This post is part of our Building In Public series, where we're pulling back the curtain on our journey to transform the coffee industry to better serve small business owners. In this episode, we sit down with Industry Tastemaker, Maxwell Mooney of Threadbare Consulting.
VIDEO: INSIGHTS & BEST PRATICES FOR OWNERS
Maxwell Mooney: A Coffee Industry Visionary and Advocate for Specialty Coffee Success
Maxwell Mooney’s journey (Follow him here) from home barista to award-winning café owner and consultant is a testament to his relentless passion for coffee, hospitality, and community. As the founder of Narrative Coffee, Maxwell built a business recognized for its intentional design, uncompromising quality, and deep commitment to customer experience. Now, as a consultant at Threadbare Coffee Consulting, he dedicates his time to helping coffee entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of launching and scaling their own coffee shops.
Why His Story Matters to Coffee Shop Owners
Maxwell’s journey highlights the intersection of craftsmanship, business acumen, and community-building. Whether you’re starting out or scaling up, his experience proves that success in coffee requires intentionality, adaptability, and a deep understanding of customer experience. His insights can help any independent coffee shop increase efficiency, drive revenue, and create a lasting impact in their community.
Key Takeaways from Maxwell’s Journey:
✅ From Passion to Profession – Inspired by a single caramel latte, Maxwell’s deep dive into coffee led him from home brewing to competing in barista championships and ultimately founding Narrative Coffee, a multi-roaster café built on hospitality and excellence.
✅ Hospitality as Transformation – He defines hospitality as “the art of transforming strangers and enemies into friends,” a philosophy that guided his business through the challenges of the pandemic and beyond.
✅ Data-Driven Decision Making – Maxwell removed bias in sourcing coffee by blind cupping and flavor-first selection, creating a unique and intentional approach to coffee quality that resonated with customers and industry professionals alike.
✅ Building a Thriving Coffee Business – After years of growth and success, he transitioned ownership of Narrative Coffee to a trusted team member, ensuring its legacy while moving into consulting to help other coffee entrepreneurs succeed.
✅ Empowering the Next Generation – As a lead consultant at Thread Bear Coffee Consulting, Maxwell now shares his insights with aspiring coffee shop owners, helping them avoid common pitfalls, optimize operations, and build businesses that blend passion with profitability.
VIDEO: Maxwell's Origin Story & Philosophy
Advice & Insight For New & Existing Coffee Shop Owners To Run A Thriving Shop
- Efficiency & Workflow Optimization
- Rising labor costs mean every second counts. Optimizing layout, workflow, and processes can reduce overhead and improve throughput without sacrificing quality.
- Using tools like spaghetti maps and step counting can help owners find inefficiencies and refine operations.
- Tech-driven automation (e.g., mobile ordering, self-checkout, and POS efficiency) can ease the burden on labor while increasing throughput.
- Pricing & Margin Management
- Understanding emotional price anchors: Owners often underprice their products because they have an outdated mental reference for what things “should” cost.
- Strategic price increases: If you want a premium, slower, high-touch experience, you must charge accordingly to make it sustainable.
- Quarterly pricing audits help ensure margin benchmarks are met and pricing reflects inflationary costs.
- Transparent customer communication: Raising prices is inevitable, but involving customers in the story can drive more support and acceptance.
- Volume is Key to Profitability
- Coffee shops are low-margin, high-volume businesses. A slow shop with inefficient workflow and pricing will struggle.
- Expanding digital ordering, subscriptions, and pre-orders helps increase volume, optimize labor, and maximize daily throughput.
- Incremental purchases & cross-selling: A well-structured loyalty program and product bundling can drive more frequent purchases.
- Leveraging Data & Technology for Growth
- Independent coffee shops often see tech as an expense, but the right POS, loyalty, and ordering systems should be an investment that drives growth.
- Centralized loyalty programs (like Joe’s) shift the focus from discounts to increasing purchase frequency and customer retention.
- Starbucks and big chains dominate by using data to drive personalized experiences and targeted offers—independent shops can do the same with the right system.
- Community & Market Positioning
- Aligning with local-first values: Customers increasingly prefer local coffee over chains if the convenience and experience match.
- Collaboration, not competition: Local coffee shops can compete with Starbucks and Dutch Bros by working together on shared loyalty, co-branded promotions, and cross-shop incentives.
- Beverage diversity: Expanding beyond coffee (matcha, tea, smoothies, functional beverages) helps increase revenue and attract new customers.
- Hospitality vs. Speed – Finding the Balance
- Service is contextual: Not every customer wants a long interaction. Efficiency itself is a form of hospitality.
- Standardizing workflows and utilizing automation (e.g., mobile pre-orders, self-checkout options) allows baristas to focus on engaging with customers who value the interaction.
- Mindset Shift: Investment vs. Expense
- Many coffee shop owners view technology and POS upgrades as a cost center rather than an investment in business growth.
- The shift to data-driven decision-making allows owners to optimize pricing, staffing, and promotions based on real-time insights.
- Platforms that guarantee increased sales or ROI (like Joe’s 20% growth promise) help lower the perceived risk of switching systems.
- Customer-Centric Approach to Loyalty & Retention
- Siloed loyalty programs hurt independent shops by limiting customer engagement to a single location.
- A network-wide loyalty system (like Joe) allows customers to earn and redeem rewards across multiple shops, encouraging them to choose indie coffee more often instead of defaulting to Starbucks.
- Gamification & personalized offers help boost engagement, making indie coffee shops the preferred choice over chains.
Final Takeaway
The independent coffee shop community is stronger together—owners should rethink their tech strategy, pricing approach, and marketing tactics to scale collectively and unlock growth opportunities that were previously only available to large chains.