Brigid Shaw, Orgullo Coffee
Season 14, Episode 5 at SCA Houston 2025.
Editor’s note: Prefer the audio only or want to watch the podcast on Spotify? Click here!
Guest: Brigid Shaw, Orgullo Coffee
Based: Austin, TX
Online: www.orgullocoffee.com
The Coffee People Podcast traveled to the Specialty Coffee Association Expo in Houston, TX, to interview coffee pros at the Roastar, Inc. booth on the convention floor. Over two days, we recorded six episodes of Season 14. The fifth episode features Brigid Shaw, Co-Founder of Orgullo Coffee in Austin, TX. We chat about the company focus on Honduran coffee, relocating from NYC, traffic in Austin, and how she knew that she and her Co-Founder and Husband Marco could work together on a growing side hustle.
I’ve been thinking a lot about where we come from and where we end up as humans. I’m in the middle of a big move that involves about four months of floating between stable residences (by choice). Somewhere on the Oregon Scenic Byway, I started to relate the Orgullo story of two New Yorkers connecting with the Honduran roots of Co-Founder Marco Fuentes to start a business that they’d then move to Austin, TX to my own. The path is long and windy for us all—if not physically—emotionally!
When I was younger, I assumed I’d end up working and living in the town where I grew up. I couldn’t see beyond the Good Will Hunting dream of having a little house, running the local restaurant, and a couple of kids on the local Little League team with the kids of my friends from town. It was, and is, a good dream. I still feel nostalgic for it sometimes, but my path has led me further and further astray.
I’m typing this at a campground somewhere along the border of Oregon and Washington. A green beetle just landed on my hand, and there is a good chance a Western Scorpion (a real thing!) is crawling somewhere nearby. I’m a full-time podcaster in my 40s, with no kids in Little League, but a lovely wife and dog. It isn’t what I expected. It is different. For me, it is better.
Brigid and Marco started Orgullo as a side hustle. It wasn’t the original dream, but the coffees Marco’s Mom (capital M) kept sharing with them from her home country inspired them to look for more local options in Brooklyn. When they couldn’t find them, they started Orgullo to fill that niche.
Our guest this week, Brigid, is a born-and-raised New Yorker. It’s hard to imagine she grew up dreaming of a life in Texas, but as the coffee business grew and her life and Marco’s intertwined, things changed. Things are, I assume, better than imagined because she is following her coffee dream.
Sidenote: Orgullo means “pride” in Spanish.
*My wife inspired me to think beyond what I thought capable. It has been 22 years since we started dating, and this month marks 19 years since our wedding. If we hadn’t met in that Old Navy…This podcast probably doesn’t exist!
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The Orgullo Coffee packaging is produced by the Coffee People Podcast's presenting sponsor Roastar, Inc. They are a premier coffee packaging company utilizing digital printing. Roastar enables small-to-gigantic coffee businesses tell a big story. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4gIsHff.
One way they help support small businesses is by offering deals on coffee bags. Our Yeah, No…Yeah Coffee collaboration with Relative Coffee is packaged in a gusseted bag, and it is super badass.
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