A self-confessed ‘coffee snob’ businessman claims these five London cafes are his ‘secret weapon’ in business – where he woos clients with their elite brews.
David Soffer says ensuring he finds the best coffee houses in London to hold meetings has helped him build a six-figure empire with TechRound, a platform that promotes start-ups.
Beginning as a self-funded ‘side hustle’, TechRound is now a leading tech and start-up news platform and David’s worked with huge names including Amazon, Uber and Gusto.
The 32-year-old ensures he gets the perfect blend in business by refusing to drink ‘burned rubbish’ in coffee chains and only taking clients and potential investors to places he’s thoroughly researched.
David claims his weird ‘obsession’ shows a whole ‘latte’ effort and thought goes into each meeting, helping him secure business deals – though he admits some people do find his habit ‘annoying’.
His years of scouring London’s cafes has resulted in him identifying Omotesando (Newman Street) and Store Street Espresso (Store Street) as two of his favourites.
Kaffeine (Great Titchfield Street), Attendant Coffee (Foley Street) and Monmouth Coffee Company (Borough Market) make up the rest of his top five.
David, who lives in London, said: ‘I’m just a massive coffee nerd. I’m a coffee snob.
David Soffer says ensuring he finds the best coffee houses in London to hold meetings has helped him build a six-figure empire with TechRound
Monmouth Coffee in Borough Market (pictured above) is one of David’s top picks for a business meeting
Pictured above is Attendant Coffee on Foley Street. It makes David’s top five for coffee
‘If I was stuck on a desert island and the only coffee shop there was Caffe Nero, I’d probably drink it. But when you’re somewhere like London it’s quite nice to go where there’s good coffee.
‘The meetings themselves, I think it did help, because often you’d take people and they go “that’s interesting, I normally only go to the local Starbucks”, or even “flipping hell, this is good”.
‘People just expect to go out for mediocre, conference-level coffee.’
David, who usually opts for a flat white or batch brew, found that clients appreciated the effort he went to.
Store St Espresso helped kick-start David’s love of gourmet coffee
Kaffeine on Great Titchfield Street (pictured above) earns a place on David’s top five list
He continued: ‘It’s a bit like dating. If you’re going on a date with someone and they’re just like “let’s go to McDonald’s”, you’ll be like “okay”. But if they say “there’s this really nice place 10 minutes away from you, let’s go there”, it’s obviously going to have more of an impact.
‘Same thing really applies here.
‘I’ve had people before and they’ll message me and say, “Where was that coffee shop you took me to? It was really nice.” They’ll remember the fact they were taken to this nice coffee shop just because no one ever does that.’
David revealed that his coffee obsession started during an internship with a digital marketing company in 2014 when a developer criticised him for visiting Caffe Nero every day.
‘People just expect to go out for mediocre, conference-level coffee,’ says David. Above is top coffee stop Ometesando on Newman Street
David said: ‘After a few weeks of coming into the office every morning with a Caffe Nero in hand, thinking “wow, this is amazing”, I remember one of their developers said to me, “Why are you drinking that?” And I said, “What do you mean? It’s good coffee.”
‘He said “you’re literally drinking rubbish”. And I said, “What do you mean it’s rubbish? It’s Caffe Nero.”
‘He took me to a coffee shop I still love called Store Street Espresso. I still go here for meetings. He said, “I’m going to buy you a cup of coffee and you’re going to see that you’ll never drink this rubbish again.”
‘I remember drinking it and thinking “this tastes different, this doesn’t taste like burned rubbish”.
‘I started to look around for other good coffee shops. I remember finding another one round the corner. I was like “okay, I’m not drinking this rubbish coffee anymore”.
‘Let me be really, really pretentious about it because it’s only going to affect me. Then it’s like a gateway drug and it kind of spiralled out of control.’
He added: ‘Coffee is a good bridge between being formal and informal. I think coffee is a good middle ground. If there’s a really, really bad meeting then you’re not stuck having a whole meal with them.’