Trade Coffee CMO Melissa Spencer Barnes on capturing the at-home brewing market

The professional world may have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, but there is one thing that still powers our workday: coffee.

The subscription-based Trade Coffee, for one, has seen its mail-in customer base go up by a factor of 10, alongside other food startups that have seen a bump in subscriptions.

Earlier this year, company CMO Melissa Spencer Barnes told Modern Retail that the company was on track to ship its millionth bag of coffee sometime in 2020. It also started selling five pound bags -- the size roasters typically sell to office spaces -- as people drink more coffee at home.

Launched in 2018, the company connects customers with their network of 55 roasters. It takes coffee seriously enough to borrow the language of dating apps, inviting subscribers to "get matched" with the best roasted beans for them.

To bring customers in in the first place, Trade Coffee is focused on dominating SEO terms around the drink, and on creating useful content for people curious to learn more.

"We see that our role as a brand but also as a growth tactic is in being the educational voice for coffee," Spencer Barnes said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "Surprisingly, there weren't that many incumbents in that space before."

Trade Coffee is focused on how-tos and videos about the brewers that customers support. Next, it's looking to grow on YouTube. "That's where people are consuming content and nerding out, if you will, wanting to go down that rabbit hole. That's the nature of coffee. You get into it a little bit and then you want to keep going further."