2001
Brewing real good coffee since 2016
Sleepy Owl Coffee is as much about coffee as it is about passion and drive. If it wasnât for three young and restless souls in love with caffeine, we wouldnât be here to tell this story.
This goes way back. Imagine kids discussing business plans in a playground full of 10-year-olds. Ashwajeet and Ajai met in boarding school and hit it off instantly. A major chunk of their conversations since childhood were surrounding starting their own business someday.
2011
Going to Law School
Times changed but not Ashwajeet. He met Arman at law school, a passionate law student who wanted to be, well, a lawyer! By then the bug of entrepreneurship was planted in Ashwajeetâs head and with a little push here and a little pull there, he was able to convince Arman to join him on his endeavours.
2015
A year before the (humble) launch
College was over and everyone went their own way. UntilâAshwajeet quit his first job within three months to couchsurf with Arman, who was working in Mumbai. The deal was, if the duo came up with a business idea, Arman would quit his job.
At the same point in another time zone, Ajai graduated from college and started working as an investment banker in New York (the Big Apple dream). There, he was discovering coffee from a new perspective, understanding how different it can be from just the instant option.
The idea is planted
Once their mutual love and passion for real coffee was realised, Armanâs resignation letter was next on agenda. It was, enthusiastically, co-written with the help of Ashwajeet. It was around this time that Ajai too made up his mind to leave his highly reputed job in New York, and return to India. Once they had assembled, it was time to get down to work!
Ever wondered where the name Sleepy Owl came about? Ashwajeet says that if it wasnât for Armanâs strict deadline and initial name suggestion âRed Cherry Coffeeâ (which he absolutely hated) he wouldnât have had the epiphany which led to the brandâs oxymoronic name.
Another fun fact: Ashwajeet was sitting in a Mumbai local, travelling from Andheri to Churchgate, when the idea had hit him. And here is where he came up with the name Sleepy Owl.
All the âFirstâs
Initially, the founders contacted farmers who sent in their samples. All the brewing experiments took place in the boysâ kitchen, which became the hub of all happenings.
It was during this time that they decided to take their first work trip to Karnataka to recce coffee plantations. The foundation was laid when they cracked a deal with a plantation owner in Chikmagalur.
2016
Cold Brew on Tap becomes a thing
After coming onboard with their final plans and having left their dreamy first jobs, the three moved in together in Delhi. It was here that they launched their first product, the Brew Box. The plan was to âgo deep and not wideâ and hence, they decided to solely target Delhi.
Budget constraints & branding
Being a startup financed and managed by three young men, funds did play a huge role in decisions. This was why the first-ever branding of Sleepy Owl was done on a small budget by a freelancer.
Fun fact: Ashwajeet met the freelancer on an online community. He paid him a few dollars to build the brandâs digital identity.
Tastings and Events
Since budgets were carefully allotted to perfecting their coffee, there was no budget for organising tastings. Our founders took it upon themselves to be at every event in the city possible to promote their brand, conduct public tastings, and be on their feet whenever required.
2017
First Taste of Retail
Sleepy Owl might now be available across thousands of retail stores but it was in 2017 that they realised they could be bigger. They made entry into retail stores, and although the numbers were very few, it was a start. There was no bigger joy than seeing us on the shelves!
This is no secret that we love a good feedback. This was the reason why we sampled it in stores ourselves before we ever got anyone else to do it.
Hiring and new office space
Our A-Team soon realised that three people might not be enough to run operations by themselves. This could only mean two things for us--one, we needed to get more people onboard and second, we needed to find a proper office space.
It was time to move all the action from their little apartment and this was exciting, and terrifying all at the same time. Sleepy Owl rented their first office in Shahpur Jat and this is where our first batch of employees came in. The office was small but it was a huge start for us.
Demand increases, and not just in Delhi!
As word of mouth spread, demand for Sleepy Owl started pouring in from in and around Delhi. While expansion was not on cards so soon, the time for it had come already.
2018
It all comes down to scale
To reach our new goals we needed funding. It was our first time discussing scaling and investors and all these big business words. Suddenly it was more than just coffee. We were intimidated but determined. Once we decided on raising money, we got the renowned Singapore based venture capital firm DSG Consumer Partners to back the company. Then we were off to the races.
Sleepy Owl Decides To Go Pan-India
With one roadblock out of the way, we were back to focusing on what we truly love--getting real coffee to consumers. We started drawing up our plans for reaching households across the country.
Brew Packs are Born
The thing about shipping our only product, the Brew Boxes, across India was that it would cause a lot of logistical problems. Some of the key issues we realised early on were the shelf life and volumetric weight. We had to come up with something which was true to our identity of delivering real and convenient coffee and still easily deliverable.