Steve Benitez is the Founder and CEO of Bo’s Coffee, the first and largest chain of coffeehouses in the Philippines. Since its inception in 1996, Bo’s Coffee has grown to over 100 stores, gradually expanding nationwide, with branches in Qatar and Dubai.
Steve is a former president and an active member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Philippines, holds a degree in economics, and studied business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wharton School of Business.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- What inspired the name of Steve Benitez’s chain of coffee retail stores?
- The motivation behind Steve’s business, Bo’s Coffee
- Why purchase Bo’s Coffee products?
- Steve discusses team training
- Steve’s heartwarming story about the journey of Bo’s Coffee
In this episode…
When you think of the Philippines, coffee and this South Asian region are generally not synonymous. So what influenced Steve Benitez to open a coffee shop there?
Listen to this Inspired Insider Podcast episode with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Steve Benitez, Founder and CEO of Bo’s Coffee, to discuss the journey that led to his chain of coffee shops in the Philippines, the methodology behind the stores’ team training, his moving story about building a business from grassroots, and more.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Sponsor for this episode
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Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran 0:21
Hey everybody, this is John Corcoran with Dr. Jeremy Weisz and this episode is a little bit different. This is a live interview that we recorded at the Global Leadership Conference from Entrepreneurs’ Organization, where some of the best entrepreneurs from around the globe gathered in Washington, DC, to share ideas and to learn about entrepreneurship. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25, where we help b2b businesses to give to and to connect to their dream 100 relationships and partnerships, helping you to run a podcast so that it generates a referral pipeline and ROI.
Jeremy Weisz 0:56
Yeah, I mean, John, after both of us have been podcasting for over a decade, the number one thing in our life is relationships. And we’re always looking at ways to give to our best relationships. And we found no better way to do that over the past decade than to profile the people in companies we admire and shout from the rooftops what they’re working on. And this interview is no different. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should go to Rise25.com to learn more or email us at [email protected].
John Corcoran 1:23
Thanks, everyone. Enjoy the interview.
Jeremy Weisz 1:25
Enjoy.
Jeremy Weisz, here. We’re live from EO Global Leadership Summit and this is brought to you by Rise25. I’m here with Steve and Steve, tell people about your company and what you do.
Steve Benitez 1:52
Jeremy, thank you. My name is Steve Benitez. I am from EO Philippines. And my business is in coffee retail. I operate the chain of coffee shops back home.
Jeremy Weisz 2:04
Where the idea come from?
Steve Benitez 2:05
Came from my travels abroad back in the 90s. When I always found myself in coffee shops. I enjoyed the whole experience. And when one day when I was on my way back home, my friend said why don’t you bring this experience and share it with your community? It’s it’s something I really look forward to when I travel. And so that gave me an aha moment. And they said, Yeah, why not? And so I did.
Jeremy Weisz 2:30
How’d you name the company?
Steve Benitez 2:32
I was inspired by a coffee roaster. I met in one of those expos I attended. So he was he was very passionate. He was very…
He was very engaging with me. He had no judgment. He just dove straight into sharing his passion with me about coffee just at the time when I was kind of like discouraged. Right? Because I was a startup time. And he just inspired me. So two years into my business. I changed the name to Bo’s.
Bo’s Coffee. His name was Bo.
Jeremy Weisz 3:11
What are some of the popular products?
Steve Benitez 3:13
So my coffee chain, it highlights Philippine coffee. That’s how we differentiate ourselves from the international brands. So I think that’s how that’s that’s our highlighted product. Philippine coffee. Philippines is a coffee producing country. We produce all four varieties. And so we’re very proud of it. And I’m trying to highlight that and showcase it. So I can bring it into into mainstream elevate Philippine coffee to the global stage.
Jeremy Weisz 3:44
At this point, you’ve grown a chain right now. So as of right now, where can people find it? How many are there out there?
Steve Benitez 3:52
So we have around over 100 stores. And you can find that, oh, you can find it all over the Philippines and just in Qatar, and this year, we opened in Dubai. And so that’s where our next growth areas would be.
Jeremy Weisz 4:11
Steve to grow to that level. A 100 stores. Tell people about some of the training, you know, because there’s a lot of staff involved. Real people, these are locations; people aren’t just buying a bag of coffee beans online; people are coming in for an experience. So I love your perspective on what do you do for training for the staff and for people work there?
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