Episode 32: Pouring into Sustainability – From Seed to Cup

Transcript

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Episode 32: Pouring into Sustainability – From Seed to Cup

00:00:10:10 – 00:00:38:19

Hello and welcome back to Change@Work. I’m your host Chris Thornton. This week we welcome Natalie Webb, a human rights lawyer turned coffee enthusiast and entrepreneur. Natalie is the founder of Cafecita Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster based in Los Angeles. Cafecita is unique in that all of their coffee beans come from sustainable women owned coffee farms and co-ops, and a percentage of every sale goes to supporting women’s non-profits around the world.

00:00:38:21 – 00:00:59:24

And only three years since starting the business, Natalie has been sought out by Patagonia to have her coffee served in their headquarters. I mean, to have one of the most famous companies in sustainability reach out to you. You have to be doing something right. Between sustainable to managing a startup, there’s so much we can learn from Natalie. So here she is, Natalie Webb.

00:00:59:27 – 00:01:17:22

Hi. Good morning. How are you today? I’m great. Thank you. How are you? Pretty good. I see a cat in your background. Yeah. Can you tell us about the cat? Yeah. The cat is, Her name is Boo Boo Boo boo. We adopted her when I was in New York, and she has moved back to Los Angeles with me.

00:01:17:24 – 00:01:43:06

Fantastic. When did you meet Boo Boo? How long ago? I’m truly. Question. I’ve never asked. Where did you meet? I love this. I thank you, everybody. I met her in 2015. She was actually, found by one of my, cat loving, workmates that I would say already had, like, two cats in her studio, so couldn’t adopt another one.

00:01:43:07 – 00:02:04:15

And so she actually brought her to the office one day. And I love cats. And I had just moved back to New York from India, and, was in a position to adopt a cat and so that person was again, and the rest is history. And I love her dearly. And she’s doing well in LA now. Well welcome, booboo.

00:02:04:17 – 00:02:27:27

Now we got to get like, there’s so many interesting things about about you that we’re going to talk about today. But we got to talk about 70 countries. What’s going on 70 countries. That’s amazing. Thank you. I love traveling, I found it I want addicting as kind of a negative word. I just found it, like, I just wanted to to travel as much as I can.

00:02:28:01 – 00:02:54:22

You know, so my mom is from London, and so I grew up going to visit family in London every year, which was really nice. And I think having that perspective of, two cultures, two countries, kind of seeing what else is in the world really made me curious about seeing more countries. And so, when I was 18, I took a gap year and went and worked actually as a bartender in London.

00:02:54:25 – 00:03:28:22

Oh, that’s a good way to get to know a city. You year old American. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was really fun. And then, saved up money to travel around the rest of Europe and then. Yeah, that’s when I got completely addicted to it. So did you study abroad? When I was an undergrad, and then ended up taking another semester to continue traveling, and then one of the study abroad was in Singapore, and I got really into scuba diving while I was there, and so then decided to take another year off before law school to work as a dive master and, and then went to law school in New York and then did all

00:03:28:22 – 00:03:49:23

my internships, abroad and kept traveling as much as I could when I was in different regions of the world, and then worked, in New York for a while at the New York bar. So I thought I would settle there, but then got burnt out and took another year and a half off to go live in, South Africa, Ethiopian, India, and then move back to New York and then move back to L.A..

00:03:49:23 – 00:04:13:21

Sorry, that was probably if you heard it, you know, you’re fine. Was fine, but was fine. Okay. I way it’s I feel like you’ve constructed life perfectly, to do the things that you love. If you weren’t back in L.A. Living in LA of all the places that you’ve lived. Or maybe you haven’t lived there yet, where would you live if it weren’t la?

00:04:13:23 – 00:04:47:24

So prior to moving back to LA, I was in LA, Hakka, Mexico, and I loved it so much. I, I definitely would like to, go back to living there. Maybe not full time, but having kind of the la la Hakka cast. What did you love about Oaxaca? So it’s, I don’t know if you’ve been there, but I have a I did in high school, I did, you know, I studied Spanish, so I had to pick a region and do a report on it that I don’t think that’s even close to knowing what, region is all about.

00:04:47:27 – 00:05:13:15

Yeah. So it’s it’s a small town, really, like, it’s walkable. I lived in the center, but it has so much going on. There’s always events. There’s also such a creative energy to the city, I would say. And so there’s a lot of art, there’s a lot of music always going on, a lot of studios and workshops. You can really get involved in any type of art classes or kind of art community that you want.

