Today we’d like to introduce you to Carson Kidd.
Hi Carson, 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?
Moravian Coffee was started by three of us (Carson Kidd, Joel Agimudie, and Trent Howard). We all grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and went to the same high school. As childhood friends, we all went to the University of Oklahoma to pursue our careers. I (Carson) got a Computer Science degree, Trent got a Petroleum Engineering degree, and Joel got a Graphic Design degree.
With about a year left in college, we all came to the realization that we didn’t want to spend the next 40 years of our life going our separate ways working 9-5 desk jobs. We thought, what better time than now to take a risk and do something together that we are all passionate about. Relationships and connecting people was the thing that we landed on. From going to coffee shops most days in college, our love and appreciation for coffee was also growing. We realized that there is not a more relational drink on the planet than coffee, so we landed on a coffee company. We quickly learned about how experimental and scientific coffee roasting was, and as both engineers, Trent and I quickly fell in love. From the beginning, we have built our company on the idea of starting small and building up when we believe we are mature enough to. We started out by catering, moved to DFW to pursue coffee roasting, and are hoping to open up our flagship shop in the coming years.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. Business is HARD! We have had to walk through both physical and mental battles in our first few years of business. Right at the beginning, we had issues with our location that set us back thousands of dollars just to get up and running. We have had to learn that everything typically moves slower in business than you want/expect, and just the fact that working with others can be very challenging at times. All of us being in our mid-20s, we have also had to deal with people not taking us seriously, not seeing us as a legit company, or treating us lesser than just because of our age. All in all, these challenges have only made us stronger and better people and every single day, we are hopefully able to say that we are better than we were the day before.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The goal of Moravia Coffee is to connect the world through specialty coffee. As cliche as it sounds, we really shoot for two things: excellence with coffee and excellence with people. We are currently just a coffee roastery (wholesale and retail), and our engineering background has provided us to roast coffee to it’s highest potential and be able to interpret the data to back up that claim. One of our goals as a roastery is to roast coffee for everyone. Whether you are a 3rd wave coffee expert or somebody who just uses a Keurig every morning, we have something for you that will showcase what “specialty” coffee is and can be.
The long-term vision of Moravian Coffee is not just American but the entire world. We named our company after a group of missionaries (look up the Moravians to learn more) because of how much they inspired us. This is why we donate 10% of our all profits to different ministries and missions organizations. We have gotten to see our money go farther in countries like Haiti and Rawanda than it could ever go sitting in our hands or in our bank account. The long-term vision of Moravian Coffee is to open up coffee shops worldwide and act as both places to pay locals livable wages, but also provide missionaries with a means to move overseas, make money, get a visa, and have a space to operate out of.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
There are so many people who deserve credit in helping us throughout this process. First and foremost come all three of our families. All of our parents were very supportive when they could have easily been mad at us for “throwing away” our college degrees. All of our parents, brother, and sisters have been such a huge help to us both personally and financially. One of our investors, Phil Wiegers, also became a sort of business mentor for us and has given us so much priceless advice. We have one of the most supportive friend groups around as well. They have been so quick to help us at every single corner and have never complained in doing so. Last but not least, we have to give all credit to Jesus since he is the only reason we started this business in the first place, and he is the source where we get all of our ideas and inspiration. Without Him, we would have already failed.
Pricing:
- Retail Bags online from $14.99 – $17.49
Contact Info:
- Email: info@moraviancoffee.com
- Website: www.moraviancoffee.com
- Instagram: @moraviancoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoravianCoffee
Image Credits
Michael Ray Briana Agimudie
