This is very lighthearted. I know coffee entrepreneur Mark Hellweg and respect him a great deal. He is a well-known authority on coffee and espresso production in the home. He is extraordinarily devoted to his craft. At the same time, he is very sincere in his respect and admiration for others operating in this craft. He is serious about coffee, and he is serious about humility. In several ways, Mark is a terrific model of vocation pursued through the lens of faith, that is, business mission pursued as a subset of a far larger mission.
Here he was interviewed by Kenneth Davids of Coffee-Con in this short and sincere and down-to-earth video about Mark’s love for coffee. The video is not long, and very personable.
I met Mark when he was busy founding Clive Coffee in Portland, Oregon, a company that has created a specialty niche. Among other things, they offer extremely high-quality commercial espresso machines, tailored for residential use. He also provides the training to use them at home. (My favorite Clive Coffee offering is the Rocket Apartamento from Milan, of course.)
This is not Mark’s first company. Nor is it his most recent. He also founded Ratio Coffee Machines (see his interview with Imbibe Magazine). You can learn about Mark in similar interviews here: Republic VC, Hillsdale alumni.
I do love espresso, and I love those who love espresso. I do not love, however, coffee snobbery. Mark pursues coffee, the right way.
