Joeveo Press Kit

Here's some background information on Joeveo, our product, the Temperfect mug, and us. Let me know if you have any questions! There's a list of past news coverage on our Press page, and many (more) enthusiastic reviews from our customers on our Reviews page.

dean

About the Temperfect Mug

Have you ever had to wait too long for your freshly-brewed, or just-bought coffee's temperature to drop from volcanic to pleasantly drinkable? Or have you ever burnt your mouth because you didn't wait long enough?

The Temperfect mug from Joeveo brings your fresh, hot coffee or tea to a drinkable temperature in minutes, and keeps it there for hours. No burns, no waiting, no cold coffee.

It does this without batteries, electronics, or cords. We just added a layer of special insulation to a standard vacuum insulated travel mug. This "Temperfect" insulation absorbs the excess heat from your brew right away, stores it, then releases it slowly to keep your beverage just right for hours.

To use the mug, you just pour your too-hot-to-drink beverage in, wait a couple minutes, and enjoy—for hours if you like.

About Joeveo

Joeveo is a home-grown bootstrap startup which launched with a $270,000 Kickstarter campaign in 2014. Based in Wake Forest, NC, USA, where they have a factory to assemble the mugs, give them their Temperfect magic, and ship them directly, next day, to customers throughout the world. The mug parts are made in specialized factories in the USA and China using an approach called bishoring, which enables the company to provide jobs in the US while offering a product with maximum quality and minimum cost.

History, short version

This whole project got started in 1995 when I (Dean) got frustrated with my coffee first being too hot, and then suddenly cold. I was frustrated enough to think about what the perfect coffee mug would be, and came up with the idea of using a phase change material in the wall of the mug to quickly absorb the excess heat from the coffee and store it to keep the coffee hot. Working in my spare time, I did a bunch of research, design and modeling, then a series of more and more refined prototypes (picture) from 1997 until 2007. I tried for a while to interest established mug manufacturers (Thermos, Contigo, Stanley...) in the idea, but didn't find any takers. In 2011 I started the process of designing the "Temperfect" mug and putting together a Kickstarter campaign to finance its production myself.

In 2013 I was introduced to Logan Maxwell, a new graduate of one of our local universities, NC State. He had worked on the same coffee mug idea with his senior design project group, and wanted to help bring it to market. We finished work on the Kickstarter campaign together and launched it late that year, raising $270k in six weeks.

As it turned out, raising the money was the easy part. Money in hand, there ensued a truly epic Kickstarter project with years of problem-solving, learning, travel, frustration, late-night phone meetings. Natural disasters too: just weeks into the project a freak storm dropped a large pine tree on our prototype shop, almost cutting it in half. It took us three years to get our supply chain up and running and our Kickstarter rewards shipped, and almost another year after that to fulfill all the additional pre-orders accumulated during those years.

Logan went on to work at another Raleigh-local startup after the Kickstarter campaign, and I've been making and shipping our mugs, with the occasional help of a band of merry mugmakers, for over a year now.

About dean

A tinkerer from birth, he grew up in the family hardware store in Milwaukee where there were plenty of tinkering opportunities in the store's repair shop. He went on to get degrees in mechanical engineering and a PhD in physics, and to work for a decade as an optics specialist in an auto engine research lab in France. The Temperfect mug inspiration came to him in France, preparing coffee for late-night work sessions. Since then, he's transitioned from engine research to full-time mug maker in Wake Forest, NC.

Quotes

From dean, Joeveo:

"Joeveo is a home-grown (literally) bootstrap business right here in Wake Forest. Our products were designed here and are made here in a classic garage- and basement-based startup. Come visit us at 442 Pineview Dr. for a tour."
"We make travel mugs that solve the two problems people commonly have with their morning coffee (and tea): it's first too hot, and then too cold. Our mugs absorb the excess heat from your fresh brew right away, and then use that heat to keep it just right for hours."
"This is the kind of project that I have always been drawn to during my creative career: it combines my love of beautiful things through its careful aesthetic design, with my love of finding simple technical solutions to everyday problems like burning my lips and cold coffee!"

From our customers:

“I purchased a mug through your Kickstarter campaign...I absolutely love my mug and am lost without it.” Elaine R.
“Let me start by saying this has by far been my favorite mug of all time and I tell everyone I can about how awesome it is. Especially when I see someone trying to drink scalding coffee out of a certain cooler manufacturers mug.” Harold B.
“On Thursdays I volunteer for 5 hours at the local history center. Today I was amazed again that I filled my mug for the hour-long commute, did my time, and on the way home my remaining coffee was still warm enough to enjoy - 6 hours later! (I focus, so I forget to drink my coffee during the day!)” Karin G.
“I got two of the Temperfect mugs from the Kickstarter. They are fantastic and in use all day every day!” Brian E.
“I think I may be the only one of my mommy friends that gets to drink hot coffee every day no matter how the morning goes. Thanks!” Andrea T.
“I'm on my fourth cup of coffee now, and I have to say it really is absolute java bliss. No longer must I leave my hot beverage to cool for dozens of minutes, waiting and waiting to get that first sip of coffee. It's almost like a newfound sense of freedom, to be able to drink my coffee within less than two minutes after pouring it!” Dylan C.

Pictures


Our current color offerings: Aqua, Charcoal, Joeveo Orange	Prototypes, 1997-2007

Your coffee or tea will be perfect before and after yoga	Get it filled at your favorite coffee shop

Assembly and final cleaning at our US factory	Dean applying the mugmaker's touch to a mug at our US factory

The Temperfect works great in the office too	One month into our Kickstarter project our shop took a hit

Some of the Joeveo Crew of merry mugmakers	dean trimming mug parts in the prototype shop