Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Fountain.
Hi Jill, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started working in coffee in Colorado in 2006 as a barista and lead trainer. I’ve always been mechanically minded. As a kid I would take things apart and figure out how they worked, and by the time I was a teenager I started working on my own truck. So, I naturally found myself fixing equipment in the shop.
At the time, there wasn’t a clear path to becoming an espresso machine technician, so much of what I learned came through hands-on experience, calls to tech support, and curiosity. I quickly realized that just knowing how to fix something wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to understand how it worked and why it failed. Learning electrical troubleshooting turned into staying up late deep-diving into YouTube videos about Ohm’s law and reading books about the discovery of electromagnetism.
That curiosity and persistance has become a defining part of how I approach my work, as well as a major pillar of our company culture.
That path eventually led me to build Macchinisti in Austin. Over the past decade, it has grown from a small service operation that I ran out of the back of my truck, into a team of people I am proud to work with. A big part of my journey has been figuring out not only how to build a sustainable business, but how to build the kind of company I wanted to work for—one centered around integrity, technical excellence, continued learning, and creating a real career path for technicians.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When you set out to do something you love and decide to work for yourself, one of the challenges you discover is that the skill you’ve spent years developing becomes a small part of what you need to know. You have to throw yourself into learning accounting, hiring, managing people, sales, marketing, contracts, systems, and all of the pieces that keep a business running. There is a difference between being good at your craft and knowing how to build a business around it. Much of it you end up learning as you go. I’ve found that hiring experts can be helpful, but no one will ever understand your business as deeply as you do.
It would also have been hard to anticipate how challenging it is to be a female business owner, especially in a technical, male-dominated industry. It is talked about frequently, but it only became real for me when I experienced how you can be the most knowledgeable person in the room and still watch someone look to the male beside you for authority.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Macchinisti?
The word Macchinisti is Italian for engineer, mechanic, or machinist—but it also has roots in coffee. Early espresso machines were essentially upright boilers heated by a flame, and operating them required manually managing steam pressure to keep the system stable. Baristas were once required to hold certifications similar to train engineers. That intersection of machinery, craftsmanship, and coffee is exactly why we chose the name Macchinisti.
At Macchinisti, we sell, service, and repair espresso and coffee equipment, but we’ve always seen ourselves as more than people who replace parts and turn wrenches. We’re craftsmen, coffee enthusiasts, and engineering nerds, but our hearts are in the coffee community.
My cofounder, Michael Wilkins, and I started Macchinisti a decade ago, literally working out of the backs of our trucks. We both came from deep roots in coffee and believed that a service company could be something more—a true partner to the people building cafés and coffee businesses. Michael has since retired, and I now own and lead Macchinisti, carrying that original vision into its next chapter.
That philosophy still drives us today. Whether we’re helping someone choose equipment for their first café, or troubleshooting a machine in the middle of a busy service, our goal is to use our specific skill set to support a community we genuinely care about. That’s what I’m most proud of about Macchinisti: we’ve grown considerably from those two trucks, but the reason we do the work hasn’t changed.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something people might be surprised to know is that I left home at 16. I think that shaped my ability to be comfortable with discomfort and uncertainty. I’m willing to step into something I don’t fully understand yet, ask questions, make mistakes, and stay with it until I figure it out. That willingness has taken me pretty far. Furthermore, I’ve always been pretty candid with myself about what I know, what I don’t know, and what might just be a story that people tell. My path certainly wasn’t the most direct one, but I think it ended up being a much more interesting one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://macchinistiatx.com
- Instagram: @macchinistiespresso
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/macchinistiespresso
