Cat & Cloud Coffee

Overview

Cat & Cloud was founded in September 2016 by Chris Baca, Jared Truby, and Charles Jack — three Verve Coffee veterans (Truby was on Verve's founding team) who reunited after time at The French Press in Santa Barbara, HoneyCo in San Luis Obispo, and TechnoServe's East Africa Coffee Program in Ethiopia and Kenya. They turned away outside investors, ran a Kickstarter that raised $34,423 from 325 backers, and opened their flagship a five-minute walk from the original Verve cafe — explicitly designed around employee wellbeing, with 10% of retail bottom-line shared among full-time staff and four weeks paid vacation from day one.

Known for

• Three founders all ex-Verve Coffee Roasters
• Cat & Cloud Podcast
• Chris Baca — three-time United States Barista Championship finalist, Coffee Fest Latte Art Champion
• Charles Jack — ex-Wall Street, then TechnoServe East Africa coffee programs
• Profit-share and four-weeks-paid-vacation employee model

Why it matters

Cat & Cloud is a model of how to leave a famous roaster and build something distinct in the same town without compromising — Santa Cruz had Verve, and the founders' bet was that there was room for a different operation grounded in employee equity rather than scale.

Production

roastery location

Westside, Santa Cruz, CA

Café

Portola Drive (East Side), Abbott Square Market (Downtown Santa Cruz), Aptos, Westside flagship

Recognitions

• Cover of Fresh Cup Magazine
• Cover of Barista Magazine
• La Marzocco Cafe Seattle month-long residency
• Speakers at Specialty Coffee Association annual conference

Sources

• https://catandcloud.com/pages/about-us
• https://www.eventsantacruz.com/specialty-coffee-in-santa-cruz-the-story-of-cat-cloud/
• https://freshcup.com/cat-cloud-coffee/
• https://sprudge.com/inside-cat-clouds-santa-cruz-dream-cafe-110483.html
• https://magazine.coffee/blog.asp?blogcategoryid=1&blogid=6028&title=interview-jared-truby-of-cat-and-cloud