Fortune Teller: $50K Loan Plus a 2% Perpetual Dividend on a $80K/Month Coffee Bar

Starbucks built a multi-billion dollar brand being the place between home and work. Now people want community versions of this, less corporate. That’s where Fortune Teller senses an opportunity. We do coffee and in the morning and then we’ve got a full bar at night. — Can you maybe share first month total sales? — Right around $75,000 total. — This feels to me like crazy good performance. Is being that spot between home and work a profitable business model? You turned a $20,000 neon sign from Vegas into a $80,000 a month coffee business. — Correct. — Tom, I’m going to make you an offer. The offer would be $50,000 check today and then would like 2% of your dividends in perpetuity. We’re shooting here at about 10:00 a.m. on a what is it? A Thursday. And it looks empty, but maybe they’re making a lot of money. Let’s figure it out. — Hey, Mr. Tom. — Yes. — I’m Nathan. It’s super good to meet you. — Nice to meet you. — You go by Tom or Thomas usually. — Tom Bailey or Thomas. — Tom. Okay. Tom Bailey. This is a really cool vibe in here. — Thank you. — When I moved to Austin, uh Tom Bailey. I moved into uh East Austin. Yeah. — And I’d always go to Whistlers. This feels like a Whistlers vibe almost. — Well, thanks. I mean, that’s a huge compliment. — Um transparently, I’m an investor in Whistlers. And uh — Oh, nice. So, tell me more about the business. Well, we’re in a 1920s Kushu cottage that was built in East Austin and we moved it here from Hills Cafe, which is about 2 miles down the road and completely gutted it and then have uh tried to make it look as kind of inviting and cozy as possible. We do coffee and in the morning and then we’ve got a full bar at night. Not too many places in Austin that are open at 8:00 a.m. and stay open till 2:00 a.m. — You’re 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. — 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. on Friday, Saturday, and then midnight the rest of the week. So, when did the place open? So, — we’ve been open for 3 months. It’s been fantastic so far, despite opening in the hottest part of the year in Austin, where people are out of town or they want to hibernate indoors and stay cool and out of the sun. — Mhm. And are you all in? Is this your full-time gig now or is it sort of a side hustle? — No, this is a total side hustle uh for me. I’ve got a 9 to5, so to speak. But the beautiful thing about this place is that it’s a full-time gig for some people that I’ve known my entire life who’ve been service industry professionals. So, I trust them implicitly with my life and to run this business and they’ve got ownership in the business. — And is this is this a big bet for you? I mean, can you quantify how much maybe money you put in to open the thing? — Unfortunately, you had to put every single last dollar that I nearly have to myself, which is about $200 into this place over the past 3 years. So, you know, all in we’re under a million, which is kind of an amazing feat to open a place in Austin this day and age for under a million dollars. And I think that we probably could have done this. I know we could have done it for a lot less expensive. That we had some kind of unfortunate hurdles and rocks that we had to push up a hill in order to effort this place into being open. To get the project to fruition, we had to raise uh $250,000 from friends and family investors. I was given a commercial loan for $450,000. — What was that interest rate on that? — Uh it was actually uh interest only for the first year. — Oh, great. And then the rate I want to say was 6% maybe whatever. Yeah. The rates were at the time. And that looked — 450 plus 250 — and then $200,000 of my own money. — Okay. And was that like a big deal for you? That’s like your all life savings or you’re a rich guy and this is nothing for you. — No, I’m living lean. I mean — I want to make sure I get the timing on this right. You mentioned like you said quote sort of like we’ve been doing this for 3 years, but you just said you opened like 2 or 3 months ago. What was going on? — Oh man. Well, so originally the property was not zoned to sell alcohol. So, we had to get the zoning changed in the city of Austin and then we had to go through the historical board to be able to move this house. — Oh, you didn’t build this here. You picked it up and moved it. — We actually picked this house up, put it on a flat, chopped the roof off, put it on a flatbed trailer, drove it down here, put it on a foundation, and put the roof back together one piece at a time. — What did that cost all in? — It was not that bad. It was about $20,000. — Okay. And you know the biggest part was just kind of removing the tiniest amount of asbestos that was in this house — but the remediation of that was super expensive. — And so the house was free