For the past eight months, David Cogen has been living a double life. By day: YouTuber and creator, the face of The unlockerchecking phones and testing electric bikes and explaining how food smokers really work. At night and in the morning and every other available time in between: a coffee shop entrepreneur working to get a place up and running in Brooklyn called Coffee Check. It all started at the end of last year and escalated quickly. Needed a new workspace after his previous lease was up, had a business idea that didn't quite work out, decided to repurpose his new space into a coffee roaster, and then realized there was a door entrance to the street. Why not also open a coffee shop?
coffee check It's been open since late August, and on the morning I visit, it's impressively busy for a new place tucked away on a residential street in Greenpoint. The space is spacious and open, with a long counter and bar on the right side and a large wooden community table on the left side. A customer sitting in a comfortable chair in the corner takes a work call at a surprisingly loud volume. There are outlets everywhere, the Wi-Fi is incredibly fast, and the smart lighting setup is designed to look good and keep your houseplants alive. It's your local coffee shop, designed by a great technology expert.
Cogen himself arrives around 10:30am, checks in with the baristas, and then offers me a tour of the place. He walks me through the coffee shop, then through a locked glass door into the back half of the Coffee Check space, which is a fully functional production studio that other creators and companies can rent on Peerspace. (If you're counting, that's now three businesses he runs: YouTube, coffee, and owner.) He's particularly excited about the kitchen, which isn't something you'd normally find in a rentable studio, and set it up to be Easy Remove and Add Appliances, hoping to do some kitchen appliance reviews on YouTube. A bunch of electric bikes, from another video, are sitting in the corner, next to a monstrous Samsung TV that's up for an upcoming video.
Finally, Cogen takes me to the podcast studio, a huge booth with a couch and two chairs that he says he bought in Finland, and which he got a discount by offering to have the booth serve as the company's New York showroom. (There are four businesses). Cogen sits in a chair, points to the couch, turns on the Logitech microphones, and begins to tell me his story.
In this episode of The VergecastThe second in the two-part miniseries we're calling “How to Succeed in the Future,” Cogen tells the story of how a YouTuber becomes a coffee shop owner. We go back to how the phrase “coffee, check” became part of his brand in the first place, then delve into how he turned his love of coffee into a deep knowledge of it and what it took to get Coffee Check elevated. and running.
Cogen has spent a lot of time thinking about combining content and coffee in his life going forward. After 13 years of living the always-on creator life, there's something romantic and slower about running a local business. But he also spent years filming his coffee for his videos; Does he also aspire to be a coffee YouTuber? And can you create content about your business without becoming a content business and changing the entire purpose of what you've created? Cogen is struggling with the same things every creator deals with, and has invested his money and time into trying to make it better.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
