GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Seattle, Washington, to meet up with Aaron Lindstrom, the chocolatier and musician behind Cocoa Legato, a one-of-a-kind chocolate factory, coffee shop, and café that harmonizes sweet treats and live music.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

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♪ GARY: My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country faces significant challenges, small business owners are navigating their way through a changing global marketplace with strength and perseverance, while continuing to push the economy forward.

We've set out for a 13th consecutive season talking to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they learn to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

This is Start Up.

♪ From its ancient Mesoamerican origins, chocolate's history transformed dramatically upon its introduction to Europe in the 16th century.

Sweetened with sugar and honey, it became a fashionable luxury among the aristocracy.

The creation of solid chocolate in the 19th century, followed by the development of milk chocolate and countless other confections, cemented its status as a globally cherished indulgence, enjoyed in various forms today.

Today, I'm heading to Seattle, Washington to meet up with Aaron Lindstrom, the creator of Cocoa Legato, a one-of-a-kind chocolate factory, coffee shop, and café.

Through his passions for music and chocolate, Aaron created an experience that tantalizes both the palate and in the ears.

I'm excited to see how he's merging his passions into one unique venture.

♪ What is Cocoa Legato, the name itself mean?

AARON: Yeah, so cocoa is the fruit where chocolate comes from.

GARY: Sure.

AARON: And then legato is a musical term.

The definition of legato is smooth and flowing without breaks between notes, which is exactly how I describe eating chocolate.

I was trying to find two words together that the whole brand is chocolate and music.

I wanted to bring those two words together.

And once I said out loud, "Cocoa Legato," I was like, "Oh, perfect."

GARY: Let's go back to the beginning and tell me a bit about yourself.

AARON: I was born in Colombia and then adopted in the States when I was about one year old.

I'm Colombian but raised in America.

I've been a music maker since day one.

I started playing piano when I was just a couple of years old and I play guitar, I play bass, I sing.

Music is just ingrained in everything I do.

Was living in Oakland and working as a musician, and that doesn't pay bills.

GARY: Not always.

AARON: At the time, it didn't pay bills.

I started working at a chocolate factory just in their cafe as a barista, and that spiraled into them being like, "Oh, you should help give tours."

"Oh, you should help lead tastings."

Over the years, I started just giving lectures on sustainable cocoa sourcing, lectures on chocolate making.

Then I moved home to Seattle.

One of my best friends had worked at this company here in Seattle and was like, "If you have three years experience, I can get you in the door."

So, I started working in chocolate here in Seattle.

I worked at that chocolate factory for almost a decade, and it just cultivated this deep love and passion.

GARY: Let's go back to when the idea first hit you.

AARON: When I was working at another chocolate company, we got a really cool opportunity to make a chocolate bar with Pearl Jam.

GARY: With Pearl Jam?

AARON: Yeah.

GARY: The whole band?

AARON: Yeah.

They did called The Home Shows, a big two shows here in Seattle where the money that they raised from the shows went to their Vitology Foundation, which went to a array of different local organizations trying to help combat the homeless crisis in the city.

And I'm a diehard fan.

I reached out and was like, "Hey, can we help out?"

They were like, "Chocolate?

Of course."

So, we made a chocolate bar with them, and part of the proceeds went to their Vitology Foundation.

GARY: Amazing.

AARON: And people just lit up seeing their favorite band, the hometown heroes, with chocolate.

That was this little like, "Oh.

I was able to bring my music passion "and my chocolate passion together, and it worked."

Both from an enjoyment, making your heart full standpoint.

GARY: Right.

AARON: And from a financial standpoint.

Bringing these things together works out for everyone.

That was the first like, "I wonder how I could maybe on my own merge chocolate and music together."

GARY: How do you turn it into a reality?

AARON: I sat down with pen and paper and first designed it.

I was like, "Okay, "I know I want people to be able to enjoy live music "and chocolate at the same time.

What does that physically look like?"

Putting together a five-year plan.

What is it going to take to make the business a success?

One of those things is not just chocolate, it's also live music.

