We recently connected with Kevin Murphy and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Like a cartoon light bulb turning on, the idea for starting Tempo just hit us one date. With Covid-19 shuttering our favorite coffee shops, the summer of 2020 found Gee and I searching store shelves for cold brews that could obviate us making our own. Our own meticulous process was laborious, and we were feeling lazy; however, when we couldn’t find an equivalent product on store shelves, inspiration struck!

We were cold brew fanatics, the cold brew category itself was new-ish and was growing large enough to maybe support a small-batch craft cold brew brewery. Maybe we could launch that craft brewery?

The decision to actually do it took longer. What is the risk? What is the cost? Is it a good idea? To be or not to be?

Before we felt comfortable pressing the big green button, we spent a few weeks on homework to learn how we could mitigate risks through rock-solid standard operating procedures, along with limited liability incorporation and business insurance. We broke down our potential unit costs and surveyed the pricing of existing offerings. Finally, we concluded that while success was a longshot, the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in cold brew was too alluring to pass up.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

From the start, Tempo’s greatest differentiator is the craft quality of our cold brews. From the quality of the beans we use, to the filtration system we use for our water, to the all-natural processing we employ, we aim to preserve and highlight the authentic coffee flavors and aromas our customers love. When producing cold brew on a commercial scale, binary decisions have to be made between quality/quantity and quality/longevity; when we come to these cross-roads, we always err on the side of flavor.

We are particularly proud that we have managed to keep our prices competitive. Despite our small scale and premium ingredients, our customers can enjoy our cold brews at the equivalent of less than $1.50 per cup! Plus, we provide wholesale cold brew to offices, so now some of our customers get our cold brews gratis at work.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We self-financed the initial launch of Tempo and have used cash flows from the business to keep it operating. To fund Tempo’s growth further, we have benefitted from the Orange County Small Business Grant program as well the NC IDEA Micro Grant.

We recently experienced the analog version of tech debt coming due. Specifically, we had a key piece of production equipment break, cutting short production that day.

As we have grown out of our proof-of-concept phase, we have upgraded and upsized various pieces of equipment and brewing vessels to grow capacity. However, as most everything else changed, it was never imminently critical to upgrade this specific piece—until it broke. Which was inevitable. This thing was intended for intermittent hobbyist use, not commercial. And it was a drag. It was inefficient, costing us money in labor minutes that added up to hours. It was debt, and because we weren’t paying sufficient attention, we got caught at an unfortunate creek with nary a paddle when the principal came due.

We have since upgraded that equipment of course, while of course reviewing our production process and equipment for similar hindrances and risks.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We have never had an advertising budget, and have thus always heavily relied on word-of-mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tempobrew.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tempobrew/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TempoColdBrew/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tempo-brew
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tempobrew