Max Dubiel
Co-founder, Black Sheep Coffee, on Coke, cold brew and Nicole Kidman
What was your first-ever job? Handing out leaflets for a local corner shop without parental approval. I got paid in Coca-Cola and Deutschmark, two commodities my mother did not want me corrupted by at such a young age.
What has been your worst job interview? A large strategy consulting firm trying to staff me for a finance role when I had originally applied for something entirely different (and more interesting).
What was the first music single you bought? Oasis - Wonderwall. It had been out for some time but the girl I had a crush on in middle school told me she really liked it.
How do you sell your job to your mates? I don’t: I work with them. Black Sheep Coffee was founded by three of my university friends and I.
What is the most rewarding part of your job? Working with my best mates. It makes up for the fact there is not much time for social life in the early stages of a start-up. And walking through the stockroom. It always smells like freshly roasted coffee: olfactory crack-cocaine.
What is the least rewarding? Accounting and cleaning out old fridges.
What is your motto in life? Get on with it, do it well and enjoy the ride.
If you were allowed one dream perk what would it be? No doubt: my personal auto-piloted jet-pack. Of course I would only use it when there was a signal failure on the Northern Line.
Do you have any phobias? Forgetting Mother’s Day.
If you could change one thing in the coffee world what would it be? Make the trade behind it more transparent, enabling farmers to earn what they deserve and consumers to know exactly where their beans come from.
What luxury would you have on a desert island? My Kindle filled with Patricia Highsmith’s 20 best novels. And some cold-brew coffee on ice!
What is your favourite film and why? Dead Calm by Phillip Noyce. It has everything a good film should: suspense, simplicity of plot and Nicole Kidman in a bathing suit.
What has been the most embarrassing moment in your life? Waking up after knocking myself out by running into my own door frame in university halls. I had been running late for my Tuesday morning tutorial.
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