How many late nights did you have cramming for exams? Yeah, I don't want to think about it either. If cramming is a bummer, so is bad coffee. That's what Lucas Phillips of Northwestern College thought, too.
If a coffee lover wanted to get a cold brew or hot cup of coffee, it meant going off campus. Since Northwestern is located in Chicago, the weather isn't always the easiest to deal with. Phillips loves cold brewed coffee and he's entrepreneurially minded.
Why not combine the two loves? That's when he and two other friends founded BrewBike, in his freshman year. They took some tumbles and turns, learning as they went. But by the end of his sophomore year, BrewBike was turning a profit.
Ice cold good quality coffee is delivered on campus by bike. And, the entire company is owned and run by students. Very cool. Talk about real world experience. That's not something that's usually found in higher learning.
Phillips got the money to start his business through crowd funding. I love this guy! Within a few months, BrewBike was in a position to find an indoor location. A start up company that previously was barely breaking even had now become profitable.
I think the coolest thing about this story is how a young man found a solution to a problem that was small by most people's standards. No matter. Small problems can yield big payoffs as Lucas' story clearly demonstrates.
The other thing that's good and yet a bit sad is that Lucas learned this in school, but the halls of higher learning didn't teach it to him. The irony is just too big to miss. I wonder if the educators were aware of that irony too?
Whether Lucas sticks with his student grown coffee business or sells it and move on, there's one thing for sure. The education he received outside of the classroom on how to grow and run a profitable business will carry him through for the rest of his life.
picture via Facebook