Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Gee.
Hi Brandon, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
The idea for a coffee shop as a businesses started during Christmas of 2020 when I purchased a high-end, prosumer-grade home espresso machine for my wife. She absolutely loved the machine and the ability to tinker with all the settings (grind, pressure, time, etc.). As a serial entrepreneur, I joked with her that we should open a coffee shop and she could quit her job and work there. Writing, this statement makes me laugh because that’s definitely NOT how it turned out.
So, we did; we started working on plans for a traditional, classical coffee shop with traditional, highly trained baristas and manual equipment. We would name it Doppio (an Italian word for a “double shot” of espresso and an industry marker for how good your espresso was). As we worked through the lengthy process of securing a lease space (complicated by an overzealous Starbucks legal team, COVID, and other delays), we started to change the vision for what the coffee shop should be. Before, we would need highly skilled team members and a very expensive PPSF (price per square foot) retail space for a traditional layout with tables, chairs, etc.
Fast forward to Jan. 2022 and seeing the world post-COVID (labor shortages, rise of drive-thru, inflation) we decide to pivot and switch to a highly automated, trendy but cost-effective coffee shop concept. I worked with a company out of Switzerland to develop a fully automatic machine with the ability to do something no one else had done to date. The ability to froth and steam milk internally to the exact temperate and air impingement specs I wanted was a game changer. No longer would we be dumping milk out in the sink after every drink like every other coffee shop you see. The milk would be dispensed perfectly, in the right amount, at the right temp, with the right amount of air for the coffee selected. Couple with a state-of-the-art grinder/boiler system that this Switzerland company already had developed, we had a game-changer of a machine. This machine could craft the quality and smoothness of coffee you’d get from any Houston high-end coffee shop but at the push of a button. This meant massive savings and efficiencies with regards to labor.
This breakthrough, coupled with several others, led to a very efficient workflow and the ability to hire and train quickly, so labor issues were minimized, costs were reduced, and waste was almost non-existent.
There’s a lot to say about these systems if you want to know, but basically, I designed a system that allowed everything to be easily stored, dispensed and handled so that our drinks could still be customized but we benefited from all the reasons above.
Fast forward to this last quarter, I started to think about what I wanted Doppio to become. I have plans to grow this as a Texas-only coffee franchise. (Think Buc-ees, but for Coffee and Energy Drinks). As I was thinking about the future and what a Texas coffee franchise would look like, I wanted to do one more big change, Blue Bell Ice Cream! Of course, being a Texas franchise, adding a Texas icon like Blue Bell was a no-brainer. Except it was. There are no Coffee and Ice Cream shops (let alone a franchise) anywhere I can find. It’s just not been done. Add in our drive thru and to my knowledge, there’s less than handful of drive-thru scoop ice cream shops in the nation.
So, that got me thinking about how this would work (and if it would work). At this same time, around October, we got word that a Starbucks was back for more blood (they didn’t get enough the first time around, I guess). They were absolutely dead set on building right next to us. Long story short, we think we fought them off for good, but we’ll see. But the threat of a global chain moving in next door set my entrepreneur gears in overdrive.
I had to do something big, bold, and new. Something no one had done before if I wanted to survive. So, I did. We worked out an agreement with Blue Bell Ice Cream to serve ten flavors of their ice cream in-store. This also led to our name change from Doppio to Moo Coffee. I’ve been wanting to change the name for a while for a number of reasons I can expand on later, but basically, we weren’t a traditional coffee shop like we first started out and I wanted the name to reflect that.
Today, we are a drive-thru coffee, energy drink, and ice cream shop with a new name and new color scheme and people seem to be loving it! I can’t wait to see where the future goes with this new concept.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No. Not at all. From day one, we were in a fight to win the rights to sell coffee in our first location. Starbucks desperately wanted our space, but somehow, we won out and won the rights to lease the space.
