John Machacek, Chief Innovation Officer for the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, has worked with countless startups throughout our community over the years. He knows their ups, and their downs, but most of all, he knows the questions to ask them. Here are John Machacek’s 10 questions for Tate Howe, Founder, Get Coffee’d.
1. Will you please tell me your Get Coffee’d elevator pitch?
Our cold-brew-infused hard chews satisfy the Mocha Latte taste you crave while instantly delivering 48mg of natural caffeine for that wide-awake, ray-of-sunshine energy you deserve. Experiencing a tough commute, long flight, or an afternoon slump? Get Coffee’d lets you take your cup of joe on-the-go. No spills, no lines, no misspelled names. Just real cold-brew coffee with real natural caffeine—in a real tasty chew.
We’re all just energy, but sometimes we need a little more—GET COFFEE’D.
2. How long have you been working on the development of this product?
I began thinking about the concept a decade ago but started placing focus on it about two-plus years ago. After being at Dot’s Pretzels, I vetted some new roles around the country, but nothing felt right or got me excited. Throughout my time at Dot’s, I was surrounded by amazing individuals who provided the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge to take Get Coffee’d from concept to a viable product—and all things told me that Get Coffee’d was a solid item.
Mentally, as I would revisit the Get Coffee’d concept, I would actually try to convince myself it wouldn’t work. However, my gut said otherwise so I shooshed that little voice and got to work bringing it to life.
4. I’m curious, how has the process gone to formulate something like this, and iterate on it?
Two steps forward, six steps back, more steps forward. Rinse and repeat. To say the least, it’s been a journey.
Coming from the “Salty Snack” category, the one thing I didn’t learn at Dot’s was how to formulate or cook a confectionery. So, it started in the kitchen, and like all things, you learn little by little and the entire time you think you’re crazy for even beginning. Throughout the journey, I’ve been blessed by a lot of helpful individuals who believed in the vision. Cooking a confectionery is a finicky process and not a forgiving one. It took a hundred attempts to create an edible product, and it took another couple hundred attempts to create a product that’s ready for the market. You don’t have the liberty of making more than one tweak at a time, so it takes a lot of time to make those adjustments. The product has come a long way, but we feel confident in the end result.
4. So, formulating the recipes and the tests is one thing, but then manufacturing larger amounts is another thing. How have you gone about producing and packaging the candy?
Initially, the plan was to outsource manufacturing. However, I learned quickly that wasn’t going to happen. After vetting out potential manufacturing options around the country, it became clear it was time to pivot and to find the necessary equipment to take manufacturing in-house. So, I hit the road and visited numerous confectionery and packaging equipment manufacturers until I found the correct components necessary for our application. Once I found what I hoped to be the correct equipment, I leased a small R&D manufacturing space to practice and ensure what I believed would work, actually did. After months of learning and using the equipment, it was finally go-time, so we picked up everything and moved it into the original Dot’s Pretzel plant in Velva, ND.
I think it is awesome that the manufacturing of your product is happening in Velva, where Dot’s Pretzels were once produced. Can you tell me more about the move to Velva, as I’d love to hear about that?
North Dakota, in all areas and for endless reasons, is an amazingly supportive and business-friendly state. The company was registered here from the start—the plan was always to be in ND. With that, something I will never be able to show my true gratitude for is all the great people here in ND that have helped along the journey.
Oddly enough, my first contact here was you, John. It’s been over a year since we first connected while I was searching for a location to set up shop. From there you’ve acted as the snowball that doesn’t stop by instrumentally connecting me with key individuals and helping me navigate through the plethora of opportunities the state offers. Whether it’s been Josh, Shayden, Kevin, or Maria from the North Dakota Department of Commerce, the O’Leary Ventures team, Sadie and Greg from Emerging Prairie, Greg from Minn Dak Market, our Velva Mayor Mike, our local Velva Banker David, our distribution partners at Bischof Distributing, or the amazing retailers around the state—each and every one of these organizations and people have welcomed us with open arms and made us feel like North Dakota is home.
