The founder of Saigon Brew, Dylan, joins us to talk about his Aussie-owned Vietnamese coffee brand. A journey some might find familiar of trying to find something more fulfilling than the 9-5 corporate life, we talk about his passion for his Vietnamese roots which led him to craft a beverage which resonates with his cultural heritage.
Items mentioned:
Top 100 coffee shops: https://bit.ly/3RDC4m9
Saigon Brew socials:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saigonbrew/
Website: https://saigonbrew.com.au/
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Music: aKu - Love Shine | aKu - The Final Blow
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:20 The inception of Saigon Brew, Covid times
6:09 Finding a warehouse, inspiration
8:20 Why coffee? Japan moment with cans
10:46 Introducing Viet coffee
11:47 Do cafes make more money in summer vs winter?
12:59 New trend for coffee in Vietnam
14:34 Australia has the best coffee in the world?
15:49 Top 10 coffee shops in the world
16:52 I am a fruit enjoyer
20:23 How do you intro new coffee to people, pairing with durries
22:25 The three flavours of Saigon Brew
25:18 Where are people buying from? Northern Territory?!
28:20 Challenges of starting the business, finding partners
32:52 Tips if you wanna start a F&B business
35:03 Alcohol and durries being taxed high
38:23 The corporate life journey
42:50 Call centre environments suck, empathy fatigue
44:37 Defined benefits, the worst working environment
50:39 Process analyst
52:44 Process improvement at Virgin Money
55:05 The last corporate role
57:05 Investing more into Saigon Brew but staying in corporate
59:02 The first grocery store
59:54 G7/Trung Nguyen coffee goss
1:03:07 Contacting grocers, aggressive ads
1:11:36 Woolies metro type stores would do well?
1:15:53 Costco's rule for buying products
1:20:23 Balancing 2 jobs
1:24:23 Achievements/Milestones
1:25:13 How long did it take from idea to product?
1:26:34 New flavours? The rise of Asian flavours
1:31:04 How important is community?
1:33:56 Inspiration? Role models?
1:38:33 Future plans? How do you get nutritional info?
1:41:00 The development lifecycle
1:43:38 Social plugs
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