 One of the things that I always lack and I see it through your eyes now, it's like the possibilities of everything are endless. And so when I walked into this building, when you first showed it to us, when you had barely closed that screw, I was like, I don't know my best way. Yeah, exactly. I was like, what? Diego, this would never work. Like I just saw it and I was like, this is terrible. Yeah. And I remember using the bathroom to excuse myself for two minutes because I was like, this is just not what I was pretty sure it would, okay. This is Starved to Storefront. The podcast where we inspire entrepreneurship through truth. Today's guests are Emerson Harrow and Tony Yuan, co-founders of Farm Cup Coffee and co-inhabitors with us in our new space at 7748 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Farm Cup and their one of a kind coffee truck, Sunny, take up the front half while we record in the space right behind them. So needless to say, we all know each other pretty well. In the two years that we've been doing this show, no one has embodied the spirit of Starved to Storefront more than these guys. Aside from literally going from startup to an actual storefront, they pour their heart and soul into their business and it shows. Our first conversation with them was in episode 17 and we're thrilled that we could catch up with them again and talk about just how far they've come since then. So listen in as we cover everything from how Emerson's initial drawings for Sunny were completely impractical, how they fought through low-custom return out last year and they recount the most disastrous pitch meeting imaginable. Hang on, hang on. If you're not subscribed, can you go ahead and do that right now before we get on with the video? Helps us out tremendously. That's all we ask and we're back. Welcome to the podcast on today's show. The most exciting moment to hit our podcast, the opening of Farm Cup Coffee and our new podcast studio. And appropriately so, we brought back Tony and Emerson to talk about this glorious event. Farm Cup Part 2. It's literally the moment of startup to storefront. And so, I'll share my story. I was over here failing on a project in Houston, Texas. And meanwhile, COVID was brewing and then at some point, the intersection of my project and your project became a real thing. But I wanted to hear at least your perspective. So COVID's up and running, not yet, right? January, February, you guys are hitting, everything's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, let's share that story. In December of 2019, we went to Bali for his sister's wedding, right? And we're having a blast. And we're like, yeah, let's go and check out the coffee scene over there, beautiful coffee shops. Everything was great. We come back to the United States and it just felt like the party was, it kept on going. We had a lot of things going on. We were super busy. Like our every weekend, now at the Melrose Trading Post, people were really excited for the truck there. And then we had a lot of like movie sets after that. Like it was just back to back. And we just had all this momentum being built up. And it finally felt like we were turning a page from that, from the starting point of Sunny to now getting used to like, oh, we are actually something to, you know, we're a legit business at this point. We're making money. We have people expecting us. We have a lot of cool things. And yeah, March came around and it just crumbled like Jenga. Just one thing and then everything crumbled. Quite disastrous, actually. Yeah, it was Friday that we were at LACMA. Okay. We were stopped by the store to get milks and ice. And that morning, there was just a huge line and it literally looked like an apocalypse movie. So everybody was stocking up. Shelves were empty. People were talking about, oh, I'm wearing a mask. And oh, they say that you don't need to wear a mask. And it just took forever for me to get the milks and ice. I'm like, oh gosh, I just need to get to the truck so we can open for the day. And then that's the day, I think they made the announcement where things started closing and they didn't know what was going on. People were still there, but you could tell that it was dead and there was something in the air. Imminent, COVID was in the air. On my side, I was working on a real estate deal in Houston, Texas. We were gonna open up a distillery. So vodka, gin, whiskey. And we were working this deal from probably July to around November. And it's a good friend of mine that was opening up a distillery. We're in escrow. We're planning to close on this building in probably December, like early December. In November, he calls me up and he's just a mess and he says to me, my business partner left. And so imagine like you two, like one of you two leaving. But at the 11th hour, like we're about to literally buy this building so that they can literally start building out their distillery. And two parts of me, one part of me super bummed out for my buddy, right? This is like, he's been working on this dream for just like you guys for probably two years. And so imagine having a job, knowing you're gonna leave a job for two years. And you're like two months away from putting in your notice to then having this moment, right? So you're just completely mentally ready to, you're checked out, you know? So I told him, I'm like, one, that's awful. Like I feel really bad for you. I'm like, two, we've spent a tremendous amount of money to get here between architects, lawyers, the bank and a lot of time. I'm like in your business partner, can't do this to you legally. Like it's not a simple like, oh, I changed my mind. That was so fun, thank you, bye. I'm like, paperwork's been signed, your business partner's name is on the paperwork. So we can't walk away with this and we can make this really ugly. But I don't wanna do that. And so I'm okay if you guys, between you two, you guys figure out a way to reimburse us for everything. And then we're out, we'll tell everybody, everything's off. And they agreed to that within like 20 minutes. They were like, no problem. Because to them, and so just to give you the legal side of it, once you sign, like in their case, they signed a 12 year lease, both personally guaranteeing this lease. And so if I was like a complete schmuck, legally, I could have sued them for the entirety of that lease, which would have been like a million, maybe like 1.2 million dollars, something like that. Which I would never do, but that's the issue with the legalities. And so luckily we didn't have to go that route and they reimbursed us for everything. And this is early December. And so then I'm thinking like, all right, I'll reach back out to all the investors and I'll just give them everybody their money back. So I'm like, hey guys, sorry, didn't work out, but good news, nobody lost money, let me give it back. And all of the investors were like, no, go find another project. And so which is really good for me, right? Because you can imagine like this is, this would have been my second project. And so like traction is everything as a developer, like the first three projects are always the hardest. And it was like, oh, it was good. You know, I was like, oh hell yeah, they're with me. And their position is like, we've already given you the money. So in their head it's gone, right? And so they're just like, go find another building. So I'm like, great. And so I ended up