GREAT article on the sale of Stumptown & Intelligentsia to Peets. I've been a Stumptown fan for at least 15 years and it has been wild watching them grow. I remember learning about them from a documentary on PBS and subsequently ordering my first bag of Hairbender Espresso blend. I ground it on my old whirly blade and pulled shots on my krups "steam toy" espresso machine.
http://legacy.sweetmarias.com/library/node/9528
PS - did anyone grab any of that 92 point Yirg @ SM's that just sold out? I put some in the cart and decided to sleep on it before buying.... dumb
I bet that in 5,10,15,20 or whatever years that guy will decide that he has done everything that he can or is interested in doing with SM's and that he wants to go on a new venture or retire. He'll realize that his best option for doing that is to sell some stake or all of SM's off to give him the money and time to do so. Then he'll realize that it's not always about a money grab, sometimes it's about the realization that you no longer have the same enthusiasm for what you are doing that you once did. That or he'll realize that he won't live forever and that the best thing that he can do for his heirs is to provide a means for them to find their own path and follow their own dreams in life, not assume that they want to continue his dream and passion. Either way, none of us live forever, and most of us don't want to do the same thing forever either. Sure, sometimes the sale of a company doesn't go the way you want it to, and the vision of the founder(s) is lost, but it's better to take a chance that it will flourish with an infusion of capital and/or enthusiasm from another party than let it die on the vine.
The analogy of a band is a good one, but his interpretation is a bit off. Bands "sell out" because they grow tired of the routine that they're in, they want a new challenge, a new way to express themselves or an opportunity to try something different. Some flourish with these changes and some fail. Sure, everyone will say that they do it for the fans (customers), and in a way, they do. They take an opportunity to rise to another challenge, and do something they haven't done before. Any real fan will appreciate that effort.
Whether your a brewer, a musician, a coffee roaster, a computer programmer, or anything else, your priorities change over time. At some point, the desire to run your operation the way you want it with nobody else to answer to shifts to be a lower priority than rising to a new challenge or getting more money.
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