- Marc Farrell became Starbucks’ youngest vice president at the age of 33.
- Farrell, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, calls his three years at Starbucks a “finishing school.”
- He left to launch his rum brand, Ten To One, which counts Howard Schultz as an investor.
Captain Jack Sparrow, slushy spring break cocktails, and nasty hangovers. If that’s what comes to mind when you think about rum, then Marc-Kwesi Farrell is on a mission to change that.
Farrell, 43, is the founder of Ten To One, a rum brand he launched in late 2018 that is available in nearly 5,000 establishments, making it one of the fastest-growing premium rum brands in the US. The three rums in the range cost between $33 and $65 a bottle online.
But Farrell, whose passion for rum is inspired by his Caribbean roots, said the brand’s success is fueled in part by time working in the corporate world at Starbucks.
He became its youngest vice president at the age of 33, working on e-commerce and retail and beverage innovation, after “serendipitously” meeting former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
“I wasn’t trying to move to Seattle,” Farrell says. “I was in the market for a job, but certainly not at Starbucks.”
But Schultz, who is an investor in Ten To One, took a shining to the Harvard Business School MBA graduate.
Despite having “25,000 coffee shops at that point,” Farrell says Schultz still had an “entrepreneurial hunger.”
On the surface, a global coffee giant, and an up-and-coming rum brand don’t seem to have much in common.
Still, Starbucks was the “finishing school” Farrell needed to launch his own business and teach him the following business lessons.
1. Having a clear purpose
What struck Farrell the most from his early encounter with Schultz was his “very clear sense of purpose,” which influenced his decision to pursue a rum business.
“Where Starbucks was helpful was in kind of focusing a little bit of that purpose,” Farrell says.
Growing up, he said rum, a spirit that originated in the Caribbean, was part of the fabric of everyday life and a constant at all types of gatherings — from carnival to casual hangouts with friends, which locals in Trinidad call “liming.”
Farrell says part of Ten To One’s success is that the brand has a clear intention: reshaping consumers’ perception of rum.
“The way that rum is brought to life, the way it’s articulated, the way it’s represented, typically doesn’t bear much resemblance to what I know and love,” he explains. “This is as much a love letter to my culture as it is a purely realistic capitalistic endeavor.”
2. Mastering storytelling
To launch a successful business, you need to be able to communicate “your ‘why,'” Farrell says.
He recognized this skill in Schultz, whom he calls “an incredible storyteller.”
Ten To One has found success because Farrell says he can effectively relate its story: “No one could tell you the Ten To One story better than me because it’s my story; it’s my perspective.”
Once you can effectively tell your brand’s story, he says the next challenge is telling it again and again: “If you’re not willing to tell that story 10 million times, then actually don’t do it.”
Being a brand “evangelist” is how Farrell says he attracted investors, including the performer Ciara (a co-owner), and collaborations with other businesses such as Cote, a Michelin-starred Korean barbecue restaurant founded in New York City .
3. Don’t wait until the product is perfect
At Starbucks, Farrell was he was very well paid and great colleagues and mentors.
“There’s a lot of that that feels comfortable,” he adds. “But at some point, you just decide that the call of doing something else is impossible to ignore.”
Farrell says taking a leap into the unknown rather than biding his time at Starbucks was key.
“People sometimes wait until the idea is quote unquote, fully baked and fully formed before they’re willing to share it.” However, Farrell believes “the sooner you can share” a business idea, the better.
The feedback he got from sharing his idea for Ten To One in the early days helped shape and progress his idea.
It was also the “easiest and most effective way” to get others on board, he adds. “That’s how you get introduced to new investors. That’s how you will refine the pitch, pick up what resonates and what doesn’t.”
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