For those who may not know you yet, tell us a little about yourself. What brought you and your family to Chiswick, and what does life look like for you outside of work?

I am the adoring husband to Emma and doting father to three daughters, Malia,Lani, and Coco. I’m just a regular Aussie guy who calls Chiswick home, and I have done for the last eight years.

What brought us here was adventure. We were living in Australia, living a beautiful life, but it all felt very predictable and very obvious. We could see the next 20 years, happening exactly to plan. And we just thought, you know what? Let’s move overseas. Let’s quit our jobs. And with no plan, no agenda, move across the other side of the world and experience a new life.

We found Chiswick on recommendation from a friend and instantly fell in love with it. And then we began the process of building a new life - putting the kids into new schools, finding new jobs, and ultimately building a business, which is Dear Coco.

You had a successful corporate career before Dear Coco came along. What made you decide to take the leap and start your own business?

I was a corporate guy for maybe 15 years. And then in the middle of the pandemic, I was marketing director for American Express, and my whole channel of marketing got turned down overnight because I was in experiential marketing, and, obviously, nothing was happening during COVID. I lost all my team to other parts of the organisation. I lost all my marketing budget, and I was hanging onto a corporate job with no fulfillment, no creativity. Day to day life was extremely uncertain.

But I had this dream in the future of opening a beautiful little coffee truck on the beach in Australia. I talked to my wife one night, I explained to her that I had no creative purpose. I didn’t feel professionally engaged. I was struggling with my uncertainty in my corporate life. And I had this dream that I wanted to bring forward by 25 years and build here in London, along the river in Chiswick. I told Emma I wanted to build the best coffee truck in the world. She believed in me and said, I think you can do this. So, I took all the money we had, I bought a coffee truck, and I designed a business from nothing in the middle of the pandemic.

So, that’s the juggle. I did full-time hours in American Express, four days a week, but doing 60 hours a week. I was doing three days along the river as my own barista at my coffee truck, building a business during the night, doing social media, doing everything that takes to build a business. My normal was 100+ hours a week and it was exhausting. It took about 5 months to payoff the business, and then I recruited my first barista. We took it to five days a week, and that’s where the real work happened. I was then owning and being involved in acoffee truck running six days a week while also doing a full-time marketing director role. That was the most chaotic three years of my life.

And then two years ago, in 2024, an investor, Sam Chandler, found Dear Coco and spoke to me about wanting to invest in the business to grow it. We just aligned on a vision for Dear Coco. He bought half the company, and I was able to leave my corporate job behind and go full-time founder of Dear Coco. That was two years ago, and we have now five locations, a successful business, we employ 20 people, and we’re growing the business in the UK and hopefully internationally.

Why did you choose Strand on the Green as the home for your very first Dear Coco coffee truck?

During the pandemic, I was doing late night walks to clear my mind and collect my thoughts. There was a lot of pressure at the time, worrying about jobs, worrying about everything. We all had that. So I would walk along Strand on the Green every night, and I would sit on that wall, opposite The Steam Packet pub, I would look at the parking bay just in front of the pub along the side of the road and think, what a beautiful spot for a coffee truck.

But not just any coffee truck, the world’s most beautiful coffee truck. I thought, what a beautiful thing, to put first-class coffee in a beautiful location like that. And it has been here for almost five and a half years, and we’re a real centre of the community now.

When you first opened, how long did it take for people to discover Dear Coco?

It was like most businesses. It took a little time to get awareness. But the beauty of our coffee truck is it is so pretty, so many people would stop and say, “Oh, my goodness, that is the most beautiful little coffee truck I’ve ever seen. I want to take a photo. And I don’t feel like a coffee, but I’m going to buy a coffee because it’s so pretty.” So, the beautiful nature of the physical coffee truck instantly won hearts and minds.

But I had a tactic, when I was the barista. Every time a new person would come to the truck, I would say, “Hi, my name’s Ant, I’m the owner of this new business, what’s your name?” And they would tell me their name, and we’d have a little conversation while I’m making their coffee. When they leave, I would write their name and a description in my iPhone. So, the next time they came, I could recognise their face, I would look at their name on my phone and say, “Hello, Daniela, great to see you again.” They would look at me thinking, how do you remember my name? You must meet 100 people a day. The act of remembering everybody’s name made me feel connected to the community instantly, and it made them feel connected to me.

You’ve always placed a lot of importance on the experience and connection behind the coffee. Was there a moment when a customer or someone in the local community said or did something that really stayed with you?

Running an outdoor business is very challenging logistically, equipment breaks, the weather is hard. It’s probably the hardest category of hospitality, outdoor coffee. I’ve been the recipient of an immense amount of help.

Community members would come to our baristas in very cold weather with bowls of soup and things to put their hands to warm up, or if the weather is crazy, they invite them inside until the weather clears. We just feel like a genuinely loved part of the community.

Was there ever a moment when you questioned whether leaving your corporate career had been the right decision?

I’ve never once questioned or regretted being a small business owner. I’m very aware that the life I’ve chosen is hard, it comes with a lot of sacrifice. But I feel capable of absorbing all the pressure and all the financial stress that owning a business entails.

My ultimate goal is to lead a maximised life. I’ve been given an ability with an immense work ethic, an immense amount of resilience and strength and dedication to go and chase big dreams. And if I’m not chasing big dreams responsibly, I feel unfulfilled.

I’ve never regretted it, never questioned it, but every day I rely on the strength and resilience that I have to find the joy in very difficult situations.

I also have one other thing that I like to live by. It’s to be the person that doesn’t quit when many people quit. Outdoor coffee in a cold climate country like the UK, to do that for more than 5 years is very rare.

I like being the guy that my daughters look at and think How is dad still going? That’s impressive, and that inspires us. They’re old enough to be entering the world of university and A-levels, and they are very impressionable, and for them to have a role model in a father who will never stop just because things are uncomfortable or challenging, I think that’s the best impression I can make.

I want my daughters to see somebody who is comfortable being uncomfortable. That is a gift that I can give them, and I can show that through Dear Coco and running this business.

Your family has been part of the Dear Coco journey from the beginning. How involved have they been along the way?

They are my biggest supporters. And the business was named as a love letter to my youngest daughter Coco, because when I built it five and a half years ago, Coco was only four and a half. Her sisters are seven and eight years older than her, and the reality was they were going to be involved in the business every day, but Coco was going to get left out and left behind. So, we named it after Coco to make her feel loved and included, too.

Because it’s much more than just a coffee truck, it’s an avatar to a broader life sitting behind it, it’s about parenthood, it’s about struggle, it’s about life, it’s about entrepreneurship.

Finally, when you look back at everything you’ve built so far, what are you most proud of?

The thing I’m most proud of is we have never deviated from what we are. We are a founder-driven, story-led brand, and no matter how big we get or don’t get, we will always be that relatable, emotional brand that’s about more than coffee, it’s about inspire, it’s about educate, it’s about motivate, and it can just be something that people adore whether they come to our coffee shops or not.

I’ve been able to maintain the feeling of Dear Coco while we’re growing. And the challenge is when you’re getting bigger, how do you feel smaller? And I feel like we’ve done a good job in this.

As for that initial promise I made Emma, Dear Coco is now the most followed coffee truck in the world on social media. I’m so proud of that.