How to turn a side hustle into a full-time business

Curiosity about the contents of coffee pods led two Melbourne brothers to a new career – and a thriving ecommerce venture.

The pod Rashid Roumani was turning over in his hand that day at work held the seed of a brilliant idea. A recent convert to an athome machine and coffee capsules – convenient and much cheaper than the barista-made takeaways he’d order several times a day – Rashid is also a Melbourne coffee connoisseur and the flavour of the pods just didn’t cut it for him. So he and brother Ammar swung into action. Despite having no experience in the food industry, they ordered some empty pods and their favourite Melbourne-roasted beans and began experimenting. “We had roasters create some bespoke coffee blends for us, specifically designed for pods,” says Rashid. “We found out you can’t just put any coffee in a pod.” With their first bunch of blends sealed in, Pod Co. was born in 2014 and the brothers would pack orders and drop parcels off at the post office before work each morning. By 2019, they’d left their day jobs to focus on Pod Co. full-time. They also moved away from manual parcel lodgements and onto MyPost Business. “It was really quick and easy for us to manage our shipping,” says Rashid. “It was tailored to the startup situation we were in. The more we sold, the more we saved1 on postage – it was really cool to keep moving up the savings bands.” Sales increased rapidly and, in 2019, they moved to Australia Post’s eParcel solution, which is aimed at businesses shipping more than 2000 parcels a year. They still use MyPost Business for international sales, mainly to New Zealand, but they also have their eyes on the Asian market. “It’s growing organically,” says Ammar. While specialty food and liquor retailers represent the country’s smallest e-tail sector, according to Australia Post’s Inside Australian Online Shopping ecommerce update (April 2021), the category saw 77 per cent year-on-year growth from 2020 – the highest of any category. That makes pure-play ecommerce business Pod Co. a true caffeine hit.