looking in like West Hollywood because I'm like, I think we can do something cool with like an office space. And we literally opened Escrow on the building we're in right now, like two days before Christmas, which is when no one's looking in the market. Everyone's on vacation. And so that's how it all happened. What were your first thoughts when you saw this building? When you walked in, what did you think? The uglier the better for me. You know, like the uglier the better. To give people context. This was a place called Victoria's Closet, which is a store you'd probably just come maybe to buy your grandma stuff. Or just walk by completely. Yeah, it doesn't inspire much of anything. And for it to be so prominent on Santa Monica Boulevard, I was like, this is really a missing opportunity and this could be something pretty cool. And at the same time, I gave myself six months and we were supposed to close in July on the building. I always like to buy myself time to figure out what we can do. And yeah, we were like, well, I don't know what we're gonna do, but it'll be our office at a minimum in our podcast studio. That was kind of the first idea. And then you guys, you called me. I don't know when, maybe March, April, May, something like that. And you're like, Diego, we want to sell Sunny. Do you know anyone that might want to buy Sunny? And my immediate thought was like, that's like Nike selling swoosh. Like that would be the craziest decision for a brand to do that because Sunny's such like an iconic vehicle. It's on everything. It's on everything. And like people remember it and it's just beautiful, right? And so we went down the road of like seeing if we could put it inside of a building as crazy as that sounded. Well, I think the craziest part for me was you posted this to Instagram, right? And you're like, we have an idea of having something in the front. And I remember going to Tony and I'm like, let's put a coffee shop in there. We really like Diego. We understand his vision. I think he understands ours. We're not doing anything. This is at the thick of COVID. This is like, you know, when everything was closed down, I'm like, what are we going to do? Like what are we gonna do with this vehicle? They can't go anywhere. Like legally we're bound by the health department and the health department is like, you can't go out. What do you do? And I was like, let's just put it. Let's take everything out of sunny. We already have the equipment. Let's just put it in there. I mean, how hard can... They must last words. Those are just the best words. How hard could it be? And I remember just saying to you over Instagram, I'm like, let's have it in the front. And I think I was just saying it as a joke, but also hoping that maybe it could have happened. And I'm like, okay, let's see. Never in a million years that I think that we were going to take the route of like, let's put all of sunny in there. I was thinking of selling her because I'm like, well, if we take out all the equipment and at least we can use it to do something in the front with Diego. And I feel comfortable with that. When you brought up the idea of putting her in there, I was like, crazy, but sure. 100%, let's see. And I remember that we had another person ask us, hey, do you just want to make her permanent? And I was like, sure. And then they were like, okay, but it's going to be outside. And then going through the legality of that, they told us, no. So I had this chip in my shoulder that said, you're probably not going to be able to do it, but just try. And here we are. It's crazy, but here we are. Yeah. We reached out to the city early on. We reached out to the mayor and some other city council staff here in West Hollywood. We were like, hey, this would be really cool. Because the one thing in development is you got to get their support. And so I think they were like, that sounds crazy, but we really liked that idea. And as a city, they're all competing with like the Beverly Hills and all the other cities. And so the more they can do to attract people here, I think is in their favor and they like the idea a lot. And the health department approved the idea in like three weeks. Which is crazy. Which is the craziest part. Yeah. I mean, I've never in my life had that experience so quickly from them. I thought it was going to be three months. Here we are in a pandemic. No one's in the office. They're doing everything remotely. And somehow they concocted three week turnaround time. Clearly it shows that people can work much more efficiently from home. At least in the government office. At least the health department. And then waited on a city permit for a long time. And so while all this is happening, we're like, okay, in the back, this becomes like a pretty big space. And we've always wanted to have a cool podcast studio. And then we reach out to James Peter Henry, who's an artist here in Los Angeles, who has like a bunch of murals everywhere on Santa Monica Boulevard and on Melrose. And he made this like amazing piece for us. That sort of tells the story of the podcast, which we can share later. It just feels right. All of it feels so cool. I mean, in a way, this building has become a mullet, business in the front, party in the back. Wow. Got it. We're gonna edit that out. It's not a mullet. This is the most expensive mullet in America. It's like the best kind of mullet. Yeah. Like you said, it feels right. And then I think we have to bring up the fact that like this is the first time that we sit down with you. True. From our first time ever being on, because. Yeah, that's true. It just feels like we have never been able to do this. And when we were doing the first podcast, which I thought it was extremely cool and everything, we didn't have you. And then we were in yours in your house and now we're here. And it just feels like all of these things are so amazing. And then they finally lined up and then we're here. And then we're sharing all these things. And it just seems like we have to give ourselves a pat in the back, especially you guys. You guys have done a great job. And one of the things that I always lack and I see it through your eyes now, it's like the possibilities of everything are endless. And so when I walked into this building, when you first showed it to us, when you had barely close to us, I was like, I don't know, I'm his way. Yeah, exactly. I was like that. I was like, what? Diego, this would never work. Like I just saw it and I was like, this is terrible. Yeah. And I remember using the bathroom to excuse myself for two minutes. Cause I was like, this is just not what I was expecting. It's hard to picture at the beginning. The building was super ugly. It was all pink. It was, we had a drop ceiling. I mean, it did not inspire anything. The carpet itself. Yeah, the carpet, beautiful carpet. Yeah. The back part had this legal shed storage system that was mold was bad. But we liked that. That's, we love projects like that. But see, then that's the point that I couldn't get myself to, you know? It's hard. It's really hard. It is. Yeah. It's just a very daunting thing to see, to see the potential and something that it's obviously so round down. But here we are again, and it just feels so amazing to finally have this space as you guys and finally be able to share it. But during COVID, you guys also opened up another retail location, which is amazing in Sentry City. And so I wanted to share with