Episode Overview

Born and raised on the west coast of British Columbia, Mickey McLeod has had an entrepreneurial bent since he was young. After leaving high school, Mickey worked as a tree planter for a couple of seasons before he realized that he had what it took to become a tree-planting contractor. He figured out how to get a successful bid, hired a crew and went to work – doing that on and off for the next 10 years. He then started his own sawmill business on Salt Spring Island in the mid-1980s and ran that until he started his next venture: Salt Spring Coffee.  

 Mickey founded Salt Spring Coffee with his wife Robbyn Scott in 1996. Growing up among the 1960s counterculture movement on Texada Island had exposed Mickey to the ideas of sustainability, organic farming and taking care of the environment – values which he brought to Salt Spring Coffee.

 The company was one of the first to bring organic, fair-trade coffee to B.C. and, through initiatives like its zero-waste program and B Corp certification, continues to strive to have a positive impact on people and the planet.      

“Be curious, do your research and if it feels right, go for it!”

In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and Scotiabank, Mickey McLeod takes us along his entrepreneurial journey and how he took the bold leap into the world and business of coffee with Salt Spring Coffee.

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