It's also a café.

There's multiple revenue streams coming in.

So I'm not just reliant on people coming in to buy a chocolate bar.

GARY: You had to find a space, right?

AARON: Finding a space was a venture.

Since it's a café, foot traffic's an important thing.

There's one spot I was looking at for a long time.

The landlord was, we'll say, difficult to work with.

I had a great real estate agent who showed me this space, which was completely empty.

There was no walls.

The front windows were just wood that was nailed up.

It was completely empty.

But- GARY: That could mean a good deal.

AARON: That gave me like, okay, yeah, A, a good deal.

B, the landlord here has been like the dream come true.

It's been two years of work, a year and a half of construction.

I'd say most everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong.

One inspector might say, "I want you to do it this way," so you do it that way.

Then another inspector comes in and goes, "Oh, no, I want this way."

And you then have to acquiesce to what that inspector said, even though you have documentation and paperwork from another one.

GARY: Ugh, wow.

AARON: That then led to a five-month delay.

It allowed for other things to happen and for me to plan, do more test batches of chocolate in my home kitchen.

As things progressed, it allowed me... I had already done a lot of things which I would have had to cram into a smaller amount of time if we were going to try to open our original date.

GARY: Was there ever any time over the course of that period that you literally was ready to give up?

Like, "I can't do this anymore."

AARON: There might have been moments before I signed the lease where I was, whether it's working with the previous, trying to work with the previous landlord or business planning and zooming out and being like, "Oh, this is three businesses.

"I'm not just starting a chocolate factory.

"I'm not just starting a café.

I'm not just starting a music venue."

GARY: Doing it all.

AARON: This is three, and it's just me.

GARY: Yeah.

AARON: Prior to signing the lease, there are definitely moments of like, "Okay, maybe I'm actually paying bills "by playing music and "working at this elementary school.

Maybe I just do this."

Then the second, I'm on that 60-page lease or however many pages, and you're initialing every page, you're like, "Well, there's no turning back.

I am legally bound to this building."

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: Let's talk about opening week.

How did it feel getting up to that date and what was the opening day like?

AARON: It was kind of like a movie, like the stereotypical thing where everyone's freaking out and running around.

We had machines break down on us that are crucial machines two weeks before we opened.

We're making chocolate by hand.

Do we have enough chocolate to stock the shelves?

Lights are still being installed.

We put a big thing out for opening day.

We were doing ribbon cutting at 10:00.

At 9:30, we are scrambling to still package chocolate bars, get things on the shelves, and there's no one outside.

I'm like, "Okay, that's fine."

9:40, there's five people.

I'm like, "Okay, cool.

There's someone here for me to cut a ribbon to."

Then by 9... People in Seattle are punctual, I guess, because by 9:50, the line went down the street and around the block.

GARY: Amazing.

AARON: I was just like, "Oh, okay, cool."

We were still packaging bars.

I had one of my best friends was one of the first people in line.

I opened the door.

I was like, "Get in here.

"This is how you package the chocolate bar.

"Take it out, do it like this, fold it like that, and put it on the shelf."

GARY: Training.

AARON: He's like, "Oh, okay."

It was down to the wire.

We've been open two plus weeks now, and every other person that comes in just says, "Thank you for opening," or like, "This is so cool.

Thank you for bringing music to the neighborhood."

People here just want to see the city grow in a cool local way.

GARY: Talk about the first time you heard about Cocoa Legado.

RAY: We went to go tour a variety of spaces in town when he was just first starting to think about what it might look and feel like and what size he might need.

It was interesting being in some of these spaces with him because the whole space was just a concrete bunker, no plumbing, no electricity, just a hole in the ground.

We walked around it, and Aaron, again, immediately saw potential everywhere.

I was thinking, "Man, this seems like a really huge project, "even bigger than starting three businesses at once is building from the ground up."

To think back to that and to be in this space now where there's paint and light and machines and sound, and it's really a special transformation.

GARY: What is the strategy for marketing and continually bringing in new customers all the time or bringing in regular customers, keeping them here?

