As a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Michael Loyd has first-hand experience with the unifying power of coffee. During his field training, he would start his day by brewing a pot in his jetboil—one of the few items he carried with him during 50 days of warfare training in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The smell quickly drew other marines into his camp.
“That coffee pot became like a community center,” he recalled.
That sense of community building became the impetus for Dope Coffee, the business Loyd brewed up with his wife, Michelle. Today, the husband-and-wife entrepreneurs sell over a dozen products across the globe in the Amazon store and 500 retail shops, as well as through their Atlanta café, which they opened in 2019.
The couple were attracted to Atlanta’s entrepreneurial support, particularly of Black-owned businesses, and its standing as a mecca of hip-hop—long a passion for the Loyds. Michael, who writes and produces music as Creative Mike the Rapper, envisioned a space that combined his love of hip-hop and coffee, which he and Michelle see as sharing a similar ethos.
“Coffee can soothe you throughout the day. It can keep you awake, it can keep you focused,” said Michelle. In that way, she believes “there’s a fusion between coffee and hip-hop.”
It was during the pandemic, when their Atlanta café had to close its doors, that the Loyds opened their store on Amazon.
“The first day the products were in the Amazon store, we had sales,” recalled Michael. “It was a really cool experience to see how the larger Amazon audience could buy Dope Coffee products instantly, pretty much with no ripples, no interruptions.”
Since then, Dope Coffee has seen double-digit year-on-year growth in their sales on Amazon. Michelle, who is Dope Coffee’s Chief Product Officer and roast master, said the Amazon Vine program helped Dope Coffee build immediate trust with new customers. Vine works by offering free products to a trusted network of reviewers, who write their unbiased opinion of the products they try.
“When we started getting reviews back, we were seeing ‘five star, five star, five star.’ It confirmed for me that even online, even for people that aren’t from Atlanta, they were experiencing the same thing that our customers experienced in person,” said Michelle.
She also appreciated how Amazon’s different features give them the flexibility to tell a richer story about their products and their company, including Dope Coffee’s commitment to sustainability. In their product descriptions, the Loyds provide as much information as possible about their beans, which are mainly sourced from East and Central Africa, including the plot of land each batch comes from and how the beans are harvested. With Amazon A+ Content, they are able to upload videos with each product listing, which they call “drip tips,” which give their customers advice on the best way to brew a fresh cup.
“The intricacies of what you can tell people about your products on Amazon is pretty extensive,” said Michelle. “I’m able to really show not just what our product looks like from a bag or pod perspective, but what’s inside.”
While each cup of coffee might be short-lived, the Loyds are making a long-term impact in their local community through their flagship cafe in Stonecrest, just 16 miles outside of Downtown Atlanta. In addition to being a meeting ground for lovers of hip-hop, the cafe also has a performance space for local musicians, and regularly hosts gallery nights and open mic nights so young artists can showcase their work. Dope Coffee also hosts a youth basketball team, the Grinders, providing free basketball training for local kids on the premises.
“It’s a great gathering spot,” said Michael, who is happy to be realizing his vision of using coffee as a unifying force. Like I said, coffee creates community and Dope Coffee is at the center of that.”