BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Two Stockdale High School graduates are building their entrepreneurship skills with a unique kind of coffee business and their main employee doesn't need breaks, just batteries.
Avya Shukla and Sanat Sharma both became friends when they started playing tennis together at Stockdale High School. Now, a few years later, they are breaking into the coffee industry one robot at a time.
The pair built a robot coffee machine that can brew over 150 choices at the click of a button. No one has to lift a finger for the coffee to be made. At least, not a human one.
"Depending on what you order, what type of milk you get, whether you want syrup or not, it will take it at different machines cause they each have different functions,” explained Shukla, one half of the duo who founded Bruu Bros. “I would say what we are trying to do is see the potential of this coffee robot, how it can change the coffee industry, and our goal is just to make a brand, make Bruu Bros big and the perfect quality fix for everyone.”
When getting started, the duo had to figure out legal processes, insurance, and health permits. They also had to pick the perfect logo. Their main goal, however, was to find their signature flavor. They found it all the way in Costa Rica.
“When we first started, it was like a year of just is different research on what kind of robot we want, what kind of machinery we want inside the robot, and the main part of the stress was really perfecting the coffee bean,” explained Sharma, the other half of the duo.
“After figuring all that out, we realized from a business perspective [that] we needed a coffee bean that was going to be really good because we knew that excitement of the robot only last so long,” said Shukla.
All customers have to do the order is go up to the ordering kiosk, similar to soda fountain machines at major fast food chains. All they have to do is pick a drink, scan a QR code to pay, and watch the magic happen.
“I calibrate all the settings," said Sharma. "For example, how hot the milk should come out, how many seconds it should come out, and what the aeration can be. We spent about 2 to 3 months figuring out exactly what we can do with the robot.”
In the future, Bruu Bros hopes to expand its robot to have a variety of locations, even out on the East Coast and in hospitals for 24/7 service for doctors and nurses.
“I would say both of us just have a passion for learning about what our dads do, what different businesses do locally," said Shukla. "We both have big dreams and we’re trying to work together to make our dreams come true.”
