BrewBike Founder: Lucas Philips
Lucas Philips ’19 came to Northwestern with the goal of starting his own business.
When he graduates in June, Philips will step full time into his work as chief growth officer for BrewBike, the startup that he co-founded as a first-year student in fall 2015 to bring to campus great, local coffee with convenience and cultural authenticity.
Philips admits that there were times when the coffee retailer nearly folded, due to maxed out credit cards and cash-flow issues — not to mention Chicago’s brutal winter weather made it a challenge to sell cold brew from a custom-built bike.
Now with two permanent locations and a mobile shop, as well as a subscription service for on-campus organizations, BrewBike has sold more than 50,000 cups of coffee — for under $4 a cup — and employs more than 40 people, including in-house coffee brewers. Philips is leading expansion of the service to other campuses in warmer climates, including the University of Texas at Austin.
“Before BrewBike, college students either had to drink bad coffee in the cafeteria or stand in long lines at Starbucks,” says Philips. “BrewBike solves that problem by bringing coffee to college campuses in the most convenient ways, every day.”
BrewBike, a resident team at Northwestern’s student innovation incubator, The Garage, secured $800,000 in seed funding last fall, and recently placed sixth at the 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition.
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