It was a case of being in the right place at the right time for Waukesha-based
Octane Coffee, a startup that uses proprietary technology to power a fully automated, drive-thru café.
After hosting a
grand opening event for its first location in October, Octane Coffee had already been growing its customer base naturally. But when the company was
featured in a TMJ4 news segment that interest was kicked into hyperdrive. The news segment was shared by national NBC affiliates and on social media platforms including Tik Tok and Instagram.
Adrian Deasy, founder and chief executive officer of Octane Coffee, said the same day the news segment was filmed, his email notifications began pinging nonstop.
“I told my wife, ‘Wow, this is cool. We’ll have 50 inquiries when we wake up.’ I woke up the next morning to 350 inquiries in 12 hours and it hasn’t stopped since,” said Deasy.
Octane Coffee currently has more than 1,500 business inquiries, ranging from people interested in franchising to those looking to invest. Those inquiries originate from across the globe.
“We have inquiries from the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Jordan…Ireland, England, Germany Brazil, even a bunch in Illinois,” said
Chuck Kubiak, chief operating officer at Octane Coffee. “I literally had to install a CRM just to handle all of this."
Deasy began developing Octane Coffee as a business in 2018 after realizing the standard customer experience at coffee chains like Starbucks was lacking. He understood that the coffee industry – the drive-thru coffee space in particular – was ripe for disruption. The pandemic then spurred the desire for rapid, contactless service in the food industry.
The company’s first location, at W229 N1400 Westwood Drive in Pewaukee, can make up to 800 cups of coffee a day. Octane Coffee’s robotics allows for customers to be served in just moments after ordering through the app.
“Everybody knew that this level of automation was the inevitable future, but no one knew when it was going to take place. No one knew if it would be 20 years out, 20 months out or 20 weeks out,” said Deasy.
Before the company can begin franchising, it first needs a proven financial track record, Kubiak explained. So, Octane Coffee is actively looking for locations for its next two drive-thru locations. The company is also open to manufacturing its technology for larger companies, according to Kubiak.
“What Adrian did was actually brilliant,” he said. “We’re the first to go to market with this concept, which is why we’re getting all these inquiries.”
Locations for Octane Coffee’s two incoming stores have not been selected yet, but Deasy said the I-94 corridor within the Milwaukee suburbs is the company’s “bread and butter.” He’s also received a lot of interest in the Madison area and northern Illinois.
The immediate priority for the company is securing additional funding to support the opening of the two new locations, research and development, and manufacturing.
Octane Coffee will soon launch a $3 million funding round to support these efforts and the leadership team is looking for a manufacturing facility where they’ll be able to reproduce the startup’s technology.
Several engineers and software developers will also join the company, which is expected to double its current headcount of six employees within the next six months.
“We’re just making sure the company is ready to make this big push,” said Deasy. “It’s a hectic time here at Octane Coffee. This is where I thought things would end up – like I said before, inevitable.”
Deasy recently accepted an Innovation Award at the BizTimes Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum. See video below to hear his remarks at the event.
