Gefen Skolnick, Founder and CEO, shares her journey founding Couplet Coffee, an LGBTQ+ and woman-led lifestyle brand that aims to make specialty coffee less pretentious and more accessible.
After graduating from Santa Monica College, Gefen went on to study Computer Science and Linguistics at UCLA with the goal of founding her own AI startup. In 2020, she took a semester off from her studies to work at Tesla in the Bay area.
When the Covid pandemic hit in March that year, Gefen used it as an opportunity to reflect and came to the realization that even though she had one of the most sought after roles in tech, she wasn’t entirely happy. While continuing her studies at UCLA, Gefen started to explore a startup concept focused on a cup of coffee. She shares that coffee has always been her love language and escape from work and school.
Gefen decided to launch a new venture after graduating from UCLA at the end of 2020. She started posting about her process of figuring out how to go from 0 to 1 for her startup idea on social media, which led to building her personal brand.
At the beginning of 2021, Gefen decided to take the leap and founded Couplet Coffee, a specialty coffee and lifestyle brand. From the start Gefen wanted to make sure that they were building something that was inclusive and fun. The coffee industry is a crowded market and there are many reasons why someone would choose not to start a coffee company, but Gefen saw an opportunity for innovation within the market.
Although coffee as a core product is something that is popular, Gefen approached the market differently by reinventing coffee and how it was branded. Couplet Coffee bridges the gap between coffee snobs and people who just like good branding.
Since launching in 2020, Couplet Coffee has become the best selling product on Fellow Products Marketplace while being the youngest brand on the platform. That showed Gefen and the team that they have a really premium, high-quality coffee that people enjoy.
Gefen explains that they’re not reintroducing great coffee to people that are already in the specialty coffee community. They're just showing them that coffee can look very different and feel more inclusive. They have a really funky, weird packaging that somehow resonates with people. As a result, they are very much introducing a lot of people to specialty coffee.
Gefen sporting a limited-edition hat, would you like one?
Couplet Coffee also sells really unique, limited edition French coffee presses and mocha pots that allow people to recreate the same experience of visiting an independent coffee shop at home. Gefen shares that every coffee brand she’s ever encountered looks and feels the same. They use the same language, the same packaging, branding and content. In 2021, Couplet Coffee released a limited edition glass that looked like a tall beer can and had a really fun design. That glass ended up going viral because people had never seen a coffee company do something like that. Gefen had borrowed the idea from beer companies who had these really cool glassware with interesting designs and decided to try it for coffee.
Cow print moka pots, the coolest packaging with the yummiest beans
Through their differentiated branding, Couplet Coffee has grown to be present on 350 shelves. They are also active in the B2B market which they use as a customer acquisition tool. They do a lot of corporate gifting, sell to coffee shops, work on coffee programs with bars and restaurants, and host community events in Los Angeles.
Fresh coffee now available on the shelves of The Palm Coffee Bar in LA
How did you identify which cities and stores to approach and sell your coffee in?
Initially, Gefen wanted to target stores in Los Angeles that offer premium and natural products. However, over time she realized that in order to get into these types of stores you need to spend a lot of money on brokers. Gefen noticed from other founders trying to break into the consumer packaged goods industry, that you have to go where people are asking for you.
As a result, Gefen initially sold to stores in New York and Chicago where they found the most interest before expanding to Los Angeles where Gefen lives. They’ve since acquired a nationwide account with World Market in 40 states across the U.S. making Couplet Coffee available on 350 shelves.
Could you share some core strengths that have allowed you to build a brand that stands out?
Gefen has a technical background having worked as a software engineer and product manager at companies such as Hulu, Tesla and startups. She has been exposed to many different areas, and although she wasn’t the main decision maker in the room she had the opportunity to share input as a key player and help ideas come to life. In addition to her technical skills, Gefen also has a background in writing having authored a poetry book.
She believes that this mix of technical competency, the ability to manage an engineering team to bring a vision to life and her creative angle doing things in a wackier way, make her the perfect person to build Couplet Coffee. As someone who doesn’t come from the coffee industry, Gefen is free from bias allowing her to do things differently.
Although Gefen is respected by many in the coffee industry, she still experiences imposter syndrome as she continues to learn. She shares that her biggest strengths are her perseverance, ability to be scrappy and she has no fear of rejection. Gefen was a community college student before working her way into UCLA. She always had to fight for opportunities to get in the door. She applies the same attitude when it comes to Couplet Coffee. She wasn’t afraid to send a fifth follow-up email which led to them partnering with World Market. Gefen encourages people to keep pushing and get comfortable with rejection. As a Computer Science graduate trying to raise her pre-seed round she faced a lot of rejection. People were telling her to start the business on the side for fun while working at a full-time job. Gefen didn’t care about the rejection - she had a strong vision, was going to execute on it and nothing could stop her.
Gefen believes that Couplet Coffee’s key differentiators are its unique brand voice, colorful packaging and commitment to quality. Although they’re not a big brand yet, they have a very engaged social media following and a lot of people even recognise the brand outside of their online and direct-to-consumer communities. People know that whatever they put onto the market, whether it’s their coffee or their streetwear it will be of high quality. As a pre-seed startup that’s always tight on cash, Gefen is willing to pay a premium to make sure everything they produce is the best.
How big is your team and how do you recruit for Couplet Coffee?
Gefen has found that she naturally attracts people who understand Couplet Coffee’s identity and are already a part of their community. As a founder, Gefen gives her employees complete creative freedom. For example, when it comes to Instagram she only sees the posts when they are posted to the platform.
With the exception of herself, everyone else on her team is a part-time contractor. As they continue to grow and scale they will need more people to join on a full time basis to help with the operational and logistical side of the business. The team includes an account manager that looks after their 350 shelves, a social strategist and two design and marketing contractors. Gefen also utilizes her network of friends where she can - for example, her best friend owns an agency that helps them with their email and sms campaigns and has helped train her part-time contractors on how to build marketing emails. Many of her employees are Gen Z and come from diverse backgrounds, including minority groups and the queer community.
Gefen’s philosophy to recruiting is that she doesn’t want to hire people who are just like her, instead she wants to hire people with complementary strengths who resonate strongly with the brand.
Check out Couplet Coffee and follow their journey:
https://www.facebook.com/coupletcoffee/
https://twitter.com/CoupletCoffee
https://www.instagram.com/couplet
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