Roast, Brew & Sip: 101 Guide on How to Start Your Coffee Brand With Beanly

Coffee in India is no longer just a wake-up drink—it’s becoming a culture. From bustling cafés to sleek home-brewing kits, the rise of speciality coffee has opened the floodgates for passionate entrepreneurs. Riding this wave is Beanly, a brand that set out to make café-quality coffee accessible, fresh, and fun. But what does it really take to build a coffee brand in today’s competitive market? Co-founders Samayesh Khanna and Rahul Jain share their journey, insights, and lessons on how to brew not just a great cup, but also a thriving business.

“India is in the middle of a coffee moment. What used to be an occasional café treat is now part of people’s daily routines, at home, at work, and on the go. With Beanly, we wanted to make café-quality coffee accessible through simple formats like pour-overs and dip bags. The market is opening fast, young audiences are paying for premium, e-commerce is driving discovery, and global exposure is shaping palates”, opines Samayesh Khanna, Co-Founder of Beanly. 

What kind of mindset or personality traits help in building a coffee brand? 

According to Rahul Jain, one needs to possess these qualities to start their own entrepreneurial journey:

• Curiosity
• Resilience
• Patience
• Long-term thinking
• And lastly, genuine love for coffee

Along with these life-changing virtues, Samayesh Khanna underwent training with the Coffee Board of India, which helped him strengthen his knowledge about coffee. Additionally, it also boosted his confidence to experiment with innovations like nitro cold brew and matcha lattes while maintaining consistent quality. The key is to understand what the customers demand and how you, as a brand, can cater to these needs.

How Can One Scale Their Business

“Coffee can be incredibly scalable when it’s built on the right fundamentals”, Khanna believes.  Here are a few things that Beanly touched upon, which helped them to scale their business:

• At-home formats like pour-overs
• Dip bags
• Instant coffee
• Innovations like Beanly Dibs and café specials, such as the Strawberry Cheesecake Iced Latte, allowed the brand to scale during the early stages. 

For beginners, scalability doesn’t mean starting big; it means starting smart. Test ideas through smaller experiments, like:

• Home-brewing kits
• Pop-ups
• Curated café menus
• Scale once you’ve built consistency in flavour
• Operational efficiency
• Deep understanding of your customer

Unique Selling Proposition:

• Start by understanding both your product and your audience
• Experiment with your coffee flavours
• Understand the market and think about how you can contribute to the growing coffee culture with your unique creations 
• Lastly, a strong USP begins with clarity—knowing what you want your coffee to stand for. 

The key is to build on an insight that feels authentic and can be consistently delivered while also leaving room to evolve with changing tastes and trends. 

What’s the best way to identify and lock in your target niche — premium, mass, or lifestyle? 

• Start by evaluating your product, capabilities, and audience
• Market research
• Watching consumer behaviour
• Preferences
• Gaps in current offerings

Once the niche is identified, every touchpoint—product quality, packaging, café ambience, and social engagement—must reinforce that positioning. 

What are the essential setup requirements:

Essential equipment depends on your model:

• Grinders
• Brewers
• Espresso machines for cafés
• Sealing or roasting machines for packaged products
• High-quality, consistently sourced beans are non-negotiable
• Ingredients for speciality drinks like matcha lattes or seasonal beverages must be top-notch
• Packaging should preserve freshness and reflect the brand identity
• Regulatory compliance is key, including FSSAI registration, trade licenses, and state-specific approval
• Starting small with scalable operations helps test the market efficiently while maintaining quality

As you’re just starting in this rapidly growing industry, every beginner begins by building relationships with trusted suppliers and understanding the different origins, varieties, and processing methods. Establishing clear standards from the start ensures every cup from our cafés or home-brewing kits meets our quality benchmark. 

What’s the minimum investment needed to launch, and what additional costs should one prepare for? 

Investment depends on scale, but quality should always come first. Key areas include:

• Product development
• Sourcing premium beans
• Packaging
• Creating distribution channels
• Marketing
• Operational regulatory costs should also be planned
• Even modest investments can establish a scalable brand if priorities are clear, such as testing seasonal drinks like matcha lattes or limited-edition cold brews to gauge demand before scaling. 

“Founders should calculate production, packaging, and operational costs, benchmark against competitors, and communicate value clearly, whether it’s flavour, convenience, or experience, without undercutting themselves. Transparency builds trust with customers”, suggests Rahul Jain to all the budding entrepreneurs and coffee connoisseurs out there who plan on building their own brand. 

What common mistakes should new entrepreneurs avoid while positioning their brand in the market? 

