The three co-founders, Juan Manuel, Matias, and Rodrigo, met at pre-school in Bolivia and have been close friends ever since. In addition to growing up together, their families have strong ties. For example, Juan Manuel’s and Matias’ great-grandfathers owned a newspaper, and Matias and Rodrigo were neighbors growing up in Bolivia. They are now once again neighbors in DC. We went to school together in Bolivia, and Juan Manuel and Matias finished high school together in DC.

After spending a few years away for college and work, we all now live in the DC area and regularly meet for social occasions. Over the past summer, we met on Sundays during Season 7 of Game of Thrones, and in one of our gatherings, we started suggesting business ideas to work on. After considering many ideas, we thought that the issue of reducing landfill waste disposed of coffee grounds had the greatest business potential and that it would be a worthy cause to pursue. So, in July 2017, Coffeffe was established.

The idea arose when Rodrigo and Matias remembered back in the days when they worked at Starbuck’s Coffee together as teenagers. The huge amount of coffee thrown away in the trash daily made a lasting impression on them. Our mission is to recycle used coffee grounds into innovative products to reduce unnecessary landfill waste.