"Together Talks" feature # 139: COBA presented by KLS, freight company
Some Background on COBA
Today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the chance to speak with COBA and Founder, Peter Lee. COBA, The Coffee Bar is reinventing the way coffee is consumed by creating a more convenient, portable and solid form of coffee. They saw that chocolate was being consumed as both a solid and liquid, and thought - why can't it do the same with coffee? They see COBA as a lifestyle product that empowers busy people to do more with their time.
When did the company begin?
2017 it began. The last three years I've been working full time.
Story of how it was created?
2017 was the product phase, we didn't have a business yet. It started in my dorm at UC Berkely. We didn't have a sink even in the dorm. We had no experience, but we were determined to make a chocolate bar. We ended up building a team around a bunch of students and we did a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000. Fortunately we reached that goal in the first 24 hours. We then got picked up by a social media company that took us viral and more than doubled the amount of funding in our Kickstarter campaign. It was a ton of money for kids who barely had $80 in their wallet when we started this. From there we received our first venture check out of UC Berkely that was for $25,000. That allowed us to take the scaling from making 2,000 bars to 20,000 and then 40,000 bars per run. We continued the momentum to where we are today about to roll out our first national distributor.
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What separates your company from competition?
We have made over 300 iterations those first couple years. The chocolate coffee bar we sell we pioneered. COBA takes the coffee bean and ground it up for a few days in a conch. After finished it releases a lot of the oils and we temper it into a chocolate farm. We substituted cocoa with coffee and then mixed it with cocoa butter.
The education in our niche is quite difficult. To date I have sampled with over 20,000 people, which is crazy to think about. My background with coffee gives us an edge. I've been a coffee roaster since 2012, I even built my own coffee roaster because I couldn't afford one. Around 2016 I realized how competitive coffee was and how expensive it would be to scale. That is why I pivoted to creating the chocolate coffee bar. A commercial coffee grinder is $40,000. The conch we use is $300. This path was far more scalable to me.
I've traveled to Ecuador and Peru to source our beans. Fun fact you can fit 50 pounds of coffee beans in your suitcase! But our products are very nuanced and cultivated which brings a level of authenticity that is unmatched.
What have been the biggest challenges?
Typically it all boils down to funding. Finances are the trickiest part of the equation for CPG companies. I don't believe there is something holding me back, but instead what will it take to propel me forward. My goal is to one day be right next to Five Hour Energy at your convenience stores. We have two ingredients, all organic, healthy for you, and give the same result. Plus it taste really good. That is our plan and our mission.
Reflect on a goal you set and how it made you feel to accomplish it?
Personally: Prior to going full time at COBA I was a public accountant. It was a very stable job that I could depend on, but something was missing. When I decided to leave my goal was to build COBA to where I could surpass my income. Year two we were able to do that which felt like a huge win.
Professionally: Getting to be part of the REI Navigate cohort. They have been such a tremendous help for our company. REI has guided us and supported us and given us so many incredible opportunities to grow COBA. Shout out to Susan Viskon, she is the pioneer behind the whole program. Now we are closing in on our nationwide retail launch with them which is incredibly exciting. We feel REI is the perfect fit for us.
What have you learned about entrepreneurship?
It's not as clean as it seems. While we all would like a story that fits a mold, that wasn't my experience. My family came to the US when I was 3 and my sister was a couple months old. My dad opened a little toy store on the corner when I was 7. We didn't have childcare so I was at the store all the time working. Sometimes I got creative and would take a box of some items not selling and sit out on the sidewalk and sell them. I'll never forget the look on my mom's face when I'd walk back into the store with a wad of cash. That was one of my earliest memories of having transaction.
In high school, I still wasn't about entrepreneurship. That really changed when I took a trip down to Skid Row in LA with my one of my teacher at the time and who is now actually an investor in COBA. Funny enough, she started a school in the Philippines, that's basically taking kids that are both Muslim and Christian under one roof. That's a huge thing out there. We are actually helping fund the school through one of our bars. When I went to skid row, I realized how much we had due to privilege. We got a lot of kids here who have never seen poverty. We only like heard about it, but never shook hands, never hugged, never had lunch with someone who was homeless. When that hit me it was a huge shock. I started this club called Look.