• Trying to appeal to everyone
• Underestimating quality
• Overextending too quickly
• Neglecting the brand story
• Success comes from clear differentiation, consistent delivery, and thoughtful communication across every touchpoint—from product quality to customer experience
• Observing trends and integrating them selectively—like oat milk, cold brew, or matcha—can help brands stand out without diluting identity. 

Additionally, Local Samosa also touched upon the most effective medium for those who are just starting out in the coffee industry. Here are a few pointers from Jain that might help:

• Choose channels that balance reach, control, and customer experience
• D2C allows direct relationships and customer insights
• Marketplaces are good for discovery and scale, while offline stores or cafés provide visibility and experiential engagement

The co-founder expresses, “At Beanly, we use a mix: our cafés, online kits, and pop-ups help us test offerings like cold brews and matcha drinks while gathering real-time feedback. Starting small and scaling thoughtfully works best.”

How can a new coffee brand build early visibility and credibility with customers? 

• Deliver high-quality products
• Create meaningful experiences
• Don’t keep your focus just on coffee, but also let the coffee speak for itself
• Early visibility comes from letting people experience the brand first-hand—like tasting limited-edition matcha lattes or seasonal cold brews
• When customers taste and connect with the product directly, credibility builds naturally
• Consistent messaging and attention to detail build trust and recognition. 

What kind of marketing content resonates best with coffee drinkers today?

• Content that’s authentic, fun, and engaging works best
• Create playful, trend-inspired content that brings coffee to life, making it approachable and exciting for everyone
• Visual storytelling helps connect with consumers, showcase our creativity

What are some budget-friendly marketing tactics for a new brand in this space? 

Meaningful engagement often works better than big campaigns. Here are a few points to note:  

• Social media is key— share glimpses of our brewing process, limited-edition launches, and the stories behind the beans.
• Collaborations help amplify reach on a budget; for example, Beanly has co-branded events with Gully Labs or community initiatives like run clubs with Bhag Run, introducing the coffee to new audiences while keeping costs lean.
• Focus on creating memorable experiences through pop-ups, tastings, book clubs, and other interactive formats, encouraging user-generated content and organic word-of-mouth.
•  The priority is always consistency, authenticity, and crafting touchpoints that make people feel part of the brand’s journey

In 2025, a brand is no longer just known for its product. Today’s conscious consumers focus on many factors like brand story, brand identity, the USP and most importantly- the packaging! Apparently, the book is judged by its cover, and great packaging goes a long way. Check out these suggestions by the co-founders that every entrepreneur should know: 

• Packaging preserves freshness while reflecting the brand personality
• Storytelling—about sourcing, brewing, and the people behind the coffee—creates emotional connection
• Community-building through social media, events, collaborations, and seasonal tasting experiences like matcha or cold brew fosters loyalty and trust

Together, these elements make every interaction meaningful. 

Mistakes and Challenges:

Here are a few mistakes to avoid: 

• Mistakes include trying to appeal to everyone, underestimating quality, overextending, or neglecting the brand story
• Prevent them by staying focused, prioritising product excellence, building systems for consistency, and engaging with customers
• Testing small batches—like limited cold brew runs or matcha drinks and iterating based on feedback helps avoid costly missteps.

Challenges:

• Sourcing consistently high-quality beans
• Managing operational efficiency
• Maintaining a standout customer experience
• Navigating fluctuating raw material costs
• Keeping pace with evolving consumer tastes.

Khanna firmly believes, “One should  tackle these challenges by focusing on a clear target audience, establishing rigorous quality-control processes, testing ideas at a small scale, and listening closely to customer feedback.” He further adds, “Patience, adaptability, and consistent excellence are key, whether it’s introducing matcha drinks, experimenting with soft tops, or rolling out new cold-brew formats. Each step helps us refine the experience and strengthen Beanly’s position as a top-of-mind coffee brand”. 

What are the areas where new entrepreneurs often overspend on unnecessarily?

As per Rahul Jain, these key points help you lead the brand the right way. Overspending often happens when:

• On validating demand
• Marketing campaigns without clear ROI
• Excess inventory
• Café interiors before, or equipment beyond immediate need
• Premium packaging that doesn’t align with the target audience
• Hiring too many staff too early
• Investing in multiple outlets before testing the product-market fit.

Jain advises, “At Beanly, we focused first on essentials: high-quality coffee, functional packaging, efficient operations, and strategic marketing. For example, experimenting with seasonal offerings like matcha lattes, nitro cold brew, or limited-edition drinks helped us manage costs and refine our product offerings before committing to larger investments. 

At what stage should a founder think about scaling up bulk orders, team expansion, or retail partnerships? 

• Scaling should come only once the core business is solid
• When the product truly resonates
• Operations run smoothly
• Supply chain is reliable