Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonah Ott.
Hi Jonah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started in the coffee industry back in 2015, at the Starbucks in Stonebriar Mall. While I thought I was just taking a job to get through high school, I unknowingly started my career and found my purpose.
After 2 years under the influence of the Coffee Siren, I discovered James Hoffmann on YouTube. He explained coffee in such a beautiful way and made me realize that there was more to it than burnt beans and 12 pumps of vanilla. He inspired me to start my own channel, which ignited my passion for education. Near the end of 2018, I took a job as a coffee educator at a consulting company. While I was only there for a short time, I was able to round out my coffee knowledge and start thinking about what I would do if I had a business of my own. What would I stand for? What was my Why?
I then took an opportunity at a micro-roastery in Plano. I started by simply bagging coffee and making pour-overs for customers, but within 6 months I became the head roaster. I miss those days often, as I had the rare chance of learning something completely from scratch. Experimenting, reading, messing up, and growing. I also completely revamped their branding & marketing, grew their clientele, and re-wrote all their brewing recipes. While getting paid less than most baristas, I still approached the business as if it were my child, guiding it to success and flying by the seat of my pants.
On March 30th, 2020, while thinking the world was about to end, I started designing a fake coffee company to hone my skills in Illustrator. “Viewfinder Coffee Crafters”…no, I didn’t care for the acronym, as it matched the church I was attending at the time. Against my better judgment (as I knew how complicated it was to operate a roastery) I added the word ‘Roasters’…VCR. I scrambled and found my old Polaroid VHS tape. Feeling inspired, I played around with late 80’s – early 00’s branding, and it looked too real not to do. I told myself that it would be my reality in one year.
Once the summer hit, I had choices to make and ended up leaving to become the Head Roaster for a bigger roastery in Dallas. Even though it was 3x the size of my last job, I still took any chance I could to not only learn but leave the place better than I found it. Looking back, it was an amazing job. Great boss, great company, good work-life balance. However, there was still something within me that told me I needed to do it for myself. In February of 2021, I filed the LLC for Viewfinder Coffee Roasters. I had no real plan and didn’t know what I was doing. By the grace of God, I was connected with the guys at Moravian Coffee Roasters. By renting space and equipment at their facility, I managed to take the leap and start my business full-time. I roasted my first batch for VCR on March 31st, 2021.
It’s weird to think I have now been in business for over a year. I have a dozen shops around DFW, and even one in California, who proudly serve my coffee. I even have a couple dozen people that have a coffee subscription from my online store (and only half of them are family members). Just in the last 13 months, I have assisted and consulted with opening 5 concepts, all without compromising the values I founded the company upon; to create excellent coffees, support communities, and exemplify positivity & transparency.
Our next step is to open our café & roastery, in a way that hasn’t been done before.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In general, operating a business is hard, especially by yourself. The financial stuff is practically the bane of my existence. If I could just roast cool coffee and educate people without having to worry about invoicing & taxes I would do it in a heartbeat.
As you know, we’re big fans of Viewfinder Coffee Roasters. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Viewfinder Coffee Roasters is a small-batch specialty roastery based in DFW specializing in excellent coffees for cafes, restaurants, offices, houses of worship, and home use. We are proud of our efforts in transparency & sustainability, as well as connecting the Producer to the Consumer. We offer coffee subscriptions based on your need at viewfindercoffee.com.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
One of our founding values at VCR is supporting communities, both here in Dallas and in coffee-growing regions. We love teaming up with local businesses and collaborating with anyone who wants to positively impact others. If that sounds like you, feel free to reach out on Instagram!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.viewfindercoffee.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/viewfindercoffee
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/viewfindercoffee
Image Credits
Luke McDonald
