The founder of Saigon Brew, Dylan, joins us to talk about his Aussie-owned Vietnamese coffee brand. A journey some might find familiar of trying to find something more fulfilling than the 9-5 corporate life, we talk about his passion for his Vietnamese roots which led him to craft a beverage which resonates with his cultural heritage.

Items mentioned:

Top 100 coffee shops: https://bit.ly/3RDC4m9

Saigon Brew socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saigonbrew/

Website: https://saigonbrew.com.au/

Our listeners get 15% off with the code 'RICENMICS15'

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:20 The inception of Saigon Brew, Covid times

6:09 Finding a warehouse, inspiration

8:20 Why coffee? Japan moment with cans

10:46 Introducing Viet coffee

11:47 Do cafes make more money in summer vs winter?

12:59 New trend for coffee in Vietnam

14:34 Australia has the best coffee in the world?

15:49 Top 10 coffee shops in the world

16:52 I am a fruit enjoyer

20:23 How do you intro new coffee to people, pairing with durries

22:25 The three flavours of Saigon Brew

25:18 Where are people buying from? Northern Territory?!

28:20 Challenges of starting the business, finding partners

32:52 Tips if you wanna start a F&B business

35:03 Alcohol and durries being taxed high

38:23 The corporate life journey

42:50 Call centre environments suck, empathy fatigue

44:37 Defined benefits, the worst working environment

50:39 Process analyst

52:44 Process improvement at Virgin Money

55:05 The last corporate role

57:05 Investing more into Saigon Brew but staying in corporate

59:02 The first grocery store

59:54 G7/Trung Nguyen coffee goss

1:03:07 Contacting grocers, aggressive ads

1:11:36 Woolies metro type stores would do well?

1:15:53 Costco's rule for buying products

1:20:23 Balancing 2 jobs

1:24:23 Achievements/Milestones

1:25:13 How long did it take from idea to product?

1:26:34 New flavours? The rise of Asian flavours

1:31:04 How important is community?

1:33:56 Inspiration? Role models?

1:38:33 Future plans? How do you get nutritional info?

1:41:00 The development lifecycle

1:43:38 Social plugs