We were lucky to catch up with Jacob Feuerman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jacob, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
At the time I was looking to meet and network with other people who shared the passion for overlanding and backcountry travel while I was living in the San Fernando Valley. I had been told by many people that were running organizations that did meet ups that no one in the valley wanted to meet up and it couldn’t be successful.
I created the first event in a parking lot where we had 10 people show up. The second event the following month we had 25 people and it just grew every month. I met David Beas the Co-Founder at these first events. After a few months and we had grown significantly but we wanted to offer everyone who was showing up things that they’d find useful.
David asked the group what the wanted to see. Everyone said trips and trainings. So we partnered up with our first few overland companies and put on a winch and recovery training session followed by a mapping session. We had partnered with coffee companies to come to the events and provide coffee. At that point we were doing events every month with 75 – 100 vehicles and about 75 – 150 people.
The word spread and we got requests for more and more locations, and we grew organically. Throughout the growth we continued to provide free trainings (education classes) and trips to many locations for the people who showed up to the events.
Fast forward to today where we are across the US in many cities and states with lots of partners.
Jacob, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Rigs & Coffee was founded on the belief that outdoors, community, and a passion can create a movement. Our goal is to connect the community through connecting people with a shared passion for adventure, exploration, and the off-road industry. Rigs & Coffee started as a small group of enthusiast meeting for coffee. We are now a rapidly growing community that hosts events, trainings, trips, and clean ups.
We have always loved being involved in the community. We are passionate about bringing people together and getting everyone outdoors to share in the enjoyment. This led us to create Rigs and Coffee with the central idea of meeting the desires of the community and providing a space to share and learn together.
Our location partners assist our community in providing a “Home Base” for each and every Rigs & Coffee meet, as well as value in experience and products, and to spread awareness of our organization. Rigs & Coffee researches every location partner to make sure they match our ethics and integrity. We promise that we trust our partners, their products, and their services.
Our sponsors help provide the community the ability to have free access to information, training, publications, and events.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We have ongoing communication with all of our partners, location hosts, and community. We try to make it as easy as possible to find the information that everyone is looking for via our website, social media, or email list.
We try to respond as quickly as possible to everyone who reaches out.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
We have had challenges along the way. One thing people don’t always realize that Rigs and Coffee is trademarked and a registered entity. Therefore, all the Rigs and Coffee events need to be part of the larger organization in-order not to break US trademark law. So when we see events pop up we reach out to them and talk with them on the process to get the event under the larger organization or ask them to change the name if necessary.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rigscoffee.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rigscoffee
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/rigscoffee
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rigscoffee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rigscoffee