AARON: We have partnered up with Caffe Vita for our coffee, and they're some of the most beloved coffee makers in the city.

I think they have some of the best coffee in the city.

They have been so supportive of us.

I think in this neighborhood, people are excited to have this high level of coffee available to them.

We make, I think, the best mocha in the world.

That's also the good thing with chocolate, whether it's a mocha, coffee, chocolate, a lot of the marketing, it speaks for itself.

People have a bar and they're like, "Wow, this is really good."

They're going to tell their friends.

We've had people coming in being like, "Hey, my friend said you have the best mocha in town."

And that word of mouth has been incredible.

We definitely have the best chocolate chip cookie you've ever had.

All our pastries are vegan.

And we've had that, too, people just coming in like, "Okay, "all my friends have told me about this cookie.

I need to try this cookie."

♪ GARY: What do you do here at Cocoa Legato?

KATY: I am the executive chef.

So in addition to helping Aaron make chocolate, I designed all of the pastries and light bites that we serve in the café.

GARY: What do you love most about being an executive chef?

KATY: Getting to experiment and play around with different recipes is always really fun.

The other day, we were just working on an espresso version of our chocolate mousse.

Getting to test things out and taste test is always really fun.

GARY: Talk about the process of getting the place open.

KATY: During that process, what I was doing was developing some of the recipes at home.

And then Aaron and I also tested a lot of our chocolate recipes just from his home kitchen.

So we would be in there roasting, winnowing, doing the whole process just from his apartment.

GARY: Are you excited about this or what?

KATY: It's so exciting.

Yeah, this is one of the most fun things I've ever gotten to do.

I was one of the first employees that he brought on, so I've really been here since the beginning, and it's been so fun to watch it go from an empty shell of a building to this actual full-fledged amazing chocolate company and café.

It's been so much fun.

♪ GARY: What is the makings of a good bean versus a bad bean?

AARON: You don't want one that's too small because we're going to roast these.

If it's too small, it'll maybe burn.

Even if something this small burns, that burn smell will then hit the rest of the beans.

And kind of give you a toasty flavor you don't want.

So you go through one by one.

GARY: So this is cacao beans in the raw?

AARON: Yeah.

Just unroasted fresh beans.

We're going to pull things out like that.

That's too small.

GARY: Okay.

AARON: We'll put them aside.

GARY: This little guy here.

AARON: All right, you can take those.

I'm going to roast them in our oven.

A lot of companies use a full roaster.

We're still small, so we use this.

GARY: All right, this rack's okay?

AARON: Yeah, perfect.

GARY: Okay, pop these babies in the oven.

How long does it take for the beans to roast?

AARON: Anywhere between 20, 35 minutes.

GARY: That's it?

AARON: Yeah.

You could give the exact same type of beans to two different chocolate makers.

They're going to roast them differently, and you're going to get different flavors in your chocolate.

GARY: That's where the proprietary aspect of your flavor profile comes from.

AARON: Yeah.

Yeah.

The way you roast.

AARON: Yeah.

♪ GARY: Packaging time.

AARON: We have our chocolate.

Take the bar and just gently flip it upside down.

GARY: Okay.

AARON: And there you go.

GARY: Oh, sweet, man.

I haven't looked at the bar yet.

It's a vinyl record with the stylist.

Okay.

AARON: Yeah.

So full vinyl record has our little logo there.

It's name, Cocoa Logado.

Like I said, everything chocolate and music.

GARY: So cool, man.

I love it.

AARON: Our packaging, also all chocolate.

Each bar is a different instrument.

GARY: Okay.

AARON: We package this all by hand.

Kind of pinch it like that.

GARY: Okay.

And then slide it in?

AARON: And slide it in.

Each chocolate bar comes with his own music pairing.

I want to be accentuating Seattle musicians.

Each chocolate bar comes with the local musician that I think their music pairs best with that chocolate.

GARY: Okay.

How do you know what chocolate pairs or with what song or artist is going to pair with what chocolate?

It's just a vibe?

A feeling?

