If coffee were a person, it would be Madison Grant. She exudes warmth, provokes energy and provides comfort.
Sitting in the E-Center surrounded by glass walls scribbled with ideas and fledgling business’ plans, Grant is completely at ease. As passersby wave hello, she has found her place among the entrepreneurs on campus.
“I literally used to walk past this place going to class and I would just look and go, ‘I don’t even know what that is. It looks really cool.’ Because there are writings everywhere and sticky notes, and it’s just like, ‘Oh my gosh, those people are dreamers,’” Grant said. “I just felt like those were my people.”
The senior business administration major said she has always been a dreamer. Although a transfer student, Grant quickly became involved on campus. In her first year at Mississippi State University, she founded a coffee roaster company called Jitterbean’s Coffee. This business is one of the 94 startups within MSU’s VentureCatalyst, a program within the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach.
While Grant was not born in a coffee-drinking home, her childhood nickname was the inspiration for business’ name. Grant’s father evolved her nickname from Maddy to Bean, which was later solidified by her soccer team throughout her adolescent years.
“I even had the name picked out before I ever came here because my nickname is Bean and coffee makes you jittery, so I was like ‘Jitterbean’s. Oh, it would be so cute,’” Grant said, smiling.
The founder and CEO first began routinely drinking coffee and hatched the idea for Jitterbean’s when she was at Coastal Alabama Community College and fell in love with a local coffee shop. After three business presentations to the Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board, Grant received $2,000 to kick-start the company.
Two students, Brandon Johns and Caleb Lovejoy, co-founded the business with Grant. Johns, a sophomore majoring in business management, is Jitterbean’s chief financial officer while Lovejoy, a senior majoring in business management and Spanish, is the chief marketing officer.
Johns described Grant as determined, compassionate, courageous and faithful.
“She’s a hard worker, but, more importantly, optimistic,” Johns said. “We have run into many barriers since starting Jitterbean’s and when the team seems down, Madison (Grant) is there to always pick us up.”
Jitterbean’s initial business plan for a mobile coffee cart, but for now, the company roasts and sells coffee beans out of Grant’s house.
“I think there is always a large market for whole coffee beans,” Grant said. “However, in our day and age today, we thrive on convenience. A lot of people want the fastest coffee possible, like Keurig coffee. That is not a bad thing, but it does take away some of the flavor. When someone grinds their coffee right before brewing, their cup will be fresher and have more flavor.”
Grant said she learned to roast coffee beans through YouTube and experimentation. She said the light, medium and dark roasted beans are unique because Jitterbean’s values quality over quantity.
The ever-smiling CEO said her goal is to one day open her own coffee shop, designing a space where people are comfortable.
“The dream now is to create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome and where everyone sees that you can relate to one another over a cup of coffee,” Grant said. “(One where) you can have that small talk and you can build relationships with other people over coffee even if you have nothing in common but that you’re both standing in the same place drinking a cup of coffee, and that is what brings us together.”
In the near future, Grant’s beans will be sold at the soon-to-be-open Makerspace on Main Street. The gregarious brunette said she hopes to also sell cold brew concentrate.
While Grant manages her business, she also juggles homework and a social life. The daily coffee drinker spends spare her time roasting coffee beans and filling orders for customers. Although she is very busy, Grant is humble about her bustling life.
“It’s really hard to find a balance because you feel like there is always something that needs to be done. I think that’s a challenge that all college students face, no matter what degree they are in, whether they have a startup or not,” Grant said. “We all feel that, ‘Oh my gosh, I have so much to do,’ but there are sacrifices that come, like having a normal social life.”
Grant finds time to be with her friends as she tends to her beans. They sit out on her front porch enjoying the outdoors as perfumed smoke rises evanescently from her roaster. Her beans come from New York and Flora, Mississippi. She roasts the beans at a high heat, then lowers the temperature, taking 35 minutes to transform the raw green seeds into 1 pound of coffee.
Grant is also a student client specialist for the E-Center. Eric Hill, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, said Grant embodies the E-Center’s core values through working hard and helping others plan their businesses.
“Our student workers do not file papers or fetch coffee, they are very much a critical team member,” Hill said. “As such, we have a very high standard which Madison (Grant) met. In addition to having her own business, she has a welcoming, open-minded personality, sharp wit and a determination that I felt would fit our team well on our mission to grow more successful companies. She has well exceeded that expectation.”
After graduation, Grant said she plans to continue working with Jitterbean’s and would also like to pursue her Master of Business Administration.
“I just want to live in the now and when God tells me to take the next step, I will,” Grant said.
The student-entrepreneur said she feels overwhelmingly blessed to be where she is.
“I don’t want to take all the credit for myself because I never thought this would happen, I never planned for this to happen to me, it just happened,” Grant said. “I just know that God is the one who organized it and I’m just kind of a part of the puzzle.”

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