It's January, which feels like a reasonable time to be honest about everything we messed up in 2024. Some of these were obvious in retrospect. Some we still wouldn't have caught if our customers hadn't told us.
1. The first packaging didn't have a valve.
Freshly roasted coffee outgasses CO₂ for two to three weeks. If you bag it without a one-way valve, the bag either inflates like a pillow or splits at the seam. We learned this the hard way with our first 400 bags of Ambición. We're still apologizing to the early customers who got a coffee-scented confetti explosion when they opened theirs.
2. We priced by weight, not by lot.
For our first six months, every coffee on the menu was the same price. That made sense for SEO and customer expectations. It made no sense for our farmers, because some lots cost us twice as much to source as others. We were either undercharging for the best lots or overcharging for the simplest ones. Now every coffee is priced to its true cost. Some are $11, some are $25. Both are fair.
3. We forecasted demand from January data.
January is the slowest month for coffee sales. We took January 2024 and projected from it, ordered green coffee accordingly, and sold out of three lots by April. The customers who bought in for the first time and got "sold out" on their second order — we know we lost a lot of you. We have actual seasonal models now.
4. We assumed people would read the brewing guide.
We wrote a beautiful three-page guide explaining ratios, grind size, water temperature, and bloom timing. About 2% of customers read it. The rest were brewing our coffee like Folger's and wondering why it tasted like dirt. Now we print a 30-word summary on the back of every bag. "15g coffee, 250g water, 4 minutes. That's it."
5. We didn't visit farms enough.
We told ourselves we were a small team and the flights were expensive. We were wrong on both counts. The trips we did take taught us things we could not have learned in any other way. We're going to Caldas four times this year.