AARON: For like the sea salt bar is an artist O'Lella, and when I listen to her music, it sounds like I'm at the ocean.

It's just this calming, soothing, beautiful cello music.

Because I'm sitting at the ocean, it makes me like, sea salt.

She's the sea salt bar.

GARY: Then there's a QR code inside, correct?

AARON: Exactly.

You open it up, chocolate bar, and then music pairing, QR code, scan that, and it takes you to a web page that tells you who the artist is, why we picked them, how to listen to the music while eating your chocolate, and then most importantly, links on how to support that artist.

Whether it's their merch, their Spotify, their Instagram, the hope is that as these chocolate bars go nationwide, the music follows them.

GARY: This is so amazing, man.

I get it, and the pairings make sense, and you're doing something great for the artist.

I'm really geeked about this.

AARON: Thank you.

Me too.

GARY: Incredibly excited about it.

♪ So the community of musicians in Seattle really do support each other?

AARON: Yeah, I've played music in different cities, and there's such a community here in Seattle of people that want to help each other, people that want to lift each other up.

GARY: Really?

AARON: I think when I first started playing music here the first six months with my band, we didn't have to reach out to book anything because we would meet a musician, he'd be like, "Oh, you should open for us."

And then we meet someone else like, "Oh, open for us."

It's just so helpful and so kind.

Everyone wants to see each other succeed.

I've seen the same thing in the food scene here in Seattle.

There's a lot of amazing organizations in the city to help boost the punk and the rock scene.

There isn't as much of the folk, but I think some of the most incredible singer-singer songwriters I have ever seen are in the current scene here in Seattle.

GARY: Really?

AARON: And so, that's something I want to do with this business is help accentuate and help amplify the voices of the folk musicians, the indie songwriters.

Because there's something about Seattle, when it does rain all the time and you got to sit inside, that just means you're sitting inside with your guitar and you're just writing music.

Yeah, some of my favorite songwriters are here in the city, and I think they need to be amplified more than they currently are.

♪ GARY: I understand that your music has been paired with a chocolate bar here?

KATIE: Yes.

GARY: Talk about that.

KATIE: I think I'm with the 70% Colombian cacao chocolate.

It was my song called "Honey" that he paired it with.

Aaron's just such a great friend that I was happy to be asked and be involved.

GARY: Yeah.

KATIE: It was such like, How cool is that?

I get to be in a chocolate bar.

GARY: It's different.

Yeah.

KATIE: Yeah.

For sure.

I want to send the chocolate bar to my family and my friends and like brag about it.

Not just because I'm in there, but because I'm actually proud of the things that Aaron has done.

GARY: Yeah.

KATIE: So, yeah, I'm stoked about it.

GARY: For folks in the Seattle area that haven't been here.

It's open now.

What would you say to them?

KATIE: "Why aren't you here yet?"

(laughs) No, you definitely... Come in, listen to some music.

If you are in a band, definitely hit them up, play a show, and get the chocolate chip cookie.

GARY: Get the chocolate... I keep hearing about this.

I can't wait to try.

KATIE: I've been thinking about it for weeks.

♪ GARY: How were you able to come up with the funding that it took to not only build this place out, but open and buy the equipment and everything?

AARON: The couple of investors that had seen when I did at my previous chocolate company.

My 401k from working at a company for almost a decade.

GARY: Okay, that's all in.

AARON: Yeah.

So, we're banking on this working, so come buy chocolate, please.

GARY: What are we talking equipment-wise?

Was that a challenge to get this place outfitted with the high-end chocolate making?

AARON: Yeah, it was a challenge.

But then also another great community is the craft chocolate community.

There's a little Facebook group for craft chocolate makers who are selling gear, looking for gear.

The company I used to work for no longer has a factory in Seattle.

When they shut their factory down, we got to go in and acquire a lot of their gear.

It's nice, both from a financial standpoint, to have saved thousands of dollars by getting used gear.

Also, it's just nice because I'm familiar with everything.

