Jenny Verrochi is the founder of Wild Barn Coffee, an organic and fair-trade nitro cold brew company based in Boulder, Colorado. Merging her background in marketing and communications with her family’s roots in coffee roasting, Jenny brought her dream of owning a healthy beverage brand to fruition. And she’s not just making damn good coffee with goji berries and cacao nibs; she’s also building a community among her adventure-loving friends.
In this two-part (caffeinated) interview, I first talk to Jenny about setting financial goals and business priorities, working with family and friends, making new flavors, and taking up wood burning again. Then next week, you’ll hear from her business partner and best friend, Alyssa Evans.
How do you describe your craft?
My craft is being an entrepreneurial person. I used to get in trouble in school for day dreaming. Now that I’m older, I’m realizing that it’s important to dream. Creating this brand means we’re able to paint with our own colors. With Alyssa’s help, we’ve created my dream product.
What path led you to starting your own business?
I’ve wanted to start my own beverage company since I lived in San Diego and worked at breweries. I was going through yoga teacher training, and I got really into nutrition and health. I’ve been vegetarian for 10 years, but I started as a vegan. I bought a food truck, and I was going to do a mobile beverage bar with cold brew on tap and with homemade milks like almond milk, oat milk, and banana milk. Outside of that, I’ve always had a job that I loved and that’s kept me healthy. Horseback riding is my thing, and I’ve been a tour guide on horses for so long. That’s allowed me to have other jobs that keep me happy. All my serving jobs allowed me to meet as many people as possible and that’s what makes me good at sales.
(Order coffee in cans or bags online at wildbarncoffee.com.)
How did your family’s business inspire you?
When I was 7 years old, my parents brought the concept of craft coffee back to New England in 1997 after we were stationed in Seattle, Washington. My dad was special ops in the Navy. My mom was a nurse. They knew nothing about coffee so they learned everything on their own. They were scrappy about it. That bought a house that was abandoned for six years, and it had a barn in the back. My mom wanted horses and my dad saw an opportunity for starting a business. That’s where they started Red Barn Coffee Roasters.
I grew up working in the cafes, baking in the mornings before high school and closing after high school if I didn’t have sports. I saw all of my parents’ struggles and I think I’ve learned from those. But I also saw the positive things about being an entrepreneur. My dad was able to take me out of school on a snow day to go skiing on a Wednesday. Or my parents were taking a business call while we were sitting on a beach. That’s how I’ve always wanted to live my life. I was never an A student. I don’t do well going to a corporate office and following everyone’s rules. I knew I needed to be an entrepreneur because of my learning disabilities. I needed to be my own boss. They definitely inspired me, but they also inspired me to live my own dream.
What mental aspect of the business occupies the most of your mind?
It’s hard as a business owner when it’s just the two of us because our mind races to absolutely everything. We want to do it all, and it’s hard to step back and think about what needs to get done first. Mentally, my head is all over the place. There’s always going to be something to do, to create, to sell, to change. It’s challenging to find stillness every day to look at the bigger picture. But I think the biggest challenge is staying positive all the time and really believing in yourself because you get so many nos. A few friends are helping out and they’re extremely good about meeting with us a few times a month to give us our sales goals.
How did you recruit that help?
Alyssa and I both come from creative backgrounds and are learning the business side of things from the ground up. These two friends are more business-minded and have been through startup phases before. They’ll be like, “What’s your goal for January 2021?” And we’ll say, “Alyssa and I would love to pay ourselves, even if it’s just $1,000 a month.” Our friends will help us figure out how much we’ll need to make in sales. We work backwards. It gives me a tangible number as opposed to running around making sales and not really understanding why or what the goal of it is. I think it’s important to have mentors or people who will guide you. It's easy for Alyssa and me to get distracted with all the things we want to create, but now somebody else is holding us accountable.
You were one of the brands forced by the online outdoor retailer, Backcountry, to rebrand. What was that process like for you?
It was hard on both of us. Once Alyssa and I decided to rebrand and really come together, I think it made our relationship and our business stronger. If we could get over that bat to the knees so early on, we can accomplish anything. It’s made me really confident as a businesswoman. To be completely honest, the branding was not that hard to change because all we did was change our name. We didn’t have that big of a following for Backcountry Nitro. That was mostly just our friends and family at that time and a few new people. We were lucky it was really early on. The feedback we’re getting is that Wild Barn is a stronger name because it has the roots connected to the little red barn my journey started in. We’re the wild child of my parents’ company.
(Jenny and Alyssa own the business 50/50.)
What’s it like working with a best friend and your parents?
It’s easy, a dream come true. But that doesn't mean we don't fall out of balance from time to time. It's kind of like a marriage at this point. For me, the number one rule in life is to never take anything personally. If we have a hard conversation, we’re very good about holding each others’ hands and reminding each other that this is us talking business. The important thing for Alyssa and me is to go on adventures and not talk about business. Yeah, I’m not making money right now, but I’m creating something with my best friend who I trust and really admire. I’m thankful for her every single day because this brand wouldn’t be what it is without her.
Family has been amazing. We live so far away and yet I’m so close with them. We’re able to connect on different levels, and we can help each other out. If Wild Barn succeeds, my parents succeed because we’re buying our beans from them. There’s no bad part about doing business with my parents.
Where do you see Wild Barn one year from now?
A year from now, we'd like to have distribution. We're focusing on growing in our home first and becoming a Boulder household name. Then we want to focus on expanding into other mountain towns in Colorado and outside the state like in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Maybe we can have some sort of ambassadorship program where we’re shipping out coffee to mountain towns and paying commission.
In what ways do you get to be creative in your job?
My favorite thing to do is cook for other people and to share my own recipes. With Wild Barn, we're able to share our creations with friends and strangers all over. It's pretty cool. It’s been really fun creating the flavors. There are no rules. We can create whatever we want. Right now, we have a bunch of glasses out and some friends came over to help us sample new flavors. We’re doing blind taste tests and can't wait to release them into the wild.
(This year, Jenny has returned to her past passions like wood burning and metalsmithing.)
Is there something else creative you want to explore?
I’ve always been a crafty person. I’ve kind of put my crafts aside because I never felt like my stuff was good enough. Now that I’m living alone, it’s really enabled me to get back to my self development and return to my craft. If I just put my art out there, let’s just see what happens. I just recently started wood burning again on cutting boards. I ended up getting 20 orders. I had no idea that would happen. Now people are asking me for specific designs. It’s good to have other creative outlets outside your business.
Is there someone you want to see featured next? Nominate her.
Before you go…
Latasha Dunston, featured in Vol. 7, added new pieces to her shop (Jitterbug Art Studio)
Listen to inspiring stories from women in the outdoors (She Explores)
Remember to #ShopWomenLed this Wednesday (Women-Led Wednesdsay)