DJ Tan: $4.2M Fundraise Flavor House, Bean-Free Coffee Product-Market Fit & Climate Change vs. Food Tech – E620

Jeremy Au and DJ Tan sit down to discuss how Prefer grew from a bold bean-free coffee experiment into a flavor house tackling climate-threatened ingredients. They explore the evolution from naive product launches to customer-driven adoption, why B2B positioning makes more sense than B2C in food tech, and how shifting investor expectations shaped their fundraising strategy. Their conversation covers product development cycles with baristas, the science of replicating flavors like coffee and chocolate, and how climate change is forcing businesses to rethink supply chains. DJ also shares lessons on storytelling, scaling options, and the importance of founder transparency when building trust with investors.

02:28 Founding Mission Expands: Prefer was co-founded in 2022 with the mission to make coffee without beans and has since expanded into chocolate while building towards a broader sustainable flavor house.

04:25 Customer Adoption Through Blends: Cafe partners showed reluctance to add a completely new menu item so Prefer gained traction by becoming part of blends such as cappuccinos with ten percent inclusion instead of selling as a separate bean-free option.

09:19 Messaging Shifts to Flavor House: Messaging evolved from pitching only bean-free coffee to presenting Prefer as a flavor house once traction with coffee and chocolate proved product market fit.

16:12 Designing for Applications: Coffee used in cocktails, tiramisu, iced cans or espresso requires different flavor formulations and the R and D team now designs products to fit specific applications.

19:38 Climate Change Disrupts Supply: Climate change has created volatility in coffee, cocoa, vanilla, hazelnut and citrus supplies with events like a blight wiping out most of Florida’s orange harvest and forcing shifts in supermarket juice offerings.

24:05 B2B Model Prevails Over B2C: The B2C experiments validated that consumers were unwilling to pay premiums but B2B customers valued Prefer for protecting margins, supply continuity and preventing shrinkflation.

37:30 Fundraising with Clear Milestones: DJ emphasized raising funds by starting with the end in mind asking investors what metrics will matter in 18 months and working towards those clear goals.

Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/dj-tan-brewing-without-beans

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