00:05:13:15 – 00:05:42:08

And then it’s also it’s 16 indigenous groups that live just in Oaxaca and languages, and they’re all celebrated like I was in Mallorca. City is the capital of the state. Almost every day there’s, calendar, like a parade going with celebrating like, dance or music from one of the indigenous groups, which was just so cool to see that and that, the advocacy for different people’s identities and, celebration of it.

00:05:42:08 – 00:06:13:12

So yes, it is great. I love her. And the food, of course, everyone. Oh my gosh, you have to for the food, obviously. Yeah. So, Natalie, tell me about Cafecita. What is it? Where is it? Why is it so? I launched Cafecita in 2020 and we are a specialty coffee roaster based in Los Angeles. All our coffees come from sustainable, women owned coffee farms and co-ops, and a percentage of every sale goes to supporting women’s non-profits around the world.

00:06:13:14 – 00:06:47:10

Right now, we are all e-commerce and wholesale to other cafes and offices, so anyone can order coffee directly from us. We roast every week in small batches at a coffee is very, high quality and freshly roasted once it’s delivered to your door. But the original plan was actually to be a cafe. I was really excited about having that physical location that we could do community events and really focus on that, but since it was 2020, it wasn’t an ideal time to be opening in an actual location.

00:06:47:10 – 00:07:15:09

So that’s why I quickly pivoted to being all e-commerce and wholesale. But very excited to announce that we will actually be opening our first cafe this October in Los Angeles. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic. Congratulations. Thank you. All right, let’s get into your background in your business. So your background in human rights law, I, I’m going to guess it has to give you a pretty unique lens to get into the food and beverage industry.

00:07:15:11 – 00:07:43:15

But I gotta say, I don’t see the direct connection. There may be one. How did you make that transition and why? Coffee specific. So it was definitely a 180, but I feel like the the way that Cafecita has set up the business model is as a social enterprise. So there are at least I see a lot of parallels between human rights work and capacities, mission and how we conduct our work.

00:07:43:18 – 00:08:08:10

Actually, originally I had thought that Cafecita would be, a nonprofit, like a 501 C3, but just knowing, because that was my entire background, the challenges that nonprofits face, I, I didn’t want it to have to be reliant on always writing that, reporting, doing what our funders wanted. And so I decided to do a social enterprise where it’s really self-sustaining.

00:08:08:11 – 00:08:36:15

So the business side sustains the nonprofit side, but it’s still, as we’ll speak about it, set up that all the coffees come from sustainable, women owned coffee farms and co-ops, and a percentage every sale goes to supporting women’s nonprofits around the world. So it’s still really has that social impact, mission driven focus. And coffee ethically was because when I was doing the human rights work, I lived abroad a lot as a very try, try to wrap up briefly in the intro.

00:08:36:17 – 00:09:13:22

And I would work from cafes most of the time, and I just, I love coffee culture. I love Santa Fe is around the world. Every culture has their own traditions with coffee, so the similarities and the differences, but it’s also incredibly universally loved, which is nice. I don’t know how much that really, can even compete with coffee on that level, but the more I looked into it, the more I saw this gender inequality and the fact that, you know, women producers make up the majority of the manual labor on the farms, but are far less represented and decision making position or ownership.

00:09:13:22 – 00:09:43:17

And so I really wanted to focus on highlighting and promoting these women who are already doing this incredible work. But because most coffee companies and roasters in the US are owned by men, there just wasn’t being attention put on these incredible women. So that’s what I decided to focus on. So I’m making a connection between what I often hear, and I want to see if it’s true that or making a connection, at least within the US.

00:09:43:20 – 00:10:05:25

Sometimes employers can complain about there’s not enough diverse candidates or I would love to go after more diversity, but they just aren’t applying. And the response has always been, no, they’re there. You’re not looking in the right places and you’re not. You’re not actively seeking them out. So you got to do some work to be to be able to find the candidates that you wish were part of your organization.

00:10:05:28 – 00:10:25:22

Is there a parallel when it comes to women who own coffee producing organizations that, oh, they’re out there. They’re just not getting the attention. Or maybe you have to do more work to actually go find them. Is that a fair way to think about it, or would you think about it differently? Well, that’s I actually didn’t know that employers had that mindset.

