“Coffee came into my life twice. My first job in high school was actually here, where Populace is now, back when it was Bay City Coffee and Tea. Me and my friends used to play music in the corner by the front window—until I got in trouble with my parents. They said, ‘You need to get a job…tomorrow.’ I kinda knew somebody that worked there, so I came in the next day. They happened to be looking for somebody and hired me. I really didn’t like coffee that much, but I liked the atmosphere: everyone had their own space to do their own thing, and I liked the vibe.
I worked there for about six months before I said, ‘I’m leaving for California’. I had one bag and no idea what I was doing. I took out a student loan I had no intention of paying back, bought a plane ticket, and flew out to Long Beach to stay with a friend who said I could sleep in his living room until I found something.
I loved Long Beach, but one day I ventured a little closer to Los Angeles and found Venice Beach. Immediately, I felt this kind of magnetism to it. Like Bay City, it’s a ‘water-based’ community and I felt at home.
But I still didn’t have a job.
Also at the time, Justis and I were together and talking about her coming out there. I lied about having a job so someone would sell me a car, and drove from LA back to Bay City. We were here for a couple weeks until I found an apartment in Venice Beach, and then we packed up and drove back to California.
Justis got a job right away, but I was still trying to find something. At that time in the world, you lived on Craigslist and I found this really interesting job posting for a company called Intelligentsia. I had no idea who they were at the time, but they were pioneers in the coffee world—and they were opening a shop on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Today, the Boulevard is a world famous destination, but at the time, there really wasn’t anything there and they were opening this cafe, so I applied and got a job as a dishwasher.
After about four months, I became the assistant manager at the shop, running shifts and learning from literally some of the best baristas in the world. People were flying from Tokyo and all over Europe to visit this place.
And that’s when I fell in love with coffee.
At the time, Intelligentsia was expanding and wanted me to take on part of their expansion on the west coast, but I said, ‘Nope, I’m moving back to Bay City to open a coffee company.’
I wrote up a business plan for my own coffee shop and was like, ‘Hey, who wants to throw some money into this crazy kids idea?’ But this was 2009: the economy had melted down the year before and Michigan was in a pretty terrible spot.
Despite that, we thought, 'Bay City needs great coffee.’
Michigan really was the play. As far as really great coffee shops in the state, there was really only Madcap. We saw the opportunity here and the opportunity in this region. So we got engaged, gave away all of our furniture, packed up the car and came back to Bay City.
When we first started, it was all about ‘Look at how much we know about coffee! Look at where we sourced these beans! Look at how expertly we can steam this milk!’ There was this pretentiousness that we were actually trying to get away from by calling it ‘Populace’. The goal of the brand was to be ‘coffee for everyone’: we wanted it to be great coffee without telling you it was great coffee. But we didn’t really understand what we were doing because we were so focused on the economics of it: it costs this much to make, this is what we should sell it for, this like that.
You have to understand those things in order to be successful, and that’s actually where a lot of coffee shops fail: they focus too much on the brand without understanding the business. But we did the opposite by focusing too much on the economics and not enough on what we were trying to build.
Originally our plan was to build a coffee shop ‘empire’ with strategically placed cafes throughout the state: Bay City, Petoskey, Detroit, six or seven different locations. COVID really stopped those plans, but that’s actually caused us to appreciate this one location in Bay City even more.
Today, Populace is more than just coffee for us. What we realized is that the space a cafe creates is a community space, one that's always changing and evolving. The community here is amazing. We have so much going on, and living by the water is beautiful, and there’s a fantastic energy that we feel being business owners here in the community.”
“When we moved back to Bay City from California, I ended up being a general manager for Hooters working gruesome 65-hour weeks so we could buy our first house and start Populace.
After we had Emerson, our first child, I got tired of never seeing him. I started looking at myself and saying, ‘Okay, I can keep doing this: the money’s good, it’s a stable job, it’s allowing us to do all these things. But if I’m not happy, I can’t be the best mom I can be.’
I also had to take a hard look at what MY passion was. Andrew, my husband, had his passion with Populace. Our generation was told to go to college and get a desk job, but that was a mold that didn't fit: I needed to find something for me.
I've always loved all things ‘home’. I was the 5-year-old moving rearranging my grandmother's house, having fun moving the furniture around. I knew that that's what I loved to do, but I also thought that our region didn't really have a market for interior design.
I decided I could do what I loved through real estate. So while I was still working and had a newborn, I took my real estate course through the state, got my license, and slowly made the transition out of the restaurant world and into real estate.
I think my love for being a realtor comes through homes and what ‘home’ means for people. I love helping people find the home they can find themselves in. I can be the person that guides people through the process while being in love with design, teaching people how a home could work or not work for them, tips and tricks of where they can make improvements in their property that would make them happier in the space.”
