“Good morning, let’s make a coffee!” rings out when one stumbles upon Colorado State University student Ellinor Davis’ TikTok page. Davis, who has amassed nearly 1,000 social media followers in the process of sharing her passion for coffee and conversation online, is the owner of Happenstance Coffee Company.
Davis said her love of coffee began in high school when she started working at Left Bank Pastry in her hometown of Olympia, Washington.
“It probably wasn’t until my freshman or sophomore year, I would say, that I kind of started getting into it,” Davis said. “Really, Left Bank is what kickstarted it, and I was like, ‘Wait, maybe I kind of do like black coffee.’ And then I was like, ‘Wait, I like the different flavors of it.’ And then it became so much more than just coffee.”
Human connection, she said, is what drove her to further pursue starting a coffee business.
“It’s the experience of sitting down and talking with someone, building connections with someone or giving someone their coffee for the day,” Davis said. “It’s much more than just the caffeine that it brings them, in my opinion. That’s the whole idea of Happenstance, bringing people together and having these conversations, (and) you just happen to be having a coffee.”
For Ellinor Davis, community and support from her family has fueled her business endeavors. Her father, Scott Davis, a financial adviser out of Washington, has witnessed this dream grow and helped her along the way.
“She’s always wanted to have her own money and do her own thing,” Scott Davis said. “She’s a little bit of an introvert herself, and she would say that, but she’s not shy. She found that working around that sort of business really facilitated this social interaction with the public that she’s just really thrived in.”
Through her passion for coffee and a desire for togetherness, Happenstance was born. Ellinor Davis happened upon a coffee cart on Facebook Marketplace and got to work.
“It all just kind of fell into my lap, and I think that’s what Happenstance is,” Ellinor Davis said. “It all fits the name because the (definition) of happenstance is that everything happens for some odd reason, and that’s why you’re in this very moment. I got the cart by happenstance, and here we are.”
The name “Happenstance” came from Ellinor Davis’ community at home.
“I was actually talking to a family friend back home, and he just dropped the word happenstance,” Ellinor Davis said. “He kind of told me the idea that, like, everything happens for chance, by chance, and it’s gotten you to this very moment. Whether it’s good or bad, and hopefully it’s good. It just kind of stuck, and then I kind of ran with the idea.”
“Your business is you, and you are your business. So I want people to support me for me and support the business for who I am and what it is.” –Ellinor Davis, Happenstance Coffee Company founder
Ellinor Davis has since found herself knee-deep in the process of getting a business started in her first year at CSU. Along with most new business owners, there have been some challenges along the way.
“I think (the biggest challenge) has been all the things that you have no idea you have to have for a business,” Ellinor Davis said. “I’d be emailing someone and they’re like, ‘Do you have this license?’ And I was like, ‘No, but I have this one.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, you need both.’ The greatest thing I’ve learned with that is just to ask questions. It’s those people’s jobs to tell you what to do and where you’d find it and all of that.”
Ellinor Davis, who is pursuing a degree in business administration with a focus on accounting and a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation, is putting what she learns to use every day, as well as managing a balancing act between classes and Happenstance.
“Knowing your finances as a business and knowing how to handle all of that is really important,” Ellinor Davis said. “It certainly can be a struggle to balance. It’s a balance that I like to have. I like to be busy. I like to be doing a lot of stuff. So having school and the cart is hard, but it works for me.”
On top of her academics and the day-to-day work of Happenstance, Ellinor Davis is marketing herself and her company on social media with daily coffee videos and other content.
“I made my little ‘make a coffee’ videos not expecting really anyone to see them,” Ellinor Davis said. ”I posted them occasionally at home and, like, high school friends saw them. But then people started DMing me and they were like, ‘Can I buy a coffee from you?’”
Ellinor Davis said she strives for authenticity on social media and in her business practice.
“Your business is you, and you are your business,” Ellinor Davis said. “So I want people to support me for me and support the business for who I am and what it is. I try to have that portrayed on social media as much as I can.”
For other young people in business, Ellinor Davis suggested that authenticity is the greatest tool available to them.
“Just freaking own it; walk in and be like, ‘Yeah, I’m Ellinor, the owner of Happenstance,’” Ellinor Davis said. “That’s the biggest piece of advice I can give because it’ll take you so far, and people will be able to feel that that’s the real you.”
Currently, Ellinor Davis can be found serving coffee at private events but said she hopes to continue growing Happenstance’s presence in the community.
“I do private events and gatherings,” Ellinor Davis said. “I think the goal, maybe this summer, is to try and work a wedding. I think that would be really, really cool.”
Though she has already seen success, Ellinor Davis is just getting started.
“I think that effort is 95% of the game, and she’s got all the skills to make that work,” Scott Davis said. “I just hope she pursues it to the end and loves it as much as she can and is willing to adjust when she needs to. And when that time comes, it’ll come and she’ll figure it out.”
Reach Gracie Douglas at life@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