Fast forward several months and we were doing well, but one comment kept coming up. It wasn’t about the quality of our product or our customer service. No, everyone loved our coffee and baristas! But we kept hearing that people were refusing to come inside because they thought we were a dope shop. I quickly realized I had made a HUGE mistake. The name Doppio wasn’t the problem. But, putting a non-English word on the front of your building in big NEON letters WITHOUT adding the word “coffee” to the end was a HUGE mistake. No one knew we served coffee unless they heard from their friends or they were brave enough to come inside. This stunted our growth early on. Thankfully, as time went on, word got out that we were indeed a coffee shop. But it took way longer and definitely deflated my entrepreneurial spirit. Almost to the point of selling and walking away.
Fast toward several months more, now to the end of our first year in business, and we get word that once again, Starbucks is back and wants to build a freestanding building literally right beside us. If we weren’t ready to sell, then we were now. But there was a part of me that would never forgive myself if I gave up. So, I didn’t. I started to evaluate every part of the business: what were we doing right, what were we doing wrong, and what could I change. After lots of thinking, asking for feedback, and designing, I finally came up with the big reveal. A new name, new color, and new major item.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
After working in the corporate world in various roles in IT, I decided I wanted to do my own thing. So, I did. At this point, I had already started my first company, a marketing firm I would design logos, websites and do SEO for clients as a side business. I had been doing it for about five years but was honestly tired of staring at a computer screen all day. I’m pretty sure I have all the disorders that start with “A” (ADHD, ADD, etc.). I get restless at a desk.
So, I decided to do something outdoors. I started Blue Ridge Landworks and specialized in land clearing, estate management, pipeline/powerline ROW maintenance, etc. I took boring raw land and turned it into something exciting for the landowner. Usually by clearing out underbrush and creating park-like settings, and building in ATV trails or shooting lanes.
This was super fun for a while, but I got bored and decided to get into something else. At this point, I joined up with a small home builder. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I googled night after night, watch YouTube video after YouTube Video, and eventually taught myself how to design homes, learned about all the intricacies of building and designing not just a house but an energy-efficient unique, well-thought-out home. I grew this small company from a small spec builder to the largest custom home builder in Brazoria County. I brought new designs and invented some cool interior goodies for our customers.
Around 2020, I realized the owner of this company was headed in a direction I was keen on going, and it was around this time when we started down the road of building a coffee shop. Since leaving the construction company, I’ve built up the coffee shop as well as started a new company (Beehive Robotics) focused on automated drone missions in the law enforcement and industrial arenas.
Through all this, I earned my pilot’s license, bought a small plane, became a Texas-certified Firefighter, and became internationally certified in advanced rope rescue techniques.
What matters most to you?
Depends on when you ask me that question! If you had asked me prior to 2020, I would have said building up a network of successful businesses and leading teams of people to do amazing things.
While that is still a passion and still drives my entrepreneurial spirit, in 2020 and again in 2022, everything changed. First for the absolute worst and then in 2022 for the absolute best.
In 2020, I lost my little sister suddenly to a pulmonary embolism. One minute she was here, healthy as could be, and the literal next minute, she wasn’t. This changed my life in a number of ways and definitely impacted what I thought was important in life. This overshadowed much of my life for the next two years until, in 2022, my wife and I decided to get pregnant, and in November 2022, we had our baby girl. The massive hole left by my little sister in 2020 was somehow filled by my baby girl’s little innocent smile.
Since her being born, what I prioritize, what matters to me, and how I look at work-life balance have completely changed once again. Now, our little family of three is the most important thing in my life. I turned down an opportunity to fly for the Air Force so that I could watch my daughter grown up. I am actively working on working less, haha. I want to maintain my ability to be independent at work and not tied to a 9-5, but I want that flexibility to work in harmony with being home every night to eat dinner, play with toys, and sing goodnight to my little girl. One day I hope my flexibility allows me to regularly and randomly take her out of school and go flying or go on fun dates.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moocoffee.com
- Instagram: /moocoffeecompany
- Facebook: /moocoffeecompany
