Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. And it's guest time on the show. And as I mentioned in the lineup, the topic this morning is coffee, because with me here in the studio I have Robert Vu, founder and CEO of Solobrew. Robert, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.

Robert: Glad to be here, Russ.

Russ: Why don't we start by you telling us about Solobrew?

Robert: Well, Solobrew was founded a few years ago. We have developed the industry's first disposal single-service gourmet coffee.

Russ: Cool.

Robert: And why French press? As you know, brewing coffee is as much as an art as a science.

Russ: Right.

Robert: The French press are considered by many coffee expert as the – one of the best method for brewing a cup of coffee. It is an infusion process where coffee is allowed to float and steep inside a pool of hot water. French press brew method gives you complete control over the extraction process, and it gives you a fantastic cup of gourmet coffee.

Russ: Okay. It's a disposable French press coffee, right?

Robert: That is correct, Russ. It is a disposable single-service French press coffee minus the mess and the fuss of preparations and cleaning up afterwards.

Russ: Okay. What triggered the idea for you to go down this path?

Robert: A long time ago, I used to work for this company to where they sent me to Europe for work and as you know, over there, they drink good coffee.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Robert: So when I get back here to the states, drinking the stuff pour out of the drip machine from the office just doesn't cut it any more.

Russ: Okay.

Robert: So I found myself two to three times a day at a local Starbucks right across the street from where I used to work.

Russ: Okay.

Robert: When you charge credit card, you don't know how much you're spending per day.

Russ: (Laugh) Right.

Robert: But, funny, one day my wife who is a financial analyst, an accountant, sat me down one day and talked to me about my coffee (Laugh) expenditure.

Russ: So your wife is a financial analyst and discovered that you, Robert, were spending so much on coffee that she needed to sit down and talk to you about it.

Robert: Absolutely. Four to $4.50 a cup, three times day adds up quickly, as you know.

Russ: Right.

Robert: She actually showed it to me in a pie chart about my coffee expenditure because it brings – as an engineer – visuals always hit me. So when I saw the number, I had to do something. So she bought me an espresso machine, and I enjoyed doing, being my own barista, brewing it in the morning, getting a perfect cup of coffee. But with two kids in the morning spending 20 to 30 minutes a day is not gonna cut it.

Russ: That's right.

Robert: So –

Russ: So the process was just taking up too much of your day.

Robert: Too much of my time, and I just have to have my cup of perfect coffee a day.

Russ: Okay.

Robert: So as an engineer, and a pretty innovative one, I invented two products that is disposable and single-serve. One is the French Press To-Go, which is a disposable product to where it removes all the fuss and the muss of doing the preparations and the grinding of the coffee and the cleanup afterwards. And, also, you drink, you toss, and you go. So I took the product to my wife, each prototype, and showed it to her. (Laugh) And the first two version was so complicated that she said, "Listen, I can't do this. Can't you just make it simple?" "Make it simple as one, two, three," she said. And so I took that to heart and came up with the products where it is truly simple as one, two, three.

Russ: Okay. My goodness, your wife played a huge role in Solobrew. (Laugh)

Robert: Yeah. (Laugh)

Russ: Well, that's good that you still give her credit for it. Wow. So she is pleased with the product, as it exists today.

Robert: She's absolutely pleased, not just from how easy it is to use, and also being a financial analyst, she actually built the financial model for my company.

Russ: Cool.

Robert: (Laugh) And all of a sudden, it makes number sense to her. And she's been instrument to our company ever since.

Russ: Great. Well, now obviously at some point, you were just sorta trying to solve this problem of not spending too much money, and making something that works easy. Was it obviously going to be a business idea that you were gonna bring to the market from the very beginning?

Robert: Well, I knew all along that this is a fantastic product, and it needs to be brought out to the market. The issue is with all entrepreneur is that you have to do this full-time and you have to raise capital to do this.

Russ: Yes, you do.

Robert: So I lucked out and I found an angel fund who happens to be my neighbor –

Russ: Great.

Robert: – and we were able to strike a deal and was very nice since.

Russ: Alright. So your next-door neighbor is the seed investor in the company, right?

Robert: He is the seed investor.

Russ: Okay, cool. But you mentioned that you were an engineer. So I assume when you were traveling over to Europe and stuff, you had a job with an engineering firm and then now you've progressed to the point where you're a coffee entrepreneur. Is that accurate?

Robert: That is accurate. I used to work for a high-tech, cutting-edge company, and quite a few of my friends want to join me to do something, find our own startup companies. But I wanted to find my own company, but not in a high-tech company; it's such a rate race.

Russ: Yeah. (Laugh)

Robert: I just want to get out of it, right?

Russ: (Laugh) Right. I understand. And so here it is. You went from being an engineer in a high-tech company to being a solo coffee entrepreneur. So apparently along the way, that meant you quit your job, which stopped your income for some time. Correct?

Robert: It stopped my income, not for too long. I was able to find angel investor. The product in itself relates to people. It wasn't hard for me to find angel investor from the get go.

Russ: Great. Well, we're gonna be back with more with Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of Solobrew, after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. And continuing on with Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of Solobrew. Tell our listeners a little bit more about the product line as it exists today.

Robert: We have launched a product we call French Press To-Go. What it is, it is a single-serving disposable coffee to where all that's required for you to do is add hot water and plunge, and voila, you have a perfectly steeped up of gourmet coffee.

Russ: Because you actually use this plunger device that's part of your cup and package to actually press the coffee like you do in a normal French press.

Robert: Exactly.

Russ: Okay.

Robert: What I've done is replicate the exact same brewing process as you would with a French press, but remove all of the mess and inconveniences that involved with brewing a cup of French press. A lot of people love French press, and they would buy French press and drink it once or twice. But after several times, it proved to be too much of a mess.

