November 30, 2025

If you had told me six months ago that I would become the cofounder of a company selling luxury coffee to create jobs for people with special needs, I would have said you were crazy. Yet here we are. My cofounder, Bob Wierda, and I—both fathers of children with special needs—are now committed to building opportunities for a community that is too often overlooked.

The inspiration for this company began with a shared realization. As parents, Bob, Joanne, Liz, and I saw firsthand the lack of meaningful employment opportunities available to people with disabilities. Early-2020s employment data showed that only about 30–40% of disabled people were employed, compared to roughly 70% of non-disabled people. Employers often overestimate the limitations of people with disabilities and assume accommodations are more difficult than they actually are.

This issue is personal for my wife and me. Our son Nicholas, who has Down syndrome, has been underestimated since before he was born. When we received his diagnosis in 2019, doctors and geneticists painted a future filled with limitations and challenges. With little experience in the disability community, we had no counterweight to their negativity. It was an incredibly painful time.

Thankfully, we had friends like Bob and Joanne, who were two years ahead of us on a similar journey with their son Desmond. Their reassurance helped us push through the fear. And then Nicholas arrived.

The early months were not easy—two months in the NICU, feeding challenges, and a heart procedure. But the six years since have been extraordinary. Nick may be on his own developmental timeline, but he is a force of nature. He is not very verbal, yet he communicates with charisma. He works a room. He loves Elmo, books, and “Wheels on the Bus.” He goes to his siblings’ basketball games, plays endless games with his grandmother, and has drawn an entire community of friends, teachers, and professionals into his orbit.

Nick has defied every gloomy prediction we were given, and because of that, we think constantly about his future. He wants to do everything his brothers and sisters do—play sports, join the conversation, take part in whatever is happening. Nick is bound by how others define him, and we endorse that. One day, he will want to work.

We expect all five of our children to reach for the stars, and that includes Nick. So rather than waiting for society to close the employment gap for people with disabilities, we decided to build a solution ourselves. Our company’s mission is simple: create an infrastructure that will allow Nick, and others like him, to work with dignity and purpose.

A few weeks in, we already employ several special needs adults, ages 18 to 51, who help us pack our coffee. For many, it’s their first job and their first paycheck. The joy, confidence, and camaraderie we see at each packing session affirm that we’re on the right path.

But this is only the beginning. With each bag purchased, we aim to move closer to scaling this model—first locally, then regionally, and eventually nationally. Today, we employ a handful of people; tomorrow, we hope to employ hundreds in a full brick-and-mortar operation.

We are dreaming big. Nick has taught us that defying expectations is not only possible—it’s who he is. He proves every day that hope wins over doom and gloom, and we plan to build a company that reflects that truth. So please try our coffee, join our community, and help us expand employment opportunities for the special needs community. Let’s get more people like Nick in the workplace and in our orbit. It will change your life. It changed ours.

 

Employment data from:

https://relayresources.org/blog/3-disability-employment-myths-and-the-truths-that-shatter-them

https://www.aapd.com/why-is-the-employment-gap-for-people-with-disabilities-so-consistently-wide/

 David DiLuciano