00:10:25:24 – 00:10:48:18

I hadn’t heard that they often. Yeah. I wouldn’t say it’s similar, at least in my experience with coffee, because it was very easy to find these, women in these women on farms. A lot of the coffee imported into the US is actually by importers, and they’re the ones that really set up the relationships with the farms.

00:10:48:20 – 00:11:10:21

And there’s a there’s a wide variety, a wide spectrum of these importers Cafecita works with, like the very, sustainability minded ones, I would say. And so that have had these relationships with the women. And so all that to say is, if you look at the easiest level, even if you’re not going out looking for anything, if you contact an importer, they have a list of women owned farms.

00:11:10:24 – 00:11:32:21

So they’re they’re it’s not hard to find. It’s just that there was an attention being put on it. So yeah, I would say for me it was very easy to find them. Does does the attention that you’ve placed on women owned farms, does that connect to your mission at all? Can you tell us about your mission? Yes, 100%.

00:11:32:21 – 00:11:54:22

So the mission of Cafecita is very much focused on empowerment and sustainability. So the empowerment side of it is because my background is also human rights rather than like humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid is really kind of handouts and giving it out, like if there’s been a war and, you know, setting up things like that, human rights is really like more focused.

00:11:54:22 – 00:12:11:12

And in my view, I’m sure that people that disagree, but in my view that it’s focused on empowerment. So these women are already doing the work. One of the groups that we work with in Honduras, they’ve been doing this work since the 90s. They’re amazing. They have incredible success and history, and they’re like, this is what they do.

00:12:11:12 – 00:12:37:16

This is what they specialize in. So with Cafecita, I really wanted it to to work alongside our producers instead of top down. And so Casitas focus on providing a platform, providing market access, making sure that the women are provided or paid fairly for their coffee. And really kind of putting that education out to customers to know about the gender inequality in the coffee industry.

00:12:37:18 – 00:12:57:26

So that’s the empowerment side is putting the women in the driver’s seat, making sure that they’re making the decisions about their businesses. And where does working with them. And then the sustainability aspect is, I mean, that’s it’s huge, as you talk about a lot on your show, sustainability is it’s the future. And we we need to focus on it.

00:12:57:26 – 00:13:29:07

So making sure that not just the farms or but the coffees being grown in the most organic, regenerative way possible, but also Cafecita all our bags are 100% compostable or should be in materials or recyclable. We, our groceries run on 100% renewable energy. Just really trying to make the smallest impact, that we can. Well, while providing a very high quality, very good and healthy product, both for the producers and for the customers and for the planet.

00:13:29:14 – 00:13:54:15

Incredible. Was it as easy just by looking and asking to find the women on coffee farms? Was it just as easy to find out if they were using regenerative agriculture practices? Is that information easily available to someone like you? It is. I would say, when I was first starting out. So Cafecita was launched in 2020. So it’s still relatively new.

00:13:54:15 – 00:14:23:07

So it then a whole learning, adventure as I go. But starting out looking for these farms, trying to make the connections and writing and different importers in the US, the responses, I think, set a lot like some, some importers have actually gone to the farms, know the women seeing how it’s grown. And that’s actually cathartic. Cafecita have started doing that too, like visiting the farms now that we’re moving for it.

00:14:23:10 – 00:14:47:27

But some importers, you ask them about the coffee and they can’t tell you anything. They don’t really know that maybe they’ll say, oh, like the elevation is this and you know, it has the certification. But that’s like as far as their knowledge goes. And so those are things that I chose not to work with. And I really chose the ones that had these strong relationships and really knew how the coffee was being grown.

00:14:47:27 – 00:15:08:27

So, right now we work with two women’s farms. One is Honduras and that comes true. Sustainable harvest is the name of the importer, based in Portland. So they’ve known, like I said, like these women since the 90s. They’ve been working with them for a long time. And then the other way that I find, the farms is actually it’s amazing.

00:15:08:27 – 00:15:25:21

With social media now on the Instagram, I always have producers reaching out to me to say, oh, we have this coffee. Do you want to sample it? Can we send you these samples? And so that’s been a great way to also connect directly with the farms. And so our other partnership right now is with a farm in Rwanda.

00:15:25:23 – 00:15:44:26

And that’s because they have a family member that lives in the US who imports the coffee. And the family member had reached out to me, sent a sample. It was amazing. I loved it. And so we get to partner with them and they I mean, it’s their family. So they have so much information and we’re able to actually really connect with the farm.

