This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Stanford Business School graduate and Fellow<\/a> founder Jake Miller. Fellow launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 for its first product, the Duo Coffee Steeper, and has since grown into a nine-figure company dedicated to providing customers with the products, guidance and coffee to level up their home-brewing routines. Fellow has two stores located in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u200aI think entrepreneurs<\/a> are born to be entrepreneurs \u2014 it just has to be in you. There needs to be this internal drive to wake up every day and work on something that\u2019s probably not going to work. Coming out of undergrad, I had that drive, so I moved fast into an industry that I knew a little about: home remodeling and construction. I had early success<\/a>, but a year and a half into that job, I actually remember just sitting down on a roof by myself on a Saturday morning thinking, What am I doing?<\/p>\n I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but construction wasn\u2019t the right fit. So I took a job as a brand marketing manager at Caribou Coffee to learn for a few years, reset and figure out where my real passion is. It was around 2008, and I was excited about the retail coffee experience \u2014 the third place that Howard Schultz<\/a> talked about. I loved thinking that through and providing a great daily experience for our guests. I also got to work closely with the roast masters and travel to visit coffee farms, meet producers and go to processing mills.<\/p>\n Related: His Business Made $120K on Kickstarter, Then $2M in 6 Months \u2014 And Could Save Your Thanksgiving<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This was before specialty coffee was cool, but I saw this early wave and passion for specialty coffee<\/a> driven by these incredible small roasters in the U.S. People were buying these great coffees and brewing them at home. But there was a gap between that passion and the tools available for the home brewer to use. I saw the opportunity, but with a full-time job, it\u2019s hard to take the leap to quit and start a company. That\u2019s why I decided to attend graduate school. I moved to California to attend Stanford<\/a> Business School, which gave me two years to really figure out what I wanted to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n We did almost $200,000 in that 60-day Kickstarter campaign, so that was a strong demand signal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n For the first year and a half, we explored a number of different ideas, but in my last semester, I started working on Fellow and the first product that we launched \u2014 the Duo Coffee Steeper. I designed the first product at Stanford, then put that product on Kickstarter<\/a> shortly after I graduated and just said, Hey, if this gets funded, I\u2019m starting this company.\u00a0<\/p>\n We did almost $200,000 in that 60-day Kickstarter<\/a> campaign, so that was a strong demand signal. It took me 18 months and probably $300,000 to actually deliver the product, so we were underwater from the start. I underestimated the unit cost and time to deliver.\u00a0 The product ultimately made great coffee, but I also learned there were too many parts, and it was difficult to clean. The takeaway was that it had to make great coffee and be magical, easy to use.<\/p>\n Related: $1K Could\u2019ve Made $2.5M: Meet the \u2018ROAS\u2019 King of AI Marketing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n I decided to build on the momentum from the Kickstarter<\/a> campaign and tried to raise more money to grow the business. I ended up being turned down by 73 venture capitalists, probably because I was talking to tech-focused investors in Silicon Valley, funds that wouldn\u2019t have invested in a coffee hardware company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fortunately, through my networking, I met a man named Jerry Mix, a former product entrepreneur himself. I pitched him on the idea at a Starbucks<\/a>, ironically. At the end of the meeting, he goes, \u201cI like what you\u2019re doing. I see the vision. I\u2019ll write you the first check.\u201d It was a $250,000 check to help build out my vision for Fellow\u2019s larger portfolio.\u00a0<\/p>\n How do we build this brand and gain exposure for this product without a big budget?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Duo did okay at launch, but shortly after, we released the Staag Kettle, which really put us on the map. Because we didn\u2019t have a lot of money at the time, the go-to-market question was, How do we build this brand and gain exposure for this product without a big budget? We weren\u2019t a major direct-to-consumer brand that could spend a bunch on advertising<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: 70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n So we did three things. First, we said retail distribution from day one is really important \u2014 and this was before an omnichannel<\/a> approach was a given. So in year one, we landed retail partnerships with Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel. We wanted our products on shelves, even if it was a really low-margin transaction.<\/p>\n Second, we wanted to get the best cafes in the world to use this product; we quickly got hundreds of cafes to use the Staag Kettle to brew pour-over coffee. Each cafe is bringing in 400-600 people a day: They\u2019re coming in, seeing the product, asking about it. <\/p>\n Third, we sponsored brewer championship competitors. There are national and world brewer and barista competitions, and we just got all of these competitors our products at no cost so they could use them in competition.