Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike McKim.
Hi Mike, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Enlisted in the U.S. Navy right out of high school. Received an appointment to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1992. Quit my first year.
Stumbled around at odd jobs trying to figure out what was next.
Found my way into the telecom industry doing telemarketing at AT&T then moving into selling fiber optic cable with an old high school friend. That business was lucrative during the dot-com build up in the mid-1990’s.
We took a winter skiing trip with our wives in late 1997 and went to visit my Uncle Carl at Agtron (the company he owns). While there, he asked us if we had ever roasted coffee before. We had not so he took us into the warehouse to show us how to roast. We immediately fell in love with the craft, bought his old roaster and shipped it to Texas where we started roasting in the warehouse where we stored telecom cable. We started a company and began selling roasted coffee to friends and family.
In 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst, we lost our jobs. Patrick went back into the telecom industry and I decided to shift my focus to roasting coffee.
I tried, unsuccessfully, to build a wholesale roasting business.
Not having a paycheck for ten months, I needed to look for a job. Fortunately, in 2001 I was hired by an espresso machine company known as La Marzocco and for the next five years, I sold espresso machines and roasted coffee in my garage on nights and weekends.
At the end of 2006, I quit my job and went full time into coffee roasting. Cuvee Coffee pioneered the 3rd wave movement in Texas. The business was built selling whole bean coffee to independent coffee shops.
In 2011, Cuvee pioneered nitro cold brew, serving it for the first time the Slow Foods Quiz Bowl in Austin.
In 2014, we were the first people in the world to can nitro cold brew.
Since then, the business has expanded from wholesale into grocery and retail, premium office coffee, online and expanded the line up to include complimentary premium coffee products.
The company continues to run with Mike & Rashelle McKim at the helm.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I always tell people the first 11 years pretty much sucked. While being a pioneer or first to market with a new product (like nitro cold brew) may seem exciting, there is an old saying that pioneers get all the arrows and settlers get all the land.
We’ve been impressed with Cuvee Coffee, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cuvee is most well known for sourcing the most delicious, sustainable, premium coffees on the planet and for inventing nitro cold brew. One of the biggest challenges with being premium, especially in coffee, is that there is a tendency for brands to be elitist and tell people the “right way” to drink coffee. At Cuvee, we’re constantly working to make our brand, products and people accessible to everyone, no matter where they are in their coffee journey.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Patrick Savarese: Patrick and I started roasting coffee together while we were working in the telecom industry.
“Uncle” Carl Staub, Agtron, Inc. Carl introduced me to coffee and has been the most instrumental person in my coffee roasting career. To this day, he is still one of the people I respect most.
Joe Monaghan & Kent Bakke, La Marzocco: Joe and Kent took a huge chance hiring me to sell espresso machines. Because of them, their mentoring and the product, I was very successful and the five years I worked for them I refer to as my coffee MBA
Rashelle McKim, my beautiful wife. In the early days, she respected that I had a dream, even when it didn’t seem to be working out. We have very different skill sets and personalities and we’ve learned to be able to work together and use those differences to our advantage. She’s had such a profound impact on the business in so many ways, including the blue bags which have become a huge part of the Cuvee identity.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@cuveecoffee.com
- Website: www.cuveecoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuveecoffee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CuveeCoffee
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CuveeCoffee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CuveeCoffeeSpicewood
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cuveecoffee
