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listen to this articleA Greenville entrepreneur looking for a way to get more people drinking coffee got affirmation from two academic heavyweights.
Don Li’s CoffeeCandy products have been adopted by business professors and their classes at the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business and Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.
CoffeeCandy was developed by Li as an edible caffeine alternative for coffee lovers who may want to forego the traditional liquid version of Java, especially if they want to reduce the number of bathroom breaks after drinking coffee. I did. SC Biz News has followed his entrepreneurial journey from product introduction to retail store shelves.
Lee said he set his sights on colleges because he always believed CoffeeCandy could find a fan base on college campuses.
“Many college students need to work late into the night, preparing for quizzes, exams, or doing class projects,” he said in an email. “In these situations, you can’t buy coffee, and it’s inconvenient to bring coffee with you. Besides, one cup of coffee can have too much caffeine, which can interfere with your sleep. , a single CoffeeCandy coffee candy is perfect for an instant pick-me-up.”
He contacted the University of South Carolina because that’s the state he currently lives in, and Virginia Tech because he had previously lived in Roanoke, Virginia.
Professor Dirk Buengel of Virginia Tech and Professor Kasie Whitener of USC presented several potential projects to the students, and both groups selected CoffeeCandy for separate academic pursuits.
Buengel, an associate professor of practice, said Coffee on the Go (the name of Lee’s company) was selected as a Virginia Tech start-up and supported free management consulting services provided as part of Management Consulting and Analysis. Stated. Majored in Pamplin College of Business.
“In the major’s capstone course, a team of five senior management consulting majors assisted Don with a semester-long consulting project to support Coffee on the Go’s next phase of growth,” Buengel said in an email. Stated.
Team goals:
Develop growth and business development strategies;
Develop Operational plan for an optimized marketing strategy to support Coffee on the Go’s profitable growth, with a focus on developing an attractive website, strengthening communication approaches, including social media marketing, etc.
Develop The company’s organizational development plan to support the next level of growth in terms of resource and investment needs, defining optimized core processes, etc., and
Develop 3 year financial business plan.
“The key recommendation was a disruptive growth strategy through broader retail channels to expand the business and drive profitable growth,” Buengel wrote. “These consulting recommendations were presented to Don in his one-hour final presentation on December 7th. A detailed 35-page consulting plan was given to Don.”
He said the results of the Virginia Tech effort will give entrepreneurs “a wealth of concrete, strategic and effective recommendations and food for thought to begin a profitable growth phase.” Ta.
“The whole program was really a win-win situation,” Buengel said. “The Virginia Tech consulting team greatly benefited from this great project, allowing us to apply our theoretical consulting expertise to real external clients and projects. At the same time, Don provided pro bono consulting services and I received a valuable outside perspective on the business.”
Closer to home, USC students provided services through Whitener’s classes in the management department. She is also the program director for the Faber Entrepreneurship Center. Her CoffeeCandy project came to her through her center director, Jeff Savage, who introduced her to Lee.
She said students in her MGMT 479 class were enthusiastic about the project and conducted two focus groups, one student and one faculty member, and provided Ms. Lee with feedback on the product’s flavor, texture, and packaging.
“This topic was very popular and students were very interested,” she said in an email. “It was one of the larger project teams. They set out to determine several entrepreneurial milestones: 1) Customer validation — did the target market like the product? What feedback can you provide? 2) Was the pricing accurate enough to make a profit from the product? 3) Does the company have enough digital assets to support wide distribution and high-volume sales? 4) What kind of branding differentiates CoffeeCandy in retail stores in South Carolina? 5) What is the process of bringing the product into those stores (i.e. Buc-ee’s)? Will it become something?”
Columbia students also evaluated the CoffeeCandy website, compared it to its competitors, and made recommendations regarding digital assets. They recommended several branding redesigns, with an emphasis on making the product “exclusively for South Carolina” to capitalize on the state’s tourism industry strengths.
Whitener said they provided instructions on how to enter several retail stores for tourists, as well as information on product prices and suggested retail prices.
“As consultants, their work was provided regardless of Don’s availability, and the students were very committed to the project,” Whitener said. “This means that while entrepreneurship may not have a standard process (step-by-step journey), building a business requires certain key factors (cost, differentiation, customer validation, etc.). ) is a good study that shows that we need to make sure we understand this early on.”
Lee said she was impressed with the efforts of both groups of students.
“It was really great to have two student teams working on CoffeeCandy for us,” he said. “Their research results are very impressive. For example, in one study, USC students conducted a CoffeeCandy tasting event and then conducted a survey. Approximately 41% of survey respondents said they had heard of CoffeeCandy on campus. They said they would buy it if it were available.”
Lee said he is working to raise more funds to pursue some of the strategies recommended by the two student groups.
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