What Were You Doing at 12? They Started a Coffee Company!

Young Entrepreneurs: How Three 12-Year-Old Boys Built Their Own Coffee Company

Does anyone remember a few years ago when a 12-year-old girl from Hong Kong named Ye Rongxi developed an app that allows children from around the world to learn languages through video calls? She even started her own company, hoping to create a platform where children worldwide could communicate and learn each other's native languages.

This year, three 12-year-old boys from Australia—Arlee, Rocco, and Cristiano—also pooled their efforts to establish a coffee company named ARC. From the company logo to green bean quality control, roasting, bagging, recording, and sales, the three boys divided their responsibilities clearly, leveraging their individual strengths to ensure every project was executed to the highest standard.

Initially, this was just a school holiday assignment that asked students to complete something creative as a team during the break. At first, they didn't plan to start a company—they simply visited a local coffee roasting company to relax and have lunch nearby.

During their visit, Arlee's father suggested, "Why don't you try starting a business!" This sparked various creative ideas among the three boys. After discussing them together, they decided to jointly establish their own coffee company—ARC Inc.

They contacted the coffee roasting company they had visited, hoping to learn comprehensive and professional coffee knowledge (including coffee beans, coffee roasting, coffee extraction, etc.) and become partners.

Division of Labor and Product Development

After acquiring fundamental knowledge, the three boys began working together with clear divisions of responsibility: Arlee handled coffee bean production and company operations, Rocco was responsible for creativity and design, while Cristiano supervised and planned sales strategies.

They began applying their coffee knowledge and determined the flavor characteristics of each coffee bean through cupping. Afterward, they created an espresso blend exclusive to their company—ARC Reserve.

This blend uses coffee beans from three different origins: Arlee selected Brazil, Rocco chose Australia (yes, coffee is also grown in eastern Australia, though production is limited), and Cristiano picked beans from Costa Rica.

The final blended coffee presents an intense, balanced flavor with distinct notes of cocoa and caramel. From bean selection to blending to flavor determination, this coffee not only represents their company but also reflects Australians' love for and pursuit of coffee.

Arlee expressed: "This has been a very fulfilling process. We learned how to roast coffee beans together, ensure consistent coffee quality, and in the process of selling coffee beans, we also learned more communication skills."

First Sales and Marketing Strategy

After finalizing their roasting and blending plans, they produced their first batch of espresso beans. Since they had no customer base when the company was established, they left some packaged coffee beans at the roasting company's store for sale and took the rest home, planning to sell them to nearby neighbors through door-to-door sales.

After considerable effort, they successfully sold their first batch of coffee beans and celebrated for five minutes! They found the entire sales process incredibly interesting, meeting many different types of customers and understanding the market's thoughts and suggestions about coffee. This led them to their next plan—selling to cafes.

However, they knew that directly selling coffee beans might not attract cafes' attention, so they decided to launch a charity initiative. They partnered with a local children's charity organization, pledging to donate 5% of the net income from each bag of coffee beans to the organization's children's foundation. They then created sales flyers to help consumers and cafes learn more about their company.

Rocco, who proposed the initiative, said: "I think it's important to be grateful and help others. Many children are not as fortunate as we are, so I hope that through selling coffee beans, we can help more children enjoy life at this age instead of worrying about the future."

Industry Support and Future Aspirations

The head of the roasting company that helped ARC expressed: "We are proud to help these children develop their own brand and company, and they've found an unexpected way to give back to society. They have not only launched a new brand but also planned various coffee bean sales activities. Through this collaboration, we hope to encourage people of different ages to unleash their creativity and create more infinite possibilities."

Arlee stated that buying their coffee is investing in their business. This support will enable them to grow and learn many important life skills and daily business operations. Running this coffee company is just the first step—Arlee hopes to become a forensic scientist in the future, while Rocco aspires to become a world-famous rock climber. They hope to earn money now to better realize their dreams.

Reflections on Young Entrepreneurship

The world of children is always full of wild imagination, which might seem like a "fairy tale" to many adults. However, the world doesn't operate according to textbooks. If children have the opportunity to acquire and apply knowledge, it will be more useful than any tutoring session or textbook chapter. Age has never been a barrier to understanding the world.

Sometimes children are clearer about what they want than adults because they are pure. When facing our own dreams, we can actually be like these children—simple and pure—and perhaps achieve different rewards.

I hope that everyone reading this article, who was once a child, can also have a happy and fulfilling life and realize their own dreams.

Image source: The Coffee Commune

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