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From start-up to storefront: How one Mercer student launched a coffee business

With help from the Mercer Innovation Center, Z Beans Coffee will officially open in Macon on Monday

Shane Buerster is putting the finishing touches on his new coffee shop the day before his grand opening.

A couple years ago, he never thought this is where he'd be.

"The only thing I cared about was baseball. As hard as I work on Z Beans now, was the exact same way I was about sports, but unfortunately, baseball was not what I was meant to do in the long run," Buerster said.

The 22-year-old entrepreneur owns his own business called Z Beans Coffee, which he started while studying Spanish and Economics abroad in Zaruma, Ecuador during his senior year.

"Our goal was to see if coffee was a viable alternative to gold mining, but what I got out of that trip was a friendship with a 65-year-old local Zarumian native named Arturo. When I returned to the states, Arturo and I would speak every night and simply one night he asked if I'd be interested in starting up a coffee business," Buerster said.

Buerster started selling coffee out of his dorm room.

He reached out to the Mercer Innovation Center and was able to use their office space as a resident before applying for the fellowship.

Z Beans was one of three businesses to win a fellowship with the The Mercer Innovation Center.

The prize package include up to $20,000 in funding, access to Mercer's facilities, and mentoring from the Center's advisory board.

Applicants have to submit a brief business plan and give a live pitch in front of the Center's board.

Director Stephanie Howard says Buerster's journey with the Center had been quite the ride.

"He went through all the programming that is required for every business that is incubated here, and then applied again and was chosen as a fellow. It seems like an overnight process, but it is not. Shane has been working extremely hard for a few years now on this company," Howard said.

With the fellowship money, Buerster said it's helping him take his business to the next step.

"It creates opportunities for us and continues to allow us to save up to what we hope to have a roasting facility here in the middle Georgia area," Buerster said.

He plans on putting the roasting facility in downtown Macon, which will also be the company's headquarters.

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