How Blue Bottle Went From A Coffee Cart To A $700MM Valuation 

Why are people so suprised about $5 a cup? Hello starbucks, dunkin, even local coffee shops have beem doing this for years.

The creator of Blue Bottle is a real life squidward! (Clarinet, miserable at former job, his general demeanor)

The one dude says it's crazy to pay $5 for coffee but he has a Louis Vuitton bag lmao

New Yorker: 5 DALLAR COFFEE? WHAT?? Also New Yorker: *lives in NYC*

Don't focus on your competition, focus on your customer, this guy nailed it.!!!!

“And i hate myself perpetually “ ... “until i finish the cup of coffee”

That man seriously hold his cup of coffee up for the whole interview.

They ruined it when they mentioned nestle. Couldn’t possibly choose a worse company to be partner with

CNBC: “...and that’s a $5 cup of coffee” Graham Stephan: REEEEEEEEEE

2019 Business Model 1) Attach a moral goal like climate change, global warming, etc. 2) Make a minimalistic product which is basically the same thing in minimal packaging and less options. 3) Charge premium for no reason. 4) Show your company is exclusive but actually sell the same thing. P.S. Earlier companies would stand out by making different products and ideas nowadays companies just do the same thing but try to project themselves as standout e.g. Supreme

"it was a dead end alley way that smelled like pee" LMAO too real, sounds exactly like SF

Such an inspiring story. He took on so much risk at the start and believed in an idea that was not world changing and subtle. I have been to blue bottle and the price kinda hurt but the coffee was so good and honestly the brand is on point and their stores are beautiful.

...and not a single minute was spent on what made bluebottle coffee actually good

The reason why they were able to achieve what they have is 100% in the management. Anyone good mom and pop Coffee Shop can produce good coffee.

The whole of Australia is 3rd wave coffee. Unless you go To a corner store you cannot get anything less than $4.50

"Clarinetists don't accumulate a lot of wealth". Haha! Love the look on his face as he said that

This guy is so relaxed...sipping that coffee like martini

Lol why is this the first time I’m hearing of this brand 😂

Good for him. Hard work and perseverance paid off. I’ve had Blue Bottle coffee twice. I had to try their two main offerings. Absolutely delicious coffee. Totally worth it if you have it. I cannot allow myself to continue to splurge. I’m happy I tried it.

such an inspiration!!!! im proud of him. hope we can bring the world this joy with coffee

Pretend to care about the world, over charge people for basic things, and then sell to a giant. Great business model

Charges the same price as charbucks but the coffee is actually good. Sounds good to me.

Good on ya! Glad to see you followed through on your goal and the sell to Nestle was genius.

It was great to watch this. I’ve been a customer since their early days when they had a coffee cart at the San Francisco farmers market 20 years ago

He is so interesting to listen to. No corporate hot shot. No pretentious word salad Well spoken and a trained musician

Graham Stephen’s 20 cents coffee. Freeman conspicuously drinking his latte at his answer somehow made awkward moments. Lol. Funny.

Tons of value. Thank you!🔥

All I got out of this is that I could get decent coffee from roasting in my oven??

So, persistence & perseverance. In addition to believing in your work! All to make the world a better place for everyone to be in

Somebody knows it better, Graham 😄 You better make 700M than saving on it 🙈

Oh, we all knew that Starbucks over-roasted their beans.

Blue Bottle Coffee is still the best I've ever had in my life. Every time I'm in San Francisco, I get an almond milk latte at the Ferry Building and it always brings me back to my first heavenly experience with their coffee.

The guy is mad chill for someone who's clearly so obsessed with coffee. He must have broken the threshold and crossed over from 'coffeed-up speed-freak vibrating along with time and reality' to a higher consciousness where he is the conductor of those vibrations

As soon as they said he was convinced coffee companies like Starbucks over roasted their beans, I was impressed and want to try their beans now.

Simple, great quality, minimalism; all I wanted for coffee. I love it!

$5 for coffee is decent. Starbucks tends to raise its prices and they always over roast their beans. If blue bottom beans are still blended fresh w/ the high quality intact. It’s worth the price

Interesting. We been doing that in Australia for years.

I trained at the Blue Bottle head quarters in Oakland back in 2009… I learned the importance of Fresh roasted Coffee and the importance of the right equipment,after working for Starbuck$ for 7 years,I been buying green coffee beans and roasting my own coffee for the last 6 years, I’m very happy with the results, nothing beats the flavor of fresh medium roast instead of overroasted and old oily coffee beans.

Sold to Nestlé, so that's a no from me.

I’ve just started buying organic, single origin direct trade beans from the grocery store and online. Depending on how expensive the beans are my costs typically range around 25 cents a cup for the grocery store stuff and 50 cents a cup for the online stuff that’s fancier and has a roast date on it and everything. Blue bottle coffee is cheaper for you to make at home yourself, but even just the beans are really expensive and I can’t imagine they’re really that much higher quality

3:25 you know that lv bag is fake if he can’t pay 5$ for coffee “It’s crazy to pay. 1000$ for a lv bag when my homie sells them for 20$”

Dont come to Australia, you will lose alot money. Every corner in Australia has this.

If Blue Bottle will have a branch here in my country, I would gladly support it. The owner is so down to earth and he work so hard to create his company.

"I look to companies for inspiration, not competition" Nice👍

Thank you finally there's a company that gets this Starbucks and McDonald's coffee see the same to me they both taste just over roasted and burnt

He looks quirky and pleasant, I wanna listen to him in a podcast format

This is a beautiful story. I too have racked up and leveraged debt to make my business grow, and i know it is paying off as it is :)

I was heavy into coffee culture and worked at the mother ship of a big franchise for a long time and never heard of this company. I'm located in the Midwest, so it's interesting how cultural boundaries are even separated by state lines.

