A great morning routine often involves a warm, comforting cup of coffee; however, when you’re in a rush and have to be at work early, sometimes you end up sacrificing quality for convenience. Terra Kaffe is the latest direct-to-consumer coffee brand that’s looking to give New Yorkers peace of mind before they start their day when it comes to their morning brew. The startup’s all-in-one espresso machine brews coffee from fresh whole beans and guarantees no mess and no wait. The company’s inaugural machine, the TK-01, is more sophisticated than other options in the market and provides consumers the power to be their own baristas by allowing them to control all drink parameters.
AlleyWatch sat down with the founding team of Sahand Dilmaghani, Nenad Dickov, and Jon El Kordi-Hubbard to learn more about the origin of the company, its future plans, and how Terra Kaffe plans to wake up the masses in New York.
Tell us about the product or service that Terra Kaffe offers.
Terra Kaffe is a new D2C coffee brand. We’ve built a new super-automatic espresso machine that brews from fresh whole beans. No pods. No mess. No wait.
How is Terra Kaffe different?
Our flagship product, the TK-01, is an all-in-one device that features automated bean grinding, milk frothing, and cleaning. Many machines that are in-market require customers to purchase several other components separately, whereas the TK-01 espresso machine does it all, making brewing anything from an espresso to cappuccino as simple as pushing a button.
In addition, all drink parameters are customizable so that you can become your own barista at home. This customization puts the user in the driver seat to brew a cup to their taste profile.
What market does Terra Kaffe target and how big is it?
We are B2C and target all lovers of craft coffee, like cappuccinos and lattes. This includes consumers of almost all ages, but where we’ve seen the strongest resonance is with millennials and Gen X consumers.
What is the business model?
We sell our espresso machine direct-to-consumer to keep the costs down, thereby offering a product with best-in-class features and service at fraction of the price of competitors.
What are some businesses in the hardware and subscription spaces that you admire and why?
We greatly admire companies – like Peloton, Away, and Apple – that have managed to not only build extremely strong products, but also passionate customer communities around their brand.
What inspired the start of Terra Kaffe?
Terra Kaffe was inspired by one of our poor shopping experiences seeking a new espresso machine. We looking for a machine that would be a convenient fit for our busy lifestyles and did not want to resort to a pod-based coffee. But we found no suitable alternative. Terra Kaffe was founded with the ambition to offer people an option to graduate away from their Nespresso machines and conveniently enjoy the taste of freshly ground & brewed espresso coffee in the comfort of their home.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We will ship the first batch of product to customers, reduce lead times, and expand our team to ensure that we can offer our customers the white-glove service they deserve.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Today’s startup community offers copious amounts of advice on moving fast, testing fast, and failing fast. Although we understand and value this sentiment, we’ve benefited tremendously by slowing down a bit, especially in the early days, to better understand our customer segment on a personal level.
Today’s startup community offers copious amounts of advice on moving fast, testing fast, and failing fast. Although we understand and value this sentiment, we’ve benefited tremendously by slowing down a bit, especially in the early days, to better understand our customer segment on a personal level.
From observational research to deep-dive interviews, we’ve spent an incredible amount of time to truly understand our customer base and what they were seeking both on a utilitarian as well as aspirational level. A lot of the great insights we obtained didn’t come in the form of quantitative output; it came in the form of qualitative insights that played a critical role in how we positioned our brand.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
If we could meet anyone in the New York community it would probably be Gary Vaynerchuk. Our team is a big fan of his work ethic and tactical approach to brand building via digital channels and content creation.
Why did you launch in New York?
We were excited to come to New York and launch our venture here largely due to the talent pool, potential for partnerships, and the vast investor community. By getting into XRC Labs, an accelerator in Union Square, we have a great opportunity to run hard at building out our partnership strategy for premium retailers & showrooms across the city. New York City has an incredibly high density of well-branded companies and retailers that we are keen to work with.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Ooh tough one… favorite restaurant in the city is probably Artichoke Pizza. Can’t beat the taste and price for startups.