or you didn’t have to pay anything for the actual house. — The house was donated to us by our landlord Dean Goodnight who u is owns the property at Hills Cafe which is right down the road. And the city was only letting us build 1,000 square ft and really tough to do to build bars of office and have it be functional. the size of an efficiency apartment. — You mentioned landlord. So, did you buy this acreage or you’re leasing it? — I’m leasing it. I’ve got a 10-year lease with an option to renew. — Okay. Can I ask how expensive that is or cheap? Maybe it’s cheap range. — It’s definitely uh under $10,000 a month by significant margin. — So, what day was the official opening day? — June uh July 1st. — July 1st, 2025. — We found out that we got our CEO that day at 2 p.m. and we opened at 8. Okay. And at 8:30 it seemed like the entire neighborhood came out all at once and there was 100 people here. — What was first day revenue? Do you remember all in? — I think it was actually like $2,000 first day revenue. — That doesn’t happen like magically. What was the marketing strategy? — When the fortune teller sign got put in in December of 2024, I think the interest started really peing. I was like, what is going on? And so we then we also uh have a billboard on property. So, a month before we opened, we put a billboard up to let people know exactly what it is. — Right around $75,000 total. First month, we were in the black. We were able to pay our bills, our taxes, our rent, our employees, buy more product, and we were able to net at the end of the month about $15 to $17,000. performance. I was shocked that we were able to do 75,000 in our first month of sales. Considering it’s July, a lot of people are out of town. It’s hot. Most of our seating is outside. — What’s the total acreage that you’re sitting on? — We’re on a half acre about 3 mi south of downtown Austin. — Do you have other ways to make money on this property? — Absolutely. You want to go outside and check it out? We can talk more about it. — Show me. Show me. I’ll follow you. — Yep. — So, walk me through the different business models here. There were two food trucks here and Sabort Tapato was one of them and the owner Alen, you know, just makes fantastic food. His prices are really neighborhood friendly and um it’s delicious. — Does does your business make any money from that or is it just like a nice tab? It brings in more customers. — We we get rent from the food truck. We have plans to get an additional food truck. — Are you comfortable sharing the just the revenue you make as business from the food truck? — I’m only charging $1,500 a month. Most places could probably charge 2,000 to 2500, but again, — this is about community and partnerships, and we’ll we’ll rise together. — Is your vision that people are like sitting here working and this is basically packed every day? — I mean, absolutely. We have the three C’s of our business, which is coffee, cocktails, and community. — I’m I’m looking around going, what I work here, I have to see outlets. My order of operations when I walk into something is okay, where am I going to sit and order four coffees during the day? But there’s got to be there’s got to be an outlet. So like right now obviously you know there’s two or three people sitting here so maybe the energy I mean I don’t know how you feel about but no outlets no energy the energy right how do you build that stuff up over time — it’s going to take some time for us to build our coffee business we’re hitting our pro fora numbers which I was surprised by — which is what — $8,000 a month for coffee — you told me your first month revenue was 75k you’re saying only 8k of that was coffee — yeah the rest was spirits and beer and wine yeah — did that surprise that ratio surprised me hearing — it’s surprising me too I thought our coffee business would be a little bit more robust But, you know, we’re new. We’re coming out the gates. We’re also open in the summer and people just do not want to drink coffee and get baked outside at the same time. — And just since we’re on the numbers, so you’re 2 3 months in now. What are you doing on a monthly basis now? Top line. — We almost did 80,000 in August. In September was a bit of a dip, but for right now, October is looking strong. And that’s just the way it is in Austin. — Any other business model here we haven’t talked about yet. So, the the bus behind us I found on Facebook Marketplace for free. We’ve moved in here and the idea is that we’ll turn it into air conditioned space. We can use it for private event rental. It could be a green room. We have plans to put a small stage in front of it for live music and just another place to hang out. — So Tom, I’m pulling in here and the first thing that caught my eye is this like neon sign that looks like it’s like from the 1940s. — So I simply typed into Google image