Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Suarez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
Methodical started when I lived in Atlanta and worked for a tech company as a product designer. My family and I would visit Greenville to visit family and friends, but there was never a good place to meet during the day. I had already been introduced to the concept of specialty coffee shops. I saw the need for one in Greenville—an inspiring and modern space for the community to gather that took coffee seriously. There was a need and an opportunity to bring this to Greenville. At this time, I was also growing tired of spending my time building digital products. I wanted to create something that existed in real life that you could experience alongside customers. Before moving to Atlanta, I had come to know Will Shurtz, a young and charismatic coffee nerd. He had started his coffee catering service called Vagabond Barista. I knew I could design a customer experience, but I was not a barista and needed to learn more about coffee. Out of the blue, I texted him and asked if he wanted to open a coffee shop with me. So when my family and I came to Greenville, we’d meet and discuss what we each dreamed of. It was apparent that our visions were aligned and our skillsets complementary. He brought in our third partner, David Baker, who had just returned to the States after living in Prague. He was also interested in coffee. After months of meeting, we decided we’d commit to it. I didn’t believe it would happen. I had never opened a brick-and-mortar business; we needed more money to finance it. But over time, we cleared hurdle after hurdle and finally opened in February 2015 with pennies in the bank.
It was a rush, but the opening was the finish line. Then we realized the race wasn’t over but had just begun. About a year after opening, we saw how much money we were paying for coffee and decided our next step was to start roasting. We took Will off to train under another roaster, raised the capital to rent a space and buy a roaster, and gave Will a 3-month runway to figure it out. It took him less time than that for him to produce a product that met our standards. Then, a couple of years later, we opened our second space, a coffee/retail collaboration with our friends at The Landmark Project. And a year after that, we opened our third cafe in the Commons food hall. At the beginning of 2023, we moved into our new HQ, our Manufactory—a place where we roast, R&D, have offices, and plenty of room to experiment with new ideas.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Coffee is a costly endeavor. It’s capital and labor-intensive, and we invested every penny we made into the business. So it’s been financially very stressful. Managing the finances of a coffee business is a lot more complicated than you’d think. Managing people is also very difficult. When you start small, you don’t need systems, processes, HR, etc. You’re a small, scrappy team where you work alongside everyone every day. But as you grow, you need more structure, and that realization often comes through difficulty, mostly HR issues. If you’re not good at hiring, you could introduce folks who are not a cultural fit, which is detrimental to your performance. Slowly, we got better at hiring and introduced more systems and processes to create stability. We’ve also hired a CFO to oversee our financial strategy, which has been a massive relief.
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
For the past 20 years, I’ve been a professional designer. I got into design because I wasn’t confident enough as a fine artist and saw design as a steady paycheck. My career started as a graphic designer, but I taught myself how to build websites and started specializing as a web designer. Then, I transitioned to being a product designer, though I needed to be made aware of how I was transitioning. I was going where my interests took me. But I found myself transitioning from service design, serving clients, to product design, working in-house at tech companies. I fell in love with digital product design and loved working alongside designers, product managers, and engineers to build features and apps. Throughout my time working for small startups and large publicly traded companies, I’ve experienced the good and bad. I’ve learned the warning signs of toxic environments, incompetent leaders, and poor business decisions. I’ve also learned from amazing leaders and smart ideas and have been given opportunities to grow in my skill set. I’ve contributed to books, wrote articles, and consulted with companies regarding their digital products. However, a person with a design or creative background is rarely a business founder. Founders usually come from a financial, technical, or business background. It’s been difficult for people to see me as a founder and CEO of a company when my background is as a designer. And still pigeonhole me into being the “creative.” Combining strong business acumen with a keen customer experience awareness is a powerful combination. Business is a two-sided coin—the business model on one side and the customer experience on the other. You have to have both, and it’s been my mission to prove that a profitable business that does right by the customers is possible and profitable.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
In the book “E-Myth,” E stands for entrepreneurship; one line hit me like a ton of bricks. “You can’t create value if you can’t pay the bills.” You can only create a phenomenal place of employment or produce a fantastic customer experience if your business is profitable. And so many small business owners have yet to learn how to run a business well.. And so many small business owners have yet to learn how to run a business. Running a business is the most extensive area I’ve been trying to consume as much knowledge and wisdom as possible. I’ve come to love it as much as I love design.
Contact Info:
- Website: methodicalcoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/methodicalcoffee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/methodicalcoffee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@methodicalcoffee
Image Credits
Jivan Dave, Marco Suarez, Paige French
