Brandon Sardi launched Poorboy Coffee in San Francisco in February 2024 with $500, selling cold brew outside a wine bar using minimal equipment and a five-gallon bucket. After discouraging first-week sales, he posted consistently online and used catering to sc
On a cold, gray San Francisco morning in February 2024, Brandon Sardi showed up anyway. Outside a wine bar that served breakfast burritos on weekends. he ran his first cold-brew setup with bare-bones gear: a five-gallon cold-brew bucket. a Coleman cooler filled with ice. and a spot that—at least at first—didn’t draw much business.
He didn’t know if it was going to work. “I didn’t know if it was going to work or not,” he said. The first week was discouraging, and the city’s marine layer didn’t help. “It was cold and gray outside. Cold brew doesn’t really sound too enticing on days like that. so we didn’t sell a lot — maybe $90 worth the first day.”.
Poorboy Coffee has since changed shape. Two years later, it has three coffee carts, wholesale accounts, a roasting operation, brand partnerships, and a software platform for caterers. The business generates roughly $50,000 a month in revenue, according to Sardi.
Sardi, 32, insists the early days were not a clever marketing sprint. They were a slow, physical grind—then a pivot that transformed the economics.
He started with specialty coffee he could afford
Sardi became interested in specialty coffee through a friend who owned coffee shops in San Francisco. But there wasn’t enough money to open a traditional café. With student loans, credit card debt, and little savings, he said even investing $500 felt like “a bit of a risk at that stage.”
In an industry where commercial espresso machines can cost thousands of dollars, he leaned into cold brew because it was the cheapest path he could figure out. “It was the cheapest thing I could figure out to do,” he said.
His initial $500 covered coffee, cups, a cooler, a storage tote, basic bar tools, and a five-gallon brewing bucket. A friend who owned a coffee shop supplied the beans and even ground them for him because Sardi didn’t yet own a grinder. It also helped that his first pop-up location—the wine bar—agreed to let him set up shop for free.
Despite the weak opening, Sardi committed to showing up consistently. “I told myself that I wouldn’t miss a day, no matter what. If it’s pouring rain, I’m going to show up,” he said.
That discipline fed a second decision: documenting the work online.
He built an audience by posting the unglamorous reality
From the start, Sardi believed his founder story could land with people—because it wasn’t glossy. He was starting a business with little money and working restaurant shifts to pay the bills.
Encouraged by his wife, who works in social media marketing, he began documenting the journey online. He shared how many drinks he sold, what equipment he bought, and how often he felt exhausted.
“We wanted to show the non-glamorous side,” he said—“80-hour workweeks, slow sales days, mistakes, and even selling personal belongings to keep the business moving forward. ‘I wasn’t trying to fluff anything up.’”
His approach stayed tight and repeatable. He developed a strict schedule, posting three Instagram Reels each week and daily story posts, and he made an effort to respond to comments and engage with other creators.
The payoff arrived gradually. Within months, videos started gaining traction, and followers began to pour in. Poorboy’s Instagram account now has more than 65,000 followers.
But social media, he said, wasn’t the direct engine of sales. “I don’t think social media sold a lot of coffee bags.” The bigger shift came when catering requests started landing.
Catering changed the revenue math
As his audience grew, brands reached out for collaborations, potential customers discovered the business, and partnerships formed. The real inflection point arrived when companies and event organizers began contacting him about catering.
Sardi invested in a coffee cart and started bringing espresso service beyond weekend pop-ups—into offices and events including weddings, baby showers, brand activations, concerts, and festivals.
“The catering stuff really worked for me,” he said. “The economics were dramatically different.”
On a strong pop-up day, Poorboy might generate $1,000 in revenue. A catering event, by contrast, could bring in $10,000 to $15,000.
As demand grew, he purchased more carts and gradually shifted away from the pop-up model.
Today, Poorboy operates across multiple lines
Poorboy’s revenue streams include coffee catering, wholesale coffee accounts, direct-to-consumer coffee sales, paid brand partnerships, and a software platform—HopQuote—that helps service businesses automate quotes and bookings.
Sardi is also preparing to launch an online course designed to help aspiring coffee and catering entrepreneurs navigate permits, insurance requirements, and operations.
Even with the expanded business, he remains focused on where it goes next. Poorboy currently operates out of a commissary kitchen. He wants to move into a warehouse, expand the coffee-cart fleet, and potentially bring the concept to other cities.
Looking back, he said he doesn’t regret the unconventional route that started with a five-gallon bucket and a few hundred dollars. He wouldn’t do anything differently. “You need them in order to learn, progress further, and get better.”
The biggest lesson, he said, is to take the initial plunge. “At the end of the day, it’s like anything you start with. If you wanted to learn how to play hockey or golf. it’s going to take a long time to get pretty good at it. ” he said. “It’s the same thing with business. It’s going to take a long time to feel comfortable in any business, so might as well start.”.
Poorboy Coffee Brandon Sardi San Francisco cold brew coffee carts catering wholesale roasting HopQuote entrepreneurship social media marketing small business