First, how this started.
(a real exchange, lightly paraphrased)
Different problem.
Similar instinct.
SUPERKEEN exists because you couldn't find the food you wanted to eat.
No Faff exists because we couldn't find the coffee we wanted to drink.
Founder-led. Manchester. Design-conscious. Built around something we genuinely wanted ourselves. And, importantly: actually supposed to taste nice.
We're not pretending the products are identical. SUPERKEEN has a specific free-from, AIP and gut-friendly mission born from Caragh's own experience with lupus. No Faff isn't a health treatment and we don't want to pretend coffee is one. We just think there's something shared in making everyday food and drink easier to choose without making it joyless.
So what actually is No Faff?
Really good ready-to-drink decaf iced coffee. That's basically it.
We started No Faff because decaf still gets treated like the disappointing understudy to "proper" coffee.
And increasingly, the alternative seems to be turning drinks into chemistry sets.
We're taking the slightly radical position that coffee is allowed to just be coffee.
Beautifully made. Decaf. Ready when you want it.
Life's nicer, decaf.
There is a reason for the decaf bit.
Like SUPERKEEN, No Faff didn't begin with someone staring at a spreadsheet and identifying a category opportunity.
Life happened first.
For Marisa, pregnancy made the caffeine question suddenly very visible. She loved coffee. She didn't love being told decaf was a consolation prize.
Then came a baby.
Then came very little sleep.
Somehow this resulted in Marisa deciding that launching a drinks company would be a calming addition to her life.
Excellent judgement all round.
We realised there are huge numbers of people who love coffee but don't necessarily want caffeine every time they want one.
We didn't think those people needed a consolation prize.
We thought they needed better coffee.
To be clear: we're not for a second suggesting decaf treats anxiety, lupus or any medical condition. These are just some of the reasons people choose to have less caffeine.
Coffee has apparently acquired a second job.
We know the direction drinks are moving in. More function. More claims. More things added. And there's clearly a market for that.
Nolo, for example, has gone down the functional decaf route with added prebiotic fibre. That's a perfectly legitimate proposition. Ours is just different.
We don't want to improve coffee by making it do seventeen other things. We want to improve decaf by making it really bloody good.
And that feels strangely compatible with a brand that's spent years thinking incredibly carefully about what does and doesn't need to be in the bowl.
Sometimes "better for you" can also mean:
fewer things to think about.
(a small aside)
There is one fairly significant difference.
We heard you talking very candidly about getting an early business loan from your dad.
Simon also has a dad. And, to be fair, he was a very decent footballer.
Unfortunately his career peaked somewhat closer to the Manchester Jewish Soccer League than Manchester United.
So our respective family seed rounds may be working with slightly different transfer budgets.
No offence, Dad.
Same city. Different family offices.
Important research question
Who is the most No Faff footballer?
Five candidates from the late 90s and early 00s. One title. We took this genuinely seriously.
Gary Neville
Enthusiastic. Thorough. Has since made an entire second career out of faffing, brilliantly, on television. Disqualified on technical grounds: too much faff.
Paul Scholes
Did the simple thing better than anyone. No agent, no entourage, no fuss. Retired twice, quietly. The committee's quiet favourite.
Roy Keane
Direct. Intolerant of nonsense. Would absolutely have opinions about the can design. A very strong contender.
Claude Makélélé
Did the one unglamorous job so well they renamed the position after him. The ultimate 'just do the essential thing' footballer.
Edgar Davids
Intense. Direct. But the goggles were, if we're honest, a small amount of faff. Stylish faff. But faff.
The verdict
Paul Scholes.
Roy is furious. Which, frankly, only strengthens his case.
We suspect he'd hate the committee.
(the bit this is all about)
Which brings us back to Keen Beans.
We don't know exactly what this is yet. That's sort of the point.
Maybe it's a SUPERKEEN × No Faff breakfast. Maybe it's sampling together. Maybe it's a bundle. Maybe it's something clever with independent retailers. Maybe it's content. Maybe it's an event. Maybe you tell us everything we've done wrong before we manufacture 125,000 cans. Maybe it's introductions. Maybe it's investment. Maybe it's just two Manchester founder teams comparing notes over cereal and decaf.
We'd rather start with the conversation than manufacture a "partnership opportunity" that neither of us actually needs.
That feels considerably less faffy.
an idea
KEEN BEANS
Breakfast Club
an idea
SUPERKEEN × NO FAFF
Retail Sampling
an idea
THE MANCHESTER BREAKFAST
Coffee + cereal
an idea
FOUNDERS' BREAKFAST
The glamorous reality of building food brands
an idea
NO CAFF. SUPERKEEN.
A deliberately questionable working title
Speculative visual ideas only. Not agreed products. Not an official collaboration.
We have, at least, started.
No Faff is still early. Very early. But we're not at the "logo and a dream" stage either.
We've spent months on product development, manufacturing, positioning, retail conversations and the frankly alarming number of decisions involved in putting coffee into a can.
We've recently been selected for First Pour, the Raise the Glass programme for emerging drinks brands.
We're developing the product with experienced industry partners.
We're building towards direct-to-consumer and independent retail first.
And we're currently raising our first proper round to give the launch the chance we think it deserves.
FIRST POUR
Selected 2026
MARISA
Nearly a decade in food & drink, getting products onto shelves
RECIPE
Created with specialty coffee experts
MANCHESTER
Born & being built here
PRODUCT
In development
RETAIL
Conversations underway
SEIS
Raising our first round
We're ambitious. We're just trying not to become unbearable about it.
Anyway.
We've taken up enough of your internet.
We'd genuinely love to meet you.
No deck. No hour-long pitch. No aggressive synergy.
Just twenty minutes, a coffee and a chat about what you've built, what we're building, and whether there's anything interesting where the two meet.
We'll bring the decaf. You bring the cereal. Seems fair.