We expanded to five schools. We had 1000 members. we were on the news for some projects we did. Throughout this I realized how systems click. When things are automated and you can pair it with a vision, there are attainable results. For this project it was, let's get really close to poverty and interact with it to truly understand it. Then the idea and message rippled across other schools. I felt like I had some power to instill positive impact, my ideas changed lives.
As impactful as that was, I soon went into a rough patch. That project had exhausted me. Then my mother's store burnt down and due to being immigrants we didn't have insurance. We suddenly had nothing. Due to our financial restraints I couldn't get accepted into college as I was on a visa through my parents business. Then it clicked for me that I needed to make money. Money is important. I started flipping some items short term to make some quick cash. I was addicted to it, but never saw it as my path. I wanted to create something that signaled something for people. I was still rooted in coffee and believed that was my path.
I had a couple of other ventures over the next year but none of them felt scalable to a large degree until I create COBA. On top of that it is just the feelings and emotions that food can create. Creating this ripple effect of curiosity in our product followed by surprise and then enjoyment. That is a very powerful thing.
Share a mistake and what you learned from that experience?
Monster, Red Bull, all of these companies have race cars, right? They have these Formula One partnerships. Massive, insane energy, insane amount of physics, and insane amount of science oriented race cars. I have the opportunity to sponsor a race car at a smaller level. It was about $2,000 per race. We didn't have the money at the time, but I thought it would be so cool. I convinced myself to try it for one race. The race was out in Bakersfield and the car was completely covered in COBA. I had no idea how this would help our sales truthfully.
Given our financial investment I decided to bring out a media team with me to at least capture some good footage for us. Unfortunately it didn't do anything for the sales. Reflecting back it just wasn't the right fit for us and it was my ego that made this decision. I wanted to emulate the big companies and thought how cool it would be, but in reality it wasn't what was best for our business.
I wanted it to be cool for our company, but as a business you can't try to be cool, instead being cool should be a natural byproduct of the work you do, not a pursuit. It is the basic things for us that make the difference, so we settled back in and focused on what really drives our business. It was a good learning experience for myself and the company.
What is your why?
I like playing the game. It's fun now. When I was asked two years ago while struggling, I always said it was to not let the people down who invested in this company and supported it. I could not fail them. The shame factor in the back of my head was strong.
Once we've cleared that bridge to where we are now, it is now the chase to make a positive impact. Much like I did with Look, I want to find ways to use our company and our platform to create meaningful change. Selling chocolate bars is fun and amazing, but as we continue to grow and become I don't want it to lead to more frivolous things. I'd rather attach myself and our company to causes that matter.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
We do a lot of pop ups and shows. Sometimes these shows completely flop. We put a lot into these and these shows are expensive. There is an event fee and the staffing and the ingredient and all that monetary factors. The massive amount of work and sometimes it is a net zero or loss. When you do that and the disappointment is high. But we lean on our team culture and we always resort back to our one motto: eat well.
After a rough showing everyone goes to eat together and we just bond over great food. It is this weird switch of an extreme low to this incredible high. It rally seems to put everything into perspective and we recenter ourselves. The mood changes while we eat together and that always makes me so proud of the team the resiliency they show. I think it also makes us enjoy the higher highs too because we've experienced those rock bottom performances.
On the horizon?
I'll talk about our brew for a minute. First, REI is taking our bars nationwide October of this year. It'll be our first step, major step into nationwide plus outdoors. The second product that we have is our coffee concentrate. It's a bottle that makes 15 cups of coffee. It's really good for camping, outdoors, or on the go. For any entrepreneur, anybody who's on the hustle, that bottle uses a little shot in your water or your milk, whatever you do. You get an instant cup of coffee right away. That comes with the 10 years plus coffee background that I had.
