Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Jackson.
Luke, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Years ago, I was talking to my Dad and he said something surprised me. He was talking about how he loved the idea of opening up a coffee shop that had regulars and getting to serve and talk to everyone who came through. My dad is a people-person (loves people), so I wasn’t surprised by that, but I had never seen my dad talk about owning his own company and taking on the thrill of that risk/reward. Fast forward five years – we had friends who were looking to renovate an old furniture store in Addison and wanted to sublease part of the space to an existing coffee shop. My dad and I’s conversation shot through my mind immediately. I knew that if we were ever going to do this, now was the time. Without thinking too seriously, I started researching the coffee industry in efforts to start writing a business plan. Although I had worked in specialty coffee before, I had no idea what went into starting and running a specialty shop.
After a few months, I finally completed a business plan and showed it to my dad. We both started working towards making the shop happen and finally got to a point where we had to decide if we were all in or all out. We got our wives together and all made the decision to move forward. After a few much longer months of getting all our business paperwork, health and building inspections, and website created we finally launched Native Coffee Co. in the beginning of September 2018. We got connected with Edison Coffee Co., a speciality roaster based out of Flower Mound, TX, who is our house roaster and was also instrumental in getting us up and running day one.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Haha. A journey yes…a smooth journey no. I’m not sure any road on the way to success in business is completely smooth although you learn quickly that you hit bumps all the time and you get over them and you can still have fun along the ride despite the bumps. I think one of our biggest challenges was people finding out about us. Although we are in the middle of Dallas, right by the Galleria, we are kind of tucked away in an up and coming industrial area. Like many businesses, we probably didn’t start out with a big enough advertising budget, so it took a little while for people to find out about us. I’ll still remember the early days frantically trying to refresh my phone trying to convince myself that the number of transactions that day had to be larger…there was a lot of stress there. After being around a while and getting more connected in with the DFW coffee scene, things got a lot easier.
Another personal struggle that I had was running our Instagram account. I am not a social media person, although I see its merits in helping advertise a business. I hated that I found myself looking opening the app twenty times a day just to see how many likes and new followers we got. This became extremely unhealthy and imprisoning for me. Personally, I think I was wrestling with my own fears of Native Coffee Co (of me) failing and looking for validation through social media. This is something I struggled with for a while but started making rules for myself to set up healthy boundaries internally. I am glad to say that I do not struggle with this as much, and we have passed on management of our social accounts to one of our staff who is WAY better at it than I was. Regardless, it was something that was very challenging for me.
I think the last struggle is probably the hardest. One that anyone who owns their own business will understand. You can’t shut off your brain. I am constantly thinking about Native, what we can do better, how to innovate, how to change coffee in Dallas, how to better serve our customers, new coffee inventions, new partnerships, should we open up new stores…the list goes on and on. Honestly, it is a good and bad thing, but since I still have another day job on top of Native and just recently got married there are a lot of things grabbing for my capacity, and frankly there are just moment you miss having a blank mind and just being somewhere.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
In a time where going to coffee shops and hanging with your friends is a trendy thing to do. There is a lot of people doing the same thing – It is easy to look the part. Native is a speciality (third-wave) coffee shop…meaning it’s a focus is on appreciating the nuances of coffees from different origins, with different notes, made by different brewing methods. We care about what the cup tastes like….we don’t want a sour or bitter cup, but a nice sweet and balanced clean cup of coffee. We weigh how much coffee grounds goes in when brewing (dose), and how much liquid coffee comes out (yield) every time and intentionally select brewing recipes for each of our coffees to best bring out the qualities of each. Whew…enough jargon.
Although we are coffee nerds at heart and secretly spend time alone home smiling like fools as we make our morning coffee, we realize that coffee at its core is about people and experience.
To explain this better, I need to tell a short story about how we chose our name “Native”. Although I grew up in the city all my life, I love getting away into nature. When I just got out of college a group of four of my friends drove to southern Colorado last-minute to attempt to summit a fourteener (Mt. Blanca). When we were about at 11,000 ft., a snowstorm blew in on the mountain out of nowhere. We had to stop and try to make a fire, realizing we weren’t going to make it to the reflection like where we had planned to set up base camp. After about 30 minutes of trying to start a fire, passing around matches, dryer lint, and lighter fluid in between shaking hands we all looked at each other and knew it would be a hard night.
Because the weather forecast had predicted it would be in the low 40s we all packed 32-degree bags not knowing that the storm that blew in caused it to be four degrees, windy, and snowing. We huddled together through a hard night. The next morning we woke up to a clear sky and everything around us covered in white. We climbed up higher turned around and were met by a breathtaking mountaintop view. There is something about views like this that demand your attention. We sat there for probably an hour not saying anything and just taking it in. These moments completely reset me and remind me how small the things I worry about truly are. In reflecting about my love of people, nature, and coffee I found a similarity. Native became a reminder for me to stop and take time to appreciate things that are meaningful – whether that be a conversation, a mountaintop view, or a cup of coffee.
So what sets apart Native? Our coffee is great, we brew it slightly stronger than a lot of shops I have seen in DFW. You are going to get a dialed shot of espresso when you come, with baristas that know what to do to get a balanced shot and can tell you. But more than anything, customers are paying for an experience…they are paying to sit in a room with a dope ambiance that makes them feel, well, inspired. A place where people can escape from the busy noise of the city and think, talk, and create things that are meaningful and purposeful.
What were you like growing up?
I was a hardcore introvert who at the time was extremely insecure. I fell in love with music both playing, writing, and listening to music in 5th grade and never went back. I am the type of personality that is all in or all out. It wasn’t till college that I felt like a found me and also discovered that being different than other people was actually a great thing. In college, I fell in love with people and their stories. More than anything, I think that sums me up. I love getting hearing people be authentic and getting to be authentic back.
Contact Info:
- Website: thenativecoffeecompany.com
- Phone: (214) 217-4744
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenativecoffeecompany/
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