people that story for you guys. And so the market crashes and a lot of talk in the real estate market has been, there's all these spaces available because all these tenants have failed and the smart group of people, like you guys, are now taking those spaces over for next to nothing and the leases are extremely favorable. And so I kind of wanted to, if you guys could just share the story of how you got to your Sentry City location. I think we have to go back a little bit in time. And then this is kind of like an ego thing that we didn't believe in ourselves as a company, as a brand, as two people. And I think we took so much out of ourselves that we couldn't see what we were building. But everyone else seemed to see it. And so we're driving around and I think it was probably the first three weeks of actually trading inside of Sunny. And we get a call because someone had seen us in Abbott Kinney when we were over there. And they're like, hey, there's a Starbucks being renovated on our building and we need a coffee for our tenants. So you think you can park outside of it? And we were like, sure, we'll do it. I mean, what, we're gonna do $500, $400 and we'll be fine. I remember the first date getting there. And again, remember to keep this in mind three weeks into us trading. We didn't know what we were doing. Tony was not up a Rista. I was not a French person driving a truck in LA. So you're still not by the way. I think I am. Tony's definitely up a Rista, you are still not. Besides the point. And then so we get here and the first day it was madness. We sold out of everything. We had no coffee left. We had no milk left. We had no ice left. We had no water in the tanks left. That's how busy we were. It was like 20 minute lines. But Sunny and we were like, what is happening? And these people saw everything that we couldn't see in ourselves. And out of that, two guys came up to us and they're like, do you think that you would want to grow this? And we were like, no, not right now. I cannot, I can't wrap my head around the fact that I have to like do all this, let alone think about expansion when we barely just started and days went by. And the same thing. We thought that we were not gonna be able to replicate the success that we had on the first day, but it was daily, daily. By 10 o'clock we were making more than we had ever thought and we were making money and we were buying stuff left and right. And we were finally realizing, okay, I think we're doing something right at the end of the day. And so they asked us again, do you want to? And I was like, I don't know if I want to, but we'll keep the conversation open. And so, you know, 2019 ends on a very positive note. We finally go on vacation again to that Bali thing. We come back, we don't know anything about COVID, March happens, everything shuts down. And then I turned to Tony and I'm like, if we don't have income in about two months, which I think is when COVID is gonna be gone, right? Wishful thinking on my side. Two weeks to end the spread. Exactly. I was like, oh, they're gonna get it under control, maybe we'll come by and then we'll be fine. We need a break anyway. This is gonna be good. And, you know, May turns around, June, July goes on, August comes around. And then we're starting to get desperate here because we're like, we haven't been able to go out. Remember the health department was like, you can't trade. You can't open stuff because they didn't know how it was transmitted or whatever. And so we were like, what do we do? And I was like, all right, let's look at what these investors say because they are still interested. And so again, COVID still goes through and then we're still dealing with all these things. August, September come around and we still don't see the end of it. And we reach an agreement. We're like, okay, if we're gonna move on and we're gonna be able to survive this, we need to do something pretty radical. And one of the investors ended up leaving the deal and it was just Tony, myself and the other investor. And we're like, what did we do? And he's like, look, we may be able to have a success story here if we replicate our old sales in Century City and we just opened down the street. There's a business failing there and then we can really take it over. And I was like, why not? What else is there to lose at this point? We have already placed all of our efforts, all of our money, all of our time into this. And if we quit now, then we're really just quitting at the beginning of the opportunity. And so we went in there and it was the most disastrous pitch meeting that you could ever imagine. It's this huge corporation, these huge business guys and they're asking us, well, what's your balance sheet looking like? What's your income statement looking like? What is your business proposal? Like, what are you going to do? Where's your menu? And all these questions that were so obvious for them to ask, but we were so oblivious to the point that we're trying to get. And there were other businesses also wanting to go into that spot. And it was one of those things where we had to prove ourselves time and time again to these people. And it was just, you know, endless amount of numbers that I had to do, endless amount of preparation on Tony's side to brand everything, to make sure that we look like a legit business. But in the back of it, it was only Tony and I. You know, like everything that you see, it's just two people. And they took a chance, a big, big, big risk on us. What do you think was the thing that pushed them over the edge and taking that chance? Honestly, I think it was just how prepared and curated everything look. And I think that's the key word, curated. You know, we try to think in a sense of like, we are much bigger than what we are, in a sense. And you kind of have to prove yourself in that way. So we sent them over a marketing deck, which I feel that a lot of people don't have. We sent them a branded deck with everything that we are, logos, everything that you can think of, pictures, stories, videos, everything edited by Tony, made by him, and all of these things. And I think they saw the potential, the way that Diego saw the potential in this building with us. They're like, I think they can grow into this and they seem like they are energetic and they seem like they love what they do. And we truly do. And I think that was the key point where they were like, okay, they may not have the best financials and it is a terrible time for everybody. So let's see how they do. I mean, they trusted us with a huge, huge space. And here we are, you know, still resilient and still going at it. When did you guys open that space? October 26th, 2020. 