00:15:44:28 – 00:16:13:12

And we’re actually hoping as our capacity grows, to maybe even offer visits for our customers and our clients to go to the farm in Rwanda and see how it’s grown, because that’s a huge experience that I really recommend everyone do, just to see all the work that goes into bringing the coffee from from the seed to the cup, because, a lot of people don’t think about really all the work that’s involved with, with any of their food, but, especially their coffee in the morning as well.

00:16:13:15 – 00:16:41:27

This may be a oh on question. What’s driving you, like, what’s driving you to do this and to care so much when a lot of people are like, I got other things that I need to go focus on in my life. And I’m not saying one is more important than the other because we all make choices. But what’s driving you to make these choices and be so committed to these women, to these farms, to the mission?

00:16:42:00 – 00:17:28:12

Because this is a lot of work. It’s a lot of work. Everything that you’re talking about, yes, it’s a great question. And I don’t think I have a very straight answer. Okay. All the time. Yeah. My whole life we got time. Yeah. But I right I before this I always have worked at nonprofit. Even when I decided to to go to law school, that’s because I was I was doing a study abroad in Ghana and looking into the gold mining industry and seeing that it was foreign corporations that were destroying the environment, that were completely breaking environmental labor laws, everything, and taking the gold in its cheapest foreign back to their own countries to sell

00:17:28:12 – 00:17:44:05

it then for a lot of money in Ghana was just getting the short end of the stick. And the only accountability was, lawyers, actually nonprofit lawyers in the home countries of the corporations that were able to hold them accountable for these laws that they were breaking. So all that to say is, I never wanted to be a corporate lawyer.

00:17:44:05 – 00:18:09:28

I never like it. I can’t really answer why. I never cared about kind of going that route. I became vegetarian when I was ten. I started a nonprofit when I was ten. I was it’s just been how I have always been. I have just always felt drawn to, like working alongside people for some, like just for something larger than myself.

00:18:09:28 – 00:18:33:22

Oh, yeah, something larger than that. And so doing that as a nonprofit lawyer is amazing because you’re really it’s like a set up for you almost. It’s like it’s been established. The laws have been established, the process has been established. Okay. But starting my own business has been incredibly cool because it’s like building a new community around campus.

00:18:33:22 – 00:19:01:05

It’s, like a new mindset, really. I’m trying to make people think about like, oh, businesses should be focused on this. Businesses don’t have to just be all about making money right for their shareholders. Like they can also do incredible work while being a sustainable business. And so, that’s really it’s exciting for me. It’s it’s a huge challenge, but I love it and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

00:19:01:07 – 00:19:26:12

I was great, thank you. When you think about where you are in your business, if somebody else is as driven as you are, it’s just who they are. It’s core to who they are, right? And they’re willing to do the work to create something that doesn’t exist. Or not enough of that, not enough of it exists in the world.

00:19:26:15 – 00:19:40:15

Is there anything that you’ve learned in the last couple of years that you would give advice to that person? Like, what could they learn from your journey? I feel like I’ve done everything the hard way. Okay.

00:19:40:17 – 00:20:04:06

Telling people what not to do it is, very difficult. Small business life. I think I went into it, you know, I bootstrapped Cafecita. So, I really I started it with my own savings, and everything’s been very organic growth, and the profits have just been reinvested into the company to allow it to grow. I would not recommend that for anybody.

00:20:04:08 – 00:20:30:16

Okay. I really, I think, setting yourself up for success from the beginning is a huge one for small businesses. Getting like financial access like early on is huge. So that you really can have a marketing team, you can have a team in general that can help you out, that you can kind of hit the ground running instead of really struggling through the first few years.

00:20:30:21 – 00:20:53:13

Yeah. So that’s what I would recommend. Don’t bootstrap. Bootstrap. Okay. And then if they want more other things not to do, can people reach out to you about. Oh okay. Good. I would also I guess on the more positive side, I think I Cafecita as part of the LA Clean Tech Incubator. Oh, okay. Which is great.

00:20:53:13 – 00:21:27:10

And so one of the things I would recommend people doing is actually finding resources and networks and communities that, are aligned with their businesses, because I think connecting with other business owners, like in Cafecita case and in businesses focused on sustainability in LA, has been huge. Just being able to kind of see what other people are doing and connect with other people, be able to talk to them, and feel for it has has been really something I’m incredibly grateful for.

