Coffee Company CEO Publishes Honest Letter About Sexual Harassment.

populace ceo letter

Hello. My name is Andrew. I am 30 years old, a white male, married with two children, a four-year-old boy and a seven-week-old girl. I am 5’10” and I use mostly Apple products.

I take vitamins every day and sometimes I work out. I am not a professional writer but I do my best with grammar. I founded a specialty coffee company in Michigan in the spring of 2010 and we still roast and serve coffee to people all over the country. I have a blessed life and I know it.

The above information is not meant to be seen as boasting. It is meant to paint a picture of who I am and what my status in life is. Although, my journey has seen its fair share of obstacles that caused me to show perseverance, grit, and humility; I am a privileged person. As if my opening statement didn’t showcase that enough.


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Over the past few years, I have really taken notice of this fact. Not that I have used it to my advantage but I am curious by nature. Those observations caused me to look at myself even closer. Even though I fall short at times, (we all do right?) I always do my best to make sure that everyone around me feels safe and secure.

I haven’t been absent for the last 12 months. I watch and read the news from time to time. I’ve heard the stories about executives from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Education systems to News organizations to Politics. Basically, every industry has seen its day.

When I heard the news about a coffee roasting company in San Francisco last week, I felt Anger, Sadness, Embarrassment, Anxiety and a whole slew of other emotions that I never felt when hearing these stories from other industries. That made me even more upset that it took something hitting me so close to home, to open my eyes. You see, that particular company was founded just two years prior to me starting mine. I looked up to them. Their brand and coffee quality was always something I admired from 2,430 miles away. I started to feel shame and guilt for ever liking them. I know I am not the only one in the coffee world that felt this way.


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Then I started to think about the victims. I started to think about the emotions that they had to endure during and after this happened. If I looked up to this company and its executives then they must have even more. The courage and strength and frankly, GUTS, that it took for them to speak up is so admirable, its hard for me to put it into words. I realized quickly that the company I had admired was just, a coffee company. The people that worked there deserved better, no doubt, but I know that each one of them will find a place in coffee if they still want to. They happen to live in an area that is filled with amazing coffee opportunities.


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Then I started to think about the victims in areas that don’t have those opportunities. If this happened there, it is most certainly happening in cities all over the country. What does someone do that is a victim in a city that doesn’t have the opportunities that San Francisco has or LA has or Seattle, Portland and NYC? The harsh reality is that even if they speak up, get “let go”, move on to another city, industry, or coffee company, we might not ever hear about it because the initial company isn’t high profile enough to write a story about.

So what is the answer? The truth is, I don’t think there is One answer. I think it is going to be a process. A process that executives and leaders in our industry are going to have to produce, execute and hold each other accountable on.


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The first step, in my opinion, is Open Communication.

I own a small company but I have always encouraged as much open dialogue as possible. I want to hear from my employees, not just about how our seasonal menu is doing or how the honey processed Costa is tasting 12 days off roast but about their lives. I want to know that they are happy with themselves and with the place they work. What I have created is a big part of their lives, not just mine, so I see it as my responsibility to make sure that it is working well for them. If they don’t feel safe enough to talk to me about what’s going well then they’ll never feel safe enough to talk about what isn’t.

The second step is Understanding.

I have never been a victim of sexual harassment. I know what the words mean but I would never say that I understand the feelings that go along with it. I think it is important to create a diverse culture of men and women within the ranks of our company. The more people we have listening, the better chance we have at being able to show compassion. We never ask people to tell their stories or make them feel vulnerable.

The third step is Relinquishing the Ego.

As a business owner and entrepreneur, you are born with a certain personality. That personality usually consists of a lot of Ego mixed with whatever other qualities you need to make your business work. Ego can make you feel invincible and powerful. This is the hazard that trips you up. Once you allow yourself to take your ego from the marketing meeting or sales meeting and you put it on display in a staff meeting, interview, or mix it with alcohol, only bad things will happen. This isn’t to say that all business owners have an out of control ego, a lot of us don’t. This Ego complex doesn’t just apply to the owners either, it can apply to General Managers, Head Roasters, CFO, etc. Anyone that has power in an organization can be subject to this.

The fourth step is Pro-Action.

Being proactive about this is paramount. Most companies don’t start out with a Sexual Harassment policy. That usually happens once they start hiring more people, have multiple locations, and have someone in charge of HR. If you are a small company and you started with an open and clear Sexual Harassment policy, then I applaud you. I operated by myself for the first 3 years in business and we didn’t eclipse more than 5 employees until about a year ago so sadly, I didn’t have one. Now that is not the case. We have a clear Sexual Harassment policy and it is displayed in our office, just as prominently as our license to do business. In our staff meetings, we have encouraged all of our employees to feel comfortable to talk with us about anything that makes them feel threatened and we have already seen it work. Sometimes sexual harassment can come from a customer, not just someone that you work with.

The point of this letter is to take the First Step, Open Communication. Each and every one of us in the coffee industry has to take responsibility. Not just the companies that have multiple locations and 50 employees, but the small roaster/cafe that have 3 on their staff too. The small operations outweigh the big operations. We need to provide a voice for them.

The steps I outlined are just the beginning. They may not be in the right order or I might even be missing something, but I can’t just sit back and wait for someone else to start the conversation.

Coffee is my life. Coffee is my passion. From this, we can be better.

Andrew Heppner is the founder and CEO of Populace Coffee, a boutique coffee company in Bay City, Michigan. 

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