2020, okay. And the lease was tied to the occupancy, which is nice, right? And so your rent isn't full until... Exactly. Because I think, what are they at now in terms of occupancy for the building? I think they're about like 30%. Okay, yeah. So way higher than October, November. Yeah, I mean, if you asked me, like in December, January, I would have told you I don't want to do this anymore. Because there were days that I would wake up and I would be like, I don't want to do this anymore. Because they were like what? Maybe their occupancy was like an 8%, 10% barely. Yeah. And this is a holiday, so people were gone anyway. How many customers would that translate to a day? I would say maybe like 50, 40. Not even, 30, 40, probably. Yeah. An uninspiring amount of people, yeah. It contrasted like the 500 or so that you'd get like parking your food truck outside Abbott-Kinney, right? Yeah, Abbott-Kinney, Melrose Trading Post, the other Century City, Plaza Towers, but it was because it was pre-COVID. And we always thought about then expanding it and making a bigger space of us because if you ever see sunny, like you're literally bumping elbow to elbow and you cannot do anything. So we're like, we need the space, we need to really be able to grow. And when we got this space, it was huge, but there was nobody there. So it was kind of like a double whammy and it just felt really, really bad. There's another way of looking at it. There's a real issue as it relates to how these businesses get leases. It's like they put you guys through like a road scholarship type of atmosphere where it's like they want references, they want all this stuff. And I think a lot of landlords make a mistake by doing that. Cause at the end of the day, it's like you feel like you won something, but all you really want is the ability to pay them rent. Right. I just hate the old landlord model. It like really bothers me. It doesn't make any sense. And it makes startup businesses harder than it has to be. And I'm hoping people will listen and then they'll start to maybe have that conversation because they should be empowering you guys. They should be helping you guys, not asking for the world just so that you win the right to pay them rent. That's not how these things should go, right? And then even when they're in your building, they should go above and beyond to help you out. And I think the landlord model is just broken because of this. I'm hoping it changes. And I'm hoping COVID makes a lot of people rethink the way they treat tenants because now they're sitting on empty buildings, having to figure things out again. And so I'm hoping it's like a big refresh for not so much business, just like how to treat people. Yeah. I think we got really lucky because the building manager, her literal words were, you know, they don't have a great financial background or you know, a big balance sheet, but they seem driven and ambitious. And I think Emerson does a great job of kind of selling our brand in terms of like the vision and not just financials. Like he's very good at both, but he's just very charming and he talks to these people and he sells the brand. And I think he, I think he, you know, doesn't see that all the time, but it really does help because the building manager works with us and she wants to see us succeed. So she took a chance on us and I think it all worked out. And now you guys, I don't know if it's at you, but now you have two locations. We talk about it everything. We're like, how do you feel about being a known owner of two locations? Like you're a multi store owner. That's crazy. I mean, we're in the car. And you did during COVID, which is arguably probably the hardest time for a company to scale. It's a terrible time. Right. I mean, if we look at it just like, you know, again, and we go back to that financial background and that idea of being able to get a business and have a return on your investment, this is literally the worst thing that you could do. Go into the food and beverage during COVID, literally the worst thing that you could do. There's no return on investment and you're just like burning money. It literally is like putting money out and then just throwing it in the ground and be like, burn it up. It's fine. I got plenty of it, which we don't. But you're doing it. But I'm doing it. So has it made you rethink money? In a way, yes. Yes. God. What have you learned? It's a vehicle for success and you really can't. That's all it is, baby. It doesn't mean anything. So I think it does hit us every day. And then again, and this is just for me, I'm not talking for you, but it does show us that we're doing something right, even if we are doing everything along the way in a wrong way, I guess you can say. And then I had a conversation with one of our friends and he's like, a lot of people fail upwards. And you know, that's how I felt when those difficult times and those very, very dark moments during the business, I'm like, I think we're failing upwards in which we find people who we really connect with and they take chances on two guys who know nothing about this business but they're so passionate about it. And we have not quit. Even after all the things that we have been through, we can't quit. He comes to me sometimes and he's like, I don't want to do it anymore. And I'm like, well, sorry. I mean, I don't know how about you want me to say, I go to him some days and I'm like, I can't do it. And he's like, well, sorry. We have a shift in about two hours. So what's up? That's the hard part, yeah. So we don't quit, but here we are talking to you guys and you know, at the back of where Sonny's located and it just seems like a dream way beyond a dream at this point. Third location? Coming up, end of the year. Yeah, where is it? El Segundo. Nice. You guys were looking at that for a while, right? It's been in the works for a while. Why El Segundo? Here's another story. Here's another story guys, get comfortable. 2019 happened. They were an office building, a development building was saying, hey, can you come out here? There's really nothing around us. Can you come and serve coffee? And they were like, sure, we'll do it. And they love the coffee. They love the idea. They love the way that we were presenting it. And they're like, look, we're opening a new building that we were modeling in El Segundo. We need a coffee shop to go up there. We'll do everything for you guys. You just come as operators. And Tony and I were looking at each other and we're like, sure, we'll do it. We'll jump on it. And they have been amazing at transitioning our ideas, our love for the environment and everything like that into the building. And they have been honestly very gracious towards the both of us. You know, again, taking a chance on this old, old truck parking outside of their offices to be like, here's our office, guys. Just do whatever you want. Do you think it's the product? Like, what do you think does it? I'll tell you why I bet on you guys, but you can tell me what you think it is. I think it's a combination. So I always say it works better with two of us because I'll do the branding. I'll make everything look a certain way to the customer. And then he will actually face the customer and kind of talk to them and then keep them engaged. So I think it works together, for sure. For me, the only thing I look for in people is like, do they give a shit? And all I mean is like, do they actually care? And you can tell it. And it's something that you can't replicate. It's something that isn't on an Excel sheet. It's like, do they go above and beyond when it comes to their product to create something that they think resonates or penetrates or is thoughtful for the market to consume? That's it. And your balance sheet doesn't matter to me. Your PNL doesn't matter to me because if you think about things that way, typically you're gonna be ahead of the curve, right? When you're ahead of the curve, problem is people don't get it yet. And so it takes this multi-retail approach for people to start getting it, like with Starbucks at the beginning, right, bringing a European style over to America. No one got that at the beginning. No one's gonna get it until