search vintage neon sign desert. Fortune teller sign was one of the first that popped up. I love that it was kind of mysterious. About a year and a half later, after I had interviewed different neon sign makers, I’d get these bids for like $40, $50,000, and it just wasn’t it. And I really was like had my heart set on that original sign. And I kind of became obsessed. And then one day, randomly, I was in Reno and I’m driving down the road and I looked up and I saw the sign and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The owner, who was a 90-year-old man named uh Ted Teddy Williams, — Mhm. and his wife was the original fortune teller. — Wow. — She passed away 20 years ago and for years people have been trying to buy that sign. So what did you end up paying for? What was the deal? — So I wrote Mr. Williams a letter and all in I was able to buy this beautiful piece of art for six grand. We put new neon tubes on it that matched the original color gas that was on there when we brought it from Reno. — So all in what did it cost you to get that thing here? I think we spent right under $20,000. — So, it’s fair to say you turned a $20,000 neon sign from Vegas into a $80,000 a month coffee business. — You’re 3 months into building this thing. What’s the vision? Where do you hope this thing is in a year? — Oh my god, man. I think I hope this thing in a year is just rocking and rolling. You know, we get our power expanded and we have full-on concerts. I think our capacity according to fire marshall if we had an outdoor concert and shut everything down could be anywhere from 900 to,200 people. — As you think about expansion or capital needs or help me sort of walk through both how you’re managing your your current capital stack, the current money you’ve raised and then also how you could potentially use additional capital in the future to maybe grow faster or execute your vision quicker. My plan was to have $150,000 in operating capital reopen and instead we had $25,000 and I was freaking out. So we had to make a lot of sacrifices on really important pieces that we needed for efficiency on our business. Key piece is a back of the — We don’t have an office. We don’t have a walk-in cooler. So that makes us um have a refrigeration constraint. — We also don’t have an ice maker. — I’d love to take a peek. Can you maybe show me how bad it is back there? — Oh, man. Let’s take a look. — All right. Yeah. So, originally we had plans to come out 10 ft and build an office in here. So, where we’re standing is where our office should be. And to my right, uh we our plans had a walk-in cooler uh 10x8. So, we rent from Quick Ice. It costs about $450 to fill it up every time. We do that two to three times a week. Our monthly bill on ice right now has been almost $4,000. So in the first three months of operations, we’ve given away $12,000 in profit. — Oh jeez. — Just on ice. — What would it cost to buy like a proper ice machine? And — you know, we wouldn’t even buy an ice machine. We were going to rent an ice machine for maybe $350 a month — and then we’ll have 24/7 service on it forever to break down. So we literally are missing out on anywhere from $10 to $11,000. So, what what would it mean to you if you had just an extra $50,000 in the bank today? — Oh my god. What that would do is completely shift the efficiencies of this business. Like right now, Randall, our GM and beverage director, he’s at home making tomato water. He’s fatwashing gin. He’s fatwashing vodka. He’s making syrups and shrubs out of his house. What we would have is a production facility on site. We would be able to — expand our wine program. Our wine program right now is dog water. Um because we just don’t have the space to keep, you know, anything refrigerable. — How long have you been like dreaming about launching something like this? How many years? — 5 years. — Five years. — Just 2020. — So you want to you want to do this for the long term. You’re in it to build it for many years. — This is the second half of of my life plan. — So then how would you respond if I said I want to buy the whole business for $400,000 cash upfront all all right now today? — Today I’d say hell no. I appreciate it, but no, there’s no way I could do that. This is this is not only just about um a personal uh project for me, but this is my friends and family. — Do they all have equity in the business? Even if it’s a small amount. — Okay. So, do you mind me like how much do you still own versus how much have you given? — I own probably 74% of the business. — Okay, got it. So, you got the we’ll call it the community at 26%. So, that’s good. That’s great. — From a business perspective, what do you think you could do here on on a great month? Yeah, — in terms of revenue, — absolutely. I think year two, — month of October, we should be doing $180,000 in revenue. There’s a a concept right