18 year old and no experience in business? Mika Leetong did it, anyway.
At the heart of Quezon City and Bacoor, there sits a café serving customers their perfect brew, built from a young mind that took a chance on herself. Mika Leetong is a 20-year-old pre-med student that began an online venture in syrups and sauces until it grew slowly into a coffee franchise. MEGA talks to this Gen Z Café Owner about her great idea and the perfect blend needed to make it happen.
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From online to mobile cart to…?
It’s a well-known fact Filipinos are big on coffee, and we’re always in pursuit of that one beverage to fuel our hectic mornings and busy work or school schedules ahead. So in the onslaught of the pandemic, Mika saw an opportunity to learn and recreate her favorite coffee shop at home. “I started with syrups and sauces,” she tells MEGA. “I was teaching people online how to create their own coffee with these syrups and sauces.”
Initially, it was just that, but then Mika took to her first bazaar and began interacting with customers real-time. What’s ironic is that her selling point is the complete opposite of what she’s doing today: “If you like coffee, you’ll like our syrups.”
However, when the young entrepreneur saw a change in how the customers responded to her recipes, she built her mobile cart and brought her coffee to the consumers.
“I did not have the budget for a store,” Mika tells MEGA. “Nor did I imagine I would be a café owner. So we started with a table and tablecloths and went around schools—Benilde, Taft, Enderun, we even went to Pampanga and Clark. We sold over 1,000 coffees.”
To Brew&Co MNL
In four months, Brew&Co MNL already has two physical store branches in Quezon City and Bacoor and other franchises in Mandaluyong, Batangas, and Cavite. Not only is she serving your perfect morning beverage, but Mika is also very firm with her advocacy in eliminating plastic waste—her enterprise serves their takeout coffees in mason jars. “Using plastic cups would be so much easier,” Mika shares. “But I don’t trade my mason jars for anything else—even if they’re hard to pack and hard to transport to our branches and franchises because of their fragility. The profit, of course, is also smaller with jars, but at the end of the day, it’s something I will never regret for the business. The difference we’re making gets bigger and bigger the more we open additional branches and more plastic waste is being eliminated.”
I’m a young entrepreneur, of course—
Of course no one believed in her. Everyone told Mika she was too young to do this, and she really only had the trust in herself and her passion to continue. “Working with suppliers was hard,” Mika admits. “They’d change the price or tell me it wasn’t available, but I feel like I just got used to it. I really wanted to share my recipes more than the profit. And I doubted myself, honestly. I didn’t know where I was going. It was pure heart.”
Everything created with love and good intentions is bound to swim against the tides. People began taking her and her business seriously when Brew&Co MNL flourished. When asked what kept her going, Mika credits that to her supporters online. “I post a lot of it [the journey] on the internet,” the CEO shares. “And whenever I see comments like, ‘You are so inspiring!’ and ‘I want to open up my own café,’ I realize that I can inspire other people and motivate them to take that leap. I’m a pre-med student with no business background and I never envisioned myself in the business world. But I set an example that age doesn’t matter. Where you come from doesn’t matter.”
Mika applies this as well to her own employees and staff, who she personally trains with day to day operations. She tells MEGA that what is important to her is not age, or barista training certification, or a degree, but the willingness to learn. “It really doesn’t matter. I can always teach you,” Mika says.
Hit the ground runnin and keep running
There are coffee shops everywhere, so what makes Brew&Co MNL different? “Staying relevant is hard,” the CEO admits. “In this day and age, being relevant today doesn’t mean you’re relevant tomorrow. Our generation has a short attention span, so I try to innovate, keep up with trends, and always solve a problem.”
In Mika’s café, aside from the mason jars you get, the drinks are also fully customizable. Tell them what you want and voila, here’s your caffeine fix for your busy and productive day ahead. This is perfect for the generation that has very acquired tastes and preferences. “You can tell us exactly what you want, what types of syrups and sauces you like, because that’s what we are and where we started—a unique experience,” Mika says.
For someone like Mika who is still growing her business, seizing every opportunity doesn’t mean the fear of failing is lost, but that the courage taken, even with uncertainties involved, can open new doors. Now, when asked what her favorite part about being a café owner is, she answers, “When the dream turns to reality. The visions I had were only in my own head, but seeing it now, it’s a whole different feeling. I only spoke with my customers online before, but when I see them lining up and waiting for their drink, it’s different. It’s scary and so fun at the same time.”
If you were looking for a sign to take that leap, no matter how young you are, Mika’s advice? Just do it.
“People will judge you anyway. And they won’t believe you at first. But if that’s really what your heart desires and you’re not stepping on anyone, just do it.”
Mika Leetong
So if you’re ever having doubts, take a page out of Mika’s guide for newbies in business: do it, anyway. The road might take you to a thriving café with multiple franchises.
Photos and Featured Image: BREWANDCO.MNL, IAMMSLEETONG (Via Instagram)