they did. And so that's all I look for. That's kind of the hard part and the easy part. It's the hard part because there's not many brands and people who really care. Because it's hard, it's hard to really lean in to like fully commit to the way you see the world. People don't do that. But when they do, it's obvious. And then you're like, yeah, this is gonna be fine. I think, and I'm talking about this to you right now, I think it was going into it with, we really wanted to mesh ourselves with the brand and it literally represents the both of us. And when we travel to these places, to these far-flung places, and you remove yourself from who you are in the United States. Because we put a lot of value in what we wear, what we drive, where we work, where you eat, how you're seen to other people. And when you go to these places and these people are literally like, oh, we're gonna have food from the backyard. Like, are you okay with that? And there's only hot water for 30 minutes and that's it. You learn to appreciate everything in a more organic way. It really is the most bare minimum things that you could do, but you do it well. And you have to do it well because it's for you. You're feeding yourself with what you're growing. You're living your best life because this is what you love to do. No one is forcing you to plant trees out there and harvest them for 30 years to get $2 per kilo of coffee. No one is doing like, you don't have to do that. But it's the love that you have. It's the passion that you have. And they made me realize that that if you don't put passion in stuff that you do, then there's really nothing that you can sell that will succeed. And one of the teachings that I live by every day that the farmer in Peru said to us, it's like, there will always be competition out there. There will always be people that are either worse or better than you. But there's enough if you know what you're doing and you do it well. There'll be enough of people for you to have a wealth. And he's like, look, I grew out of nothing and then here's my farm and I'm sharing it with you. And there's farmers all around me. But why do I have exports into Europe that are huge? It's because I love what I do. And even though there's a lot of us, I'm very good at what I do because I love it. The same with you guys. If you love what you do and you grow it well and you go at it with love and passion, there's no competition. That's it. Just love what you do. Exactly. It's really that simple. That's the hard part. You'll always win. Well, first you gotta find what you love. Right, also the hard part. Yeah, and that's the first step. And I feel like that's why so many people have a hard time achieving doing what they love. It's because they haven't found what they love or they haven't found a way to make money at what they love. If someone asked you, how do you find what you love? What would you tell them? Try everything. Seriously, just be open to different experiences. And I mean, I say this from first hand experience, like when I graduated from college, I initially was on the path to law school and I was studying for the LSAT. And that's when I realized that I did not love law. And so I just realized at that point, I was like, I don't know what I wanna do. I don't know what my path or my future holds. Like all I've really, truly loved is swimming. And I knew that that wasn't gonna be a career for me. I knew that I didn't wanna just be like, nothing wrong with being a one note kind of guy, but I wanted to have a more diverse experience, a wealth of knowledge than just swimming. So when I got my diploma in political science, I was like, I don't really wanna go into that field either, but it was interesting for me to learn about, but I just took a number of different jobs in various fields. Like I worked for the USDA, I ran a restaurant, I did coach swimming for a time being, all these things. And then moving out to LA, I just knew that there would be opportunities here for me to explore and find what I love. And it was only when I got onto a film set, I was like this intern basically, I didn't even get paid for my first job. I was this Super Bowl promo thing that we were doing in Burbank. And it was the worst run production I have ever been onto this date. It was awful. Everyone from the top down just, I felt like they had no idea what they were doing. And the fact that I wasn't getting paid and spending 14 hours a day for a month on that set, maybe illegal, beside the point, I loved it so much even with all of that, that I was like, I can do this, and I can make a career out of this. This is fun. Even through all of this misery, it's still fun. And so that was the moment for me. And it was only because I set about trying so many different things that I was able to find that spark. I look at it like dating where it's like, when people are like, how do you know when you meet the one? That what's interesting in dating is like, you accept the answer of when you know, you know. You accept that when it comes to dating. But when it comes to business, no one accepts that. They want this very linear like, I'm gonna go to this, and then I'm gonna go to law school or business school. And along the professional way, I'll find what I love. And it doesn't work that way, unfortunately. It's like literally what you're saying. It's like, you just have to try things, just like dating. And then when you know, you know. And then you'll just do that, and you'll be better at that than everyone else because you love it. But it's so hard, because it's not linear at all. As we embark on the grand opening of this place, what are your guys' visions for West Hollywood, the community, you know, some of the things you're working on here? Ooh, that's a loaded question. Well, one of the things that I think is going to be the most prominent is the LGBT marketplace. So during COVID, we started our online marketplace as a way for us to expand our offerings and then also allow people to get things delivered rather than shopping, you know, in person. So with this location specifically, I wanted to highlight LGBT makers because we're in West Hollywood and I think being a gay couple, that's very important for us to represent the community. So that's one of the highlights of this location. So we'll have a little marketplace with maybe a rotating selection of LGBT makers every month. So that will launch in June for Pride Month and I think that will go hand in hand. Another thing that we haven't announced yet, but maybe by the time this podcast airs, it will be announced. Since we want to go more sustainable, we decided to cut out dairy for all our lattes and our drinks. I believe we'll still have our Orchata mix, which does have dairy in it, but our goal is not to cut everything out completely, but to be as sustainable as possible. So we're focusing on plant-based milks, so such as good milk, almond, and a couple oat milks that we're working on. The interesting thing about the truck is two people are in it, right? You can't really have more than two people in it. At peak volume at LACMA or at even the office building when you guys were outside. How many people can you guys see in a day while you're inside the truck? We can turn out 280, I think, was our average, what, plaza days? 280 people? Wow. Yeah, I would say a little bit more, because we could turn out a big order in less than three minutes and we can see a lot of people. But