We were lucky to catch up with Jamin Butler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jamin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Our mission is and has always been to unify, teach, and reach people in a way that promotes growth and sustainability in areas that have traditionally been inaccessible.
Our story is one of mold breaking and boot strapping. Who we are today, is undoubtedly due to our environment. But is that not true for everyone?
So, what is our story? We come from single-parent, inner city homes where hustling was a large part of the culture, and a micro-form of Social Darwinism ruled the neighborhood. As we navigated adolescence and prepared for a better world outside of our norms, we held close the lessons learned and dreams deferred, until it was our turn to leave a mark. As life-long friends turned college buddies, and eventually business partners, we noticed how much time we spent enjoying our lives and looking for the next opportunity to celebrate one another. While this was earned behavior and well within our means, it was unfulfilling in the sense that deep down inside, we knew there was more. We had achieved some level of success, but we weren’t looking back. Where were those lessons and dreams that we used to change our situations? How had we lost sight of all the difficulties we faced, simply because we had passed them? Our mission became our lifestyle, and our passion fueled our related endeavors. By meeting the people where they are and demonstrating collective economics with our business model, we aim to bring them along the journey while empowering them to do more.
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?
It all started on a 2015 trip to the Motown Museum in Detroit, MI where we learned how Berry Gordy’s parents worked together to create a self-sustaining family investment fund. This fund not only provided business startup capital for all family members, it provided the funding necessary for Berry Gordy to launch his Motown record label. For us, this was a divine moment of inspiration. We began to pull our resources together and learned all we could about investing so that we could become a vehicle for empowerment within our own community.
We began as high school friends and grew into lifelong brothers, proudly walking the halls of the great Xavier University of Louisiana together. Over the years through our travels and adventure, our ambitions grew and our focus shifted to protecting the family collective, creating a legacy. We finally had a blueprint for our next endeavor. We would learn all we could about investing so that we could become a vehicle for empowerment within our own community. “BackPack Investments” was born. This investment club would allow us to put our money where our mouth is, learn the ropes, and share knowledge.
After three years building, spending hundreds of hours in meetings and conference calls, growing our investment fund, pooling our financial resources and career experiences …. we launched our business, “The Black Coffee Company” in 2018 with the freshest organic coffee beans and #BlackCoffeeCo branded merchandise as a way to create resources and opportunities for our communities.
The Black Coffee Company has allowed us to leverage our collective capital, cultural experiences, and networks, to create a self-sustaining enterprise that sells organic fair trade coffee beans, branded merchandise and apparel, and ultimately, lifestyle. Through this enterprise we direct a percentage of all profits to our educational fund, which provides high-impact educational and financial resources for minority youths within our local communities.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The Black Coffee Company has been around for six years, thanks to our resiliency. We started with an idea while drinking coffee, which lead to a two-week research project and feasibility study. Once complete, we set out to create something for the people that would also be of the people. As our success grew in online sales and farmers’ markets around country (L.A., Seattle, Va, Ga, Texas), we were presented with an opportunity to solidify our presence and establish our flagship brick and mortar location in Atlanta, GA. Black Coffee had established a core following and even caught the eye of several big-name influencers, lending credibility to the brand. It wasn’t until the lease signing and the space build-out that we realized that we would need loads of money to get everything accomplished. We applied for special programs and sought money from friends and family through structured promissory repayment programs. We interviewed contractors and worked through permitting, licensing, and legal/compliance requirements, all for the first time. We bootstrapped every part of the process, documenting along the way. At the end of 2019 in the middle of our build out, the Covid-19 pandemic shuts the world down. With masks on and unreleased (redirected) state funding, the co-founders of The Black Coffee Company set out to make our dreams a reality.
Black Coffee Atlanta officially opened its doors on June 18th 2021.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
The late great Nipsey Hussle was a driving force in motivating us to create the Black Coffee Company. His passion for bettering his community and his people inspired us to work together to create a space where we could thrive while being our incredible selves. Because of our late brother Nip, we understand that we are running a marathon, and through the ups and downs, the marathon continues. For aspiring entrepreneurs, our advice would be to trust the process, move at your own pace, and never skip steps. When you skip steps, you will miss the valuable lessons that you will learn along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theblackcoffeecompany.com
- Instagram: @blkcoffeeco
- Facebook: The Black Coffee Company
- Linkedin: The Black Coffee Company
- Twitter: @blkcoffeeco
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxR2gtG04LFenzF578VKM5A
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-black-coffee-atlanta-2