Russ: But you have various versions. You have one that's, like, in a cup and you have another one that works with a real coffee cup. Correct?

Robert: Right. We have various different version of the French Press To-Go. We have a permanent tumbler to where it is a permanent coffee tumbler and it has a modified lid to where you can use a plunger and plunge and then drink on the go. We also have a disposable version to where it is made out of paper and cost-effective lid to where you can brew and then throw everything away. And then we have a version – it's really neat – is that a lot of people on a Sunday morning would love, like myself, to drink out of my own favorite mug. And this version allows for you to plunge and brew a cup of French press inside your own mug. And then afterwards, you just toss the top portion away and drink out of your own favorite mug.

Russ: So you discard the plunger piece.

Robert: Right, you discard – right.

Russ: Cool, instead of having to wash it and clean it. Real cool.

Robert: Exactly.

Russ: Well, now the single-serve coffee market seems to really be heating up these days. Correct?

Robert: Absolutely. Coffee is the second largest commodity import to the US, second only to oil, as you know.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

Robert: But within that coffee market, the single-serve coffee segment is by and large, the fastest growing segment in the coffee industry.

Russ: Right.

Robert: And currently, it is dominated by the Keurig machine which is a K-cup made by Green Mountain.

Russ: Right, right. And those are pretty neat, but that's a pretty sophisticated process and a pretty significant cost if one were to put that in their home, right?

Robert: Right, right. The Keurig machine is a fantastic machine. It is used as a K-cup, and it brews you a cup of drip coffee. But you still have to have an investment of the machines in the first place, whereas, our products there is no upfront investment for any equipment.

Russ: Right. I know enough about you and your plans, Robert, to know that you have some future products as well teed up or on the design board. Tell us about that.

Robert: We also have a product that we call SoloPress. What it is, is it's a disposal espresso product. And it is still in the works. You can still have a preview of it if you go to the Web site, solobrew.com, and the under the Product tab, you can see a little videotape of it. But it is still in the works. We hope to launch that product shortly after the product we're launching right now.

Russ: Wow. A disposable espresso product.

Robert: That's correct.

Russ: Cool.

Robert: And just like our French Press product, it replicates the exact pressure brewing process as your espresso at home.

Russ: Okay. What about products beyond coffee?

Robert: Interestingly enough, not too long ago we had to change our company's name. The company name used to Java Voo.

Russ: Java Voo?

Robert: Right. And we'd been receiving lots and lots of inquiries for products other than coffee. We've been asked to put herbal tea, chi tea, and herbal concoctions, as well as energy herbal concoctions, so which leads us to change our name to Solobrew as it is right now.

Russ: Cool. Well, you seem passionate about your company, but there's gotta be some regular trials and tribulations of starting your own company that you've gone through. Would that be accurate?

Robert: Absolutely. As simple as the product looks today, it required lots and lots of designing and a lotta technical engineering, hard work behind it. But the genius is in the simplicity of the products that we have today.

Russ: Cool. Well before we take a break, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where did you grow up and what kinda guy were you?

Robert: I came from Vietnam. I was born in Saigon, Vietnam. And back in 1975, my family migrated over here to the US as refugees. So –

Russ: How old were you then?

Robert: When I got over here, I was 12.

Russ: Okay, okay.

Robert: It's a long time ago.

Russ: Okay, yeah. But did you have to go through a language transition back then?

Robert: I was fortunate to where my father put me in a private school to where the second language in school was English, so I was able to hit the ground running. (Laugh)

Russ: Okay. And so you got here. You went down this educational path probably thinking, "Hey, I'm gonna be an engineer. I understand this stuff," and dived right out there. Got a mechanical engineering degree and got into the workforce before you said, "Wait a minute. I wanna be an entrepreneur."

Robert: (Laugh) Actually, I wanted to be an entrepreneur ever since I was a young boy. But being an engineer was a stepping-stone.

Russ: When you were a young boy did you do any entrepreneurial things?

Robert: Growing up in high school, I had this knack for designing. I took this designing/drafting class, and was able to win this award from Texas A&M for designing some apparatus. So out of 12,000 students, I won first place.

Russ: Oh, wow. Congratulations. Alright. And we're gonna be back with more with Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of Solobrew, after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. And my guest, Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of Solobrew. Well, Robert, let's say that there's a couple of aspiring entrepreneurs out there in our audience, which I'm certain that there are. What advice would you give to somebody that's hearing about Solobrew and saying, "Man, that's something I'd like to do"?

Robert: Well, I would say that eyes wide open. Jump in feet first. (Laugh)

Russ: Okay. Eyes wide open and jump in feet first.

Robert: But, indeed, you need to pursue what you love to do. In my case, it is my passion. I just absolutely love coffee and consider myself as a coffee nut, as many of you are. But just don't let stop you. Go for it.

Russ: Alright. That's real cool. So before I let you go, too, tell me what the long-term plan is for Solobrew. Do you see this thing growing into something that a big Starbucks comes along and acquires, or do you see it growing and growing and turning into a long-term family business for the Vu family?

Robert: I have no plan for this to be a family business. This is a well thought-out business plan. The single-service coffee is, by in large, the fastest growing market segment in the coffee industry. It is currently dominated by Keurig, and Keurig last year moved 1 billion of those K-cup, as you know.

Russ: Okay.

Robert: So what we have is a very unique product. And I believe we can certainly coattail after the single-serving product Keurig. And also recently, Starbucks has just introduced a single-serving coffee, which is their instant coffee, VIA.

Russ: Right.

Robert: And it just seems to be a market to be in right now because it's booming right now.

Russ: Alright. Robert, I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

Robert: My pleasure.

Russ: We've been talking with Robert Vu, the founder and CEO of Solobrew. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com.