that's also, we were being very cautious because again, all of our water was just between our tanks, you know? Oh, right. Yeah. And now you have unlimited water. Unlimited water. So now we are able to just be like, sure, we'll do whatever. We were very cautious of like, we need to be extremely clean so that we don't like dirty our hands because that water was going to go for the drip machine. So now we're like, we can do as much drip as we want. We can, you know, have tastings if we want to. So now I think we're going to be able to increase our output. But if we were on the truck, like I don't think more than 280, 300, max. We tried that at one of the most difficult events that we've ever had, which was the 25th anniversary of Dia de los Muertos at the Hollywood Cemetery. And I mean- It's got chills. It was terrible. We had, it was two of us and then another person in there and side of sunny serving, you know, unlimited amount of people. And when I say unlimited, like there were just so many people there that we couldn't physically keep up with the demand. It was our wall, basically. We met our wall and that was it. And I think it was so crammed that we were pretty messy. So at one point we had to like just stop and then close the hatch and then refuel and regroup and then, you know, clean up and then open it back up for the rest of the night. I kind of like that. It's like an actual reset. Yeah, like close the hatch, literally. Right. Turn it off and turn it back on again. Yeah. I went out to the line, right? Because people were lining up and I stood there and then if anyone would come behind me and I would be like, they're closed. They're closed. And then like once I reached the front, I was like, that's it, close it. And then we like looked at each other and we were like full of horchata, full of chocolate, bread everywhere. It was just disgusting. It was a pretty interesting night. So you brought this ledger in front of us and since we're on the topic of sunny and being crammed, like tell us your original vision for what sunny was gonna look like. It was a Honda Accord. It was, it's a joke. So there have been a lot of ways that we thought of sunny, right? Sunny was never a Citroën. That was just until we reached Europe and then we saw it. Okay. But before we're like, well, what are we gonna do? We had a bunch of thoughts and I think one of the number one things that I wanted was not to be another food truck in the United States because again, we have to be different in a way that people, before they try your product, they have to be enticed to go there. And then we are a food truck. When you think of food trucks, you don't think of the highest qualities of the highest value of the best coffee, filtered water, anything like that. We even call them roach coaches. That's at the end of the day what a lot of people think. So I'm like, how can we bring people out of that idea and then interest them in the product that they can go everywhere else? And wherever we parked, there were really good coffee shops around us. And so we go to Europe and I see a couple of their vehicles, but then we reached Scotland and I see this red Citroën and I was like, that's it. That's where I'm gonna go for it. I don't know how the heck I'm gonna do it, but that's what I want. And all of that, I remember reaching out, reading a lot of things. It was very difficult to try to understand if it was gonna be a yes, if it was gonna be a no from the federal government, because again, those vehicles were not made for the United States. They were not rated with the United States safety that they had put in place for all imported vehicles. And so I started drawing and I remember saying to Tony, we're gonna have all this. It's gonna be amazing and it's gonna be great. And so here it's gonna be a show and tell. But here, this is what I envisioned Sonny to be at and in these circles, all of these circles were going to be a pour over station. Oh wow. That's a massive truck, okay. And then the order window was gonna be. For people listening, there's about three, six, nine, 12, 15 pour over station areas. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And the exit was going to be on the other side, right? And then so you would be able to order here. This is how dumb we were because we were not thinking about are people gonna- This looks like a coffee shop. Exactly. Massive coffee shop. Order window. On wheels. The espresso grinder, the espresso machine, places for your cups, the pickup window, all of the sinks. And I'm like, oh, there's empty space here. Plants, perfect. That's what I envisioned it to be, right? And then so we bring in Sonny to the United States and we're like, wait a second, how are we gonna actually get all these things in? They're like, I want all of these things. And then we go to the builders and then they're like, they're from Europe themselves. So they're like a citroen. You're gonna fit all that in there. And they're like, they laughed in our faces. They're basically like- Because it's a smaller- Yeah. Well, and also like, obviously we've never done this before, but if you go into Sonny, there's a trash can. There is, you know, espresso knock box. There is drawers that you need. There's storage that you need. And they're like, where are you gonna put it in? For refrigerators, yeah. Where's this from to fit? And then if you guys notice, and I don't know if you guys can see it, but there's no generator. Right. There's no water. Right. There's nothing, right? And so that's how novice we were. That's how dumb we were at that point. And so this was our idea. And then we went back at it, and then we just started doing all these things. And then at one point we were like, okay, well, maybe like three and three, the espresso machine here. Okay. So still six pourover stages. Yeah. Like my thing was, I wanted to do pourovers. It sounds like you really wanted to do pourovers. Well, the whole idea was that since we were doing like, you know, direct-traded coffee, I wanted to have a pourover from every country to distinguish ourselves from everybody. And they were gonna be mixed with different things. And kid you not, we never did a pourover inside of Sunny. Would you consider doing a pourover station outside of Sunny here? Like in the kind of by the merch area? I mean, if we were rated for it, it would be cool. All you need is hot water, what you have. Hot water. Or you could just have a portable hot water thingy. Yeah, we just need an outlet. Yeah. And a table. That'd be kind of cool. Like if you do like pourover Friday or something, I don't know. It would be fun. Happy hour. You're trying to make your dream come true. Making an event. Yeah, happy hour. 4 p.m. Or something like that. After hours. Yeah, I mean pourovers are one of those things that separate you from certain coffee shops. Totally. Because they take skill. It's not like you can just pour it and be like whatever, which is what I did at the beginning. I was like, let me play around with it. At one point we broke the chemics on so many. But one chemics inside of Sunny and the ones that we had at home, just never mind. But you know, it was a dream at that point. And obviously now we see the result of it, which she's beautiful. You know, inside of it, I go in there every day and I'm like, wow, it's really cool in here. Yeah, it's done well. It is super well done. Everything's super thoughtful. But it's as close as to