\u00a0 We have a long list of world champions who have used Fellow products to win these championships.<\/p>\n Related: This Rapper\u2019s Non-Musical Side Hustle Led to $100k a Month \u2014 Then 8 Figures<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Then, about eight years ago, we opened our first store. We\u2019d outgrown our tiny office above a brewery and needed more space, so we found a retail store on Valencia Street in San Francisco. It was 2,500 square feet, 1,200 in back and 1,300 in front for the retail store. We built it out as an experience center. People can come in, brew coffee, get support from a brew expert. We bring in speakers, do events and training classes. We worked in the back, so we\u2019d also take shifts at the cash register. I believe deeply in getting close to the customer<\/a>. Every day, employees have meaningful conversations with Fellow customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The store also provides a great opportunity for customer feedback<\/a>. When we started the business, most of our products were just black, so we needed to figure out what the other colors should be. One day, I literally spray-painted a black kettle white, then put it in the store and told the retail team to tell me how many people in a day and week brought the white kettle up to the cash register. They bring it up, and they\u2019ll say, \u201cSorry, we\u2019re sold out,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s not available.\u201d And there was enough interest in that white spray-painted kettle that white became our second major color.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: These Are the Simple Strategies Behind Businesses That Scale \u2014 and Last<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Espresso will be our focus in 2026; we want to make home espresso magical.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If you look back to the pitch deck<\/a> I used 13 years ago, with the forthcoming launch of the espresso machine and the associated espresso accessories next year, we\u2019ve now completed most of that roadmap. Espresso will be our focus in 2026; we want to make home espresso magical. The espresso machine is in pre-sales now and is the most complicated product we\u2019ve designed by a factor of five. We designed the machine from the ground up in-house in San Francisco. The process has taken a team of 20, two years of work and $6 million in research and development. So it\u2019s been hard, but that\u2019s what will make the launch so special.\u00a0<\/p>\n Based on my journey with Fellow so far, I\u2019d tell any young entrepreneur<\/a> looking to start their own business to begin with a true passion and belief in what you\u2019re building \u2014 then validate that with your customer.\u00a0<\/p>\n You have to believe in your heart that there is a product-market fit, that what you want to bring to life should exist and is solving a real problem<\/a>. That\u2019s what will help you push through the inevitable rejections, saying, The world needs this. I don\u2019t care how many nos I get. I don\u2019t care if I get laughed at. I\u2019m going to keep going. <\/p>\n And it\u2019s in that order: First comes belief, which gives you the confidence to get that \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n \tKey Takeaways<\/p>\n This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Stanford Business School graduate and Fellow<\/a> founder Jake Miller. Fellow launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 for its first product, the Duo Coffee Steeper, and has since grown into a nine-figure company dedicated to providing customers with the products, guidance and coffee to level up their home-brewing routines. Fellow has two stores located in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u200aI think entrepreneurs<\/a> are born to be entrepreneurs \u2014 it just has to be in you. There needs to be this internal drive to wake up every day and work on something that\u2019s probably not going to work. Coming out of undergrad, I had that drive, so I moved fast into an industry that I knew a little about: home remodeling and construction. I had early success<\/a>, but a year and a half into that job, I actually remember just sitting down on a roof by myself on a Saturday morning thinking, What am I doing?<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe rest of this article is locked.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoin Entrepreneur+ today for access.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways Miller launched Fellow, a company helping customers refine their coffee-brewing experience at home, in 2013. Miller\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,9604,607,525,3629,1165,3221,12470,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-400874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurs","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-growth-strategies","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-marketing","15":"tag-starting-a-business","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115603579022926790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jake-Miller-Headshot.png\")
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow. Founder Jake Miller. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2024_Aiden_Lifestyle-1_27374e.jpg\")
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow<\/p>\n\n
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow<\/p>\n\n
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fellow-Spring-20220898.jpeg\")
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow<\/p>\n\n
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fellow. Founder Jake Miller. <\/p>\n