Two Manchester-based tech workers are celebrating the first year of a coffee side hustle that has grown from a Kickstarter experiment into a fast-growing national subscription business.
Vex Coffee was founded by Ross Jamieson and John Bradshaw, who both work full-time in the tech sector and began building the company in evenings and weekends after launching a Kickstarter campaign in late 2024.
The idea was born during a drive back to Manchester from Wales, when the pair began discussing how difficult it was for people outside major cities to discover high-quality speciality coffee without specialist knowledge, expensive equipment or access to independent cafés.
“Both of us work in tech, so we’re used to thinking about user experience and accessibility,” said Jamieson.
“The coffee industry has a huge amount of choice, but for most people it’s hard to know where to start. We wanted to build something that makes discovery simple, without needing to be an expert.”
After exceeding its £2,000 Kickstarter target, the founders launched a monthly subscription service delivering two speciality coffees sourced from small, independent UK roasters. Each box is curated through blind taste-testing and designed to work for different brew methods and preferences.
Over the past year, the business has grown its subscriber base by 250%, shipped thousands of boxes, and featured coffee from more than 28 independent roasters, including Django, Dark Arts, Cartwheel and Jolly Bean. The coffees have originated from over 18 producing countries, including Ethiopia, Colombia and Guatemala.
Both founders remain in full-time tech roles and continue to run the business as a side project.
Bradshaw said: “We’ve approached it like a digital product: listening closely to users, improving retention, and building a community around the experience rather than just selling a product. Growth has been steady and organic, and demand continues to exceed our expectations.”
The company is now targeting 300% subscriber growth in its second year while maintaining a close-knit customer community and expanding partnerships with UK roasters.
“About 98 million cups of coffee are drunk in the UK every day, and people increasingly care about what they’re drinking and where it comes from,” Bradshaw added.
“Our aim is to remove the friction from discovery and make it easy for people to try new things. Alongside growth, we want to increase our presence at industry events and collaborate more with creators and roasters to produce useful and interesting content.”
Each monthly box contains two different speciality coffees selected through blind tasting. Subscribers never receive the same coffee twice, and every coffee is chosen to work as espresso or filter, whole bean or pre-ground, and caffeinated or decaffeinated.
Boxes are hand-packed by the founders and include tasting notes and scorecards designed to help customers better understand flavour profiles and brewing methods.
All coffee is roasted to order and dispatched at the start of each month to ensure freshness. Packaging is recycled and fully recyclable, and the business works exclusively with UK roasters who share its environmental values.
Alongside its core Discovery Box, the company also offers a gift subscription aimed at introducing new customers through word-of-mouth and gifting.
The Discovery Box subscription costs £23.50 per month and delivers two speciality coffees each month. Gift subscriptions are available for three or six months, priced at £69.99 and £139.98 respectively, with each box carrying a retail value of up to £35.
Each first delivery includes a branded scoop and clip designed to help customers measure coffee more accurately and keep it fresh for longer.