Meet Troy Potts | Coffee Roaster

We had the good fortune of connecting with Troy Potts and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Troy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

I’ve had several businesses throughout my career, including a printing company and a couple restaurants. In 2006, the franchise that was associated with our restaurant closed, and cost our family the business. My wife, Melissa, and I had two small boys at the time, and to support my family, I took my first job working for someone else since graduating from the University of Georgia in 1996. I was very successful in the sales positions I occupied within the private sector, but I was just not happy in those roles.

My parents always wanted me to do better than they did in life. I assumed that meant they wanted me to make more money than they did. However, I came to realize that while making more money was gratifying, the work I was doing seemed to create more anxiety for me. I felt like something was missing. I decided I wanted to end my career providing greater value to other people, so I started thinking about what I enjoyed most that I could start a business doing and how I could make that positive impact.
Some of my earliest memories are from sitting around the breakfast table drinking coffee with my family. Each morning, I heard the percolator bubbling as my dad brewed it to go with our eggs, grits, bacon, and toast. When I ran my restaurants or worked in my sales job, I often started each day at the local coffee shop. There, I built lasting friendships with baristas and regulars and enjoyed conversations with strangers. We were brought together because we all enjoyed coffee. More than that, we appreciated the community that came from this routine.

However, we often complained that good coffee was hard to come by. My first taste of outstanding coffee was in Italy, where my wife’s family is from. I loved the sweet,nutty, rich, and robust taste of the coffees there. When I decided to become a coffee roaster, it was logical to return to that country and perfect my roasting technique. I chose to train in Florence, where I learned from master roaster Marco Cremonese in 2019. Since then, I have worked to perfect my roasts and learn the business.
Over my many daily visits to coffee shops, I heard countless stories about what mattered to people. Sometimes these conversations were about everyday experiences. Other times, they were more personal. I was astounded by the number of people who shared experiences of trauma, including myself. Because of these conversations, I decided to make it a mission of Publica to support and create initiatives that aid those who have experienced trauma. I feel like there is a lot of education and awareness we need to create in order to help make trauma not something that is taboo to talk about and when we start opening up those conversations, we understand how to respond to friends, family who confide in us about traumas that have occurred in their lives.

As evidence of our dedication, we are proud to be on our way to officially gaining B Corp certification—a label that requires us to meet the highest standards with regard to how we conduct our business and impact our employees and the community we are in.

For as long as we have been married, my wife and I have been very frugal with our personal finances. While we do not have an explicit budget, we always make sure that we are putting more money into the bank than we take out. Before opening Publica, my wife and I steadily saved in preparation for opening the business. Now we can afford to invest money in purchasing roasters, espresso machines, and the many other things that are required to open a roastery without having to take out a loan. This has allowed us to grow with greater stability and pace. Since Publica has gradually started to earn more steady revenue, with more subscriber, cafe, restaurant, and wholesale accounts, we have been able to again get on more secure footing and climb closer to putting more money into the bank.

On a more personal level, my wife and I have also always placed high value on traveling with our boys, and have been willing to save and spend money to do it. We feel that it opens your mind to see how other people live in the world and helps us stay open minded to other people’s thoughts and. In particular, we have loved visiting the Rockies, as we enjoy spending time outdoors hiking, fishing, running, and biking. In the next year, we are planning to travel overseas to visit some coffee farms to witness what all it takes to bring a bean from farm to cup.

I try to avoid risk as much as possible, but if there is a risk that I believe will pay off, I am willing to take it. As I mentioned earlier, we were forced to close the second restaurant that we owned. This failure grew my aversion to risk, but it also helped me better understand how to avoid it. This has been a driving factor behind the Publica business model at an early stage, which has been to prioritize growing our wholesale business by providing coffee to cafes, restaurants, and hospitality organizations instead of opening a cafe of our own and splitting time between growing the brand, selling to wholesalers, and running the cafe. It is a goal of ours to eventually open cafes, but the lower the risk that we can have right now, the better able we will be to continue providing great tasting coffee and building our mission.

I grew up in Macon, Georgia. My dad grew up as a dairy farmer earlier in his career and later worked as a machinist for the city’s Paper Mill, one of the largest in the U.S. His job was not easy. He’d work long shifts and often be called in to fix parts on the mill’s machines in the middle of the night. My parents also did not have the resources to pay for me to go to college, so I worked throughout college and over summers, often picking up overtime and putting in 80 hours a week. The example my dad set and my own experiences has given me strength to work long hours or deal with unexpected challenges. I can’t tell you how many small things can go wrong in starting a small business. This ability to quickly solve problems and feel comfortable spending the time doing it is critical.

We know that the taste of our coffee is the largest factor that drives the brand. I wanted to create a coffee that was not bitter nor too acidic or fruity. My goal for Publica is to create coffee that has notes of chocolate, nuts, caramel, toffee, and with light notes of darker fruits such as dark cherry, blackberry, etc. What I found since starting my business is that there are a lot of coffee drinkers out there who are looking for the same qualities in a coffee. What I have been most amazed by is the support I have received from family, friends, and new acquaintances.

We also want our brand to represent more than just the great tasting coffee we produce. Since it has been consumed, coffee has been a source of connection for people. A drink over which people got to know one another, swap stories, and build a community.. Standing for a company that puts the community first and isn’t interested in making an extra nickel or dime at every turn, but instead at making the communities that support us better places for people to live. This is also at the heart of what a B Corporation is.

Quality. My parents taught me to do my best in everything that I do, from competing in a sport to running a business.

Roasting coffee is a detailed art, where just a few different degrees or extra seconds in roasting can cause a bean to taste bitter and waste an entire batch of coffee. To consistently produce consistent and great tasting coffee, I have to pay extra close attention to these finer details, but I believe it is what sets our coffee apart. This mindset also extends beyond our and into how we set up our design, build our packaging, and attend to customer needs. As Publica continues to grow, making sure that we continue to provide the highest quality products and service will be at the top of our list.

Nailing the right work life balance is difficult for anyone to strike, especially with starting a new business. Sometimes there is work that needs to be finished and may take longer than expected or take away from time that I could otherwise spend with family and friends. Fortunately, I love what I do—talking about coffee as well as roasting the beans, tasting drinks, and thinking about how our company can make a difference related to our mission. That makes most of the extra work more enjoyable, but planning around these contingencies and setting boundaries between work and personal life is important.

We are finally at a point where we can hire more help, and recently onboarded a new roaster/Dirtector of Operations, Luis Rodas, a former chemistry teacher. Our goal is for Luis to not only help produce more coffee, but to improve and add greater stability in the processes that we use for sourcing and roasting beans—something that will be even more useful as we continue to grow.

My goal with Publica is to build a company that not only provides great tasting coffee and excellent service, but is one that makes the communities we operate in better places to live. This mission, which is very personal, extends from our work supporting those who have experienced trauma and to the selection of beans from international farms that have fair labor and environmental practices. I further want these goals to be able to continue even after I finish working, something that will take intentional planning and effort. But when I have accomplished these goals, I would consider myself successful.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We are alway excited to take our friends and family to our favorite pizza place-Antico Pizza! This is a must for people new to the city or anyone who has not eaten there. Their pizza is delicious and the atmosphere is very relaxing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate to my family-wife, Melissa, and sons Davis and Anthony. My family are the most supportive people in my life. They are my everything! Also,

Website: publicacoffee.com

Instagram: @publicacoffee

Linkedin: publicacoffee@gmail.com

Twitter: publicacoffee@gmail.com