—Justis Heppner, realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Andrew: “Entrepreneurs are risk takers, dreamers. Most of them have similar versions of crazy ideas. There’s different levels of that: I would put myself on the ‘crazy and wild’ side while Justis is more strategic and methodical. But our relationship would actually be more difficult if we weren’t both entrepreneurs because we have similar ways of looking at the world.
One of the issues can be when you both are in a ‘valley’ at the same time. Low points are a natural occurrence in business, right? Along with the really good times, there are going to be really bad times: finances are tough, income isn't consistent, you have to plan differently to make it through.
That's taken a lot of time to figure out. But there’s also a lot of good that comes with that, and the thing that I love the most is that I always feel like I have the opportunity to grow and the opportunity to build something new.”
Justis: “I love the flexibility both of us being entrepreneurs gives for our children. That’s huge. There are a lot of times where it's very stressful: for instance, for me in the summer, everyone wants to see homes in the evenings on the weekends. The last few years in real estate were so crazy that I was literally showing homes seven days a week, but I was able to be home with the kids all day.
I think we play a good balance for each other, too, because I'll always be the devil's advocate on a lot of things. I'm always like, ‘Hold on, let's think about this’. But that adds to the fun of it, too: we're always communicating, always talking, and just throwing random ideas at each other. We're collectively supporting each other through the ups and downs.”
—Andrew and Justis Heppner, Populace Coffee and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Andrew: “For budding entrepreneurs, I would say go try working in the job that you want. If you want to build a coffee company, go work in a coffee company. Try to understand what you’re trying to do. I think a lot of young entrepreneurs, and I was one of them, who want to figure everything out on their own.
But that can be a really cripping thing. There’s no shame in learning from someone, and learn from people who have done what you want to do. Even if they’re not super successful, if they’ve managed a business for more than five years, buy them coffee or lunch six or seven times and learn everything you can. Go out, do the thing you want to do, and find people to learn from.”
Justis: “So in terms of real estate, specifically, I tell people to get involved in the community you're in as much as possible. That’s how you network, that’s how you meet people, that’s how you get word-of-mouth referrals.
And, I think if you have a passion for something you really enjoy doing, you can make a career out of it. But along with that, you have to find your level of financial comfort, though, because what you do will influence how much money you can make. If you’re doing something small and artsy, awesome! But also have an idea of what level of financial comfort that can bring and whether or not you’re ok with that. There’s a reason both Andrew and I work outside of Populace, but I think you can be happy doing what you want in life and you can create a job out of it.”
—Andrew and Justis Heppner, Populace Coffee and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Justis: “For me, personally, I couldn't imagine raising a family anywhere else than here. I think the community is amazing. We have so much going on, one of the most charming downtowns in the state, it’s just beautiful living near the water, and there’s an incredible energy we feel being business owners here.
And because of that entrepreneurial energy in the community, we started hosting pop-up markets in the cafe for businesses that are just starting out or may not have a brick and mortar. That's a whole next generation of people looking to stay rooted in the community and the future businesses filling our business districts, and we want to play a part in encouraging that.”
Andrew: “I think Michigan is one of the best places to live. When you think about access to natural resources and population density, like, this is it. We’ve got big cities and small cities, and access to all of them. I'm not a fan of the big city, I prefer the small town, and Michigan has so many of those communities that build up the greater culture of the state.
People are always like, ‘Bay City could be the next Traverse City.’ But I think we’ll get to the point where other communities are like, ‘We could be the next Bay City.’ Bay City is unique because of its access to the Bay and the activities people can do. Seeing the investment here from both inside and outside this community gives me just tons of optimism. It’s great to imagine five years from now thinking, ‘This place is nothing like it was five years ago!’
10 years ago when we first moved back from California, there were moments of thinking, ‘...why did we move back?’ But when you think about the changes that have happened since then, and the amount of people talking about it, the amount of people that are trying to get other people to come here: other communities are going to want to be the next Bay City. I think that's the opportunity and that that's exciting to me.
With those pop-up events we host for other businesses, these are young people starting real businesses making real money, and we need to show them that they can do that here in Bay City and be successful. I think that's how you build momentum.”
Justis: “And I think allowing other businesses to use our space is a way to say ‘thank you’, because if it wasn’t for the community at Bay City, I don't know how we would have survived COVID. It was like one of the scariest things having to shut the door not knowing what was going to happen. And then to have everybody in the community reach out, order coffee, and support our baristas: it was like Bay City hugged us. And we want to be there for other small businesses in the same way.
That’s a reason why we're still so rooted in the community, and we're both eternally grateful.”
—Andrew and Justis Heppner, Populace Coffee and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Populace Website
Populace on Facebook
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices - Bay City
