Crowdfunding Coffee

If you were passing by Manchester Cathedral on 23 January, and happened to look southwards over the Irwell, shielding your eyes from the drizzle, you might have witnessed a peculiar sight: a wooden, prefabricated cabin being deposited by crane on to Greengate Square. Grindsmith had, quite literally, landed.

No relation to the short-lived syphon-coffee shop in Ancoats, Grindsmith is the brainchild of Peter Gibson and Luke Tomlinson, two coffee aficionados who met while the latter was running a mobile coffee business at the bus station of Manchester’s Trafford Centre. More than three years down the line and following some savvy fundraising, we have the ‘pod’, as they’ve dubbed it, which will house the duo’s diminutive espresso brewbar.  

The pair used Kickstarter as their crowdsourcing platform, and 89 backers pledging a total of £10,155 allowed them to realise their dream. However, Gibson explains that crowdsourcing isn’t simply about raising money: “We were looking at how we could initially raise a bit of capital but also let everyone know we were going to be there if they’re interested. Keeping it Manchester and getting everybody involved, that’s the sense that we want to run through the whole project. If they’re giving towards it then they might feel part of it.” The shop's bar-front will feature a founder's wall engraved with the names of all those who pledged more than £35 to the business.

Grindsmith kept their backers and the rest of the public informed about their progress through social media, tweeting since early 2013 to build awareness. Their approach seems indicative of modern entrepreneurship – an embracing not only of different ways of raising capital but also of starting and running a business in general. With their combination of the flexibility of a pop-up market stall and the feel of a traditional bricks and mortar-type business, are Grindsmith almost disaster-proof? “If it doesn’t work here, say we got it all wrong and we never sell a coffee, well we can put it [the pod] on the back of a van and take it somewhere else, if they’ll have us!” says Gibson.

Grindsmith also want to keep their options open in terms of the coffee they sell and the methods they use, but still stay true to their roots: "We want to keep our espresso Manchester-based, so we’re using James [Guard] at Coffee Circle. It’s important to us that we’re using a Manchester roaster, that we’re not heading down to London. James is roasting in the back of his shed at the bottom of his garden. He supplies [Gatley-based coffeeshop] Coffee Fix and we’ve got a strong connection with those guys.”

Gibson's background is in outdoor education and he seems keen to bring pedagogy to the coffee world: "We want to mix up brewing methods; when people ask for a filter they’re not specifically going to get the same method every time... we also need to make it simple enough that if you don’t have a clue, hopefully within a couple of coffees' time you’ll suddenly start that journey of really experiencing what coffee can be." 

Grindsmith's opening date is 'pencilled in' as 8 February and will be running extended opening hours (7.30am-7pm). There'll be food – paninis and soups – and the team are planning a varied events calendar when things settle down (ping-pong tables, live music, and rooftop artwork are among the real and potential ideas being floated); a certain level of guaranteed interest lends itself to ambition, it seems.