Brewing Change
Poole alumna Lindsay Wrege, co-founder of 321 Coffee, is redefining inclusion through meaningful employment.
What began as a casual exploration of entrepreneurship between NC State alumni Lindsay Wrege, Business Administration ’21, and Michael Evans, B.S. Statistics ’20, M.S. Statistics ’21, has grown into one of the Triangle’s most socially impactful businesses: 321 Coffee. The company creates meaningful employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and operates on NC State’s Centennial Campus, in Downtown Raleigh, at the State Farmers Market and in local grocery stores.
From Curiosity to Creation
The idea for the business started during their freshman year, when Wrege and Evans were exploring entrepreneurship through a general education requirement. Initially, 321 Coffee was a side project fueled by curiosity and passion rather than a long-term business plan.
“That felt like such a unique introduction to entrepreneurship because we approached it without the pressure of having to launch or scale,” Wrege recalls. The founders treated the project as a fun experiment, tackling one challenge at a time and learning as they went, which allowed them to grow naturally without feeling overwhelmed.
A Vision For Inclusion
The vision for 321 Coffee was born from Wrege’s lifelong friendships within the disability community. When she was a high school senior about to graduate, Wrege was struck by the glaring inequality in opportunity between her and her friends, a reality that felt impossible to ignore. For Wrege, the future meant college and possibility, and for many of her friends it meant limited options and overlooked potential. That realization became painfully clear when a close friend with Down Syndrome revealed that she was never trusted with anything beyond cleaning bathrooms.
“I knew she was capable of more — and wanted more,” Wrege says. Confronted with the fact that employment opportunities for people with disabilities were scarce and often unfulfilling, Wrege and Evans founded 321 Coffee to redefine what inclusion looks like in the workplace.
Programs that Propelled Their Journey
During their junior year at NC State, Wrege and Evans joined the Andrews Launch Accelerator (ALA), drawn by the program’s strong reputation. They saw it as an opportunity to mature 321 Coffee — to think more strategically about scaling, systems and infrastructure. That same year, the pandemic struck, introducing unprecedented challenges to their small food and beverage company, which employed people with disabilities, including many who were immunocompromised.
The mentorship and lessons from ALA taught them to pivot creatively, leading to the decision to roast their own coffee and refine their business model.
Following graduation from NC State, Wrege and Evans were selected for the Miller Fellowship, which provided further mentorship and resources, connecting them with a broader network of founders. Building something from the ground up can feel daunting, but the support of their fellow founders made the journey worthwhile, Wrege says.
“We didn’t graduate with the safety net of job security, flashy benefits or signing bonuses — but being in that environment reminded us that rolling up our sleeves and putting in the work was more than enough.”
Growing Impact and Expanding Reach
Today, 321 Coffee continues to grow and evolve while staying true to its mission of creating meaningful work for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The team has expanded their roastery and recently launched their products into Wegmans, alongside other grocery stores and offices, with plans to reach more universities in the future.
They also launched a mobile cart to serve customers at events and pop-ups across the Triangle. Having already achieved 10% of their ten-year goal of creating one million meaningful work hours, Wrege and Evans are constantly finding new ways to scale their impact, strengthen their business and demonstrate that entrepreneurship can be a powerful force for inclusion and social change.
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