Lavin Student Spotlight
For our first ever Lavin student spotlight we have chosen Jerred Mace, a junior at the University of Washington majoring in design. As all Lavin students have their own entrepreneurial ambitions, Jerred’s started about 2 years ago when he founded his W/Joy Project.
With all great endeavors there is a source of inspiration. Jerred’s inspiration came from your everyday barista. He was in awe as he watched his local barista in Spokane, WA write simple notes such as “Have a nice day!” on coffee lover’s cups. Jerred soon became inspired as he could see the positive influence being spread from the barista’s joyous expression. Especially in the unprecedented times we have experienced this past year, anything to uplift our spirits is important. Jerred wanted to expand this grateful gesture that he witnessed at his local coffee shop and make it more seamlessly integrated into the coffee environment.
It was then that Jerred utilized his design skills to set out and create his W/Joy coffee sleeves. Each coffee sleeve is hand crafted by Jerred and comes with an embedded message to brighten your day. These messages range from all sorts of influential people such as famous philosophers all the way to movie stars. To date Jerred has made over 4,000 coffee sleeves and counting. Even though W/Joy has been a labor intensive project for him, it has not slowed his vision of making the project timeless.
Currently, Walnut Street Coffee in Edmonds, Washington has partnered with Jerred and W/Joy. If you happen to be near this local coffee shop, every wednesday each customer will receive a W/Joy coffee sleeve in addition to their coffee as a part of Walnut Street Coffee’s “W/Joy Wednesday” campaign. Every customer’s day is brightened with the motivational quotes found in each sleeve, and that cheerful feeling is noticeably shared with all that are touched by the W/Joy project.
What is next for Jerred and his W/Joy mission? Jerred has many future goals he hopes to reach with his project, but his main goal is centred around expansion. Jerred has an ambitious set of objectives to grow W/Joy. Since the production of the coffee sleeves is quite exhausting for one person and creates many constraints for Jerred, he is looking for a larger partnership with a firm that has the resources for a unique project like his to help get it off the ground. Furthermore, he hopes to formalize the business entity side of W/Joy. With these two aspects of the project that Jerred wants to achieve and improve upon, he hopes to scale W/Joy outward in the community towards more coffee shops. The calling of spreading happiness and smiles to customers will remain a driving force for Jerred and the future of W/Joy.
Jerred made a good point that all entrepreneurs can resonate with by saying that, “Half the battle is knowing where to go”. Along the way Jerred has received a lot of support from Lavin as well as the Buerke Center of Entrepreneurship. Faculty members such as everyone’s favorite Alex Eli have always aided Jerred in pointing him in the right direction when there was a moment of struggle. Jerred has been able to connect with many resources that the University of Washington provides for their students such as the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic through the UW School of Law. With the law clinics help Jerred was able to formulate a more concrete legal strategy for W/Joy and he plans on continuing to work with them this year. In addition to this, Jerred has also taken advantage of the Build Your Own Business (BYOB) workshop at UW and their outstanding faculty with real startup experience. Jerred has made strong relationships with these certain faculty members in the BYOB workshop that have opened up numerous business opportunities and learning experiences for him and he couldn’t be more grateful for the support. Without these resources and connections Jerred has made he does not know what chapter of the startup story W/Joy would be on today.
One of Jerred’s favorite messages embedded in his W/Joy coffee sleeves is a quote by Pablo Picasso:
“Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
This message from the historically famous artist is a both a life goal of Jerred’s and a good reminder for us all to remain curious about the world.
Jerred’s story is no doubt an inspiring one in all aspects and gives others with an entrepreneurial mindset insight into the steps that need to be taken to start your own business. Overall, the Lavin community is honored to have someone so talented be part of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Program and is even more excited to see what the near future holds for Jerred and his W/Joy project.
If you want to check out more about W/Joy click the link here: https://www.wjoyproject.com/
There is also a great K5 news report with Jerred and his W/Joy project here: https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/uw-design-student-makes-spreading-joy-his-business/281-eef2fe92-b916-45e5-9401-6f9d0d163358
Photo Credits: W/Joy Project