00:21:27:12 – 00:21:58:12

You said that a portion of your sales go to nonprofits. Can you talk about those? And why you chose those nonprofits? Yeah. A percentage of every sale goes to supporting women’s nonprofits around the world. And the goal is really actually, once Cafecita gains more capacity to have our own 501 C3 and our own foundation. But until we have that, I instead of doing too much, not well, I like want to make sure everything’s done like perfectly.

00:21:58:16 – 00:22:22:27

Yeah. We donate the money to already established nonprofits, ones that I completely trust. And particularly this one that we donate the percentage to now is called in via and they’re based and, well, Hakka. And I actually worked with them when I was in LA Hakka before moving back to LA. And they provide no interest business loans and business training to the women artisans around the village.

00:22:23:00 – 00:22:55:26

Mocha and very much focused on empowerment as well, where the women are incredibly talented. They’re very in traditional arts that have been done in their families for generations, that were are very easy to be dying out like the indigenous languages around the haka, unless there is kind of focus on it. So envy, does responsible tourism, where they take tourists out to these little villages to meet the women and see how the arts are being created, and then the money that they get from that, they do they provide the no interest loans.

00:22:56:00 – 00:23:21:23

So the women have been able to not just keep the traditional arts alive, but have started their own businesses, have supported, are able to support themselves and their families in their communities. And it’s been incredibly successful. So India was one of the organizations that I was most inspired by also going into creating Cafecita. So it’s really nice to partner with them to provide, that percentage just because I believe in the work that they do.

00:23:21:23 – 00:23:46:02

When I saw how successful and efficient and effective it was. Yeah. One of the things that’s coming through as I listen to you is that this is both hard work, but also work that needs to be done, that others have blazed a path that you’ve learned from, and you’re blazing your own path by listening and looking and learning.

00:23:46:05 – 00:24:08:07

And that while this I don’t want to. So check me here because I’m not sure if I have it right that you don’t wake up every day thinking about what obstacles I’m going to face and almost dreading it, but almost like, so how am I going to get it done today? And like leaning into making sure that you’re delivering on the mission of your organization?

00:24:08:07 – 00:24:34:17

And am I reading you right? I just I don’t feel like you’re overwhelmed by the challenges that you face, but your your determined to solve them. Well, I’m glad I don’t seem overwhelmed because I would say in my head, he’s not okay. Running a business is hard, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I wake up very excited for the work that I’m doing, and I don’t think I can do anything else.

00:24:34:17 – 00:25:07:16

I wouldn’t want to work for someone again. I want to I’m very happy to be away from law. Although like that work was very interesting and fulfilling and but no, I, I feel like I’m doing the work that I’m meant to be doing and, although there’s so many challenges, it’s I guess it’s, I would say like a combination of, of a drive, like an inner drive that this feels right, like it’s hard to kind of put into words that I feel like this is this is what I want to do, and this is what I like.

00:25:07:22 – 00:25:37:21

This is it. This is my work, you know? Yeah. But it’s also, I feel very fortunate that Cafecita has hit the ground running. And so we were, you know, embraced the mag. Within two months of launching, we were the official roaster for, big food Festival in L.A. that was all women owned, restaurants. Here we have now it’s just it’s continue to to grow all that to say and see this excitement and we had one of our wholesale partners is Patagonia.

00:25:37:21 – 00:25:58:19

Actually, we supply the coffee to their headquarters, which is huge. And they came to me, which is amazing. And so I think having that type of feeling seen, feeling validated, feeling like this is work that people want to see, this is a product that people want. It kind of come binds with my inner drive to, to keep me going.

00:25:58:19 – 00:26:22:27

And yeah, I just, I love it. Patagonia doesn’t really mess around when it comes to sustainability. They don’t. And equity, and governance, they get it all in. So if people want to reach out to you, I assume if, if people are ready to do business with you, you would welcome that phone call. Where can they find you?

00:26:23:00 – 00:26:47:17

Yes, 100%. The website is Cafecita coffee.com. Our Instagram is also Cafecita coffee. And then if people want to reach out to me directly, which I’m always happy to talk to people, it’s my my personal email is Nataly at Cafe Citta Coffee Yukon. Perfect. So let’s keep growing that business and the impact that you’re making and the difference that you’re making.

00:26:47:20 – 00:27:09:20

Natalie Webb, founder and executive director of Cafecita. Thank you so much for joining us today. This was great. Thanks so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure. Absolutely.