Today we’d like to introduce you to Mathison Ingham.
Mathison, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I came to college, I was struggling with a lot of identity issues, and for a time I let the social scene of the university shape my character. I was insecure, not living up to the truth that I knew, and I was honestly pretty ashamed of a lot of parts of my life. But on my first day of junior year, I met a guy from my hometown named Stephen. Stephen and his friend Eric started inviting me over for coffee, and I would say they loved me regardless of how much I deserved it; they loved me in a way that told me that I did actually have worth, and it ended up changing me into someone more worthy of that love. And this friendship always looked like us sitting around the table at a cafe or in someone’s living room, drinking coffee and having great conversation.
Going to coffee shops got pretty expensive, so we started buying bags of whole bean coffee and learning how to brew, taking the process more seriously and appreciating the complexity a lot more. Then, when we realized how much we started spending on bags of coffee, Stephen decided to make a coffee roaster, and from there our fate was sealed. From the first toaster oven roaster that could only roast 12 ounces at a time to our current 4-pound air roaster, we’ve relentlessly pursued good coffee and better friendships. It was an easy step from there to start selling to friends and family, and then the greater Houston area, and now across the United States. Now, Stephen has stepped away and I run the business with my wife, Alyssa, an incredible graphic designer and stalwart companion.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One challenging aspect of Brotherly’s growth was that we have always been self-funded. We would save up enough to buy a bag of coffee and then roast it, saving up enough to buy the next bag, and this was definitely limiting our growth potential. But we have definitely appreciated the fact that we’ve never been indebted to anyone and were able to go at our own pace.
Houston is also a difficult city in which to start a small business. Getting in touch with the city about codes and procedures took an obscene amount of voicemails left, picking the brain of other coffee roasters, and searching countless forums on the web for advice.
Brotherly Coffee – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a small batch roaster in Houston, Texas, and we mainly specialize in bringing delicious coffee right to your door for less than anyone else with this quality.
I am a campus pastor at Rice University and so not only does our business sustain our ministry, each coffee order is typically an opportunity for discipleship with a few of the guys that I am mentoring on campus. Around the relatively arbitrary medium of coffee, I am able to pour into the lives of students and help them navigate through some of the most pivotal years of their lives. So every purchase is taking part in making a significant difference in the lives of someone that the customer probably wouldn’t have been able to impact any other way.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Honestly, success would start with always operating with integrity. It is so easy to cut corners on procedures and quality, but we just want to grow at a pace that lets us keep to the highest standard both personally and professionally.
As far as business growth, we would like to really grow our subscription base through word of mouth and referrals. For the short-term, if we can continue to improve in our roasting and expand our offerings while getting more people excited about what we’re doing, we would consider it a success.
We would like to partner with a local cafe to brew our coffee and sell retail bags, providing consistent business to us and making our coffee more easily accessible to the public.
The way-down-the-road dream would be to open a brick-and-mortar store! We love any and all interaction with customers and this would be a way to really create a space where we design the atmosphere and bring people together around a quality product. This would be the fulfillment of what we do now on a smaller scale.
Pricing:
- $12 – 1 bag Ethiopian or Colombian Coffee + $3 Shipping (unless local pickup)
- $24 – 2 bags Ethiopian or Colombian Coffee + Free Shipping
Contact Info:
- Website: brotherlycoffee.com
- Phone: 615-727-2366
- Email: brotherlycoffee@gmail.com
- Instagram: brotherlycoffee
- Facebook: brotherlycoffee
Image Credit:
Mathison Ingham
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