Owner
Tommy Thwaites, Coda Coffee
Pursue the Passion Interviewed Tommy Thwaites in Denver, Colorado in front of a live student audience. Tommy is the co-owner and President of Coda Coffee, a coffee wholesale company he operates with his brother Tim. In this video Tommy speaks about his journey in the coffee industry and the risks he took to preserve his passion.
I’ve been involved in coffee for the last fourteen years. I’m 32 now and I started when I was 18 years old.
In high school I was a mechanic. I worked on lawnmowers, chainsaws, that kind of thing. I was dirty every day of my life. It was a good job. Paid well for high school. I could go out on weekends, put gas in my car…the core essentials when you’re 17 years old. But I was just tired of getting dirty.
My friend started a coffee business. He said if you’re tired of being dirty every day, why don’t you help us out? It’s a lot of fun. You can sweep floors, fill orders, and just go from there. My parents, I remember my mom and dad saying I was crazy and I shouldn’t do it. I had a decent paying job. It was steady. They told me not to go into coffee because it was risky and it was going to ruin paying for college and that kind of stuff.
We were 800 square feet in a fruit stand next to their dad’s gas station. Eight and a half years later when I left that company we were 8,000 square feet, $15 million in sales a year. My title was Executive Vice President.
My parents came full circle and actually invested their 401(k) in our company. My dad, who hangs out at the office quite a bit to drink coffee, read the paper, and be in the way for the most part, will tell that story to anyone who is willing to listen. My dad hated at least 15 years of work. He was like, ‘If you guys can do something you enjoy, and not be where I was at after those 15 years, I’m all about supporting it.’
Looking back, I have no reservations. It’s been a total blessing. I love every day of it. But it hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t been this grand cake walk where we’re making millions of dollars or whatever. This is hard work. The money will come is kind of our mantra right now.
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