Unlock E-Com CX Insights - Join Our Slack Community of Leaders Driving Real Growth.
Join Now
1. Prioritize Customer Relationships: Mesh’s approach to scaling focuses on building deep, emotional connections with customers by delivering exceptional experiences one person at a time, believing that strong relationships should be valued over monetary exchange.
2. Diversify Marketing Strategies: Marketing efforts – including prestigious awards, endorsements from industry leaders, and social media – have helped build Cumulus’s brand identity. Above all, Mesh says the transformative experience of tasting the coffee has been the most powerful driver of business growth.
3. Customer Retention and Engagement: Mesh maintains that true customer retention is driven by delivering an engaging, ongoing experience – not just a product. Cumulus initiates meaningful engagement by sharing recipes and lifestyle inspiration that create lasting connections.
4. Make Your Brand Exciting: As a young company, Cumulus prioritizes expanding brand visibility by continuously reigniting the excitement felt by first-time customers, using a tone of wonder and curiosity to keep the brand feeling fresh and innovative.
5. Build a Customer-Centric Company Culture: Mesh believes that every employee, regardless of their role, must be deeply committed to the customer, regularly engaging with them to understand needs and experiences.
Working at Starbucks, Founder Mesh Gelman witnessed the growing demand for cold brew and the challenges that came with delivering it consistently. This led him to spend 3 years developing the world’s first countertop machine that makes premium cold brew on demand with a push of a button. Be inspired by how Mesh and Cumulus are helping customers discover coffee in innovative and meaningful ways.
Meet Mesh Gelman, Founder of Cumulus Coffee Company!
The Cumulus Coffee Company is reinventing how you enjoy your favorite coffee ritual through a blend of art, science, and a little bit of magic. The first of its kind, this sleek and innovative machine is purposely built for cold coffee, serving three distinct beverages at the touch of a button in under a minute: nitro cold brew, cold brew, and cold espresso. It incorporates patent-pending technology to pull nitrogen from the air, fueling the effervescent nitro cold brew, and every beverage emerges pre-chilled and ready to drink without the need for ice.
Growing up in New York City, Mesh was introduced to coffee culture early in life. He credits his time at Starbucks with teaching him what makes a great consumer coffee experience – from bean to cup – and how a good cup of coffee can positively impact someone’s day. Reflecting on that period, he recalls, “I saw the tremendous growth in cold coffee consumption. Watching the shift from hot to cold was fascinating. I also noticed the challenge of consistently making a high-quality cup of cold brew.” After leaving Starbucks, Mesh spent the next year focused on solving that very challenge. Following three years of experimentation and development, he founded Cumulus Coffee Company in 2022.
Mesh describes Cumulus Coffee Company as “the world’s first countertop on demand, single serve, cold brew, nitro cold brew, or cold brew espresso. Basically, any coffee form that you would love cold, can now be made at the push of a button.” Powered by proprietary, patented technology, the Cumulus machine delivers a smooth nitro cold brew, traditionally made using a tank of nitrogen gas. “We source the nitrogen from the air that we breathe, which is 79% nitrogen, allowing us to premiumize a beverage right away without the need for a tank,” Mesh explains.
Mesh worked with industrial and mechanical designers to build out his vision for The Cumulus Coffee Company. “The key is creating a piece of technology – a system, a machine – that is able to deliver on its promise,” he says. Once a doable prototype was developed, his focus shifted to coffee and brand. “We assembled a coffee team dedicated to sourcing delicious coffee, working on distinct profiles for the coffees that we planned to offer.” After establishing the core infrastructure building and refining technology, the company went to market in 2024. To support growth, a dedicated team for marketing, branding, and operations was brought on board. Today, Cumulus Coffee Company employs approximately 20 people.
For Mesh, scaling a successful e-commerce company starts with a simple philosophy: “We’re going to build Cumulus one customer at a time.” The goal is to deliver a 12-star experience to every customer. “How do we always exceed expectations?” Mesh asks. “Because at the end of the day, the stronger and better we make that experience, the deeper the emotional connection between Cumulus and the customer becomes.” By nurturing and truly caring for each customer, the brand becomes an integral part of their lives. Mesh believes that this kind of relationship is more valuable (and more lasting) than any monetary transaction.
“Customers are at the center” of Cumulus Coffee Company, Mesh says. This value is reflected in the structure of the team: an in-house manager of customer experience leads the charge to ensure the high touch CX customers deserve. Mesh is energized by the evolving landscape of customer experience and E-Commerce, and notes that he and other team members often jump in to help directly. “There’s nothing I love more than seeing a customer post on Instagram, finding out who they are, and seeing how we can support them – weekends, evenings, whatever it takes.”
