Short Summary
Hey there, we are Luke Bentley and Lance Linderman founders of Driftwood Coffee Co. We want to THANK YOU so much for visiting our IndieGoGo page and for supporting us. Here is our story and what we are all about!
We love everything coffee, the unique brewing methods, different tastes, relaxing or working hard in our favorite coffee shops, but most importantly the way that coffee brings us together. This is why we want to start Driftwood and we believe there is a unique opportunity to do this in Old Town Peoria. Our desire is to bring the craft style coffee that so many of you enjoy downtown to the west-side. Peoria is our home, it's our roots and yours too! How awesome would it be to have a place on the west side that we can all be proud of and call our own, a place we can all use to create and dream? The void for quality craft coffee is real in Peoria and we want to help fill that. Downtown Peoria is an old community with good architecture and is just waiting for someone to do something different. With your help we can easily make this happen and we want you to be involved. This is why we are doing this campaign. Thank you again for considering to be apart of this, we promise every cup will be worth it!
What We Need & What You Get
As you can imagine opening a coffee shop is no easy task, especially financially. We are in a unique position because we will be renting a space from Axiom Venue which plans to house everything from a coffee shop (US!) to local and national touring acts, business conferences and a church that will gather there on Sundays. Having this wide variety of people coming through and a building to call home puts us in a great starting position. However there is still a lot to be done, like building out the space to fit who we are, equipping it with commercial grade equipment, securing an architect, start up product, a website, licensing and so much more. Driftwood wants to be a place that you can meet your friends or coworkers at, see local art and musicians, and most of all deliver a quality cup of coffee that feeds your addiction. In order to do this we need 25,000 dollars. This might seem like a lot however this is just over half of the money we need to be fully operational and just enough to begin. If you look at the brief summary below you can see our desired outcome is $45,000. The money you give will go straight to the shop, with it we will buy things like tables, espresso machines, lights, and comfy seats that don’t hurt your butt after 15 min of sitting in. If you look at the donation packaging options you will see some really cool stuff too! We are offering things like Cold Brew, t-shirts, Driftwood koozies, and even original artwork by our good friend D. Roy Brubaker! For donating you will also receive an invitation to our soft opening party!! We believe that it is in our best interest to engage you the community and ask for your help. If you believe in Old Town Peoria and the potential it has to bring will you consider helping us?
The Impact
Your contribution is so valuable to us and will help us get in the building faster. Not only do you get the sweet packages we have prepared but you also get to know that you helped us accomplish something that is so necessary for Peoria. Think about the conversations you’ve had with your friends over a cup of coffee. I know for us there have been amazing positive conversations and even terribly awkward breakups that have happened over a cup of delicious coffee. At Driftwood we would love to be a part of those stories.
We know we are new to the coffee shop ownership world but we have help. Our main source of wisdom comes from Kris Robison who is our primary consultant and has a vast amount of experience and knowledge in this field having managed and consulted some of the best Cartel, Jobots & Morning Moonshine. Christoph Kaiser our architect has designed Changing Hands at the Newton, Welcome Diner and much more. Lance has ran his own design and print company for many years and with great success. Although Luke has never run a business he has worked in the coffee industry for years and has successfully campaigned a T-shirt Kickstarter company. We are all in, and we want you to be a part of the history of Driftwood.
Risks & Challenges
Owning any business is a huge risk. Yet there is a great amount of reward that can come with it. Although we are new to this kind of business model and scale, we know we have outside support who have talented gifts that we can utilize. One risk is the area we are preparing to move into. It is mostly abandoned and it’s a part of town that has been forgotten by most entrepreneurs. Our goal is to bring life into this area but that can only happen if people are willing to venture down and see us. There has been a huge support already, and we aren’t the first business to go into this area. There is a new distillery down there called Lucidis, and we will be right next to the Peoria government buildings. With a strong marketing campaign and a little help from our friends we will be able to make the business profitable. Another challenge we face is the finances of this operation. We don’t personally have the full amount to invest into this operation on our own, but we have invested a lot of time and are working hard to find ways to come up with more. As silly as it sounds we have done things like sell our apple watches just so we can pay for the expenses that come with even starting a business and hiring a consultant. Anything short of our goal we will have to seek through other means via a business loan or through personal investors.
Other Ways You Can Help
Money isn’t the only way you can help, but every dollar is helpful! Even sharing our project with your friends can increase awareness so that others can know about our desire for a craft coffee shop in Peoria. There are sharing tools on our page so every post to Facebook or Instagram means A LOT! We hope you are just as excited as we are to be open and we are always humbled by our friends and family’s generosity. THANKS!
Here is a preview of some of the items in our packages!!!
![]()
![]()
