Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Xavier Alexander. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Xavier , thanks for joining us today. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?
I have to be honest—this is one of those questions I’ve started to answer more times than I can count, only to delete and start over. Every time I think back to my failures, big or small, I feel that familiar sting. None of it feels good. And yet, I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything, because they’ve shaped who I am today.
For me, one of my biggest “failures” (though some might not even see it as one) was starting a business from scratch. I bootstrapped Metric by selling anything of value I could get my hands on—most of it wasn’t worth much—just to buy a coffee roaster and get started. On the surface, when I share that story, people find it inspiring. And in some ways, it is. But what I often leave out is the cost—the collateral damage it caused to my marriage and family.
I never thought I needed to ask for permission. I told myself I was doing whatever it took to build a successful business. That meant living just above the poverty line while my wife shouldered the challenges of raising our kids largely on her own—especially during a time when postpartum depression and anxiety were high. I was consistent and relentless in my mission to build a healthy and sustainable business model… while neglecting to do the same at home.
By 2022, the cracks I had ignored for years could no longer be overlooked. My wife and I hit a breaking point. The years we spent building Metric had eroded the foundation of our relationship. It was then that I finally saw the damage I had caused—the kind that nearly ended our marriage. I went from seeing the world only through my own lens to understanding the depth of the hurt I had inflicted.
Since then, I’ve been doing the harder work: communicating more, listening more, and allowing myself to sit in discomfort without turning away from it. It hasn’t been easy. But in that discomfort, I’ve found my greatest area of growth. I’m grateful that we chose to work through it, and even more grateful to my wife for the grace she’s shown me—grace that many in her position would not have given.
Xavier , 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?
I’m Xavier, co-founder of Metric Coffee in Chicago, and for me, coffee has never been just a product—it’s a bridge between people, cultures, and stories. My journey into coffee wasn’t a straight line. I started Metric in 2013 with my friend and business partner, armed with little more than a used coffee roaster, a deep love for the craft, and the stubborn conviction that we could build something meaningful from the ground up. To make it happen, I sold just about anything of value I owned to buy that first roaster, and from there, we went all in.
Metric is, at its heart, a specialty coffee roasting company dedicated to sourcing, roasting, and serving exceptional coffees in a way that honors the people who grow them. Our work begins long before the coffee reaches our roastery—we partner directly with smallholder farmers and producers around the world, building relationships rooted in transparency, trust, and fair compensation. We work with our exporting partners to pay sustainable prices that help ensure farmers can reinvest in their land, their communities, and their future.
What we provide goes beyond bags of coffee or café service. We see ourselves as both storytellers and connectors. Our cafés, wholesale partnerships, and consumer offerings are all built around the idea that great coffee should be approachable, transparent, and deeply connected to its source. The “problem” we’re trying to solve is one of disconnection—too often, the story of coffee is lost between farm and cup. We bridge that gap, giving our customers not just a drink, but an understanding of where it came from and why it matters.
What sets Metric apart is our commitment to the long game. We don’t chase trends at the expense of relationships. We’ve built a brand that values sustainability—not as a buzzword, but as a lived practice—in pricing, sourcing, and how we treat our staff and community. That’s one reason we’re proud to be a certified B Corporation.
What I’m most proud of is that we’ve grown Metric without compromising our values. We’ve been able to create a thriving business while staying true to the principles that got us started—quality, transparency, and respect for every person along the coffee chain. And while the business has seen its share of challenges, the fact that we’ve been able to keep going, keep evolving, and keep building stronger relationships at origin and at home is something that means a lot to me.
For anyone discovering us for the first time, I want you to know that every bag of coffee we roast, every cup we serve, and every story we tell is part of a bigger mission—to create something beautiful, sustainable, and deeply human in a world that often moves too fast. Metric is not just about coffee. It’s about connection, care, and the belief that doing something well is always worth the effort.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
When we started Metric, there was no safety net, no investor waiting in the wings, and no bank eager to hand us a loan. What we had was a vision, a relentless work ethic, and the willingness to risk just about everything we owned to make it happen. The first step was finding a coffee roaster, which at the time felt like an impossible hurdle. I began selling anything of value I could—furniture, equipment, instruments—most of it worth more to me sentimentally than financially. Every dollar went toward that roaster, because without it, Metric wouldn’t exist.
We bootstrapped everything from day one. That meant outfitting our first space with secondhand equipment, doing our own buildout with friends, and saying yes to every odd job that could help fund the business—consulting, training, pop-ups—anything that brought in cash while we got off the ground. We lived lean, operating just above the poverty line for the first few years, pouring everything back into Metric. My partner and I split the workload in a way that meant we could roast, bag, deliver, and sell the coffee ourselves without having to hire staff right away.
Looking back, it wasn’t glamorous. It was hard, exhausting, and at times felt like an uphill battle with no end in sight. But that scrappy, resourceful start shaped who we are as a brand. We learned to stretch every dollar, to problem-solve with creativity instead of cash, and to value relationships over transactions. That mindset is still with us today, even as we’ve grown far beyond those early days. Metric was built not on deep pockets, but on deep conviction—and that’s something money can’t buy.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think our reputation has been built on two things: consistency in our craft and consistency in our values. From the very beginning, we made a conscious choice to focus on quality and transparency, even when it was harder, slower, and less profitable in the short term. That meant being meticulous in our roasting, selective in our sourcing, and intentional in the relationships we built with producers, wholesale partners, and customers.
We’ve also been willing to share the story behind the coffee—where it comes from, who produced it, and what they were paid. In an industry where that information is often hidden, we’ve found that honesty resonates. People can feel the difference when a brand stands behind its work with more than just marketing slogans.
Over the years, we’ve earned trust by showing up—at origin, at industry events, in our cafés, and in our local community—listening as much as we speak. We don’t just talk about sustainability or equity; we try to live it, in the way we price coffee, the way we support our staff, and the way we treat our partners. I think that long-term commitment to doing things the right way, paired with a deep respect for the craft, is what’s helped Metric build its reputation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.metriccoffee.com
- Instagram: metriccoffee
Image Credits
Carlos Artalejo