Tech workers quit jobs to run Cybertruck-powered coffee shop
(KRON) - When a Tesla Cybertruck is spotted on the road, people will stop and take a look at the controversial vehicle. The pickup truck — whatever your feelings of it — will usually turn heads.
Now, imagine seeing coffee being served out of a Cybertruck.
That's what you'll see every Sunday at the Cupertino Farmers' Market in California, where husband and wife Ming Wood and Mabel Yeung set up their business Moonwake Coffee Roasters. The espresso machines, water heating and a variety of coffee-making equipment are powered by the Cybertruck.
The owners, however, don't want the focus to shift away from their main product: coffee.
"It is a very polarizing vehicle — for better or for worse," Yeung said. "We hope we catch people's attention with the visuals."
"It's still about the coffee, and we want to keep people here and engage people in conversation about the coffee too," Yeung added. "And the truck is a vehicle and tool to achieve those conversations."
Operating an entire business out of the Tesla truck "was certainly a crazy decision," Wood said. Perhaps quitting their well-paying and stable jobs in tech was, too.
Quitting tech jobs to run Cybertruck-powered coffee business
Wood says his passion for coffee began in 2018 when he was an engineer for Tesla. He started a club in the office to brew coffee with his coworkers and alleviate a stressful time working in the company.
The casual brewing of coffee in the office continued, and Moonwake Coffee Roasters officially began roasting in 2020, according to its website. Wood eventually left Tesla earlier this year to focus fully on the business.
During the pandemic, Wood brought Yeung, who was working at Meta at the time, along to join him on their coffee journey. As the next few years went by, the couple saw their customer base grow. Yeung then realized running Moonwake Coffee Roasters was what she enjoyed doing more. She quit her job at Meta in 2023.
Yeung, a first-generation Cupertino native whose parents immigrated from Hong Kong, comes from a family with a history in food service. Her grandparents ran a Chinese restaurant in Fresno. She says hospitality and serving food and drinks are part of her love language.
"There's only so much time that you have to spend on Earth. For me, it was to do something that was impactful to the people around me," Yeung said. "Prior to doing this, you work in a big company, it's easy to feel lost and a small cog in a machine — versus when you serve someone coffee, you can see that reaction. … That's also really powerful. Not something you get every day in a big company."
Wood, whose mother is Chinese and whose father is a white American, was born in Indiana and spent most of his younger years in Singapore. Upon graduation, Tesla was his first full-time job, and he has lived in California ever since.
Why did they use a Cybertruck?
Before launching the Cybertruck in February, Moonwake Coffee Roasters had to use multiple battery packs out of its gas-burning pickup truck since the farmers' market did not allow generators.
Trying to power two machines, hot water kettles and a sink became "too much" for their current setup. The couple then came to a crossroads, deciding whether they should transition to a full trailer load or get an electric truck. Since Wood worked for an electric vehicle company, he knew what electric trucks were capable of.
"It was a perfect fit for the equipment we wanted," Wood said about the Cybertruck. "When it came to electric trucks, you don't have many options that can power that. There's a lot of technical benefits that the Cybertruck had that no other trucks had."
Yeung said they wanted to maintain an "open and transparent interaction with our customers," which the Cybertruck provided.
"There's no walls," she said. "The way we have it set up is such that customers can see the whole process."
In a blog post on its website, Moonwake Coffee Roasters gave four reasons why it transitioned to the Cybertruck.
- More power
- Maintain open customer engagement
- Flexibility to test and share insights on different equipment and workflows
- Have fun
The full blog post, which expanded upon each of the four reasons, can be viewed on Moonwake's website.
Pros, cons of a Cybertruck-powered coffee business
Yeung said another pro is the portability of the vehicle, which may not be the case if they operated out of a trailer. Powering the business from the Cybertruck is much more efficient, Wood added.
Towing a trailer with all their equipment consumes more electricity than serving coffee for five hours at the Cupertino Farmers' Market, according to Wood. The 10-mile drive from their residence to the farmers' market consumes about 10% of the truck's battery.
In total, an entire day of business consumes about 30% battery.
In the previous setup, Wood would have to bring separate power banks and connect all of them together, which can be a problem if Wood had forgotten to charge one of the banks the night before. In the Cybertruck, Wood says all the plugs come from one centralized location in the back of the vehicle.
Some cons with the Cybertruck, Yeung says, include not being able to do popups indoors — meaning they have to hope for good weather.
Another con, according to Yeung, is that some people have such negative opinions about the Cybertruck, which turns them away from the coffee.
"We have actually seen people say, 'Oh, I'm not gonna buy from this coffee roaster because of the Cybertruck.'"
Future for Moonwake Coffee Roasters
With the mobility of the Cybertruck, the couple tossed around the idea of doing a pop-up in Yosemite. Yeung says they plan to open a cafe roastery in West San Jose by the end of the year.
Moonwake Coffee Roasters is open every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Cupertino Farmers' Market at De Anza College. You can also order coffee on Moonwake Coffee Roasters' website.