Renee Brown Featured In Shopify Blog

Shopify recently featured a blog article, "Life Lessons from 9 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Over 50". Our very own, very talented, and above and beyond amazing Vice President of Weaver's Coffee & Tea, Renee Brown, was highlighted as one of the inspiring female entrepreneurs. If you want to learn about women in coffee and how to be a successful woman in business, then she is the one to speak to about driving a company and hitting the bottomline. I am not just saying this to get brownie points, she is truly a magician. The coffee company is literally spinning around her, and yet, she is always humble, present and calm, the foundation that holds us in place. Coffee is an interesting and challenging business. Being successful in the coffee business takes a lot of commitment and experience, which she has, and it shows through on a daily basis. I truly admire and appreciate Renee and I learn from her everyday. Here is the Shopify Blog, share it on your social media and inspire someone today.

Renee Brown, Vice President, Weaver's Coffee & Tea

Renee Brown, along with her husband and partners, own and operate a hot beverage empire based in San Rafael, California. Weaver’s Coffee & Tea , founded under Wild Card Roasters in 2007 (in the middle of the financial crisis), now sells hand-roasted, Fair Trade Certified coffees and tea to customers across the world. They operate two busy Bay Area cafés and are expanding their retail presence.

Renee stepped in to run the company in 2015, and has juggled sales, marketing, PR, social media, product development, and business development since the company’s inception.

Her wonderfully diverse resume combined over the years to give her the skills she needed to run a successful business:

“I Double Majored in Economics and Political Science, with a Concentration in French, which gave me a great foundation for entrepreneurship. I was supposed to go to law school but I backed out at the last minute and went to sea. I crewed on private yachts for three years. It was the slowest most expensive way to see the world. Travel opened my eyes to different cultures and ultimately gave me ideas about starting my own business.”

For Renee, running a business now in her fifties is an advantage at times:

“Age allows you to be able to say to people in the nicest way, ‘No, that is not going to work for me.’”

But she finds she’s also fighting against stereotypes:

“There are certain preconceived notions individuals have when they see a fifty year old woman working. They assume I am a Barista or a Bookkeeper. We are in the coffee roasting and tea blending business, with a solid ecommerce business, wholesale accounts, and very busy retail cafes in the Bay Area. There is still a preconceived notion that a man runs the company, and they never expect it to be me.”

What wisdom does she have to share with aspiring entrepreneurs at any age?

“Do something you love, have passion and commitment, but most importantly persistence. Hire slow and fire fast. Business is about people, and sales and marketing. If you have the right people and excellent sales and marketing then you will be successful.”

Favorite business resources: the Shopify Blog, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal

Learn from the other 8 entrepreneurs here: Life Lessons from 9 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Over 50

The Original Irish Coffee Recipe and Its History

Car Crashes into our San Francisco Coffee Shop