Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Davidson.
Hi Dan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I used to pastor a church in Pasadena, and some local youth experiencing homelessness began hanging out on our church property. As I got to know them and tried getting them connected to local services, I discovered there was a big gap in services available to youth in this area. There were services for housing, education, mental health, transportation, but not employment preparation. I decided to do what I could to help at least these youth find employment. Our church happened to have a coffee cart with an espresso machine, so I used that to train them in barista skills. Pasadena is full of great coffee shops, so I knew these skills would set them up well to find local employment. We began making the cart and youth baristas available for hire at events so they had hands-on serving experience as well. After seeing the tangible impact of this training, we explored how to offer it on a larger, more self-sustaining scale. This led to opening our own cafe, Rosebud Coffee, back in 2017. To this day, we offer barista training and internships to local youth who have experienced homelessness, foster care, or justice system involvement.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Launching a new business requires a lot of capital upfront to sustain the business while building the customer base. I remember needing to raise more capital less than a year after opening because of how quickly it goes. We found a great location which was occupied by another business who welcomed us to share the space with them. However, they closed their business much sooner than expected. We had to quickly pivot and find another business to share the space. We were also challenged with increasing the number of youth we could train per year. We had to raise our own grant support to scale the paid internships to be able to train more youth per year.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m trained as a Methodist pastor with a Master of Divinity from Duke University. I moved to Pasadena, CA, in 2009 to plant a church. After planting the church and setting up the youth job training program inside the church, I became involved in city-wide efforts to end homelessness in Pasadena. I set up a faith-based committee to pull the faith community together to work towards the same goal of ending homelessness through more housing in partnership with the city. I then volunteered for the annual homeless count, which I’ve now been leading the coordinating efforts of for the last few years. In Pasadena, I’m most known as a pastor and social entrepreneur for Rosebud and community organizing efforts to end homelessness. Outside Pasadena, I’m involved in supporting the entrepreneur ecosystem by working with a non-profit called the Alliance for SoCal Innovation. I manage a program for them that helps underserved founders access capital by matching them with venture capitalist. This program is called the SoCal Venture Pipeline. The Alliance is an amazing non-profit helping so many innovators across all sectors of the SoCal technology ecosystem. Education-wise, I have now completed a doctoral degree from United Theological Seminary with research on how to redevelop church property for mixed use.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Yep, I’m a risk taker and often jump before looking. I moved to Pasadena after I just turned 30 to start a church. I didn’t know anyone and started from the ground up to plant the church. I didn’t have a degree or experience in business before starting Rosebud. I raised money and took a leap to open the shop, learning and adapting as I went. Both of these startups had a major impact on my personal and family life. Since then, I’ve learned a few lessons along the way, and though I’m still willing to take a risk and make the jump, I now look and pause (for a moment) before leaping.
Contact Info:
- Website: rosebudcoffee.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/rosebudcoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosebudcoffeeshop/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-davidson2021/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rosebud-coffee-pasadena
