The light at the end of the tunnel
The Priebes launched Cultivate in their home during the summer of 2018, using their handmade roaster. Working from their home was not an ideal setting with three kids and a dog all running around. Even though the two didn’t have much money, they realized they needed to find a space for Cultivate to be able to flourish.
The couple found a co-working space where they could keep their roaster outside underneath a stairwell for just $100 a month. With that arrangement, they were able to use a common space once a week to meet with the youth they had started working with.
“We fed them dinner and paid them to package our coffee if they agreed to go through a set curriculum with us,” Chris says while sipping his coffee. “We wanted them to be ready to get jobs. Most importantly, we wanted to show them even with limited resources it is possible to be successful if you take risks.”
After being in the shared workspace for a few months, the couple had generated enough revenue to build a coffee trailer. The business was a quick success, and they felt like they finally had space to grow. All of a sudden, two weeks before Christmas 2018, the shared workspace went bankrupt and all of the tenants were forced out. Just three days after that, their trailer was stolen along with 600 pounds of coffee, a generator and all of their roasting supplies.
“Not only did we lose our roasting space, but we lost the space where we would work with the youth,” Chris says with a solemn face. “We had no money in the bank. So we figured we were done.”
Without their knowledge, someone reached out to the news on their behalf. A GoFundMe was created for them, and all of a sudden the Priebes started receiving donations. Although the donations were realistically not enough to start a coffee shop, the Priebes took another leap of faith. They had faced obstacles before, but with the outpouring of community support, it seemed the odds were in their favor. In February 2019, they got the keys to the suite in the unassuming red brick strip mall.
