2024 Recap - Our First Year On This Coffee Journey!
Greetings, travelers! Today we wanted to take you on an adventure with us and share with you all the milestones we have hit in our first year in business! We launched Dragon Roast Coffee in February of 2024 and since then we have been able to do so many awesome things!
2024 At A Glance
This year we went from launching with a single 1 kilogram roaster (which is small for those who don't know), upgrading to 3 of those same roasters, then upgrading to a 5 kilogram (which is 5x more than 1!) and finally because of how many beans we needed to roast...ended on a 15, yes FIFTEEN Kilogram roaster! The amount of excitement and love you have all shared for the brand has been astounding and we are so excited for everything that we have been able to do! But that is just a small look into what went on here, we also ended up going to a lot of events!
Everywhere We Went
There is a very good chance you saw us at an event or two this past year and that is because we went all over! In our first year we wanted to get out to as many events as we could and meet as many of you as possible. From gaming to comic to furry conventions as well as MTG events and art markets, we have been going everywhere that we can and getting to know so many of you amazing people!
In our travels we drove over 10,520 miles, bringing coffee with us all over the United States! We are still a small team here and this was an exhausting convention season but we wouldn't change it for anything! There were times when it felt like we were on the road at events more than we were at home and it was such an amazing experience. Every single month we had something awesome going on and that brings us to our journey.
Our Journey
When we started the year we needed to get a display booth for our convention journeys, which then led us into building a fully custom WOODEN display booth by hand...yes that's right, dragons learned how to build things now. There were some really especially crazy moments as well, such as going from Denfur one weekend to leaving that next Monday for PAX West in August. We also had an unfortunate event on the way to Game Developer Expo in Ohio where a semi truck exploded a tire in front of us, causing it to fly through our back window and shattering it which was a crazy experience (don't worry, we survived without a scrape and got the window fixed while we were in town).
In between all the events we were doing we also were scrambling to develop and launch new products as well as shipping out coffee all over the world! It has been such a tremendous year and not only did we get to see so many people, we also forged a lot of new alliances.
New Alliances Forged
Community has always been one of the most important pillars of our company and we are so thrilled to have forged some amazing alliances this year! By the end of 2024 we now have over 50 content creators that we are working with as well as 19 amazing stores who are all carrying Dragon Roast Coffee!
One event we are super proud of being a part of was the Fastest Furs Fall Fest which was able to raise over $20,000 for Trans Lifeline. This event was a very fun speed running event put on by the furry community which we helped sponsor. We look forward to doing more with them and this first event we did was incredible.
We also sponsored the Last Caw Were-House Art Market, where we also set up a cafe, offering coffee beverages and goodies to the Denver community. This event helped local artists reach new audiences and grow, giving them a platform to sell their work and meet others. Last Caw has been such an amazing organization to work with and we are excited to see what other amazing events we can make happen together in 2025. That brings us to what we have in store for the future.
Onward To 2025!
Your support means everything to us and we couldn't do any of this without you. Our first year in business has been incredible and we can't wait to see what the future holds!