down the road. Little Darling, similar vibe. It’s an outdoor indoor hang space. And the past 2 years, their um just alcohol sales have been $5.2 million — and they’re a mile down the road. — Yeah. So, if we did half of that, — that’d be brill. — So, I’m interested in trying to figure out a way to make you an offer here, but what I don’t know is what the right structure could be, right? If I was going to make you an offer, do you sort of lean towards debt or equity? — I think I’d be open to either and just how it’s structured. Um, you know, like I said, I still own a significant piece of this business. And what I did was for every $25,000 investment, I sold 2% of our dividends in perpetuity for the bar. — Okay. — So, to give you an idea, Whistlers, — y — I put in $25,000. — Same deal. 2% of dividends perpetuity of the bar. I invested in 2012. It took about 2 years for me to get my initial investment back. — Every year since then, I have never made less than that $25,000 back per year. Some years it’s been 40, 42, 38, 36. So it’s been open for 12 years. I put in 25, I probably made, you know, $380,000 off of that investment. — If I put in 50k and we just did a dividend deal, what do you think I could expect on a monthly basis? — You can expect to be paid off in 2 years. — So the idea is we pay off our investors, we pay back our loans, we have excess money because we’re doing $180,000 a month in revenue. — Mhm. you know, and we’re doing nearly, you know, 600 or $540,000 per quarter in revenue. I would expect that our distributions to be at least 30% of that. — So all these people that took this deal you told about the dividend deal, how much of that their cash went towards 900k at the start? — $250,000 was raised by friends and family. — Uh for 2% per 25K. — Yep. I see. And then you put in personally a couple hundred 200. And then the 450 loan. — Exactly. I’m an owner. from an investor as well. — How many investors took part in that? — Nine people. — Nine people or or couples? — So, what if I offered something like um $50,000 um and the payback would be let’s say a 6% interest rate, right? So, called a cheap loan, right? — But I also then want to participate longer term on the deal that you gave everybody else that’s more unknown, the dividend structure, — right? — Let me let you fill in that part of it. If if we were able to agree on 50k at a very low 6% interest rate paid back over three years, is there anything you’d like what would you add on like long-term after that was paid off where I was participating in the dividend pool? — What I really want is my investor pool to be people who want to be here — that will help you know — build it. — Help build it and be part of the culture. — What’s a deal you gave them again? They each get 2% of the dividend pool for each 25k they put in. — So if I did 50k and on that deal it' be 4%. What if I just did a much lower amount there? What if I put in 50k and give you a 50% discount? You’re paying me 2% of dividends longterm, but the reason I’m giving you that discount is I’m charging a fixed interest rate on my 50k of 6% until it’s paid back. — Right. — That way, I have the certainty that I love, but I’m also betting on the business and the dividends you hope to happen in the future. — Sure. I mean, that sounds pretty good just off the top of my head. First of all, that’s super generous. — Well, I’m not a charity. I mean, I’ll make money on this. I think you’ve done a great job. We’re in business. — It’s a good vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s a plan. I’d love to see this business thrive for 20 years. — Yeah. Tom, want to make you an offer. The offer would be $50,000 check today, but it’s a loan. So, you’d pay it back over the next 3 years at a fixed 6% interest rate. After it’s paid back, I perpetuity. The same deal you gave your early investors, but since I wasn’t there on the day one, I’m only getting 50% of what you’re giving them. What do you think? I think that sounds like a fantastic offer. I’d be excited to see what the future holds together with something like that. — All right. Well, Tom, let’s get it done. I love this concept. Thanks for having me in the future. You bet. You bet. No, it’s a great V. No, we we can’t buy any more houses like this though until we double or triple revenue and then we can just expand from there. Right. That’s right. — That’s awesome. — If you’re looking for capital, go to founderpath.com and create an account for free. Then connect your profit and loss statement so I can understand your cash flows and revenue. Then my AI agent will write a 10-page memo for you, all in under two minutes, and it will include a capital offer at the end. If you like the offer, just type yes in the chat. Tell me what bank you want us to wire the money to, and we’ll get a deal done together. I’ll see you over at founderpath.com.