Mike Madrid and Donny Brazeal were shipmates on a Navy destroyer. Both of them were coffee aficionados and so were many of their friends on board. So they pooled their money, bought really good coffee from the top roasters of the world, and then shared each batch so everyone got to sample the best coffees and decide which ones they wanted to brew on a daily basis. Mike went to the Academy then served on destroyers and  was statopned in Spain when he and Donny met. Following his move to the states he took a job at the Pentagon which allowed him to do some nonprofit work including Operation Code, a military project near and dear to our show hosts’ hearts. The combination of his friendship with Donny, the experience of opening up the world of coffee and helping veterans build a life in the private sector led to founding Project Buna in 2019. Danny enlisted in the Navy to be an electronics technician and served on aircraft carriers before earning a commission in the Limited Duty Officers’ program. He went to Japan and then to Spain where he met Mike. Danny is currently a surface electronics LDO. He is serving in the DC area. “Buna” is an English translation for the word “coffee” in the Semitic language Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. They chose this word and its characters as their name and logo in order to reflect the ancient roots of this drink, while simultaneously looking ahead to coffee’s future throughout the world. The two started their business very wisely. They knew there was always the possibility of one or both being deployed to some corner of the world and so put in their plan to give themselves two years. At that point, if the business was not doing well, they would close it and consider they had a great two-year education. If it was going well, they’d figure out how to keep it going. Luckily, it is going well and they have figured out all the selling, packaging and ordering to stand out in the very crowded field of coffee roasting. They sell online and have created unique marketing approaches, including “crowd crafted coffee”, where they bring together a group of people and over time, walk them through crafting their own custom coffee. It’s thinking like that that will propel them to succeeding in a growing industry.

Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh Carter and Cynthia Kao

We record the Veteran Founder Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music: Artist: Tipsy Track: Kadonka Album: Buzzz Courtesy of Ipecac Records

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

#109 Step Up Your Coffee Break - Donny & Mike, Project Buna

Veteran Founder Podcast