Drink coffee and do good — Bean United makes it possible. One of the two founders, Thomas Greulich, revealed exactly how in our 7 questions.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Thomas Greulich: We are Bean United — the social coffee startup from Oberhaching in the south of Munich. We are 80 years old — so 2×40. Since we are twin brothers, we've practically known each other our whole lives. Philipp, who is two minutes younger, studied sports economics at the Technical University of Munich, and I — Thomas — studied international business at the Nuremberg University of Applied Sciences and in Mexico City. After graduating, we were in the Red Bull trainee program together and then pursued different career paths until we plucked up the courage to start a “Social Business” aka founded a social coffee company.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Thomas Greulich: "Education is the foundation of all development" — Nelson Mandela. We finance school meals in Burundi, Africa, through the sale of social office coffee, thus promoting education, as children in the poor north of the country continue to attend classes thanks to free school meals.
Coffee beans for school meals
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Thomas Greulich: Yes and no, other brands such as Lycka or ChariTea also help, but we have two unique selling points:
For one thing, we donate a higher percentage than any other coffee brand—a full €2.50 per kilo, which provides exactly 10 school meals in Burundi. We're running this project in cooperation with Welthungerhilfe, and we visit them on-site as often as we can.
On the other hand, as “Germany’s most social office coffee brand,” we focus 100 percent on the B2B market.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Thomas Greulich: 1) To win the "big players" as customers. We now work with Adobe, Allianz, Freeletics, Munich Re, Salesforce, and Sono Motors, among others—without contracts, but with trust.
2) Communication of “Friendly Trade” instead of Fairtrade certificate.
3) Redesign of our brand presence with great freelancers instead of an expensive agency — boot strapping After a year, we're now in the final stages; there's already a preview on Instagram.
Munich Startup: How are things going?
Thomas Greulich: We are very satisfied and have exceeded our goals: We were able to provide 250,000 school meals in Burundi in 2019 — and Bean United has been financed from its own income from the very beginning, without any investors.
The exclusive, nationwide collaboration with Dean&David was certainly the first major milestone. We're now in talks with numerous top companies, each of which—in collaboration with Bean United—could provide over 100,000 school meals annually. However, more and more startups and medium-sized companies are also approaching us, and we usually reach an agreement quickly.
We may even reach our goal of providing over 1 million meals per year in 2021 sooner.
Smart social concept fits Munich
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
Thomas Greulich: For us, our hometown is truly perfect. In addition to successful startups and medium-sized businesses, many large corporations are located here, all of which are increasingly devoting resources to sustainability, CSR, employee satisfaction, and employer branding. Our smart-social concept fits perfectly with this.
Munich Startup: Coworking or your own office?
Thomas Greulich: Co. Our company is located in a small co-working space in Oberhaching, and we also have a space available at WeWork in Munich city center, where we also supply the barista bar with Bean United coffee. It's great to be able to cross-pollinate ideas with other freelancers and creatives—and having fun is part of it, too.
