Mike McKim | Cold Brew, Hot Commodity

Persistence and persuasion open doors. This combination took Mike McKim from the Navy to sales in the midst of the dot-com boom and eventually to his real passion: high-quality coffee.

Whether working his way into a Naval academy, selling telecoms or espresso machines, or starting his own coffee company, Mike doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. 

Mike joined the Navy after high school, as a path to admission in a service academy. He took college classes for three years — and made sure his superior officers noticed his hard work. 

Eventually he got a place at Kings Point, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, but dropped out after a year. Today, Mike doesn’t regret leaving, “but I do consider it my biggest failure.”

A move to Dallas, TX, reunited Mike with his friend Patrick, who set him up selling telecoms hardware at the height of the dot-com boom. “That's when I really got bit by the entrepreneurial bug,” Mike says.

Mike and Patrick came up with several business ideas. But it was when Mike’s uncle showed them his coffee roaster that Mike recognized a winning product.

The people of Texas, however, disagreed. They weren’t prepared to pay the high prices attached to his high-quality products.

With bills to pay and a new baby at home, Mike talked his way into a job selling espresso machines. He did that for five years, still roasting and selling coffee on the side. 

As the coffee-selling side gig started to take up his weekdays, Mike took the plunge, quit his day job, and committed to Cuvée Coffee full time.

He’s still innovating. Cuvée Coffee was the first to sell nitro cold brew, and then the first to sell it in widget cans that recreate the frothy texture produced by kegs.

“What I've learned about myself over the years is that the best thing somebody can do [to motivate me] is tell me, ‘You can't do this.’”  

🧑 Name: Mike McKim

⚙️ What he does: CEO and founder of Cuvée Coffee, one of Texas’s first specialty coffee companies and the first to sell nitro cold brew. Their whole bean coffee and nitro cold brew cans are available online and at Whole Foods, Heb, Central Market, Target and Safeway.

☕ Organization: Cuvée Coffee

💎 Words of wisdom: “My uncle gave me one piece of advice: Whatever you do, spend more money on the raw product. Focus on quality and people will notice the difference. And he was a hundred percent right.”

🔍 Where to find Cuvée Coffee: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

🔍 Where to find Mike: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn  

💡 Grunt work: After a less-than-impressive high school career, Mike enlisted in the Navy. He worked tirelessly for three years to land a spot at a service academy.

💡 No regrets: A year after he was accepted to the Merchant Marines Academy at Kings Point, NY, Mike dropped out. He calls it his “biggest failure” but ultimately doesn’t regret it. 

💡 Old friend, new job: Mike got a telemarketing job with AT&T in Philadelphia then moved to Dallas, where his friend Patrick set him up selling telecoms hardware.

💡 Idea brewing: Mike and Patrick plotted various businesses but settled on coffee roasting after getting into it as a hobby. Patrick ultimately chose telecoms while Mike continued alone.

💡 Hard sell: After struggling to convince Texans to buy specialty coffee, Mike talked his way into a job selling espresso machines, but kept up his coffee business on the side.

💡 Ready to pour: When the market for specialty coffee took off, Mike was ready. He quit his espresso machine gig and committed to Cuvée Coffee full time.

💡 Nitro revolution: Mike was the first to sell nitro cold brew coffee, and then the first to sell it in a widget can. But being first comes with its own challenges.

💡 Generating buzz: Today, Mike is focusing on expanding brand recognition and introducing more products.

Mike McKim:

“The whole idea of being first to market sounds sexy, but it’s riddled with challenges.”

“Sales was a game: It was talking to people who wanted to say no, trying to get them to say yes. Or knowing that if you made a hundred phone calls in a day, you could get one person to say yes.”

“I don't regret [dropping out of the Merchant Marines Academy] because I'm fantastically happy where I am right now. It made me choose different paths and make different decisions — but I do consider it my biggest failure.”

“I was doing specialty coffee before specialty coffee existed in the state of Texas. I was ahead of the curve, which sounds like it would be a great position to be in, but it wasn't. People couldn't understand why they would have to pay 50 cents a pound more for coffee.”

“I was pretty cocky. But when you have a baby, you're trying to build a business where you have no idea if it's going to work, and your wife says, ‘Hey, you haven't had a paycheck in 10 months and we only have enough money to pay bills for one more month before we’re broke,’ it's a very humbling experience.”