The Well Coffee House
The venture that I chose to do my assignment on is The Well coffeehouse. Rob Touchstone and Chris Soper are the two co-founders of the non-profit missional coffeehouse. Their business began with a dream to find a way to support and help needy people all over the world.
"We exist to support God’s mission of giving a life of freedom and hope to oppressed, underprivileged, and impoverished children, women, and men. This missional effort is focused locally and globally through the giving of financial assistance, food, clothing, and other essentials of life. We do this by selling coffee and coffee products and then taking the profit from those sales and giving it away to those in need"
*wellcoffeehouse.org
Located smack-dab in the bible belt and in the "hipster" and coffee loving nashville community, Touchstone definitely fills a social need with this social entrepreneurial venture. Not only are people eager to find the next new and hip, local coffee store, "christian" coffee is all the rage being in the bible belt. Not only do you get to sip on some smooth tasting drink, you are also indirectly supporting someone in need halfway across the country. For those who are able and willing to support those locally in need, the Wishing Well is a board located in the store where people post on notecards any needs they may have and leave a number where they can be contacted and customers can respond to these needs in any way they can or desire.
3 Key Reasons For Success
- Passion: The passion for coffee and the passion for service. Without both, failure may have triumphed. But because they love coffee, their product is worth buying. Had they just known Nashville loves coffee and wanted to find a way to attract locals, they would have risked making a crappy product. But together a sellable idea and profitable product was formed.
- Community: As mentioned above, the location of The Well plays an important role in their success. There not only is a need to supply clean water globally, but their is both the desire in and near Green Hills to drink tasty coffee and, being in the bible belt, find a way to support an organization that gives money, support, etc. to those in need.
- Support: The founders are men with a passion to make coffee and give clean water. A great idea and a bunch of passion, without the proper support financially and organizationally, will ultimately fail. But fortunately, a group of people were able to come alongside the founders and give them the capital they needed as well as set them up with a proper management system that allowed The Well to flourish and grow and ultimately succeed.
