What made my passion for coffee blow up

It’s now time to tell a little more about Spinn Coffee and the reason for INVESTHAUS involvement in the startup market.

INVESTHAUS has already five years of existance and even though the initial focus was real estate investments, personally I’ve always had an interest that was beyond curiosity in the startup market. In Rio Grande do Sul state (where I was born and raised)  there are some interesting technology parks, but my first connection to this market was in São Paulo, with  Endeavor and SP Ventures. At that time, year 2012, the startups market (like real estate) was super hot in Brazil, so it seemed obvious for me to understand a little more about this industry.

Knowing that our clients were less aggressive and their main investment were on real estate market, we realized it was only a moment for IH to learn, observe, read and understand startups scenario in Brazil. INVESTHAUS was not ready to "venture" in such way. If even the real estate market got us afraid for not knowing how the economy would behave after the 2014 World Cup and elections imagine thinking about startups?! We were not ready for that.

 Well, we did not take the risk at that time but there are things that we simply cannot avoid. With my moving to the USA, the installation of INVESTHAUS headquarters in Miami and the focus of IH USA in diversifying the portfolio of LATAM investors internationally, it was necessary to go beyond the real estate market. Even because this market is already on top again here in Florida, reaching prices above those before the crisis. Seeking investment solutions and studying the market I realized that there is in Florida a very embryonic startups scenario, similar to the Brazil, but with US laws, an obvious mentality incentive typical of the Uncle Sam’s Land, where "time is money". I started to look more carefully to this market because, despite its embryonic stage, it would have an interesting potential.

 As usual in the trajectory of INVESTHAUS, who knows me knows that I always say that IH is treading the famous entrepreneur‘s path, the so called "drunkard's walk". Our final entry in the startup market could not be otherwise : for serendipity, in a trip to NY where I met an interesting dutch entrepreneur : Roderick de Rode and his project to eliminate the traditional filter coffee machine, launching a new centrifuge technology in the market, which would turn the coffee beans powder and make delicious coffees. Making the sophisticated baristas coffee machines available to the general public, he made a comparison that I liked: nowadays, a good connoisseur of coffee needs the "Rolls Royce" of coffee machines, but as Spinn.coffee they would launch the "Tesla" machine.

 The conversation started casually but I believe both, me and him were open to new opportunities. When opportunities knock at our door is not always that they really are worth it. Since I have suffered many setbacks, I always take the utmost care. I say this because the conversation flowed very well and besides that, the startup was not as embryonic as I thought in the first minutes of conversation,  it already had a name: Spinn Coffee. And more than that, a whole designed and innovative business model as well as the principal: the technology developed. Yes, one of the key elements in the value proposition of this company is a new technology to spin the grain of coffee based on centrifugal power. They already had a patent granted in three continents - in 2009 Nespresso just got a non-exclusive license to this technology, which is the basis of the new machines Nespresso Vertuoline, which had just been launched in the US market: the "Americans" Nespresso’s , with its large capsules. The fact that they had both a great track record in the coffee market and has the patent technology, made me super excited with the possibility of getting involved in the business. However, at this moment we only exchanged contacts and commit to talk more via Skype, as both would make a demarche to check information and, if it in fact make sense, we would go on in conversations.

Actually we had a bit of luck (both of us) because all the information he had presented were true and the investment opportunity was promising, considering that  IH have a great interest in getting to work with startups and the fact that it’s a market easy to understand in South America: COFFEE.  Conclusion? For me and my business partners it made perfect sense to be evolved in this business.

When I say that Coffee is an easy market to understand for south americans, it is because in some periods of the 1980s coffee was the second largest commodity in the world. This figure is still widely cited, although imprecise for about two decades, due to coffee price decline during the product crisis in the 1990s. In 2003, coffee was the seventh most important agricultural export product in terms of value in Brazil and Brazil remains the largest producer today. 

That's how we decided to work with this first international startup. They, from their base in the Netherlands, had as a marketing strategy to launch the product in the US and in Europe, and maybe in a third phase in Asia. South America was definitely not on their radar. We were super excited for taking this opportunity to Brazil and other LATAM countries. Initially for investors and in a second moment to strategic partners, that could even be the same. So, after a clear understanding of investment, numbers and modeling investment, and after we structure our contract and presentation, we went to the market to get the resources.

The first great frustration on our road-show was the decision time of Brazilian investors, prompting about 120 days to diligence and formal proposal. The most agile said 90 days. The point is that the American scene could wait at most 60 days for the investment contribution. Although some Brazilian investors and two Colombians have evolved to due-diligence phase, time was running against us and we did not want to miss the opportunity of continuing involved in the project. If you ever worked with South American investors or is familiar to them, the end you can already imagine, right ? Not even a dollar came from LATAM, but from European and American investors. One of these angel-investors was Liam Casey , from PCH. Rather, his accelerator Highway1. That caused the change of Roderick to San Francisco and a few intensive months until they could have the prototype ready for DemoDay.

The development, from February until June - just 4 months - was extremely significant. And if you ask me what is the best part of all? I tell you that it’s to finally be able to experience a coffee made by Spinn Coffee! Anyone who knows me knows I'm extremely focused on results and, of course, by working with investments, much of that focus is on the bottom line. Seeing an idea becoming reality, a project becoming a business in fact, and you having the awareness that you participated in it, it’s one of the main goals that any entrepreneur can achieve. This fascinates me and inspires me to do more!

The machine, despite it being the first prototype presented to the public, prepared delicious coffees. It uses fresh coffee beans and can make from espressos, to Americans, french press or cariocas, at the touch of a button. Maybe you're still thinking, "Okay! Cool. One more coffee-maker that will end with the filter dirt and, probably, produce more delicious coffee…". Well, that's not of the whole of it. When we say internet of things meets coffee marketplace, it’s precisely because it has some more advantages. For example: you can control from your smart phone (which is connected via bluetooth to machine) your order, that is, you choose whether you want an intense espresso or a long American or, even more, if you want it to make an entire thermos for your colleagues in the office! Isn’t it amazing? Besides the machine shows all this technology, it features a clean design and transparency portion at the top used to put the coffee beans which make it very charming.
 
Well that's not all... I still have more details to share about Spinn. The business model that they managed to create. Spinn have a system integrated to the online market: the consumer will have access to different roasters/coffee brands. Have you ever thought to be able to request from Juan Valdez, Suplicy or BlueBottle at your home or discover a bunch of fantastic local roasters?! And the best: you will not even need to make new orders, because as you do the first - and the system has already registered your credit card -, by being smart, the machine makes the same request for you when it realizes that the grains previously requested have been almost completely consumed and are close to running out.
 
Ultimately, for true coffee connoisseurs is still being developed an application 'Vivino' style, where you have access to critical comparison and hanking of the best coffees.
 
I don’t know if I could make myself clear on the reasons why I fell in love with Spinn Coffee and why I’m still so involved with this startup. But I hope so, because for me- that have been participated on all this step-by-step - it’s very clear to understand the potential of this product to the market and the indeed redefinition of the coffee market, being a new revolution after the business model of the capsules (Nespresso , etc.). And the best:extremely 'green', sustainable.
 
Now we are in a new investment funding phase with an investment vehicle for non-US investors. Maybe we will be able to insert some Latam investors in this round ! Fingers crossed. Soon I will share more with you about th next chapter of "Spinn novel".