This guy sounds like he needs a jolt of coffee himself.

Blue Bottle deserves its success. Like any good chain, it is very consistently great quality in service, ambiance, and...coffee! For me, the defining product that demonstrates this is a a single origin light roast espresso shot. No milk, no sugar to cover up mistakes....very few places can get this consistently right and delicious, because it takes knowledge, skill, training and commitment to excellence.

James Freeman great achievement congrats and keep roasting

Tried blue bottle for the first time about a month ago. Life changing.

Even after being purchased by Nestle, they still taste great. I always love my consistently good cup from BB

I LOVE BLUE BOTTLE!!! Its worth every penny. I am also confused why people are surprised that a cup cost around $5 as other brands that are not good are around the same price.

I rarely have my coffee straight black but their pour over is so good that it doesn’t need anything else!

i love how hes so soft spoken

What a lot of people fail to acknowledge is that when they pay 5 dollars for a “cup of coffee” you’re also paying for the labor and research that went into making that coffee. The farmers in various ‘coffee countries’ (Ethiopia, Columbia, Brazil etc) put in so much work growing the coffee shrubs, picking the coffee cherries, separating, sorting, and washing the seeds from the cherries (coffee bean) which are then sold to different exporters around the world and shipped to many different roasting companies. During roasting there’s a lot of data analysis and variables (specifically temperature and time) that coffee roasters adjust and tweak in order to get the flavor profiles they want in their coffee ‘beans’ just right. Most ‘third wave shops’ will more commonly have light to medium roasted coffees which generally produce more complex flavor profiles with a lot of fruit and citrus notes as opposed to darker roasts which tend to lean more towards chocolate notes and overall less complex flavors. Then baristas that work in the shops are trained to make sure that not only do they know ‘how to make’ the coffee but that their palates are developed enough that they also know what they’re tasting in their drinks whether that be espresso or ‘regular drip coffee’. Granted, it’s disheartening that there are so many shops that open up for the sake of ‘looking cool’ but don’t put in any effort into serving consistent quality coffee, or businesses like Blue Bottle being bought by Nestle (which I feel is ultimately counterproductive and unethical for the coffee industry as a whole). But the next time you pay for ‘expensive’ coffee at a ‘third wave shop’ just remember that you’re not only paying for a higher quality drink, you’re also supporting baristas trying to make a living/career, roasters that are always working to provide consumers with better tasting and more interesting flavors, and most importantly, farmers in less developed countries that put in so much work growing coffee to support themselves and their families.

20¢ iced coffee. If you know where that's from...thats just wow.

I like that guy, and i appreciate his passion

This was an incredibly balanced short.

having worked at many top level coffee shops, my blue bottle experience was by far the best.

It’s sad they didn’t talk about what makes it an artisanal coffee. There’s another documentary where they show how blue bottle sources their beans.

I rememer when they popped up at the Ferry buil😊ding farmers market. I actually stood in line to get a cup and was rolling my eyes at how they slowly poured the water over the grinds. So nerdy! And expensive. But it was good coffee!

1:35 shows he is a true coffee snob. I love it!

Roger Sterling really knows his coffee.

I buy Ethiopian coffee for 6$ a bag. Why buy a 5$ dollar cup of coffee. 20 cent coffee makes you richer.

Just sold my first 5lb of coffee to a local shop here in Pittsburg KS! :D

😂🤭when they were like “cans starting exploding” and his reply was “that’s a sad one because the coffee was preserved magically.”😂😂😂🤭😂

Kudos to the founder hard work and consistency really pays off. I wish I could invest in this niche coffee brand.

Graham’s 20 cent coffee is the 4th wave of coffee, coffee for the rich (or soon to be with all the savings)

It would be cool to see an updated video on coffee trends post-pandemic

blue bottle coffee is great ive bought a can of it from whole foods a bunch of times. the quality of the coffee makes the price worth it.

Vs Graham ! 😂😂😂

5:06 turns out expensive coffee is recession-proof smarty

Excellent video, thank God for good coffee ☕

The subscription program is inspirational

"Semi expensive coffee is simply just not recession proof" Gosh she really predicted 2020 well

"I think it's crazy to pay $5 for a cup of coffee!"..... while wearing a $45 t-shirt =)

Insane valuation

Always enjoy Blue Bottle in NYC

I just came to know about blue bottle through this video

😮 That's an ANTI-GRAHAM video 😮

Great story!

I stoped the video to make my latte. Couldn't resist.

its shocking to see that most coffee consumers doesnt know how better freshly roasted coffee can be

Literally every comment is about Graham. Literally.

that logo....he nailed it big time

I am an avid coffee drinker and this is literally the best tasting coffee I ever tasted.

Sipping his coffee to the bank.

Never heard of this company until now . Dam 700 mil

I gotta have coffee NOW! Off to over-spend at Starbucks here at 5:32 AM. Stay safe and healthy folks.

I stumbled on this place in Brooklyn in NYC and found it to be amongst the best two cappuccinos IV had worldwaide, the other being the inconsistent 200 degrees coffee. Had no idea of the brand size. The taste is superior

The market will be divided among those who will always shop for high end coffee and those experimenting with artisanal coffee. The former being more prone to a recession and I think a higher percentage of this trend. It’s all hype and these models don’t survive imo.

I’m not a coffee snob but you get what you pay for. Personally I can’t drink the cheap stuff and would rather pay $5 for a good cup.

This is inspiring

Now i want to try this. Because the founder is a musician

The first guy complaining about price has on a Louis Vuitton bag 🤦🏽‍♂️

7:37 "Even Starbucks got in to third wave coffee" -The "barista" is spilling out all the water. LOL.

had a coffee once there in NYC. Was pretty good.

AWESOME