There's a saying that starting a business is harder than it looks. I knew this intellectually before I started Earnest Pursuit. I did not appreciate this practically. There’s no substitute for experience, it turns out.
We did a friends and family soft launch in March 2026. Since then, I've been deep in the work of building a brand. A surprising amount of that work has had nothing to do with coffee.
Packaging (a saga)
I think our tins are cool. I genuinely love them. Getting them finalized, into production and shipped, has taken roughly four times longer than I anticipated.
It got bad enough that I spent real time debating, with myself, like a crazy person, whether to scrap the tins entirely and go a different route. I explored tins in a different shape that could be manufactured in America. I looked at a single standard color tin with stickers for each coffee. I seriously considered just going back to paper bags. I actually designed and ordered paper bags with stickers as a backup, in case the tins couldn't get over the line.
In the end I stuck with the tins. I'm glad I did. I've also learned more about manufacturing logistics than I ever expected to.
Photography
The current website uses 3D renders of the packaging, which are great as a placeholder but not where I want to land. Design is important to me and there's no substitute for beautiful, real photography. Once the tins arrive I'll be shooting properly. I've been researching photographers and looking for the right combination of aesthetic fit, availability, and budget, which is not always an easy combination to find.
The Cartoons
One of the things I wanted for Earnest Pursuit was a brand that's genuinely interesting. I’ve been thinking about some unique ways I could take the brand. Given the overall vibe of Earnest Pursuit, I think some custom cartoons could be cool. I researched cartoonists, found some whose work I loved, and commissioned a series of original cartoons. Some are funny observations about coffee. Some feature our brand characters. Some are about New York. None of them needed to be about coffee specifically, which was the point.
They'll live on our social media and on a page on our website, accessible via QR code on the tins. The idea is that when you finish your coffee and look at the tin, there's something there worth exploring. We'll keep adding to it over time.
Media and Social Media
I'll be honest: I did not expect to enjoy doing social media. Creating three months of Instagram and TikTok content felt like a chore before I started. Once I got over how much I hated hearing my voice over and over again, I was impressed with how intuitive the editing software turned out to be. It really doesn’t take that long to edit videos once you know what you want to say.
The more interesting thing I learned is about pace. I made an early video that was technically fine but completely flat. Watching it back I couldn't figure out why. The answer was pace. The cuts were wrong, the rhythm was off. It's the kind of thing I’ve absorbed from watching film and TV my whole life without ever consciously noticing it. Making videos teaches you to notice it.
One thing I did enjoy, however, was an interview that I did with Riley at The Coffee Realm. It was fun to talk Earnest Pursuit and coffee more generally, plus it’s always great to meet fellow coffee lovers. The Coffee Realm has their own scoring methodology, which was unique and cool. I really like the way Riley thinks about coffee. You can check out the interview here (https://thecoffeerealm.blog/2026/07/01/croptalk-vol-2-earnest-pursuit-the-pursuit-is-the-point/).
Cupping
Not everything has been a surprise. The cupping, the part that's actually about coffee and which I love, has been exactly as consuming as I expected.
I need backup components for The Match blend in case supply changes, and I'm also looking to expand the current lineup from three coffees to at least five before the end of the year. Customer feedback has made clear I need a more chocolate-forward coffee. Something less fruity, more approachable for people who aren't looking for too bright of fruit. Finding one that meets our quality standards has been harder than expected. I now have a shortlist of three or four that I think hit the mark. More on that soon.