It's organic, fair trade coffee, but there's so many more nuanced parts to sourcing the beans consistently hat we poured into that concentrate. There's three flavors. There's a mint where we add some mint extract, vanilla, again, with some vanilla extract and the original. We're going to almost sell out of the original. Our next production is scheduled, but the brew concentrate has really picked up as a strong contender for the bar sales.
Piece of Advice
I'm not a big proponent of big dreams and big goals, big ambitions anymore. I thought that, but somebody very wise told me small is the new big. Stack these small incremental steps. I would have not thought that I would have had pitched 20,000 people with our chocolate bars for example. But those were all tons of little tiny steps, right? And it really takes those to evolve into the next level. Appreciating the little steps is going to be what takes you to that next level more than you know. We get all riled up thinking about the big things but it's going to be the little things in between them it can make you whole and also it helps you pay attention to the things that matter.
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In Closing
KLS wants to thank COBA and Founder, Peter Lee for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
Business Resources!
Look at our new page HERE designed to provide excellent opportunities that may be of interest to you. These are a compilation from our chats within our "Together Talks". If you have any suggestions please let us know as we would love to provide more valuable insight to our community!
Klimson Logistics Solutions - Together Talks with COBA feature #139
*Klimson Logistics Solutions is an Industry Leading Customer Service 3PL. Our focus and commitment to our clients has us striving to be the BEST customer service 3PL for LTL, FTL, Reefer, and Drayage in the country. KLS, freight company, is a 3PL providing nationwide logistics solutions. KLS shipping services include: LTL freight, FTL freight, Reefer LTL freight, Reefer FTL freight, and Drayage. Klimson Logistics Solutions thanks you for viewing our marketing campaign, "Together Talks". If you have any interest in being featured or questions regarding your freight operations please contact us today!
Why KLS?
Our precise and reliable effort.
We handle every shipment with the exact same process. It does not matter if you move one shipment a year or ten per day, you will receive the same level of customer service from us. When we started this company, we had one goal in mind, treat every shipment like it was our own. With our vast knowledge of the industry, we understood what a customer would want from a communication standpoint. We applied that process to be the standard here at KLS. Our reliability and being able to depend on our consistency is why we have such long-standing relationships with our clients.
Our Process?
Every shipment in our industry starts with a quote. We are firm believers that time is money, thus we strive to have quotes back in a 5-10 minute reply time for LTL and FTL, any FCL quotes are at the mercy of the carriers getting back to us. For LTL we have the flexibility to quote both off of NMFC and also Density depending on the carrier. Utilizing our services, you’re allowing us to use our expertise to class your freight accordingly to ensure we are providing the best rate we possibly can.
Once a quote has been submitted and a client chooses to proceed with KLS handling the arrangement of the shipment our full process begins. We create the BOL that will be used for the shipment. If it is a new location for our system, we will obtain all the important/special details (reference numbers, contact details, shipping hours, closed for lunch, dock/doors, etc.). We meticulously build every detail into our software for all future shipments involving that location. After we have both locations built and necessary reference numbers have been applied we will tender the shipment to the carrier. We use this method because it provides us a real time pickup number from the carrier to obtain updates prior to pickup. Our staff will either email the BOL directly to you or to the shipper (at your request) the minute after the tender has been accepted by the carrier. LTL carriers require a 2 hour window prior to close time in order to schedule it for a same-day pickup attempt.
The following morning you’ll receive an email from us. It will either provide the reason the pickup was missed (driver’s trailer filled up, driver missed the close time, truck broke down, shipper said no freight, etc.) or if the pickup was successful you will receive the PRO (tracking) number from us, along with the eta for delivery. Our staff will track it throughout the duration of transit and advise if anything happens that will alter the estimated delivery date. The day the shipment delivers we will email you with confirmation and the POD (Proof of Delivery), should you require it.
Your shipment has been quoted, scheduled, picked up, and delivered. The next step is waiting for the carrier to invoice us and make sure the rate matches up. If it does, we close out the invoice from the carrier in our system and automatically your invoice is created and sent to the requested party at your company. In the event the carrier has an additional charge on their invoice “Variance”, we will never send you an invoice with an additional charge without first identifying you of the charge.