GARY: Was it scary a little bit knowing that another chocolate factory, one especially that you worked with or were familiar was no longer in business, and yet you were opening up the same business model?

Was there any fear around that?

AARON: Oh, yeah.

I think a solid two years of moments of doubts.

But at the same time, something that's going to help make me successful is having my goals in sight and staying in my lane.

I want to make good chocolate bars.

I don't want to expand things too far out and not getting too big or not trying to grow faster than we can.

That is what makes me feel pretty confident and not too worried.

This last two years, all my friends and family have seen me have my panic moments, my freak out moments, because I don't know how to build- I don't know how to route electricity, how to route plumbing.

I've had to learn how to do all that, a lot of YouTube videos.

This is the part of the business now where I am calm because I have done this part before.

I know how to make good chocolate.

GARY: Yeah.

AARON: I know how to make chocolate people want.

And I feel, yeah, the running the business part, that's the part I feel good about.

GARY: How important is it to keep a positive mental attitude in this business?

AARON: It's everything.

GARY: It's everything.

It is.

AARON: It is everything.

And again, that's why surrounding yourself with the best people possible, whether it's my incredibly supportive family, my incredibly supportive friends.

So having surrounded myself with nothing but positivity definitely helped me on days when I felt like I was just drowning in... It's the thing if the shipment of cocoa beans is lost, so I can't make a test batch, but I need to make that test batch so I can get the Nutrition Facts label information to the company that makes that, because then I need to get the packaging confirmed, because then I need to have the other organization confirm our packaging, but I need to have the other organization print the packaging, but I can't do any of that until I get my beans.

Then you just have to sit there like, "Okay, "these beans "are flying around the country somewhere.

"It's out of my control.

Just have to let it be.

What else can I do in the meantime?"

GARY: As you sit right now, if you could go back and talk to yourself at the very beginning of starting this, what would be the best advice you would give yourself?

AARON: Just breathe.

You're going to get there.

You love it enough, you're going to get there.

Just breathe.

GARY: Relax.

AARON: Yeah, just relax.

Two routes.

It would have either been "Just breathe" or, "Dude, calm down.

It's going to be fine."

GARY: Best advice for somebody interested in starting something similar in this category, a brick and mortar space?

AARON: You need to love it, and you need to know it's going to take more time than you thought.

If you love it and you have the passion for it, that'll then help you out when it inevitably takes considerably longer than you thought it would.

But I can't fathom putting all the work into this I have if I didn't love it.

So whatever you're doing, you just have to have the passion for it.

You just have to have the love for it, and that'll then push you through all the hard times.

GARY: I have to admit that I'm a serious coffee addict.

From the time I wake up and throughout the day, it's very rare to see me without a coffee in my hand.

And I also love chocolate.

It's my weakness, my kryptonite, as a self-declared chocaholic.

And music, oh, music.

It's the soundtrack to every moment of my life and always has been.

And I think you all know by now how I feel about small business.

So you could imagine my level of excitement when Jenny, our casting director and producer, told me about Cocoa Legato, an amazing coffee shop that handmakes chocolate and hosts live music and makes the best mocha in the history of mocha making, this is a dream come true.

And it did not disappoint.

Because Aaron has it figured out.

And I'm not talking just about the business part.

I'm talking about the life part.

He's found a way to blend his three passions that seemingly have no connection, but then put them together in a space that welcomes and inspires the community.

And Aaron's goal may not be a thousand location franchise and a gazillion dollars in the bank, but Aaron is doing exactly what he loves on his terms, and he's making a good living doing it.

And when you boil it down, isn't that really the goal?

Do what you love and get paid for it.

It's possible.

And Aaron's doing it.

Now it's your turn.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Cocoa Legato.

Next time on Start Up, we head to Detroit, Michigan, to meet up with Keith Walker, the founder of Sarovyn, an innovative venture that blends fun, fitness, and community.

Be sure to join us next time on Start Up.

Do you want to learn more about the show?

Or maybe nominate a business?

Visit us at StartUp-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long GARY: You're not my father.

CAMERAMAN: He's not your father.

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