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With time the necessities of humans can be said to have evolved—food, clothes, shelter, and coffee. Coffee has become part of nearly every individual’s daily routine. While the arena is populated with big players, the authenticity is still missing. With a mission to humanize the brands, Brandon Ivan Pena, the CEO, and Founder of 787 Coffee Co. entered the market with farm-to-cup coffee. Most coffee shops in America buy their beans from a distributor. Distributors buy coffee from all over the world and create blends. 787 coffee eliminates the middle man and grows its own coffee on the farm in the highest mountains of Maricao, Puerto Rico.
Brandon is an entrepreneur and business consultant focusing on the humanization of brands who is passionate about coffee and business growth. He is a pioneer in social media marketing and content creation and has been named Facebook Star’ in 2011 and designing campaigns and content for fortune 500 companies and small businesses that share his do well by doing a good mission. Brandon’s life has been impacted by several people, from remarkable mentors to co-workers. However, the humanitarian aspect of his leadership style is 100% influenced by his mother—a single mother who worked extra hard to give him an education, empathetic, loving, honest, and putting happiness and family before money. He has carried these teachings and today is ranked amongst the leading business leaders for his innovative company 787 Coffee. “More people are drinking coffee than ever in history, and fewer people are working in agriculture than ever in history, this creates a challenge,” asserts Brandon.
Being a farm-to-cup coffee company, the team encounters both agricultural and climate changes alongside the economic hazards. Owning a coffee farm has given Brandon a closer perspective on the challenges of farming that the co-workers face. The team is working with advanced technology to minimize the challenges of farming. Brandon prioritizes the team’s well-being and respects their contribution. He also expressed his gratitude towards the team who are working long hours and giving their best. “We believe in transparency, knowing where your coffee comes from and when it was roasted is our aim. For humans, by humans,” asserts Brandon.
In our recent chat with Brandon Pena, he walked us through the challenges the team faced amidst the pandemic and how they tackled the changes together. Brandon also shared his perspective on how the future of the industry will be shaped.
We are a customer service/a memory-making company – we happen to sell coffee. Coffee that is grown, process and roasted in Maricao, Puerto Rico, a company that respects nature and the gifts earth gives us by using sustainable and eco-friendly growing methods, housing endangered bird species on our farm, and respecting their habits. We are a part of communities, we help humans wake up and get energy for a successful day.
In the United States, 99% of the coffee we drink is imported from other countries. I believe growing and giving jobs to our farmers here is important, giving our co-workers the ability to grow within the company, and giving the community a local product has been our priority. We have a goal to open 100 coffee shops in the next 3 years.
We are a bunch of happy, crazy & creative humans, a mix of colors, backgrounds, minds, perspectives. We are strong and passionate individuals and together have created a culture where you get to dress as you are, a culture that inspires your being and allows you to BE YOU! We say when they are hired. I believe that if my co-workers are treated with dignity and respect they will turn around and treat our customers with dignity and respect.
I believe that using our available resources helps us make better decisions, we have groups that we used to ask questions and conduct surveys that lead to decision making. We ask lots of questions both to our caffeinated customers and to our caffeinated team, they are the face of the company so every time we want to see how our customers feel about a certain issue we ask them for feedback.
COVID was a scary time for us at 787 Coffee, we were closed for three months. We had uncertainty, but hurricane Maria in 2017 gave us preparation, as we had already lost everything when the hurricane hit our coffee farm. This time we patiently waited. We noticed that many coffee shops were closing, so we decided to take over, and instead of focusing on the negative news, we gravitated towards the positive and took advantage of the many empty spaces, and negotiated eight commercial spaces.
I foresee lots of cool coffee shops, amazing baristas that question everything and push harder than ever. As such for 787 Coffee and the humans around the brand, I am envisioning lots of growth, growth that will happen organically, because we care! If it’s good for earth it must be good for us.
By loving what you do… Sam Sepulveda, my partner, and I started this company, not in search of profits or fame, we started this in an effort to bring jobs to Puerto Ricco and to export one of the world’s best coffees. We do what we do because we believe in the humans that touch our lives daily and because of the amazing smell of coffee. I am obsessed with our business, I learn daily, I push lots and I still feel like I know nothing. So much to learn, so much to do.
I would like to highlight that opportunities are all around us, that we are blessed to open our eyes today, that every day is a gift, and respecting that gift and opportunity should give us new strength to start and do it again and again. We are winners, we are all winners, we are born to win, we are born to smile and live the life we want… 787 Coffee wants to be there to give you this new energy, this sense of push to go out and hustle!!!
