Leave The Herd Behind

April 19, 2024

what’s a goat to a lamb

Green Pastures

In 2013, Eirik Holth was promoted from Analyst to Associate in Macquarie’s Real Assets group.

Macquarie is a global Australian based asset manager with $500B+ AUM. The firm has a significant presence in London and New York, and Holth got experience working in both offices.

Holth’s promotion couldn’t mask his growing discomfort with corporate life.

In September of the same year, inspired by his former roommates from University of St. Andrew’s, he quit his job. Him and his friends wanted to build something that had potential, but more importantly, that they owned.

That leap of faith led the squad into greener grass.

Sheep Talk

With no name, no funding, and no customers, the guys decided to leverage their passion for coffee into a cafe concept with a unique angle.

During trips to Colombia and India, they searched for coffee beans that delivered an elite tasting experience.

  • In Colombia they discovered the “Blue Volcano” bean from various farmer members in Fudam. Of the Castillo and Colombia varieties; characterized by sweet, smooth, citric and toffee tasting notes.

  • In India they discovered the “Robusta Revival” bean from the Sethuraman Estate in Karnataka. Of the Robusta variety; characterized by dark chocolate and hazelnut tasting notes.

Next step was to define the value proposition: bringing 100% robustas straight from the source to the market in an ethically sourced way.

The brand was coined Black Sheep Coffee - with the slogan “Leave The Herd Behind”, a nod to the group of friends quitting corporate life and pursuing ownership.

After finding success with multiple pop-up shops, Black Sheep raised $28,000 on Kickstarter to launch their first cafe and bring robusta brews to London.

Animal Farm

With a laser sharp focus on exceptional coffee beans, customer service, and community, the Black Sheep brand blossomed into 20+ locations by 2019. This led to a $16M fundraising round valuing the company at $135M.

Later that year, they displayed wolf-like aggression when the company acquired artisan coffee chain, Taylor St. Baristas.

❝

With Black Sheep we feel that our shops are in the best hands possible, and we’re excited to be working with them to continue to deliver the kind of cafe experience our customers have come to expect.

Nick Tolley, Taylor St. co-founder

white unicorn 🤝 black sheep

In 2021, Kristaps Porzingis became an investor in Black Sheep Coffee in a $6.2M round for individual investors. The NBA standout joined a star-studded roster of investors:

  • Tellef Thorleifsson: CEO of Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries. Early investor in Spotify.

  • Bill Schultz: former President of Coca-Cola Canada

  • Tore Myrholt: Co-Chair for the Board at Antler, former McKinsey Senior Partner

  • Martin Jacobsen: World Series of Poker player; 2014 WSOP Main Event Champion

Today, Black Sheep Coffee is the UK’s fastest growing coffee chain and the 4th largest in the country with 80+ stores and 60+ locations in the pipeline through the end of the year.

Their latest round recently closed at a $422M valuation and plenty of new investors, most notably -

  • Litquidity Ventures: Finance media brand with 1M+ followers on social media and 200K+ newsletter readers. Previous investments in SpaceX, beehiiv, MOGL and more. Took a $1M+ allocation in Black Sheep Coffee’s latest round.

Holth and Co. have their eyes set on an IPO in 2027, with the potential to join the likes of Starbucks, Dutch Bros., Black Rifle Coffee Company, and other publicly traded coffee brands.

After a decade of dedication

It’s safe to say

They have truly left the herd behind.

Mainstreet Media

In our latest episode, Ben Zises stopped by to discuss how stumbling across a deal at a Miami house party led to $20M AUM today as a solo VC.

You can listen to the episode here.

Headlines

  • Ibotta’s recent IPO minted more than 150 millionaires, according to CEO Bryan Leach. Read the Markets Insider article here.

  • CVC Capital Partners expresses interest in buying consulting firm EY’s Italian unit. Read the Financial Times report here.

  • Netflix blows past earnings estimates as subscribers increase by 16%. Read the CNBC overview here.

  • Former SpaceX exec sets up new VC firm with former Sequoia finance leader. Read the TechCrunch article here.

  • NBA media rights are headed for an open market bidding war next week. Read the Front Office Sports overview here.

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