the dream that we could have. So at the end of this year, you guys love three locations. And then what do you think happens next year? Well, I think we have take a break. Yeah, we'll take a break and we escape. But I think now the next big thing is, now we're thinking ourselves of like, okay, we have our coffee shops. The next logical step is we need to roast. We need to set up our roasting facility in the United States. And with that, there's going to be a lot of like growing pains and also understanding a business that we've never understood. Because again, roasting it's its own beast. You know, serving coffee, you can say that it's kind of easy because you just need to go to the health department and you're left to your own devices. Like you could do it. You can brew coffee, even if it's absolutely terrible for you're doing it. With roasting, it's like, you can put yourself up in flames. You can like really hurt yourself. It's very difficult. It is and very expensive. Very, very expensive. And that's the natural progression. It's like we need to start importing all of our farmers green beans over here and roasting them because now our output is higher than what it was before. And we need to do those type of steps and grow it. And I think that's the next step for us. And also the cold brew, which is a big push on our side. Yeah, people love the cold brew. So that's the progression that we want to have. So I know how intensive it is for you guys to source your beans like you go to the farmers themselves. As you scale, is that going to be an issue of getting enough supply from them or are they kind of geared towards it? Because I don't know like it's essentially what the size of the farms are, but I know that your whole thing, your whole ethos of the company is going to the farms and meeting the farmers and getting the beans direct from them. I don't think so. I think all of them are pretty good at producing their own coffee. They've been selling it for quite a while. Now the number one challenge is like, because we started off with like very small bags and now we're importing like every week, every two weeks we're importing like amounts of coffee that we've never been going through and they're happy about it. But now it's just about of saying, okay, farm cup coffee is literally going to buy half of your total production of that year. And that needs to be reserved for us because we can't run out of your coffee. Like I'll never let it happen. So now it's going to them we were talking about this that we needed to go to these farms again and be like, all right, let's really now work on it. How much can I buy of your total lot? And some of them are really small. Like Mexico doesn't have that big of a farm. Costa Rica doesn't have a big of a farm. But because we are the biggest buyers, I think we'll be able to be like, okay, we'll buy half or three quarters of your total yield this year. That should last us a lot. And then hiring's another hard part. You have no idea. Right now. In general, I think hiring is difficult because you have a brand that you want to keep in mind. And it's not so much like finding people. It's finding the right people, which is the tough part. Right. I always see it when I'm interviewing people, it's not so much about the skill set because skills can be taught, but personality can't. And so I see myself and I want to see a little bit of myself in anybody so that at least I can be like, look, the customer, although it's not always right, they do have to be made to feel like they are right. And this is the place to be. And that's really hard to find in people because we're so jaded because honestly, the food and beverage environment, it's really rough. It wears you down, people are very mean. It can be a very hard line of work when you go at it. And so finding those people that still care, that want to care and that they want to make sure that the customer is happy, it's really hard to find. Really, really hard to find. And it's a representation of him and I at the end of the day. And I can't let it happen where they're not satisfied or the product is not good or whatnot. I think what's gonna happen at this location is you guys are gonna get hit up by a lot of, I think people will see it and they won't get it right away in terms of like what we've built here, but I think you're gonna get a lot of interest around doing this again and again and again and again. And so a lot of financial discussions will be added. Start snatching up all the citrons that you can. Oh man. I mean, frankly, I think that'll happen all over the country. Like doing one of these in New York, Chicago, Boston. The crazy thing is that they exist already. The cars or the shops? The shops? New York has one, San Francisco has like two, Seattle has one. Florida. Oh Florida, yeah. Again, it's so hard to find these vehicles that when you see one, you immediately wanna ask them, how did you do it? What were your tricks? And that's how a lot of people came to us. They're like, how did you do it? And I kind of roll my eyes because I'm like, don't do it. Don't do it. For your own sanity, don't do it. But I mean like farm cup style. Farm cup style is gonna be fun. Like within a building? Yeah. I would love that. And maybe the back area becomes something else. Maybe your roaster, maybe just like a shop, people can hang out and whenever that's allowed again seems like soon. It's gonna be an interesting time. Honestly, I just don't know how that's gonna feel because we've been struggling for so long, you know, like it's been rough, like starting off a business with no idea of what you're doing is rough, let alone going at it with COVID mixed into all that. It just feels like it's just, I don't even wanna say it, but it's just whipping after whipping. But it's part of it though. It has to be. And it lets you understand the business a lot more. And I think right now, a lot of it that you're seeing and what people are gonna see of us, it's like we are very like stone face and we're also very like blah about everything. But we're truly excited, but we have been jaded by so many things that have happened during the business that we're gonna launch Sunday this and it's gonna be this and it ends up being like a quarter of that. And we're gonna do great in 2020 and 2020 is gonna be our year and then COVID happens. And then yeah, we're gonna open the first, you know, location in Century City. No one showed up. And so, you know, those things, they take hits at your progress and who you are. You know, in your business. And now we're like, we're almost here opening up and it still doesn't feel real. At least to me, you know. I just take a maybe approach to everything. Like if something, even like Natalia's birthday party where we're going to like this epic house with the full squad and Nick's like, this is gonna be the vacation of a lifetime. And I call him, he texts that to me. And I call him, I'm like, please lower your expectations immediately. I'm like maybe, right? So I do maybe allow. I'm like maybe, maybe. Could go either way. But I operated a different frequency than you. Yeah, you nailed it. You had the right expectation. Yeah, it was awesome in the end. But that's what I don't know. I just have a maybe approach to everything. And it kind of keeps me neutral, which is good and bad. But again, when you create, not everyone's gonna get it. And so you have to be aware of that. And so for it