From Beans to Brew – The Utica Coffee Roasting Story with Frank Elias Rust Belt Startup

This is a special episode of Rust Belt Startup because it was taped in front of a live audience this past July at MVCC’s thINCubator. This event was a partnership with The Rising Tide Society of Utica and featured a fireside chat with the founder of Utica Coffee Roasting Company, Frank Elias.

It’s a conversation that focuses on not only the origin story of the company, but how they've experienced growth. We spend a lot of time talking about building a culture and cultivating talent within your network and within your region - instead of importing that talent.

How do you create a culture where people want to be a part of the business and gve them opportunities for growth? We spend a lot of time here but also as UCR has expanded they now do a ton of their business online.

We get into that strategy and using partners like Shopify and Amazon and the pros and cons of each as it comes to online retail and distribution. So hope you find this conversation interesting and thanks to everyone that came out to this first fireside chat.

This event was also filmed and you can watch the conversation in its entirety on YouTube.















Rust Belt Startup · From Beans to Brew - The Utica Coffee Roasting Co. Story with Frank Elias