A side hustle, which launched out of Kickstarter, has grown into a national coffee subscription business.
Ross Jamieson and John Bradshaw came up with the idea for Vex Coffee on a drive back from Wales to Manchester, as they realised how difficult it was for people outside major cities to discover speciality coffees – without expensive kit or access to independent cafes.
“Both of us work in tech, so we’re used to thinking about user experience and accessibility,” explained Vex Coffee Co-founder, Ross Jamieson, whose day-job is Quality Team Lead at Nexer Digital.
“The coffee industry has a huge amount of choice, but for most people it’s hard to know where to start. We wanted to build something that makes discovery simple, without needing to be an expert.”
After exceeding its £2k Kickstarter target in late 2024 they launched a monthly subscription service delivering 2 speciality coffees sourced from small, independent UK roasters.
Each box is curated through blind taste-testing and designed to work for different brew methods and preferences.
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Over the last 12 months, it’s shipped thousands of boxes and featured coffee from more than 28 independent roasters.
“We’ve approached it like a digital product: listening closely to users, improving retention, and building a community around the experience rather than just selling a product,” added Vex Coffee Co-founder, John Bradshaw, who is Head of Technology at Infinian.
“Growth has been steady and organic, and demand continues to exceed our expectations.”
The pair said they still want to run the business as a side project, even though they’re now targeting 300% subscriber growth in their second year.
“About 98 million cups of coffee are drunk in the UK every day, and people increasingly care about what they’re drinking and where it comes from,” Bradshaw added.
“Our aim is to remove the friction from discovery and make it easy for people to try new things. Alongside growth, we want to increase our presence at industry events and collaborate more with creators and roasters to produce useful and interesting content.”
