Meet Sean Schiloski | Co Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sean Schiloski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
After college I jumped into the standard 9-5 office life like everyone else, and like many people, I relied heavily on coffee to get me through the day. After drinking coffee all day, I was still crashing in the afternoon and I was leaving work feeling incredibly dehydrated and drained. After talking about feeling this way late one night with my childhood friend Dan, he said he was feeling the same way. Dan’s the type of guy that’s never met a problem he can’t solve, so without skipping a beat he just asked me “you want to start our own coffee company?”. Me on the other hand, i’m the type of guy that doesn’t like to say no, so all of a sudden I was starting a coffee company with my friend.

We didn’t waste a minute and started experimenting for months. We didn’t know what we were doing or how to do it, but we knew what we wanted. The goal since day one has remained the same: We want to create a healthier coffee that doesn’t make us feel like crap while still being delicious.

For a couple years we were essentially making our hand filled bottles of cold brew mixed with coconut water for ourselves and our friends. We knew we loved it, but we weren’t exactly sure if it was something people would buy. Then one weekend we filled up 60 bottles and tried to sell them at a local Crossfit event. To our surprise, we sold out within the first hour. That car ride home was the point where we decided we were going to give this thing a go.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
When we started Loco we were just two average dudes looking for a healthier coffee that we could drink and not feel like crap after. With no experience in the food & beverage space, we really had no idea what we were doing. Although that sounds like a bad thing, i’m super proud of the fact that we truly starting this thing from the ground up.

From creating a legal business, to getting the proper certifications, to formulating and sourcing ingredients/packaging, to actually producing a beverage product. This was all done without any prior knowledge on how it all worked, and all of that was just the beginning. Once we had a product, we then had to figure out how to actually sell it. For a couple of years we were hand filling bottles overnight after we worked our full time jobs. At the time this was just an expensive hobby that we weren’t exactly making money on, but we knew if we just kept at it we could figure it out.

After a lot of trial and error we figured out that it just wasn’t very sustainable to keep filling bottles ourselves that would only last a few months in the fridge. So in 2018 we were able to get some small investments from local angel investors and family friends, and we signed a deal with a manufacturer to make our coffee in cans without the need for refrigeration. This was a game changer for us, and a milestone we needed to achieve to go all in. We finally made the leap and quit our jobs to focus on Loco full time.

As we approach 5 years since our official launch, it’s pretty wild to think back on everything that’s happened since we started. We sometimes joke about how we don’t ever reflect on what we’ve done because we’re so focused on the future and growing the business. When people talk about successful brands it’s not often talked about everything that went into it. We tend to focus on the wins and how great they are instead of how many losses it took a brand to get to that point. Those days spent in the trenches, at the lowest points, those are what makes or breaks a young brand.

Loco started from an idea laid out via text one night at 2am. We didn’t have any experience, but we had a product that we believed deeply in, and enough of a stubborn attitude to not quit.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh man, with two young kids this would be a tall order, but i’ll rally for a good friend I haven’t seen in a while.

Day 1 (Friday): First thing we’d do is grab lunch at this local pub by my warehouse. It’s exactly what you picture when you think of a pub. You walk in and see the same faces sitting at the end of the bar, and every wall is covered in Boston sports memorabilia and old Irish sayings. What you don’t expect though is that this place has the best buffalo wings around. This is where the trip will be planned.

After eating one too many wings, we’ll head home and let them digest a bit. Once we can move we’ll meet up with some buddies, probably over some beers at a local brewery. This is where we’ll discuss where to golf the following morning. I’m a terrible golfer, but I respect its ability to get a group of friends together at 9am (and how it makes it somehow acceptable to have a couple beers before 10am).

Day 2 (Saturday): Golf all day, grab food at the 19th hole, get home and fall asleep.

Day 3 (Sunday): Have coffee at the local cafe and hang out for a while. Then we’ll go home and get ready to head into Boston for the afternoon Red Sox game. After the game we’ll head over to the Seaport area and have dinner at a steakhouse. At this point we’ll probably pretty tired, but another friend will call us and tell us to meet them at a comedy club so we’ll order a post dinner espresso and meet them for the 8 o’clock show.

Day 4 (Monday): Talk about how we aren’t as young as we once were. We’ll lay low all day and at some point head to the grocery store to grab some food to grill up. We’ll have all the boys over for a little backyard barbecue and end the night with a farewell bonfire.

I’m more of a sprint guy than a marathon guy, so I think after 4 days i’ll be capped out.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
While I don’t think I have much of a unique story to tell just yet, I can certainly say I wouldn’t be who I am without the support of my grandmother (who I refer to as Nana). I grew up with my Nana living in the same house as my family so she had a strong role in raising me as a kid. It’s every grandmother’s job to tell their grandkids how special they are, but it probably hit a bit different hearing it every day.

I was the type of kid that played sports in high school, but I was also spending a lot of my time in the art department. In college I would go from a 4 hour figure drawing class down to football practice. Combining these two worlds never really made sense to people, but Nana always understood that’s who I was.

When I quit my job to take a crack at this coffee thing, I was scared shitless. My family was understandably nervous as well, but Nana wasn’t. It didn’t surprise her one bit that I was taking a different path than most people because she expected that from me. Instead of asking me how I would pay my bills or what if it fails, she was asking me what I ate that day and what I was having for dinner.

Website: www.drinklococoffee.com

Instagram: @drinkloco