ASU Startup Crawl

As a full-time student, it's not easy to maintain momentum on new ventures. That's why I was happy to get an invitation from Jared Byrne at ASU's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation last fall to take part in their inaugural startup crawl. The startup crawl was an opportunity for students at ASU to drive around the valley to see the entrepreneurial journeys of different businesses from launch to scale. Now, I had a deadline. We were hosting a group of Sun Devils on February 7th.

As it tends to happen, the construction on our shop that we expected to be completed in October was delayed.... and delayed... and delayed some more. Finally, we got the exciting call that we passed our health inspection, and we could start roasting! But now, in mid-January, we only had a few weeks to prepare for this event.

Zach and I got straight to work cleaning up, putting together furniture, buying equipment, and of course, roasting some coffee for our guests. We were down to the wire, but I learned how to use our coffee brewer just in time, and I made a pretty good batch of cold brew if I do say so myself.

On the day of the event, I dressed in my "cool entrepreneur" best and hurried to the shop, and with the help of my Venture Devils mentor, Tisha Marie Pelletier, I had coffee brewed and fixings all set up just in time for a bus full of students to pull up. As this was their first stop on a Friday morning excursion, they were happy to grab some coffee before we got started. I talked to them about the twists and turns I look in my own life to become a small business owner, and some of the events that led me down my path. The students asked some terrific questions about challenges we faced, overcoming setbacks, important resources for student entrepreneurs, and so much more. It was a delight to host such a talented and inquisitive group!

The success of this event got me thinking about women and girls who don't have opportunities like this to get first-hand experience of what it looks like to start a business, or opportunities to build the networks that can make their dreams a realty. It's a big reason why I wanted to start this business with the mission to provide all women with the opportunities to succeed in all of their ambitions.

When quarantine began last month, we decided to step back and take some time to tackle a few major projects around the shop. We cannot wait to host another group when it's safe to be together again!

Love,
Denise

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