With all that said, last year when we first met, the “where” we were going to set up in North Dakota had not presented itself, yet. Again, early on, prior to renting space in Minnesota, I looked at various buildings around North Dakota, but couldn’t find a good fit for our needs. So, I kept moving forward and had faith that something would come about—and that something was Hershey’s pulling out of the Dot’s Pretzels plant in Velva.
As heartbroken as Dot, the team, the State, Velva community, and everyone else including myself was that Dot’s Pretzels was leaving the state, I took it as a gift. The perfect gift. Dot and Randy Henke are partners with me and still own the building. The building was designed for manufacturing, and the old team was looking to get back into action. I will forever be grateful and indebted to Dot and Randy for what they’ve done and continue to do for me.
6. How has your experience working for Dot’s Pretzels helped you in this startup process, whether it be creating the product and/or developing a product plan and/or your distributor and retailer network, or whatever else?
My time with Dot’s Pretzels was priceless. The Dot’s ride and experience was like getting an MBA in all things food manufacturing, and sales and distribution. Hindsight is a crazy thing; I will never forget the first day I met Dot in 2017 at the plant in Velva. That team— our CEO, Randy Johnson; the leadership team; the production teams—every single individual there was part of taking a dream from Dot’s kitchen and growing it into the number one pretzel on the planet.
7. So, let me shift gears to think about the finished product. First of all, your packaging is very interesting and clever. Will you please tell me about the thought process behind the package design?
The initial thought process was to have packaging that could be carried around in your pocket for easy access to on-the-go energy. I also wanted packaging that would resonate well with the coffee category and our branding, but something that created differentiation. There are many things to think about and metrics you want to consider as you develop your packaging. You want to look at it from a costing perspective, production perspective, supply chain perspective, from a merchandising perspective, and finally the end perspective—the shopper’s perspective.
Everyone is familiar with a paper coffee to-go cup and our graphic designer is a genius. So, we married all of the above together and you can see the final result at our website getcoffeed.com.
8. Then, secondly on the finished product, what or where is your plan to roll these out, as far as geography and selling channels?
Our initial focus is on North Dakota. We have an amazing North Dakota-based distribution partner that will be instrumental in gaining space at all channels of trade: grocery, convenience, and many non-traditional accounts. We also have a distribution set up in Kansas, Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota. While our distributor partners are out hitting the streets, we will be working on getting our website set up for direct-to-consumer. The goal is to saturate North Dakota, then the states I just mentioned, from there we will have learned the necessary information pertaining to our item and our consumer to be more intentional with our growth and expansion strategy. There’s a big difference between creating a product and building a brand. Building a brand that is accepted in the marketplace takes time and it takes repetition of simple marketing concepts like trial and awareness.
9. If you could go back in time to Tate from several years ago, what hindsight advice would you give yourself?
To be kind to yourself, keep the faith, and don’t take anything too seriously. We’re only here for a moment, have fun, and make mistakes.
10. As a last question, I always ask, what can we do as a community to help you and Get Coffee’d succeed?
We would love the community’s support. As you’re venturing around North Dakota, you’ll start seeing Get Coffee’d popping up at your local grocery store, convenience store, sporting goods store, hardware store— or at any store that will talk to me.
Try our item, buy our item, and share our item. And if you don’t like our item, keep it to yourself—kind vibes only. No, but actually, with that said, feedback both positive and negative is appreciated, as that’s how we get better.
Feel free to send any and all thoughts to ContactUs@getcoffeed.com
Also, if you feel that you’re meant to join the Get Coffee’d journey, send us a note, and let’s connect.
About John
John Machacek has been helping local startups with the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation since prior to his position with the GFMEDC. Before joining the team, Machacek was the VP of Finance & Operations at United Way of Cass-Clay and a business banker at U.S. Bank.