Unlike the common Silicon Valley approach of securing massive venture capital, hiring large sales teams, and scaling rapidly, Decent Espresso prioritizes caution and sustainability. Because the business is funded by the founders' own life savings and family investments, they are highly risk-averse. The primary goals have been to avoid bankruptcy and prevent the damage to their reputation that often accompanies rushing a product to market before it is fully ready.
Decent aimed to create the first truly "scientific" espresso machine, capable of precise measurement where previous machines were not. Recognizing that they would likely encounter significant design flaws, the company intentionally produced small, controlled batches to identify and fix issues. The first batch was limited to only 280 machines, followed by 750 in the second, ensuring the product reached a high level of quality before attempting wider scale distribution.
Sales were initially slow, with the company selling only 27 machines in January 2020. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased demand as more people working from home sought high-quality espresso equipment. While this surge created a challenge for their manufacturing capacity, which was not yet optimized for such volume, the founders moved back to Hong Kong to refine their production processes and finally achieved the ability to ship 290 machines in a single month.