What this is:
I send a weekly email that you should definitely subscribe to if you haven't.
Since we keep getting more people who are out of the loop. This blog is a place where they can catch up on the wins and fails of creating Flow State Coffee and stay updated on pre-orders.
Here is the first newsletter from 09/08 in its entirety:
Tomorrow Is The Day!
Hello my patient friends,
This will be a long e-mail because we have LOTS to cover.
The day we’ve been waiting for is almost here! I’ve been in touch with manufacturers for both the bag and the coffee itself and I feel confident that we can get Flow State Coffee to you in the next 6 weeks! So...
Tomorrow we will be accepting pre-orders!
The bags are the hold up. Due to Covid-19 they said it could take between 14- 22 days!
That’s the bad news. The good news?
We’ve streamlined the coffee manufacturing process from 3 weeks to 7-10 DAYS by aligning ourselves with a new manufacturer based in upstate New York!
This is kind of a big update and I’ll elaborate in a future post but the TL;DR of why we switched from Seattle manufacturer to NYC manufacturer is:
The coffee was great but to be honest their sales rep and customer service was really shit.
I’ve been in sales my whole career and there are sadly more bad actors than good ones. I typically just shut up and deal with them while shaking my head and trying not to go all Boiler Room on them. But this rep was a special type of asshole. Everything was always someone else's fault. He would need two e-mails between following up. I was chasing him down to give him our money! Initially he actually got our formula wrong! So many red flags but I thought it was just normal for this type of business.
I was always in the process of looking for a new manufacturer anyway because I hated these folks and when I found these sweet NYC roasters it was love at first call. It confirmed what I always knew deep down in my heart.
NYC > Everyone. In your FACE James Altucher. Not even gonna link to your stupid ‘NYC is dead’ article. I’ll link to Matt Tilison’s thoughtful take of him vs Jerry Sienfeld though because Matt is awesome.
The most exciting part about these people is they LOVE coffee. They have way more options for roasts and they are really enjoyable and dependable to work with! So we’ll be able to have way more options down the line and get you coffee faster while still being artisanal roasted, ethically sourced and fucking delicious!
After sampling EIGHT different roasts for this first run, we’re going to switch from a Colombian to Rwandan coffee. It’s triple-washed Kivu Belt bursts with ripe apple and citrus anchored by layered notes of brown sugar and the sticky sweetness of caramel, honey and marmalade. It pairs SO well with the cacao flavor and is genuinely more enjoyable than the other coffee so this is a huge win/win for everyone except that shitty Seattle rep. But fuck him.
So one more time for the people in the back: Tomorrow we will be accepting pre-orders!
Let’s cover three things:
I will be going LIVE all day (or until I feel like stopping) on Twitter starting at 8:30AM EST for the launch. I have a friendly new public facing Twitter account: @SFWGreg.
We are giving away a DREAM WFH COFFEE SET UP (under $400 I’m not a millionaire FFS) to one lucky winner of launch week! I’m excited about this. I know lots of you are stuck at home and missing fancy office machines so let’s see if we can help you out! All you have to do to be eligible is pre-order and you’re automatically entered into the contest.
We are running an additional giveaway with cool Swag prizes for every person you get to try Flow State Coffee.
“I never win anything. Luck is for losers. I am the captain of my own destiny!” You scream into this email.
Ok I get that. So for those of you who are great at spreading the word and convincing your friends to buy things (Me. I’m that person. I convinced my friend to buy a buckwheat pillow after reading this article by Nate Kadlac) we’re doing a really cool contest with Viral Loops.
You’ll see the page and prizes after you order and you’ll have your very own special magic link so you can track how many people you’ve personally gotten to join our fun little coffee cult! There are prizes for 1, 3, 5 and 10 referrals.
Anyone who can get 10+ people to buy this coffee will belong to a special ‘founders’ club, get a very special prize I’m working on AND will live in infamy on our ‘about page, for ALL TIME. You could also just buy 10 bags if you’re rich and lazy :)
Ok so i’ll let you go because I’m super stressed and have a million things to do before tomorrow. I cannot WAIT to get this coffee made and into your hands.
From the bottom of my (perfectly balanced blood pressure due to the raw cacao in my Flow State Coffee) heart. THANK YOU to all of you who have gotten us this far.
Tomorrow it becomes REAL!
-A very nervous and anxious Greg