Mark Divine speaks with Jimmy, Jake, and Jordan DeCicco, founders of Super Coffee. Today, Mark Divine speaks with Jimmy, Jake, and Jordan DeCicco, founders of the healthy coffee brand, Super Coffee. All under the age of 30, these young entrepreneurs began their business in a dorm room, and now lead a company valued at over $500 million.

The DeCicco brothers share how their fiercely competitive upbringing instilled in them drive, passion, and grit that first helped them succeed in football and basketball, then carried over into the world of entrepreneurship.

“The lessons learned as athletes empower us to do what we do on a daily basis in terms of overcoming obstacles.”

Key Takeaways:

Surround yourself with the best possible people who have experience and knowledge. The strength of a team is only as good as its people and the brothers never were shy about reaching out to the best of the best.

They took this philosophy to finding the best mentors as well. Seth Goldman, the founder of Honest Tea, had a similar mission to the brothers (to provide an alternative to unhealthy, sugar-laden beverages.)

They sought him out, pitched their business and he proved to be a valuable mentor, who also graciously extended his network to the start up. If you want to start a business, look for a problem to solve. For the DeCicco brothers, the problem was that there were no healthy coffee or energy drinks available on campus.

As athletes, they were downing protein regularly and coffee regularly, so it made sense to combine the two. There’s no silver bullet. You’ve just got to hustle.The DeCicco brothers were pushed hard to win at a young age, by their competitive, athletic parents, and by each other.

They developed a strong work ethic, understood the value of teamwork and the value of family. They attribute their success mostly to their parents and what they taught them and the values they instilled in them. Businesses need a strong culture and set of defined values to succeed in today’s world.

The great resignation is proving that employees are fed up with poor leadership and working for companies that don’t value them. The DeCicco brothers have implemented a value system called C.O.A.C.H. (Curiosity, Optimism, Ambition, Compassion, Humility.)

These values help create a positive culture that values and rewards employees for embodying these values.

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