Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joey Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Joey , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The inspiration for the JoGo originated during my 2-year (solo) motorcycle expedition from Minnesota to the bottom tip of South America. While in Argentina, a family gave me a “bombilla” – a straw with holes on the bottom designed for drinking the loose-leaf Yerba Mate tea, made popular by the legendary Gauchos (Argentinian cowboys).
It was just after this journey, while working as an outdoor educator with my partner, Nick Yehle, that we had our aha-moment – could we use the sustainable and convenient brewing method of the bombilla, and apply it to the wasteful world of coffee? We discovered, however, that while the traditional bombilla’s filter worked with Yerba Mate, it wasn’t fine enough to filter out the smaller particulates found in ground coffee and would even get clogged. Nonetheless, we were stoked at the prospect of innovation on the horizon.
After our canoe trip, we got to work on making our dream a reality. Through countless trials and rigorous testing of various prototypes (in which we experienced dangerously high levels of caffeine), we finally attained a design that filtered out the grounds, didn’t get clogged, was easy to clean, and looked pretty dang cool to boot! We named our little 2 oz stainless steel baby “JoGo” and we set off to share this innovation with the world.
Joey , 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?
JoGo – Coffee and Tea Brewing Straw – is a patent-pending reusable straw with a removable micron-metal mesh filter at the base that lets you easily brew coffee and tea anywhere. It’s a zero-waste, portable, and convenient way to brew French press-style coffee with the ease of instant.
To use it, simply drop in a scoop of your favorite ground coffee with hot water, add creamer if you choose, stir, and enjoy! It’s the perfect companion for your on-the-go lifestyle.
It also works with Cold Brew, cocktails, or you can even remove the filter to use it as a regular reusable straw.
We’re also proud to say that we contribute 5% of our profits towards combatting climate change and supporting Indigenous Communities in their fight for their livelihoods.
JoGo is currently available for purchase for $24.95 on Jogostraw.com. We’re also also currently partnered with retailers such as Moosejaw and L.L. Bean, and have been featured in Backpacker Magazine, Food & Wine, Forbes, Roast Magazine, Kitchn, and many more major publications.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my business partner, Nick Yehle, while we were working as wilderness guides and taking groups on canoe and backpacking trips around the US and Canada. On one of our trips, we were leading a group 8-12 year olds on a 7-day canoe trip in Ontario, and so needless to say, we couldn’t get enough caffeine. Having tried each and every way to brew a cup of joe, we found them to be bulky, expensive and time consuming, and wasteful. One day, while we were pulled over on an island with the kids eating lunch, we had our aha-moment – what if we could bring the quality of French press-style coffee to the convenience of instant?
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Nick and I started building the company while we were both still in college and working as wilderness guides – and so in other words, we had very little cash and were bootstrapping everything. A few months after graduating we launched on Kickstarter with the goal of raising $10,000 to fund our first order. Honestly, I was nervous that we would hit that in 30 days, but we ended up surpassing our goal in under an hour! By the end of our 30 days, we had raised nearly $400,000 from 10,000 backers around the world, making us the third most-backed Kickstarter of all time in the coffee/tea category. Back
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Contact Info:
- Website: jogostraw.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jogostraw
- Facebook: facebook.com/jogostraw
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jogostraw
- Twitter: twitter.com/jogostraw
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvSHC5TWK-3p_azzMKERhAA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jogostraw
Image Credits
Nick Larson Jesse Males