Let us repeat, NEVER WILL WE JUST BILL OUT AN EXTRA CHARGE WITHOUT YOU BEING NOTIFIED.
You are our customer, we represent you. Should the carrier provide an extra charge on an invoice, “Lift gate, additional weight, reclass, detention, etc.) We notify you of the charge via email first. Second, within that email we identify what is required should you choose to dispute the charge. Again our goal is to honor your request, if you want to dispute, we will dispute. During a dispute we will provide you updates every step along the way. Once a dispute is closed out, whether it is approved or rejected, then we will invoice you as the invoice has been resolved.
For reference, our company only had 6.2% of all shipments go to dispute in 2022 and we successfully won 91% of those disputes on behalf of our customers.
This is our process for every single shipment you move with us. We don’t cut corners, we don’t hide from difficult situations. We believe in being available, honest, and transparent. We don’t ever want to tell you that a shipment is lost, damaged, misrouted, but it is our duty to notify you the second we find out something has gone wrong. We hate to present bad news, but it is part of the job. What you can guarantee is that we will work a shipment all the way through and turn over every stone until we get a resolution for our clients.
Services offered?
Our core business is LTL and FTL. Within these options we have options for both dry and refrigerated/frozen. We also offer FCL/Drayage options. Our company as a 3PL has nationwide options and services clients across the US.
Let’s breakdown our services more in-depth
LTL:
Standard and Guaranteed
CFS (Imports & Exports)
Tradeshows
Hazmat
Anything that is on a pallet can be moved LTL. Typically LTL is up to 10 pallets, but the sweet spot for a carrier is 6-8 pallets at most for an individual shipment. LTL quotes are good between 5-30 days depending on the carrier. LTL can be quoted either via NMFC or density to determine the class (we do this for you).
Volume:
Anything over 10-12’ of space in the truck is the technical rule for a volume shipment. When we run a quote for you we will determine if it qualifies for volume and provide you a rate if available. Volume moves allow you to get a reduced rate for larger shipments. The caveat to volume shipments it the quotes are only valid for 3-7 days and they move on capacity between terminals. If a terminal is backed up they will move their LTL freight first before the volume freight, which can lead to longer transit times for volume moves.
FTL/Dedicated/Expedited: 53’ Dry and Reefer 26’ Box trucks with lift gate Sprinter Van The main difference for FTL vs LTL is space and transit time. For standard pallets you can fit either 26 or 30 pallets in a 53’ dry van. The other main difference is transit time, for FTL each day counts in the transit time, whereas LTL does not count the day of pickup, weekends, or holidays in their transit time.
Reefer/Frozen:
LTL and FTL
We specialize working in the CPG space with food manufacturers. We regularly deliver to
the following locations:
Kehe
UNFI
Core Mark
DPI
Wegmans
Cugini
H.T. Hackney
Netrition
HEB
ALDI
Chambers and Owens
EBY Brown
Nassau Candy
Harris Teeter
Wakefern
NU INC
Long Distribution
What makes KLS different?
There are thousands of freight brokers and 3PL in our industry. Barrier to entry is rather easy and agents or owners will often hire sales people without any intention of properly training them. It results in high turnover for many freight companies and a forgettable experience for the client. We choose to operate differently through our consistency. We truly care about doing right by our clients and prospects too. While we would love to help provide our services to every company we speak with, that just isn’t realistic. We won’t always be the right fit for every company that moves freight and that is ok. Our authenticity as a shipping company sets us apart from the competition and that is backed up by our testimonials. We also run a marketing campaign bi-weekly called “Together Talks”. We interview, highlight, and promote two businesses every week. Our goal is to grow our network, make new connections, and learn something new with each collaboration. Check it out on our website and if you’re interested in being featured reach out.
Our company also runs a year long charity promotion. Book your first shipment through KLS and we donate to the charity of your choice in your name. Our way of thanking you for giving us an opportunity to show you the KLS way and what makes us one of a kind. This entire package is what we offer to every prospect and every client. Our goal is to help provide answers that customers may have when it comes to shipping. We want to always be available as a resource and will always offer a lending hand whenever we can.
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