not to go as planned, kind of actually makes sense. They're not ready for it yet until they are, right? Like people walk by the building. They're like, that's not a truck in the building though. Like I've seen that happen where people walk by like, I didn't see a truck in that. I'm just gonna keep walking. And then they walk by the second time and they're like, that's a truck. And then the third time they're like, what is this? Oh, it's a coffee shop. Okay, so it took you three times to understand that this is a legit thing and it's serving coffee at some point. And so I think that's just the way the world works. But once they get it, that's it. I mean, the same thing that happened with the two businesses with Sunny and Century City. A lot of people were doubting us when they were seeing us on the street, but it took them a while, you know, the locals. And then once they got it, they're like, I love it. I'm gonna follow you. And there's a lot of people who have followed us and it feels amazing to see them back and back again. And in Century City, a lot of them were like, what are you doing here? And now they get it. Now they like it. Now they're praising us. And it takes a while for people to catch on. And I think there's so much information that Tony and I have to give to people. Do you think we'll get a lot of action in here in terms of like filming, movie studios, commercial? I'm sure it looks us. I'm sure. So here's some insider knowledge. It's really tough to film in West Hollywood. Not a lot of productions do it because it's really tough. Legally, you mean. With like proper permits. Practicality-wise. Oh, okay. So permits and parking are the two main issues going against West Hollywood. Got it. So you're not gonna see bigger productions come in, but you might see smaller productions. When parking is not an issue and when permits become a little bit easier is when you have a crew of maybe 40 people or less, as opposed to like- Parking's an issue, as you know. Parking- Deeply, everywhere. Yeah, everywhere. But certain places do it a little bit better than others and West Hollywood does not have the parking. Yeah, that's fair. There's a whole argument like going off a little bit of a topic, but downtown LA, you would initially think, oh, filming in a city can be tough, but there are so many parking lots in downtown LA that just thrive on being studio parking and crew parking for every production known to man. I mean, there's a reason why so many things filming downtown LA is because parking is so accessible. That's true. Traitors. And a lot of people want to develop those parking lots because in a city, vertical real estate matters, and a parking lot is probably the worst space or usage of that in terms of vertical real estate, but they make money because of the film production. So they're able to exist because of filming, whereas West Hollywood does not have open parking lots at ready disposal. But I do hope that we get some filmings in here. I mean, it's a beautiful space and, you know, I would hope that Sunny would do her actress thing again. It was really fun getting her to the sets and everything. I think for smaller productions, I'd be perfect, but yeah, it just remains to be seen and people have to be aware that it exists. That's the other thing, but that'll come. But we got that covered. Yeah, that'll come. As a maybe guy, like I'm a maybe guy, I think this will be like the most successful location you guys have. I think this will be beyond all of our wildest dreams. I really believe that. And not always like in a financial way, and in like, I think you'll crush, but I think also in what develops from being here and the way it's all been done, I think this is it. This is game time. This is when you're gonna get your cake. All that work is paying off. I really do see it. I think we always thought of ourselves as a cute coffee shop that can radicalize the way that you think of coffee in a way that it's very personal. And then this is the way of doing it because I think in one of our faults that we never realized is that if you're not in one spot all the time, people tend to forget about you. You can be the best product on the world, but they'll forget about you. And so now that we're here, I really hope that people are able to come in and they're like, oh, I'm drinking sustainably. I'm drinking from this place that supports all of these things that I believe in. And they're always here now. They're not breaking down. They're not being towed away. They're not being booked for stuff. They're not like doing something else here to stay, you know? So I think that, yes, we are gonna be seeing a lot of people and it's inspiring and I'm really happy. And it's going to be one of those things that when I'm here, it'll be fusing both things that I really, really love, which is being inside of Sunny and also facing the customer in a way that I've always wanted to without having to have that fear of like, am I gonna make it back? Am I gonna break down? I'm running out of water. I'm running out of water, running out of fuel. Yeah, it's fuel, yeah. I did that a lot of times that I forgot to put gas in the January. That's terrifying. Come visit, 7748 Santa Monica Boulevard. Open seven days a week. Seven days a week, seven to three. Seven to three. Seven to three, okay, nice. Seven a.m. to three p.m. Weekends too. Weekends too, all the time. Perfect, perfect. And then we'll have, you know, your favorite coffees and I think we're creating a lot of really, really interesting drinks here in this shop that are not gonna be available in the other two shops. So it's gonna be fun when you come in. There's gonna be a whole secret menu that, not so secret, but it's gonna be there. Not on our menu menu. And it's just a matter of like exploring with us. Cause at the end of the day this is going to be an exploration that's going to benefit all of us and people beyond what we see every day. So our farmers, the people who import our coffee, everything like that is gonna be benefited from the bigger operation of everything. So come by, there's a lot of things that I wanna teach. There's a lot of things that I wanna show. I'm super excited to finally be able to realize this. Obviously launching in Pride Month, I think is a happy accident, frankly. And I think it's so amazing cause it's so honest to your brand. So many happy accidents. Yeah. Failing upwards. That's how life works. I think you're winning upwards now. You gotta just shift it now. You're winning upwards. I'm winning upwards. You guys are winning upwards. But thank you so much. It's been 180. Yeah. This is amazing. I feel very, very thankful to have come into this. I haven't said this, but thank you so much for inviting us to your podcast back in December. I didn't even expect it. And here we are. It just feels like a lifetime. Serendipitous. The startup to storefront seed, literally. I almost had no too. Cause I'm just not that kind of person to talk about yourself. Yeah. I'm really nervous talking. So I was like, a podcast? I don't know about that. I didn't even listen to podcasts. I was like, I don't think people listen to that. But look at us now. And Tony's launching his ASMR. YouTube. Can you guys, can you just give us a taste? Just let's end it on your skill set. No, we're going to lose so many listeners. Welcome to Tony's ASMR channel. OK. Thanks guys. It's nice to finally sit down with you. Yeah. Thank you guys.