We were lucky to catch up with Todd Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.
Todd, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?
One of the things I see in the coffee business, not just mobile coffee but all coffee, is the tendency to offer highly complicated, time consuming sugary coffee drinks, with things like whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, even sprinkles. That’s all fine and good. People like it. I strongly believe that the coffee should speak for itself. My offerings are simple, straightforward and super consistent. In my first summer ‘on the road’ i worked a really big festival. There were probably 10k ppl there. We were swamped the entire 3 days. The wait times were long. I was frustrated. The customers were frustrated. I realized I needed to simplify things. From that day on, we focused on simplicity and quality. The types of events I do require that I be as efficient as possible without sacrificing quality.
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?
I spent 25 years in the corporate world. I went from entry level to the C-suite during that time frame. The last 10 years of that journey was as an executive. While I learned a ton about business management, the actual environment was less than ideal. It was draining me and ruining my health, literally. I decided I wanted to do something a little more authentic and a lot less corporate. I thought about it a lot. I did a whole bunch of research. I talked to a lot of close friends. And I somehow landed on a mobile coffee shop or coffee truck. I wrote a business plan and away I went. It was for sure a crazy idea. But it worked. I get asked about differentiation a lot and I always come back to the same thing; simplicity. When I started, there weren’t a whole lot of coffee trucks out there; just a handful. There’s quite a few more these days. I think what Moonstone does differently is that we specifically focus on not overcomplicating things. There’s a tendency in coffee, these days, towards super sweet, dressed up stuff. That’s not our thing. For one, it takes too long to make and we have to be as efficient as we can be with the type of events we typically do. Then there’s all the extra stuff you have to carry around in a little trailer. But more importantly, I think it takes away from the actual coffee. Simple coffee done really, really well. That’s our philosophy. Just be real. Simple is beautiful.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Well, the coffee’s pretty good of course. I spent a lot of time talking to local roasters before launching. If this was going to work according to the plan, the actual coffee had to be exceptional. Average or even slightly above average wasn’t going to cut it. It had to be exceptional. I sampled, talked to and/or visited about two dozen local roasters. And then I found the one I’d been looking for. It starts with the coffee. It has to. Beyond the coffee though, I’ve developed really good relationships with the event organizers, business owners, etc. whom I deal with. Hopefully they would tell you the same thing but I will go out of my way to make sure they’re taken care of and I always do my best to represent them well at their events. Having a solid group of these folks who repeatedly call on me when they need some exceptional coffee, on site, has been a key factor in building the Moonstone reputation.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I started out, it was mainly a weekend thing. I was pretty convinced, from all my research, that I could make this successful just working weekends. I think technically that’s still true, but the problem is that we live in the REAL world. It took me a while to realize that even if I did everything right in picking and choosing events / locations / dates, etc. that there was always the ‘reality’ factor that I couldn’t control – mainly in this business that means weather. But it can also be people sometimes too; cancelling events, poor placement, poor promotion. It can be equipment failure sometimes too. It happens and you have to deal with. But when you’re down, you’re down. There’s no second chances. I learned to hedge my bets and limit my weekend risk by finding better weekday events and locations. So now, by the time the weekend comes I have a pretty good buffer against the downside risk of an event going ‘south.’ What’s more, if everything goes well, then I’m way ahead of where I need to be. Yes, I work more than maybe I had planned. I don’t mind that so much. I have a pretty fun job.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moonstonecoffee.com
- Instagram: @moonstonecoffeeworks
- Facebook: @moonstonecoffeeworks
Image Credits
Kylie Brockk FleaFest Medina Kaitlynn Wish