We recently connected with Michael Orlando and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

In the chocolate world I’m hoping that I will make some small impact on all areas of the cocoa supply chain.

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?

As a young child, I was always interested in science and nature and in general trying to figure out how things worked or how things were made. As I got older, I realized I enjoyed the creative aspects of art as much as I enjoyed the analytical aspects of science. My career history led me from being a marine biologist SCUBA diving to collect data for researchers to an analytical chemist analyzing unknowns, while my hobbies had me reading philosophy and playing percussion in a band.

After over 10 years of being a career scientist, I was lacking in creative outlets, so I started taking on new hobbies in my spare time–coffee roasting, restoring antique espresso machines, making cheese, baking, and eventually, during the process of building my own coffee roaster, I found chocolate making. I was hooked. The more I got into the chocolate-making hobby, the more distant my interest in unknown samples became. About a year later quit my job and with the little money in my savings became one of the only bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country.

What started in my kitchen with a pound of cocoa beans, a juicer, and a toaster oven, has now turned into a small-scale artisan chocolate company, complete with a factory stocked with obscure and in most cases, home-built or modified equipment, serving over 400 retail customers nationwide.

Fast forward 12 years and I have now spun off my homemade equipment ideas into its own chocolate-making equipment manufacturing company–Prefix Equipment Manufacturing (founded in 2016) to provide chocolate makers solutions to processing cocoa beans. I have also been working for the last 5 years on starting California’s first cacao and vanilla farm right here in Santa Barbara. Most recently, as of August of 2022, I launched (with two partners) a beverage manufacturing company–Jungle Beverage Manufacturing–spawned by a cacao-based drink that I originally got inspired to make in 2009, before I had officially started Twenty-Four Blackbirds. Finally, when I have the time (which isn’t as often as I like), I spend time in the microbiology laboratory I built into my chocolate factory to delve deeper into the biology and chemistry of cacao fermentation.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The initial capital to start Twenty-Four Blackbirds was essentially all the money in my bank account when I quit my previous job—approximately $8000. I was consistently and repeatedly denied funding of all types (minus credit cards, which I tried to avoid as much as possible). by banks and lenders. It wasn’t until COVID spawned the PPP SBA loans that I was actually approved for any meaningful amount of funds—which was 10 years after I started my company. I learned to be incredibly resourceful as a result of not having enough money, and that has now matured into a relentless motivation to continually achieve and push boundaries.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My reputation (I think) stems from my unending curiosity coupled with a very high attention to detail and strong work ethic. It is curiosity that drives me to think outside the box, and to incorporate small details into bigger picture ideas. This same curiosity is a constant source of joy for me—from experiencing the natural world to working on a new collaboration—that even despite all the ups and downs that running a business brings, always brings a smile to my face. I think that this part of my personality can be refreshing and motivating for others—usually when talking about some crazy new product idea I have. Backing up crazy ideas with attention to detail and the focus needed to bring them to fruition is I think the special blend that makes up my reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.twentyfourblackbirds.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twentyfourblackbirds/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Twenty-Four-Blackbirds-Chocolates-340750637791
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-orlando-735bb8161/