 in the Mt. Baker neighborhood of Seattle. They just opened their second QED Coffee cafe close to the Morgan Junction in West Seattle at the end of 2016.

So from the technical side of things, there are many ways to geek out over the roasting and brewing of the coffee but at the end of the day, it's just coffee that tons of people enjoy daily. He being able to simply make that connection with people by handing them a delicious cup of coffee for them to enjoy.
Matt also really enjoys serving people and making connections. They have their cafe's in neighborhood locations so they can be part of those neighborhoods and build the community connections with their regular customers.

There are examples of pockets across the nation (and in Seattle), that have been making espresso 25 or 30 years ago (before the rise of Starbucks brought it to the masses.
First Wave - Black coffee at home.
Second Wave - Lattes, Macchiatos and such (Italian made machines imported for specialty coffee drinks)
Third Wave - People started modifying the equipment to do different and customizable things.
While there are some places with high-turn over (more of a job) but being a barista and working in coffee is now a viable career option... and that is what places like QED, Stumptown, Victrola and Cafe Fiore do, where they have employees that have been there for a very long time, providing a wealth of experience and coffee knowledge.

What in your estimation is the difference between what creates a "this is just a job" environment vs. the longer term invested employee?

The management and owners need to create a culture that takes care of their employees and strives to understand the unique challenges that people in the service industry have (inconsistent hours/shifts, no-paid vacations, avoiding employee burnout, etc).
The engagement of knowledge - Providing employees opportunities to learn about the product, how it's made, tasting it, asking questions of them... so they are engaged in what they are doing, who they are doing it and how to best serve and engage with both the product and customer.

He uses the classic example of the "Carmel Macchiato" (which was popularized by Starbucks but is different then the classic Italian beverage) and how some specialty coffee sho...

Previous Episode

Ep. 028 - Ventures - Beto Yarce

This week’s guest is Beto Yarce, the Executive Director of the Seattle non-profit, Ventures. Ventures helps low income entrepreneurs start their own businesses, through micro-loans, training, mentorship, incubators and on-going support. They empower aspiring entrepreneurs with limited resources and unlimited potential to improve their lives through small business ownership. Highlights From This Episode:

Ventures helps low income entrepreneurs start their own businesses.
Ventures was founded in 1995 by Peter Rose after visiting Bangladesh and started it as a micro-loan program for underserved communities: People of color, immigrants, refugees and others who did not have access to capital to start their own businesses.
The big idea is to help eliminate poverty through self-employment & micro enterprise... providing a hand-up instead of giving a hand-out.
Over the years, they have transformed the organization from just providing micro-loans as a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) to focusing on providing training and education on how to start a business to more advanced business developing programs, technical assistance, coaching, incubators and on-going support.
How did Beto come to be at Ventures?
- Beto has been the Executive Director for 2.5 years but has been working with Ventures for 9 years.
- Beto was a Mexican immigrant 13 years ago and an entrepreneur who had a lot of ideas and dreams and was looking for opportunities to start his own business.
- He started his own business selling jewelry and folk art from Mexico at Farmer's Markets.
- He started volunteering with the Seattle non-profit group, Casa-Latina, because as an immigrant, he really understood the challenges of starting his own business in another country.
- After running his own business for 5 years and volunteering with Casa-Latina, Ventures contacted him to be the lead on helping them establish their Latino program (all the programs that they offer in Spanish at Ventures) and worked in 4 different positions at Ventures before becoming the ED.
- They currently offer their programs and training in both English and Spanish but no matter the language, the training is culturally appropriate for people of all backgrounds and ethnicities. They want to make sure to respect and understand the people they are serving.
The Ventures Process - Ventures gets most of their new clients via word of mouth from prior clients who have been through their training and started businesses.
- It starts with their free "Get Ready For Business Workshop" (GRB) - A 4 hour workshop explaining who Ventures is, why they exist, where they get their funding, etc. and they go over some basics on what it takes to start your own business and what the requirements are to qualify for their programs.
- Qualifications for clients (need to meet all three qualifications):
- 1. They have to be clear on ONE business idea to focus on (as entrepreneurs, you usually have a multitude of ideas for new businesses).
  2. They have to have some experience in the industry they want to start a business in.
  3. They need to be low income, according to the King County HUD Subsidized Housing Eligibility (currently it's defined as a family of three living on $24,400 a year or less - 30% of Area Median Income [AMI]).
- If they qualify, they can then apply for a spot in their 8 week Business Development Training (BDT) program.
- - When they graduate from this training, they have a business plan with their financial, marketing plan and operations plan.
  - While the training itself is great, it's also great to see the development of the confidence in the individuals in the training, as they also begin believing in themselves to start and run their own business.
- After graduating from the 8 week BDT program, they then have access to Advanced Services:
- - On-going support, coaching, legal clinics, advanced marketing, advanced operations, a 14 week financial management training program were they learn about both personal and business finance and the incubation program to help them test out their products, food or services business ideas.
  - They have 3 incubators for new business owners who graduate from their program (For 3 different types of businesses: Retail, Food and Services)
  - - The Retail incubator is a storefront located in Pike Place market, so the new business owners have access to markets where they can sell and test out ...