Key Marketing Strategies: Leveraging Media and the Tasting Experience
Marketing has played an essential (and evolving) role in shaping Cumulus’s brand identity. Shortly after launch, the company earned Time Magazine’s Innovation of the Year Award. “That was a key moment – kind of a stamp of approval from a marquee, recognized media outlet,” Mesh says. Additional high-profile support came from Howard Schultz, founder and former CEO of Starbucks, a pioneer in coffee culture and one of Cumulus’s investors. “He’s been vocal about how amazing Cumulus is and that’s been really helpful,” Mesh adds. While social media has proven to be an effective marketing channel, Mesh emphasizes that the most powerful driver of growth has been the coffee itself. The transformative experience of tasting it –has had a profound impact on building the brand.
The Role of Customer Retention in Cumulus’s Revenue Model
The Cumulus machine is an investment – customers purchase it with the belief that it will elevate their at-home coffee experience. While Cumulus offers subscriptions, Mesh emphasizes that true retention goes beyond functionality. “Retention is about us making sure we’re delivering an experience, not just a product,” he explains. This includes sharing recipes – like a perfect espresso martini – and offering inspiration on how to make Cumulus a vibrant, everyday part of people’s lives. “That’s ultimately how we’ll create the kind of stickiness we want, and the strong relationship we want with our customers,” Mesh concludes.
Preparing for Peak Season
During peak season, the goal is to maintain “a communication structure and rule system that gives customers that white-glove experience,” says Mesh. To manage the increased volume of sales and support tickets, Cumulus will consider partners for additional customer experience assistance. “Sometimes customers need extra support when setting up their Cumulus,” Mesh explains. “And we want to be there for that.”
Fostering Innovation and the ‘Discovering Coffee Experience’
As a young company, expanding brand visibility and delivering its messaging to a broader audience remains a top priority. To achieve this, Mesh and his team focus on channeling the excitement of “people who are discovering Cumulus for the first time.” He explains, “The most important part of innovation is to keep reminding ourselves to start at the beginning.” One key strategy is to consistently evoke that ‘first moment’ feeling by communicating with customers in a tone filled with wonder, curiosity, and excitement.
Looking Ahead: Brand Visibility and Premium Product
Looking ahead, a key priority is to continue growing Cumulus’s visibility and encouraging more people to experience and taste the product. Since coffee is an agricultural product that changes every year, Mesh emphasizes that “making sure we’re delivering a high-quality, consistent cup of coffee to those who trust us is the most important.”
Mesh’s Advice to Aspiring E-Commerce Entrepreneurs
Mesh believes that having a welcoming, shoppable website is critical to the success of any E-Commerce business. “This is someone walking into your store,” he reminds, then asks, “How do you think they want to be treated? What do they want to experience? How would you speak to them?” By leveraging technology with a human-centered approach, he assures, “you will connect with your customers. They will become more loyal, appreciate you more, and you’ll be more successful.”
What excites Mesh About E-Commerce
As a company owner, Mesh is continually amazed by “the speed at which things can happen in E-Commerce.” Even a small adjustment to a website can have a profound impact on the customer experience. He’s also fascinated by the 24/7 nature of the business, noting that sales reports show people buying a Cumulus machine at 4 a.m. on the East Coast.
Can’t-live-without tool? Coffee
Key hiring trait? They have to be coffee curious. I also believe that they have to be obsessed about the customer. Everybody in the company, no matter what your role is, every week should have at least one real engagement with a customer – it can’t be a friend or family member. It has to be somebody you don’t know.
Thoughts on AI? It’s exciting and there’s a lot of things we can do with it. Today AI gives the team extra bandwidth, whether it’s research, with a presentation, or writing. Wherever you can use it to be more efficient with your time, use it. As AI improves we will incorporate it more, let it mature a little bit. There’s an old expression “pioneers get slaughtered, settlers prosper.” Let’s wait till it gets a little better. It’s going to do it for us, and we will get there, and we will embrace it. But I don’t think we need to be leading that charge today.
Favorite Thought Leader? I don’t have a favorite, E-Commerce is so interesting and dynamic, one can learn a lot by being curious across the board. I don’t want to latch onto one person because then it will put me on a very specific path. As a general rule, I read all email I receive, every request on social media from people who specialize in this space. Our company is a D2C company and is targeted often by E-Commerce service providers and marketing companies, there are a lot of great ones out there. So, I don’t think oh that person has it. I think there’s something you can learn from everybody.
#1 challenge as a leader? Never compromise the art for commerce. Allow the tension between the art of the business and the commerce of the business to challenge themselves in a healthy way, not in an unhealthy way. Managing that tension is a massive challenge. When you get it right, you really feel locked in and win! .
We're elevating customer experiences at 500 top E-Commerce brands (and counting). Let's see what we can do for you!
Learn MoreBook a call with one of our specialists today to see how TalentPop can assist you with putting together a solution for your customer service needs.
Learn More
.png)
