Jittery Johns, LLC: We started making micro-batches of cold brew coffee long before cold brew was a thing

I didn’t set out to start a small business. It happened by accident. I reluctantly tried a friend’s sketchy-looking, unlabeled new kind of coffee brewed in a mason jar called “cold brew”. I was seriously addicted after about 2 sips and couldn’t wait until I could have more.

Something clicked and I turned to my friend and said, “let’s start a business”. Without any kind of business plan or any funding, we got legally set up, bought bottles, designed some labels, and put up a table at Dolores Park to sell on a hot day.

No one knew what cold brew was at the time. We explained it to literally everyone who stopped by. One thing was clear: people loved it!

During our first year, we kept our days jobs, hustled at night and on the weekends, did deliveries ourselves before work, and got lots of positive market validation. We were pretty sure we had something real on our hands.

Our second year, we took on more big accounts, word started getting out, and cold brew started gaining in popularity. I knew we had something at that point, so I quit my job to focus exclusively on taking Jittery John’s to the next level.

Currently, Jittery John’s employs five people and relies on the generous support and advice from friends and family to bring our products to you. We pour our heart and soul into every bottle of cold brew we make and we hope that every once in awhile (every day, really) our coffee makes your day a little bit brighter.

We started making micro-batches of cold brew coffee long before cold brew was a thing. Fast forward three years and we’ve grown into many Bay Area grocery stores and are on tap at numerous cafes, restaurants, and bars around the bay.

Our first product was our Original Cold Brew Concentrate and we have added a Ready to Drink product and a Nitro cold brew (available on tap). We are increasing our product line in 2016 to include 4 new products and have commitments from major retailers to carry all new and existing products.

The biggest challenge we face is access to available capital. We continue to have tremendous growth year after year but with the lag between purchasing raw materials and ingredients and getting paid by our customers, it’s always difficult to make larger buying decisions.

This loan would help us purchase some much needed large-scale brewing and bottling equipment and do testing to make sure we get the same quality and consistency as in smaller batches.

I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and every day when I wake up, I look forward to moving the needle a little bit further!

This loan will be used to purchase 300 gallon brew tanks, an automated bottle filler, and filtering equipment. These 3 things will cost 20K, so this loan will go a long way to helping us make this big purchase.
With these new pieces of equipment, our production capacity will increase significantly while production time will decrease. Our QA procedures will be streamlined – bringing you the exceptional tasting Jittery John’s you have come to expect from us.