JustPour: Changing the Way India Drinks Coffee
For many of us, coffee isn’t simply a source of caffeine but an emotion. We all have our favourite brands, while someone swears by Expresso, another prefers Latte, and another battalion swears allegiance to Americano. We’re a generation spurned by visits to cafés with brands like Third Wave and Blue Tokai sprouting in front of our eyes. Every experience is made better with coffee, and Vedang Lahoti is trying to revamp how young India consumes it.
At 25, he’s already had stints with top brands like Flipkart and Zepto Café. The professional expertise gained during this time, combined with an MBA from Master’s Union, has generated a wealth of experience. All of which is poured into his latest venture, JustPour.
Vedang admits that he’s always been someone who's been drinking coffee as long as he can remember. He identifies with an age group that started visiting cafes more often, which slowly brewed a love affair with coffee. But joining Zepto is when he got to the core crux of it, envisioning exceptional growth in this stream.
It also taught him grades, blends, the difference between an arabica and robusta, and other nitty-gritties, sparking a deeper interest in coffee. His time with Zepto also exposed him to several brands within the industry. With time, he started to realise the way India consumes coffee and its potential future growth.
Building a Niche Product in a Growing Industry:
More cafes are being introduced in India daily, with speciality coffee growing at a phenomenal rate. However, the at-home coffee consumption market has scope for improvement, and JustPour is trying to create its name in this space.
In the early stages, they imported a bunch of products from American and European regions. For example, Nescafé has the Nescafé espresso concentrate, which is available in the European regions but not at a similar scale in India. It felt like an interesting direction to lean into.
The brand positioning for JustPour is intentionally Gen-Z oriented, colouring major youth hubs of Bangalore, such as Church Street and Indiranagar pink with just one statement, ‘Coffee is Pink’. That first campaign got them close to 800 signups within a couple of hours of launching and generated over 5.5 million views across socials. When asked about what differentiates his brand from the rest, Vedang made a very interesting statement.
‘We’re not trying to focus on the functionality of coffee, we’re trying to focus on the experience of the coffee.’
JustPour offers only two products, eliminating decision fatigue amongst the customers. If you’re someone who prefers milk or juice-based beverages, then their Classic Coffee Concentrate is something you should try. It has 80% arabica and 20 % robusta, a medium dark roast, making it more palatable to customers across India. It is a product he swears by and is also the fast mover for their business.
But if you’re someone who likes speciality coffee, a black coffee connoisseur, someone who likes cold brews, then the Black Coffee Concentrate is a variant you should try.
You can make your own cafe drink from the comfort of your home in less than 30 seconds. For example, just add lemon juice, orange juice or experiment and create your own flavour at a fraction of the cost compared to the cafes.
The Journey and Expansion Strategy:
One of the initial hiccups was making a conscious decision not to diversify their channels from the beginning. While visibility on different platforms is key, Vedang wants to concentrate his resources on a few key ones rather than spreading themselves thin.
Expanding on his point, he spoke about getting great growth through their website and achieving 100 % month-on-month growth on Amazon Marketplace. So, his philosophy is simple: why just exist on a platform when you can conquer it, but that requires meticulous planning and some time.
When asked about advice, the one thing he mentioned was don’t delay. You can always improve, but throwing yourself out there is often the hardest step. He stated the example of Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, who relayed that if your first launch isn’t successful, you can launch again. Vedang recalls that Chesky launched Airbnb three times.
Learning on the go is the best education, and trying to achieve perfection before getting started is a mirage.