Fellow, the San Francisco brand that equips the coffee counter
Born in San Francisco in 2013, Fellow designs kettles, grinders and carafes for coffee at home, and has just added its first espresso machine.
Fellow was born from a simple idea: bring the specialty coffee experience home, without the bulky equipment. The brand began in 2013 with the Duo Coffee Steeper, a brewer that combines the best of filter coffee and the French press. Thirteen years later, its catalogue covers kettles, grinders, carafes, travel cups and, since 2025, an espresso machine. The common thread remains the same: tools that the brand says it wants to be both beautiful and intuitive.
The story
The founder, Jake Miller, launched Fellow while still a student at Stanford, according to Daily Coffee News. According to the brand, it took eight months and countless prototypes to arrive at the Duo Coffee Steeper, which was funded by a Kickstarter campaign in 2013.
The brand has stayed true to that method: each new product is rethought from scratch, and it takes the time needed to get it right, it says. In 2014 came the Stagg Pour-Over gooseneck kettle, followed two years later by the Stagg EKG, an electric version that the brand presents as the benchmark among precision kettles, used by barista champions and home enthusiasts alike.
In June 2022, Fellow announced a Series B round of thirty million dollars, led by the NextWorld Evergreen fund, according to Daily Coffee News. Miller explains there that the money is to be used to invest in product development and to strengthen the content and education around coffee.
The range
Today, the brand makes enough to equip a whole counter. On the grinding side, the Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 is designed for filter coffee, and the Opus 2, a conical burr grinder, for espresso. On the brewing side, the Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is a precision coffee maker, alongside the Stagg EKG, Corvo EKG and Clyde kettles, a French press, a scale and a matcha set. The Carter series of travel cups and mugs completes the line-up, as do espresso glasses.
The latest arrival is the Espresso Series 1, the brand’s first espresso machine. Engadget, at its launch in April 2025, saw it as the new crown jewel of the range, and reported the words of its chief executive, Jake Miller: the ambition is to offer a machine that baristas enjoy using. It comes in several colours, with walnut or maple handles, and is accompanied by a range of dedicated accessories.
What the brand stands for
Fellow describes its philosophy in one sentence: the act of making should be meaningful and fulfilling, done with intention and precision. According to the brand, the simple gestures of daily life can become small moments of joy, which it calls “Everyday Magic”. It says it designs tools in San Francisco that are both beautiful and functional for every kitchen, used all over the world.
Its aim, Miller sums up in Daily Coffee News, is to help everyone make an excellent coffee, hence the growing place given to content and education: guides, videos and recorded courses on grinding, milk or espresso.
Right now
Fellow offers Fellow Drops, a coffee ordering service by text message: each week, the brand picks one coffee from the hundreds it tastes, in collaboration with roasters around the world, and delivers it by post. For owners of the Espresso Series 1, each coffee comes with an espresso profile designed for the machine.
The brand also runs two shop-workshops, in the Mission district of San Francisco and in Venice, Los Angeles, where you can try the equipment, take a class or talk coffee.
Why we like it
We like the consistency of a brand that, since its first coffee maker, has designed each tool as a piece in its own right. From the Stagg kettle to the Espresso Series 1, the same attention to detail runs from one object to the next, all the way to the worktop that brings them together.
Exactly the kind of brand we’d love to come across on O!deal one day.
Fellow products we’ve spotted
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Espresso Series 1: the Fellow espresso machine with programmable pressure
Three heating elements, pressure you can programme and a steam wand that stops at the temperature you choose: the Espresso Series 1 is Fellow's first espresso machine.