Man Sells $1,400 in Coffee to Neighbors with NextDoor App

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hello and greetings and welcome. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. Fun fact, did you know that today is National Blueberry Popsicle Day? True story, I don't know what that's quite about, but there you go. Also, and perhaps more relevant, do you know the Next Door app?

There's an app called Next Door you can download, and this is basically a social network of people who live in close proximity. So it's a social network for your neighborhood. And this app isn't really designed for e-commerce or for marketing in any way, but today's story is really creative because it's about a guy who uses that app to connect with his neighbors and sell a lot of coffee to them. This is coffee that he learns to roast himself after nearly burning down his apartment. And to continue the theme of creativity, this is actually the second time on the show that someone has written their own script and sent it in.

So he didn't just nominate himself, he wrote the whole story. And obviously we went through and edited and revised some things, but for the most part, it's all his. So well done on the creativity for that as well. And I will bring you his story in just a moment. [Music]

A lot of coffee roasters creep slowly into roasting after years behind the counter as a barista.

But Mark Beauregard's journey to roasting is much different. He fell head over heels for this trade in an instant aha moment, staring into a coffee cup while reading the hundred dollar startup at a cafe. Mark decided he needed to learn to roast coffee immediately. After applying at a few top cafes in his area and hearing things like, well, we can't just hire you as a roaster, we'll give you a few years as a barista first. And okay, you can start tomorrow just packing coffee bags.

He decided this wasn't his way in. He wanted to roast coffee tomorrow. He may have been heavily caffeinated, but he knew he had to take matters into his own hands. And instead of trying to start a big business, he would start a side hustle. He would forego the expensive rent for a top dollar brick and mortar cafe downtown and open an online based coffee subscription box.

The goal would be to teach people about coffee and how to reinvent their morning ritual day after day. Mark started with trying to roast coffee at home and this didn't go super great. He was soon setting fire alarms off throughout his building and smoking out his neighbors. He was roasting coffee, but poorly. Eventually the home roasting became too much and he even got evicted from his apartment after his landlord had had enough.

Mark notes that the landlord was not a coffee drinker. Presumably he found some other place to live. He didn't mention that in his notes, but what started as buying 10 pound bags online, roasting them in his bedroom, quickly blew up. He found a massive industrial roaster where he could rent space by the hour. So he went from buying those 10 pound bags online to stacking huge 150 pound bags of coffee, driving them across the Oakland bridge in a van.

By this point, he had actually started that coffee box subscription model and he also secured several wholesale and retail accounts. But here's what I wanna focus on today. Mark's biggest breakthrough came when he created an account on a social media network. Nope, it's not Facebook, it's not Instagram. This network is a more intimate one called Nextdoor.

Nextdoor is focused on connecting neighbors and because Mark lived in a densely populated area, there were more than 8,000 homes nearby that showed up on his app. After carefully observing the nature of the channel and how people used it to communicate, he put up a casual subtle neighborly post about fresh roasted coffee. He made sure to not make it too salesy and he titled it extra fresh coffee I roasted. By the end of the weekend, he had sold over $1,400 of coffee using this method. He was also able to meet his neighbors face to face and establish real human connections.

Brief conversations and one pound orders turned into long conversations and five pound orders. People came back for more. They ordered online, they subscribed. A whole new market existed that wouldn't have been tapped if it wasn't for that one casual post. Mark's Hustle, Bedfellow's roasting company is currently relocating to Encinitas, California, a laid back surfing town just north of San Diego.

Mark plans to surf most mornings and continue to roast all the coffee himself. At some point in the future, he might add one or two employees, but for the most part, this is exactly what he hoped for. [Music]

Okay, so the Next Door app is a hyper-local social network designed to connect physical neighbors. You can learn about issues of shared concern, safety, new stores or restaurants that are coming to the area. And it can even be used for community organizing in advance of town hall or city council meetings.

Now nowhere in this description does it say you're supposed to use it to sell to your neighbors, but obviously Mark got a little creative. I don't think he could do it this way every week. Like the novelty would probably wear off and people would realize what he's doing. But as a launching pad or a proof of concept experiment, it was perfect. So I kind of wonder what else you could do this with.

Like it wouldn't work for every product or service, but something like coffee is ideal. And it could probably be lots of other things too. So if you try it or if you know someone who does, let me know and we can follow up on it. As we saw in the story, it wasn't just about selling. Mark also got to establish relationships with his neighbors.

People enjoyed it. They came back for more. So creativity in these kinds of projects is something I really love to see. And just because there is no obvious money-making model from a particular app or social network or other means of connecting, doesn't mean you can't figure something out like Mark did. [Music]

As you know by now, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes, including links to Bedfellows Roasting Company and the Next Door app are online at sidelskool.com/245. I hope you're having a good day wherever you are. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Sidelskool. [Music]