To Inspire
Business districts · Brickell, Union Square
A coworking-inspired coffee house with community tables, meeting corners and blends prepared on demand for the people who work around it.
Dimonde · Prego Coffee · Founder and CEO · Jun 2018 to Oct 2024 · Bogotá and Miami
A Colombian specialty coffee brand, built from zero, sold in eight countries.
A market entry can be perfect on paper and still meet a pandemic three weeks after delivery. The plan has to survive the world changing.
At a glance
0
countries and 13 cities through Dufry, the world's largest travel retailer
$0M
projected annual supply agreement of equal monthly orders
Projected annual value of the Dufry supply agreement
$0M
Series A with international investors and family offices, taken through term sheet
Series A term sheet, 2022 to 2023
- Brand, product and go-to-market built from the ground up
- Florida company; direct sourcing in Colombia, roasting in the U.S., packaging partners in Switzerland and China
- Core team of 4 scaling to 20+ indirect team members
Context
Colombia exports its best coffee and keeps the rest. Dimonde started from a simple idea: a premium Colombian specialty coffee designed for travel retail, that a traveler could bring home as a gift from the city they were leaving.
Challenge
Get a brand with no sales history into the world's largest travel retailer.
What we did
Brand and product.
Naming, identity, packaging system, and a collection of twelve city editions, each carrying an original painting commissioned from a regional artist. Coffee sourced directly from Colombian farms, roasted in Florida, packaged with partners in China and Switzerland. A 10-year business model, a U.S. franchise expansion plan and the operating model for the first two retail locations.
Winning Dufry.
Eighteen months from first proposal to purchase order. Furniture, planogram and pricing tiers designed for their stores. Registered as a Dufry global supplier. An annual supply agreement of equal monthly orders, projected at $1M a year, with Brazil, 49% of Dufry's Latin American sales, next in line.
The result.
Distribution across 13 cities and 8 countries: Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Mexico City, Cancún, Houston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver. First order delivered to Dufry's Miami warehouse in February 2020, three weeks before the pandemic closed the world's airports. The product sold through in Dufry stores for a full year.
Capital and the pivot.
Three stages of capital: founding investors in 2019, a seed round in 2021 to fund the U.S. pivot, and a $5M Series A with international investors and family offices in 2022 to 2023, taken through term sheet. With travel retail closed, the brand moved to U.S. B2B: department stores, specialty grocery and boutiques, operated from Florida.
City editions · twelve original artworks, nine artists
Every edition carries a commissioned painting of its destination, printed on the bag and credited on the back. Artists: Daniel Galicia, Alejandro Uscátegui, Santiago Briceño, July Fernández, Daniel Vargas, Fania Fernández, Daniel Supervielle, Lucas Pertile and Ram Chanty.
Freedom · New York
Santiago Briceño · 2019
The Market · Seattle
Alejandro Uscátegui · 2019
Moments · Toronto
Daniel Galicia · 2019
Millennium Park · Chicago
Santiago Briceño · 2019
Houston · Houston
Santiago Briceño · 2019
Inukshuk · Vancouver
Daniel Galicia · 2019
Fiesta · Mexico City
July Fernández · 2019
La Fantástica · Bogotá
Daniel Vargas · 2019
Cusco · Lima
Fania Fernández · 2019
Celeste · Punta del Este
Daniel Supervielle · 2019
Misionera · Buenos Aires
Lucas Pertile · 2019
Tierra del Sur · Santiago
Ram Chanty · 2019
The retail model · Expansion plan 2024
A coffee brand designed to open its doors.
Beyond the bags, Dimonde was designed as a retail system: a Barista at Home strategy with kits and subscriptions at its center, four store concepts for four kinds of neighborhood, a product ecosystem that lives at home, and a four-phase roadmap from Florida and California to the region. This is the plan I built and pitched to investors and retail partners.
The core strategy · Barista at Home
Teach the cup, then deliver everything for it.
The strategy the whole model hangs on: teach people to make their perfect cup at home and deliver everything they need for it. A Become a Barista program with courses and guidance, kits designed around it for drinking at home or for gifting, and subscription plans the customer customizes in the app, with coffee, syrups and creamers on their own schedule, saved blends delivered at home, and unsubscribe at any time.
Basic Kit
Dimonde 8 oz and 16 oz with mixed syrups, the first step at home.
Blender Barista
Dimonde and Very Dimonde 16 oz with five mixed syrups.
Expert Barista
Dimonde and Very Dimonde 16 oz, a limited edition bag, five mixed syrups and three creamers.
Create your own
Coffee, syrups and creamers chosen by the customer, for home or as a gift.
Choose the plan that fits your needs, with coffee bags, flavor syrups and creamers, or create your personalized subscription. Unsubscribe at any time.
To Share & Experience
Neighborhoods
A gallery-inspired space where coffee is the center of the experience: tastings, create-your-own-blend sessions, and an app that saves your blend and turns it into a subscription.
To Go
Malls and high-traffic corridors
Speed and personalization: order and customize through the app, pick up at the counter or the drive-thru, with the twelve city editions on the shelf.
At Home
Residential buildings, 70+ units
A serviced coffee corner inside the building: Dimonde furniture, manual brewing methods and fresh coffee restocked twice a week.
Boutique concept · hand sketches for the first store
The ecosystem · gift box, syrup and cream kits, brewing gear, apron, and the app that connects them
Franchise semi-owners
A franchise program where operators co-own their store, aligning the brand's growth with the people running each location.
Art Support Program
The commissioned paintings on the bags grow into gallery corners inside the stores and collaborations with fashion and furniture designers.
A new way to invest
Customers become investors from $100 through the app, turning the most loyal drinkers into owners of the brand's expansion.
2024
Phase 1 · Florida and California
B2B with mid and luxury retailers, hotels, museums and luxury car dealers. B2C online and the first boutiques.
2025
Phase 2 · New cities
Chicago and Boston. Gamification and barista programs. Boutiques financed through investment rounds.
2026
Phase 3 · International
Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. Asia through partners.
2027
Phase 4 · Maturity
Consolidation of the network and the brand's exit window, planned for years seven to ten.
What I learned
Building a brand from zero means owning every decision, from the artist on the bag to the term sheet. Capital is not raised until it is in the bank, no matter what is signed. And every supplier, investor and artist deserves the same care at the end of a chapter as at the beginning. I closed that chapter in 2024 to build the next one in Los Angeles. I would build it again, and faster.
I would build it again, and faster.