It's official, we’re official!
The suns out, the birds are chirping, and we’re ready to tell anyone who’ll listen that the official launch of our first product, the Duo Coffee Steeper, is quickly approaching. With the debut of Duo upon us, we’re excited to also kick off our blog. Here, we’ll share everything we’ve learned about brewing great coffee and what it’s like working at a small, non-tech San Francisco startup.
First, a little bit about us.
We’re a handful of nerds in love with coffee, and obsessed with product design. We work out of a mixed, creative space in Dogpatch, San Francisco. Our neighbors are ShopFloor Design (makers of really rad, industrial furniture) and soon-to-be Harmonic Brewing. Cool chairs, delicious craft beer and finely brewed coffee? We’re never leaving.
Fellow began as a Kickstarter campaign. We sought out to create a different type of coffee brewer, one that was equally functional and beautiful.
After months of picking French press grinds out of his teeth, our founder, Jake, wanted something better. Jake comes from Caribou Coffee and is an avid home brewer. He kept moving back and forth between the French press and pour-over. Both can make a great cup of coffee, but have their respective drawbacks.
After 8 months and countless prototypes with our friends at Enlisted Design, Duo – a dual chamber “twist” on a traditional French press – was born. If you haven’t seen the Kickstarter video filled with bear costumes and punchy one-liners, check it out here: Kickass Kickstarter video.
Fast forward a year through some tough manufacturing snafoos, and we’re finally ready to share Duo with the world. This is of course all thanks to the incredibly patient and supportive Kickstarter backers. We can’t thank you enough for your support – thank you, thank you, thank you. For 15 long months our backers dutifully followed our updates, gave us needed kicks in the pants through tough times, and cheered us to the finish line.
For those of you curious about our journey through Kickstarter, look out for future posts, where we’ll talk about what it’s like running a campaign, and turning a Kickstarter into a real life company (with employees!).
Duo is just the first of many products for Fellow. We’re always curious about why products are the way they are and how we can make them better. Making is in our DNA. Even our marketing girl, engineer, and web guy are tinkerers. We’re here because you should never have to choose between aesthetics and functionality. In the loosely interpreted words of the great Charles Darwin, form should always fit function…at least if you want to survive evolution. (We told you we’re nerds).
Now that we are up and running, we’re ready to scream from the mountain tops how excited we are!
Looking forward to sharing our journey with you,
Fellow