Waukesha | Founded: 2018
Employees: 4 full time, 3-4 contractors | Funding raised: $1 million
getoctanecoffee.com
Octane Coffee designs, builds, launches and supports fully automated drive-thru coffee locations. In 2023, the company opened its first location at W229 N1400 Westwood Drive in Pewaukee. Octane uses robotics to process orders and serve customers in less than 30 seconds.
What was the point where you knew you would launch Octane Coffee and what was the biggest hesitancy or concern you needed to overcome?
Adrian Deasy, founder and CEO: “Being a classically trained mechanical engineer, we’re very risk averse and tend to overanalyze things. I had the benefit of someone who believed in me and was willing to put the first money into the company to get me started. I will be forever grateful to Dan Voell for his vision and leap of faith that has developed into Octane Coffee.”
What’s been your mindset when overcoming setbacks?
“My first boss out of college would constantly say, ‘If it was easy, everybody would do it.’ I enjoy being challenged and thrive in that type of environment. I’m very motivated when I hear, ‘You can’t do that,’ I will kick the door off the hinges to get where I want to go.”
What’s the number one thing needed to sustain a culture of innovation and growth?
“Small companies need to be continually evolving and working on bigger and bigger solutions over time. We are very careful with the culture, people and relationships that we develop at Octane Coffee. The underlying thing that brings us all together is our belief that ‘tomorrow is going to be better than today’ and that tackling big hairy audacious goals like ours are inevitable with the right team and timelines.”
What could local, regional or state leaders do to better support startups and innovative companies?
“We’ve had our share of regulatory-, government- and short mindedness-related hurdles over our years of development. Launching a food tech business like ours is inherently difficult because we’re not as free (compared to pure software companies) to ‘move fast and break things,’ we are constantly trying to innovate but still fit into existing thought frameworks in order to get things approved, certified and launched to the public. We wish regulators and governmental agencies were less interested in CYA’s and more free to assist us to actually innovate; they want to help, but they’re always worried about taking risks and sticking their neck out for something new.”
