Brewing the Next Generation of Great Leaders
For Juanny Romero of Mothership Coffee Roasters, building community is just as important as what's in your cup.
Owner Juanny Romero of Mothership Coffee Roasters. |. Photos: Will Blunt
At Mothership Coffee Roasters, CEO Juanny Romero focuses on more than just coffee. With seven locations in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, she emphasizes the importance of cafés as community builders, not just for visitors, but for her employees, too. StarChefs' Emily Genova spoke with Romero about how she curates these experiences, manages her employees, and gives tips to others looking to start a small business of their own.
Emily Genova: You've mentioned that you use coffee as a vehicle to build a vibrant community. Can you talk to me about how that shows up day-to-day at Mothership Coffee?
Juanny Romero: I think what a lot of people touch on first is the design of the space. The point of the design was to emphasize that this is a community space. And what a lot of that signifies is [recognizing] how a person shows up and how comfortable they feel accessing space, whether it's a chair or moving things around, or whether there's a plug available, the messaging, the signage, how employees communicate with the customers, with how the space is laid out. We love that you stay eight hours to do whatever you're doing. It's my job as the owner and the CEO of the company to find ways to create revenue. It's not the job of the customer to feel bad for wanting to do what they want to do in that space.
EG: How do you support and develop people who are early on in their coffee careers?
JR: We're raising the next generation of great leaders, and that doesn't mean that we're trying to keep everyone in the company. We consider ourselves a launch pad for our people to go and do great things.
One of the things that we're starting right now is actually credits that our baristas can apply for for any type of learning that they want to do. Online music programs, cooking classes, anything outside of the company. We're looking for people to do whatever their creative pursuits are, and we can support them, because at the end of the day, whether they have a career at Mothership or anywhere else, we do our job of creating the next generation of great leaders. That's our mission.
Another thing that we're initiating is a mentorship program. So, baristas who are interested in having a mentor, can write an essay about what they're looking for, and then we take that essay and we shop it around with available mentors who then can connect with them directly. If we have baristas who may be interested in becoming real estate agents, we'll tap into our network [to find] members who are real estate agents. Or sometimes we have employees who are looking to go into culinary, so then we look at ways for them to match them with a culinary school or resource.
EG: Do you have any advice on how to start and grow a coffee business?
JR: I'd say, figure out what type of personality you have. It's a very interesting phenomenon that cafés are really the personalities of the owners. It's a really beautiful expression to provide for the community. So if someone wants to start a coffee business, I'm like, "who are you? Who do you think you are, and where do you think you can contribute to the community?" The things that you're not great at, you can build a team around.
