When Maria Jose first arrived in the U.S., she was shocked by how much people were willing to pay for coffee while farmers back in the fields where she grew struggled to make ends meet. With this thought in the back of her mind, six years after migrating, she coined a big dream with the mission to bring farmers out of poverty and co-founded Progeny Coffee.
She was born and raised in the small city of Armenia, Quindio, located west of Bogotá in Colombia’s coffee region. There, Maria Jose grew up in a family of coffee growers, often participating in the activity before moving to attend university. She is the only one in her family living abroad but has found a way to stay connected to her family’s heritage.
In 2010, she moved to New York to work in the fashion industry production for Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, and Zero Maria Cornejo. After having her first baby, she moved to Silicon Valley in 2016. There, Maria and her partner, John Trabelsi, started Progeny Coffee.
“Progeny was born out of our dining table,” Maria Jose told IQ Latino. To bring coffee growers in Colombia, such as her family, out of poverty, Maria Jose and John thought of ways they could purchase coffee from Colombia and sell it in the U.S. in a way that would benefit the farmers. “At first, the dream seemed unreachable. We began by serving my local community of moms in Silicon Valley.” Maria Jose would take her baby in her stroller and meet other moms at the park to serve them coffee and sell them their weekly coffee bag.
In Maria Jose’s words, their “fantastic community” helped them expand into local supermarkets. Through persistence and dedication, they started gaining traction and began to see the tangible fruits of their mission. After their brand created a buzz, they finally decided to move to a business to business (B2B) model, attracting the tech companies from Silicon Valley. With this leap, they went from roasting a handful of bags to bringing containers of coffee from Colombia.
Maria Jose shared some of the challenges Progeny Coffee faced with IQ Latino. “It was straightforward to run a small operation from our home. But when we decided to grow our company and had some big contracts to fulfill, we needed to access capital for our growth.” They reached out to all banks and investors without success. Furthermore, because she was a stay-at-home mom, she didn’t have much credit history.
“When you are faced with rejection every time, and the statistics are against you, it pushes you to think creatively and act outside of the box.” Finally, they learned about an entire ecosystem of lenders that support minority women-owned companies that don’t look at credit score numbers, but rather the potential of the venture. These institutions (e.g., Working Solutions, Opportunity Fund, ICA, CRF) support the women financially and guide them with mentorship. “But it was clear that we needed to work 100 times harder to grow, and there is no shame on that.”
Maria Jose says her experience growing up in Colombia, where some systems are broken, developed her resilience and creativity. She advises other Latinos entrepreneurs to use their unique set of skills that they acquired from their native countries to solve problems in the U.S., whose systems are more straightforward.
“When you grow up in areas where the systems are broken, you become resilient and creative. Working outside the box and pushing through is a common life mindset. The U.S. is a different reality, things flow much easier, so if you add your faith, relicense, perseverance, Latino passion, and creative thinking, you will go far. Don’t look at the stats and be ok to work harder than anyone else!”
Maria José Palacio, co-founder of Progeny Coffee
The past four years have been a rewarding journey for Maria Jose. Currently, with COVID-19, they are facing their biggest challenge, but thankfully their mission-lead team was able to shift the mindset from a B2B to an e-commerce model, which they are currently trying to pivot. Now you can buy their coffees from their award-winning specialty coffees from their website. There, you can find detailed information about their business model, as well as how each of their nine flavors is prepared (e.g., producer, process, tasting notes). Furthermore, they are currently offering a promotion for customers who sign up for a coffee subscription.
Featured image curtesy of Maria Jose Palacio