When Anton Krecic started his pro-life coffee company, Seven Weeks Coffee, four years ago, he didn’t know where it would lead. Today, he is amazed at its success: the company has grown enough to donate $1 million to pro-life organizations and save an estimated 9,000 unborn babies.
“When I started it, it was just, ‘Let’s raise some money for our local pregnancy resource center,'” Krecic, founder and CEO of Seven Weeks Coffee, told Our Sunday Visitor. “Now to expand that upon centers across all 50 states and $1 million donated … I’m just in awe.”
At Seven Weeks Coffee, 10% of every sale goes to pro-life organizations, most of which are local pregnancy centers that provide free help and resources to pregnant and parenting women in need. Some donations also go to adoption and maternity homes.
“It’s a large portion of our profits; it’s upwards of 50% of our profits,” Krecic said of the donations.
He estimates that, by donating to pregnancy centers, Seven Weeks Coffee has helped save 9,000 lives.
“With $1 million donated, that roughly pays for over 10,000 ultrasounds,” Krecic said of the money that goes to pregnancy centers, many of which provide free ultrasounds. “Those ultrasounds are really the most crucial thing for a mom who’s abortion-vulnerable or abortion-minded to change their mind and choose life.”
Looking ahead, he said, he’s excited about “where else can we go, where else can we reach, how many more millions can we donate.”
The beginning
Krecic remembered calling his wife, Christa, with the idea for Seven Weeks Coffee two weeks into their marriage. She came up with the name, he said.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I have this idea for a pro-life coffee company, what do you think?'” he recalled. “She’s like, ‘Oh, what are you going to call it?”
Then, she asked him the pivotal question: “When is a baby the size of a coffee bean?”
Krecic rushed to look it up and found that an unborn baby is roughly the size of a coffee bean at seven weeks. He also realized that, around that same time, an ultrasound can detect a baby’s heartbeat.
“It was perfect,” he said. “Seven Weeks Coffee, donates 10% of every sale to support ultrasound services at pregnancy care centers … that was kind of the genesis right there.”
‘Empowering believers’
Krecic, a Christian, said several factors led him to begin Seven Weeks Coffee, which sources its coffee directly from farmers and pays them 300% more than what fair trade requires. The company advertises coffee of different textures and roasts while guaranteeing that it is organically farmed, lab-tested, pesticide-free and mold-free.
“A passion for the pro-life movement and a passion for business and entrepreneurship and to really want to use those desires for a Kingdom-purpose,” Krecic listed as his inspirations for Seven Weeks Coffee. “Values-based entrepreneurship, Christian entrepreneurship, the idea of using business as a tool was always something I was super interested in.”
At his company, Krecic said, faith is “at the center of all we do.”
“Having an outwardly Christian and pro-life business obviously can be controversial where you’re essentially eliminating some customers out there,” he said. “But … what we’re doing is we’re empowering believers to make a difference with their purchase.”
He added, “I feel like we get to be a voice for pro-life Americans across the country who love coffee and want to see their dollars support a cause they really care about.”
‘More birthdays’
Krecic called life “the most basic human right.”
“We care so deeply as Christians about the most vulnerable in our society,” he said. “It’s so clear to me that moms and expecting moms and their babies as a whole, in all of that, are the most vulnerable demographics — and we’re there to help them, to support them, to help their lives flourish.”
“Babies specifically, we want to see more life in the world, not less,” he added. “We want to see more birthdays.”
Krecic spoke days after his wife gave birth to their baby, Peter. Their newborn, he said, brought new meaning to Seven Weeks Coffee.
“It’s been so amazing going through all the stages of pregnancy and hearing a baby’s heartbeat, seeing him kick in the womb, hearing his first cry as he was born,” he said. “You just have an overwhelming love and the deepest understanding of ‘this is a human being.'”
“I know it as a Christian, I know it from a scientific perspective, but experiencing that and seeing life in the womb, there’s nothing else in my mind that you could possibly use to disregard or say, ‘This is not a human’ or ‘a clump of cells,'” he added. “It’s so evident from the very beginning — which, if anything, has just supercharged our mission of supporting and protecting life.”
