The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

New energy bar puts coffee in edible form

New+energy+bar+puts+coffee+in+edible+form

By Isaac Feldberg, news correspondent 

An 8 a.m. class may not seem like a well of inspiration for most students, but middler business administration majors Ali Kothari and Johnny Fayad have their fall 2013 financial accounting class to thank for now-burgeoning business venture New Grounds Food.

“We were constantly running late, never had time to get our breakfast and coffee in the morning,” Fayad, who has a concentration in entrepreneurship, finance and supply chain management, said. “We wanted a quicker way to get our days going but without sacrificing nutrition.”

When the pair met while participating in the Husky Startup Challenge, a business development competition run by the Entrepreneurs Club, they both raised the same question: “Why couldn’t we just eat our coffee?”

Sensing a business opportunity, Fayad and Kothari founded New Grounds Food and leapt into the Startup Challenge, which allowed them to evolve their concept of edible coffee into an innovative energy bar called the CoffeeBar.

Both credited the Startup Challenge’s bootcamps and networking events with helping them figure out the process of creating CoffeeBar. During weeks spent in the White Hall basement kitchen, the pair “just went at it and tried to create a product with coffee in it,” Kothari said, eventually emerging with 14 trial batches for students to test out.

Heads high and samples in hand, Kothari and Fayad attended an on-campus “Demo Day,” where they piqued the interest of IDEA, Northeastern’s student-run venture accelerator.

$10,000 in grant money from IDEA, in addition to the Audience Favorite Award in the 2013 Startup Challenge, “allowed us to take our business to the next level,” Fayad said. The ability to network through IDEA was also invaluable, both agreed.

Another eight months were spent refining the recipe for CoffeeBar, which they wanted to offer the caffeine boost of a full cup of coffee with a subtle mocha latte flavor. Eventually, Fayad and Kothari perfected their recipe.

Since the Demo Day, New Grounds’ has continued to grow. Using IDEA’s funding, the pair worked with a Spokane, Wash. manufacturer on a pilot order of 3,000 CoffeeBars, which allowed them to vet the product and prepare for larger orders.

“That [deal] came about through mostly cold-emailing and cold-calling” over 100 companies, Kothari said, explaining that many manufacturers they contacted would only agree to orders of 50,000 to 100,000.

Partnering with student design agency Scout, New Grounds also recently came up with official packaging for CoffeeBar and, to help with the costs of that packaging, launched a Kickstarter campaign in September. Their initial goal of $10,000 was met in 15 hours.

“We totally did not expect it,” Fayad said. “Going into the campaign, we had internally told ourselves, okay, if we can hit $2,000 on the first day, we’ll be more than happy.”

Passing a subsequent stretch goal of $25,000 allowed New Grounds  Food to partner with nonprofit Project Alianza and source fair trade coffee directly from a Nicaraguan family farm.

“More money goes to the farmer, and some also goes to community development,” Kothari said.

Before the campaign ends on Nov. 6, Fayad and Kothari hope to reach their next stretch goal of $75,000, which will allow them to scale up, introducing two new flavors. Regardless of whether that goal is reached, however, next month will see New Grounds Food handle its first major order.

“We’re estimating 50,000 units, which is really exciting,” Kothari said.

Out of those CoffeeBars, which will come with new Scout packaging, about a fourth will reward Kickstarter backers, and the rest will go out to stores, distribution networks and customers with custom orders. Already, New Grounds Food has struck a deal to put CoffeeBars in Leanboxes, healthy vending machines in over 50 Mass. workplaces, including Microsoft and Amazon buildings.

“CoffeeBar is in all of their locations right now and they will do another order after Kickstarter,” Fayad said.

Meanwhile, on campus, the reaction has been extremely supportive, he added.

“Random people will recognize us,” he said. “It’s interesting, surreal in a way. Northeastern University is so accepting of new ideas, especially from a fellow Husky.”

Freshman electrical engineering major Sofia Benitez offered kudos to New Grounds Food for making a successful product that not only tasted good, but also gave her the energy she needed.

“It’s easy to carry around,” Benitez said, “and I was able to power through an essay without feeling tired. If I don’t have time to actually drink the coffee, maybe I’m rushing or I don’t have time to let it cool down before I drink it, or if I’m feeling hungry.”

Third year health science major Abbey Dallas was less interested in the bar as a coffee replacement, but could see it catching on.

“It’s sweeter than I thought it would be,” Dallas said. “I’m not looking to get a caffeine fix, but it’s a really interesting idea.”

Fayad and Kothari hope CoffeeBar will become a Husky-preferred product.

“The Northeastern bookstore is definitely a want for us,” Fayad said. “We may have to go through the university’s distributor, but we’ll see.”

However, the pair’s ambition isn’t contained to the campus, or even the state.

“Going after Whole Foods will be our next big step, big milestone,” Fayad said.

Other coffee shops and retailers are also under consideration as potential business partners. As for even further down the road, the pair has discussed approaching a much larger potential customer: the US Army.

“CoffeeBar is the perfect product for soldiers to have in their pocket when they’re on duty and they like coffee but they can’t necessarily make,” Fayad said.

New Grounds Food is also developing products outside of CoffeeBar, Kothari said, though their attention is currently on the upcoming CoffeeBar shipment. With graduation only a few semesters away, the pair plans to continue building the business for years to come.

“We set out on a mission of trying to create a new lifestyle, essentially, of promoting that you can eat healthy and that you don’t need to sacrifice nutrition to get your energy,” Kothari said. “We’re going to hit that mission.”

Photo courtesy New Grounds Food

 

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