Matt's Story
Though many enjoy the competition, not everyone enters the world of coffee with a desire to dominate it. Rather than aiming purely to maximize profit or secure accolades, Matt's journey with coffee has been driven by a fascination with all of its moving parts—from agriculture and post-harvest fermentation to thermodynamic engineering, service hospitality, and tech design.
In other words, the man is simply really into coffee, and that informs every decision he makes for Prototype Coffee, his Vancouver-based brand notable for the quality of its coffee and its unique approach to roasting and selling it.
"Maintaining that sense of curiosity is the best way to move forward in interesting directions. For me, it's not about needing to be the best or make a bunch of cash; we do it because we're fascinated and genuinely curious."
The Start of Something...
The name itself, "Prototype," was originally meant to be a simple placeholder for a local holiday market booth in November 2016, where Matt sold bottled cold brews and 100g jars of coffee. But placeholders sometimes have a way of sticking around, and the name of his then-work-in-progress did just that.
By March 2017, he officially launched Prototype Coffee as a part-time gig utilizing a single Aillio Bullet R1. Within months, the venture gained massive momentum, prompting Matt to take a leap of faith, quit his day job, and commit to the brand full-time.
Two Doors in Vancouver
Today, Prototype has two locations in Vancouver:
Strathcona Roastery & Tasting Room: The flagship location on East Hastings Street features a minimalist design interacting with natural elements and moss installations. Here, guests can enjoy an expansive brew bar flight alongside seasonal, scratch-made cake donuts baked on-site in a waffle iron—a creative food solution developed entirely during the 2020 lockdowns.
Mount Pleasant Tasting Room: Opened in 2024 on West 5th Avenue, this expanded cafe space operates inside Please! Beverage Co., collaborating directly with their team and executive chef to feature a full weekday lunch menu alongside Prototype's complete coffee lineup.
Re-Engineering the Production Line
What makes Prototype truly special is how Matt chose to scale up his production footprint. Instead of shifting to a massive commercial gas roaster, the brand expanded by scaling horizontally – today running four Aillio Bullet R1 roasters arranged as a dedicated "roasting bar."
Operating right behind the counter at Strathcona, this lean, ultra-flexible setup allows Prototype to completely rewrite the rules of inventory management.
No big batches here. Matt's team roasts exactly what is required to keep the shelves fresh. This unique operational layout gives them the freedom to carry over 20 distinct, highly traceable coffees at any given time, each dialed in with its own unique roast profile.
This micro-batch framework also allows Prototype to embrace risk-taking in their ethical green coffee sourcing, allowing a sense of "coffee adventure" to permeate and reinforce everything they do, especially as they develop personal relationships with trusted importers and producers.
"The extra flexibility (of the setup) also means that we are able to take more risks and act a little reckless with our green buying, trying out unusual processing methods, origins, or higher end coffees that are sometimes difficult to work with in a more traditional roastery setup."
Finding the Balance
When it comes to analyzing a roast curve, Matt leans heavily on achieving harmony. He designs Prototype's omni-roast profiles to maximize structural balance, believing that once a roaster perfectly balances sweet, sour, and bitter notes, the intrinsic characteristics of the bean come alive most clearly.
Ultimately, Matt treats the roasting process as an exercise in active listening.
"There's so much potential locked inside an un-roasted coffee bean: what we get to do as roasters is try to figure out how to get each bean to best express itself. It's an exercise in curiosity and listening, trying to uncover what a coffee is and what it's capable of."