Next Episode

Ep. 030 - Brad Loetel, Co-Owner of West Seattle Cyclery

This week’s guest is Brad Loetel, the co-owner of West Seattle Cyclery, which opened in 2013 in West Seattle's Alaska Junction. After many years in the software industry, he decided to transition and his passion for cycling has driven his desire to create a bike shop which provides great customer service and gives back to the community. Highlights From This Episode:

After leaving the software industry, Brad managed a couple different bike shops in the Seattle area since 2009 and in 2013, an opportunity arose for him to open his own shop in West Seattle.
What do you love most about what you do? Working with the customers and he loves cycling... being able open the shop, he was able to put cycling back into his regular life rhythms.
Some bike shops have the reputation of not being very personable and it's ridiculous that a bike shop would talk down to or belittle their customers. With having worked on the retail side for companies like REI and Apple that are very customer service focused, he really saw the value and benefit of a business centered around the customers experience (very similar customer service values as Dave McCoy, owner of Emerald Water Anglers expressed during his interview on Episode 24). Brad is good friends with Reed, the manager at Dave's shop. They race together on the same cycling team and even helped bust a guy that was stealing from both of their shops (making it onto the West Seattle Blog).
One of the reasons West Seattle is so great is because of all the small businesses that give it such a "small town" and homey feel. It's not like the Eastside, where the majority of the businesses are owned by large corporations but it also makes it very challenging for West Seattle business to compete with larger corporations.
What was your biggest challenges when first starting business? Challenging his vendors and staff that their is a certain level of service and quality that he expects at West Seattle Cyclery. Also, with so many moving pieces in running your own business, it can be hard to stay on track and easy to get distracted.
What is your biggest challenge now? Competing with online retailers and companies flooding the outdoor market with "grey market" products (bike accessories being sold out the back door of larger companies at or below cost). Many times those "great deals" on online bike parts are missing pieces because they were designed to go with a specific bike... and the bike owner has to spend additional money on the parts it didn't come with to make it work and it ends up being a bigger headache and cost them more then it would of had they bought it in a local bike shop or from an authorized distributor.
What set's you apart from others in your industry? Great customer service, only sell bikes and accessories that are good quality that they stand behind. The bike owner/client knows what they are getting is going to be right for them, develop a trusting relationship with them and that they are supporting a local small business and supporting the community.
What is your greatest strength? Being able to adapt to needed changes... being agile enough to adjust quickly.
What habit do you wish you had ? To be better at asking a few more questions to get to the root of an issue with employee and vendor relationships.
What is a personal habit that contribute to your success? Being outgoing and nice to people... even when he is in a bad mood or things weren't going the way they should have been.
What boundaries have you setup to keep from being distracted by technology or other time suckers? Brad tries to be intentional about taking a break (for himself and his employees) from work to do something else for a few minutes to reset and be able to come back and focus on his work better... otherwise the work suffers.
What is the best advice you have ever received? Brad's dad and grandfather really instilled a strong work ethic and taught him to work smart and always do it right the first time (don't take shortcuts).
What is your one book recommendation for our listeners? "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman - Great for someone looking to create a business that is customer-centric.
Parting Guidance - "Get out and ride your bike 😉 ".