We were lucky to catch up with Claudia McMullin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Claudia, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers?

I wish I had the celebrity photo experience! The one I got with Cesar Milan, was a self-manufactured opportunity during the Sundance Film Festival where I basically showed up to an event with a bag of Hugo Coffee and stalked Cesar until I could grab the photo. :) Same with Martha Stewart!

Now, fast forward 10 months and it’s October 2020 – the year we lost all of our revenue overnight due to COVID. I pivoted hard and fast (by taking advantage of all loan/grant opportunities I could scrounge up) to DTC online and grocery from 100% B2B Hospitality. I certainly had no cash to spare. I was just trying to stay alive.

Then I received a random DM on my Hugo IG account and it was a fellow wanting to sell his coffee brand, Fluffy Cow Coffee, because “we had the same mission to save animals”. Fluffy Cow Coffee supported farm animal sanctuaries and Hugo Coffee supported dog/cat rescues. But, I agreed and thought “Why not?”. I love all animals. So I bought Fluffy Cow Coffee and now have 2 brands under the Hugo Coffee Roasters brand: Fluffy Cow Coffee and Hugo Coffee.

But, the BEST part of this opportunity is that I FINALLY found the authentic give-back model that I had been seeking! Basically, I hate the “We donate x% of [some random metric]” to animal rescue model. It feels like BS and I can alway give x% of nothing (e.g., profit). Fluffy Cow supported animal sanctuaries via online fundraisers. I LOVED this concept. So, Hugo Coffee expanded and adopted this approach for both brands.

Today, and since January 2021, we partner every single week with a specific, cash strapped, volunteer based, rescue or sanctuary nationwide for a weeklong, online fundraiser whereby I donate $2.50 for every item sold during the fundraiser to the beneficiary partner organization of the week! I love this for two reasons: (1) as a former ED of an animal rescue, I know that the work of animal welfare is done by the thousands of small, volunteer based, rescues/sanctuaries dotting the country, and (2) I know that our donation has an immediate impact on the animals! And starting next month, we will be doing 2 fundraisers every week! That way, we double our impact and outreach. In the future, we hope to continue to scale our give back in our quest to help eliminate animal neglect, abuse and abandonment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Hugo Coffee Roasters is a female founded & owned coffee roasting company whose mission is to save animals by selling fantastic, fair-trade, organic coffee nationwide. As you can probably guess, I am a mad animal lover. Always have been. In a former life, I ran the animal rescue, Nuzzles & Co. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t handle the origin stories of abuse and neglect. But, I still love animals. And, I love coffee.

I thought, “what if something we consume daily could be tied to animal rescue”? So I married my two passions, launched Hugo Coffee Roasters in 2015, and named it after my handsome rescue pup, Hugo. (I’m a foster failure). Why marry animal philanthropy with commerce? Because consumers today WANT their purchase of choice to reflect their values. And who doesn’t love coffee and animals? With Hugo Coffee, our consumers get exactly what they want: a great cup of coffee that helps animals. What’s not to love?

My vision for Hugo Coffee is to be the go-to coffee for animal lovers nationwide. And there are over 63M households in America that drink coffee and have a pet! So, I have a lot of work to do!!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

COVID, COVID, COVID.

When Covid hit in March 2020, Hugo Coffee Roaster was essentially 100% B2B Hospitality. All of our customers were hotels, resorts, cafes etc. And ALL closed overnight resulting in Hugo Coffee losing all revenue overnight.

I immediately contacted all lenders and received forbearance on all loans.

And, thanks to the Goldman Sachs 10000 Small Business Program, because I had learned that I needed to diversify my revenue streams and add verticals, I was in mid-pivot to DTC online/retail when COVID hit. This means that I was interviewing marketing teams, in mid-brand audit, redoing my website to add a more robust Shopify platform, and hiring grocery brokers.

With COVID, I double downed on my pivot. My job became to raise money – as much as I could and as quickly as possible. I became the queen of writing grants, taking advantage of every loan opportunity presented (including PPP, EIDL and others), and mentoring other small businesses in my same position.

And it worked. We survived and, ultimately, thrived.

Now we are faced with inflation, soaring raw material prices, and supply chain issues. But we will survive this as well because, as entrepreneurs, we MUST. We pivot, innovate, react as necessary to a constantly changing world.

How’d you meet your business partner?

In a different former life, I was an elected county council member for 2 terms. As chair of the Summit County Council, I sat on the executive committee of our local chamber bureau board. The chamber had just opened a beautiful Visitor Information Center in Park City with a lovely coffee kiosk. The coffee vendor/operator of the kiosk that first year, didn’t renew its lease. I thought that a travesty because I held lots of meetings there. But the chamber could not find any coffee vendor willing to take over the coffee shop. So, I went home to my husband and said “I can do that”. I bought the coffee shop. And I used the prior coffee vendor’s coffee exclusively as part of the deal. That roasting company eventually sold to a distributor. I knew that this would mean higher cost and lower coffee quality. I also knew that my original coffee vendor had a crazy talented roaster who was going to get super unhappy roasting lesser quality coffee “for the man”. So, I let him get miserable and 3 months in, I called him and asked him if he wanted to partner with me to start a new roasting company, Hugo Coffee. He said yes and we’ve been together ever since!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hugo.coffee
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehugocoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehugocoffee
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10571207/admin/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehugocoffee
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwVVlbey6JpmfE5m3YH7vyg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hugo-coffee-park-city-2?osq=Hugo+Coffee+Roasters

Image Credits
Cali Warner