Today we’d like to introduce you to Ally Walsh.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in New York, outside the City in Long Island. I started modeling in college, and after spending some time in Miami and Milan, that ultimately landed me in Los Angeles back in 2009. Modeling continued to be a great career throughout my 20s, and though Canyon Coffee has become my endeavor, I still book jobs now and then. I’m really grateful to have had that opportunity, and for all that, it’s brought to my life.
I met my partner Casey through a mutual friend in 2013. I was traveling a lot for work at that time, and he was in a band (Cayucas) that was just starting to tour a two-year album cycle. Finding ourselves in a long-distance relationship, coffee became something we bonded over. When we visited new towns for work, we’d search for great coffee and send bags home to each other to enjoy. Whenever we finally were back in LA together, we really cherished the simple act of being able to make coffee for each other.
Over time, we saw something we felt we could bring to the specialty coffee industry. We wanted to share the warmth that coffee brought to our lives, we wanted to make premium quality coffee feel more approachable, and we wanted to showcase single-origin, organic certified coffees and how great they can be.
After Casey spent a couple years in the coffee industry — first as a dishwasher, then as a barista — we launched Canyon Coffee out of our apartment in 2016. We started with a coffee subscription, selling coffee to small boutique shops (think ceramics, candles, coffee table books, etc.) and doing lots and lots of mobile pop-up events. It took us over a year until we convinced a café to serve our coffee (our friends, Honey Hi, in Echo Park!).
With no startup capital, we grew organically, little by little, through word of mouth for the first five years. Selling coffee online and wholesale to other business, it wasn’t until six years into the business (in 2022) that we opened our first coffee shop in Echo Park. A year later, we opened the doors to our own roasting facility and headquarters in DTLA. Canyon Coffee is now a team of around 30 people. We provide coffee for hundreds of businesses around North America, including cafes, restaurants, hotels, offices, and grocery stores. We have an award-winning instant coffee, recognized by LA Times, NYTimes’ Wirecutter, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit; a growing online coffee subscription; and our coffee shop has exceeded our expectations for the wonderful community that has converged in and around it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The greatest challenge was probably building the business from scratch, with no prior business experience, no investors, and no startup capital aside from a credit card. But while this looks like a disadvantage in hindsight, Casey and I didn’t see it that way. To us, we were embarking on something we cared about. We knew we had everything to learn, and that time spent learning and doing everything ourselves served as our business education. We didn’t take an income from Canyon in the beginning; it was like our side hustle — I kept modeling throughout that time, and Casey did freelance SEO.
The next big obstacle we encountered was capital. In late 2020, after growing from zero to $1M in sales without investment, we realized there was no way we’d be able to pull off our vision for a sizeable, scalable roasting facility without investment. But by that time, we had established enough of a brand and devoted following (plus the track record of profitability from the beginning) that we lucked out and were approached by an investor who was a great match for us.
These days, our challenges feel relatively fun — we’re learning how to be better operators, better managers and employers, and better contributors to our community. We hope to open a few more cafes around Los Angeles, and accomplishing that will be our next challenge. But it’s one we’re excited for both to bring what we’ve built in Echo Park to more neighborhoods around LA and to provide more opportunities for our current team.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My title with Canyon is Creative Director. My main responsibility is steering the direction of the company and ensuring that everything we do — from a ceramic mug collaborations to where we open our next coffee shop to our social media — is true to our values and vision. We’re still a small business, so on the day-to-day, both Casey and I still wear multiple hats based on whatever the need is on that day. But for the most part, my work involves overseeing our email and social media marketing, shoots, collaborations, printed media, product development, and partnerships.
The opening of our roasting facility and headquarters last October was a big step for us. Up until then, we had never had one place where our whole company (outside of the cafe team) could be together under one roof. We worked through a shifting scene of different offices, working from home, roasting at a shared roasting facility (LA Roast), and warehousing our inventory in different warehouses — from Silver Lake to Boyle Heights and finally to Downtown. Now that we have our “home,” I love being able to work and interact with all different parts of our business on a daily basis.
A few of our products I’m loving right now include:
Sagebrush — Regenerative Organic Certified; currently from the ASPRASAR co-op in Tolima, Colombia. $19, or $17.10 with a Subscription // https://canyoncoffee.co/products/sagebrush
Postcard Book — A retrospective of postcard collaborations we’ve done with artists and photographers over the last five years. $32 // https://canyoncoffee.co/products/canyon-postcard-book?_pos=1&_sid=7f02ef0f8&_ss=r
Canyon Sweatshirt — We released some new merch a few months ago, and I’ve been living in our Canyon sweatshirts. They come in cream, green and black. $88 // https://canyoncoffee.co/collections/all/products/copy-of-canyon-sweatshirt-in-cream
Canyon Instant — I’m never without our instant, especially when traveling! We’ve been so honored to have our instant called “The Best” by the likes of NYT Wirecutter, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and LA Times. $20 // https://canyoncoffee.co/collections/canyon-instant-coffee
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Over the years, there have been many women who have inspired me… to start a business and, later, how to lead and build Canyon.
When I think of mentors, though, my friend Emily Fiffer (co-founder of Botanica) stands out. She has always been so incredibly giving of her time, knowledge, and experience and is always there to offer advice and help. She’s also very humble.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://canyoncoffee.co
- Instagram: @canyoncoffee
Image Credits
Ally Walsh
Justin Chung
