Gabi Angelini remembers the frustration – applying for job after job and hearing "no, no, no."
So Angelini – who will tell you bluntly that she’s not used to accepting no as an answer – took her fate into her own hands, cofounding Gabi’s Grounds, and later Gabi’s PALS, with her mother, Mary Angelini.
The company has moved past coffee – where it got its start through a partnership with Raleigh’s Larry’s Beans – and into the packing and shipping business. With Gabi’s PALS, Gabi Angelini and her roster of nearly 50 contract employees perform packaging, assembling, labeling and shipping services for firms such as Murphy’s Naturals and Bridgestone Tire.
And it has a big differentiator.
Gabi – like some of her employees – has an extra chromosome. Angelini has Down Syndrome, and focuses on employing people who, like her, are being left behind by traditional employers.
In a time with a so-called talent crunch – where companies across the region are struggling to find workers – those with intellectual and developmental disabilities are still hearing “no.”
The Angelinis say that’s unacceptable.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 21 percent of people with a disability in the U.S. are employed – and it’s not necessarily from lack of trying.
In interviews, Angelini and her mother talk about what led them to entrepreneurship, and why Gabi’s PALS – and companies like it – matter.
From garage to the Loading Dock
Mary Angelini said the genesis of Gabi’s Grounds came from frustration. She saw her daughter get rejected – over and over again. The only job she could find was at a grocery store, which offered just three hours a week and wouldn’t let her stock shelves – “that’s what I wanted to do,” Gabi Angelini said.
“Before I killed somebody, I said, 'you’ll have to start your own company,'” Mary Angelini remembers saying.
Initially, Gabi wanted to start a restaurant. But her mom – knowing the cost of a full-service endeavor like that – vetoed the idea. And they decided to look at what other people were doing.
It was 2017 and Bitty and Beau’s – a coffee shop hiring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – had opened the previous year in Wilmington.
Gabi, a self-described coffee addict, said, “let’s do it.”
So the pair met up with the folks at Larry’s Coffee, and the special blend that would become the central product of Gabi’s Grounds was created. The initial dream was to, like Bitty and Beau’s, create a coffee shop. It started with fulfilling online coffee bean orders and pop-up shops. And the business kept growing, eventually selling its coffee on shelves at places like Earth Fare and Harris Teeter.
Initially, the company got started with a $50,000 GoFundMe raise – and has become self-sustainable, conducting fundraisers and making money on its services.
And a viral video of Gabi Angelini surprising her then-boyfriend at an airport went viral – leading to an appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show. That led to even more orders.
It became clear that the company was outgrowing the Angelini garage. So Mary Angelini found the Loading Dock in Raleigh. And in addition to space, she saw what other companies were doing – firms such as Murphy’s Naturals, which ships all-natural products such as its signature mosquito repellent, all over the globe.
From coffee to packaging
“I went over to [Murphy’s Naturals] and said, I have people who can do this and they won’t be on their phone every day,” Angelini recalls saying.
So Murphy’s gave the new Gabi’s PALS – which stands for packaging, assembling, labeling and shipping – a try. And the segment became Gabi’s largest business, attracting customers like Lenovo.
As the shipping arm of the business expands, so too does the bottom line.
According to what the company – a nonprofit – reported to the IRS, the firm inked total revenue of just under $40,000 in 2020. But in 2021 as the shipping business took off – including care packages employers were sending to remote workers – the revenue leapt to more than $264,000.
While Gabi’s still sells coffee and branded T-shirts, she sees the real future of the business in Gabi’s PALS.
Gabi Angelini said she is taking it as it comes. The firm is open to expansion opportunities – as it already deploys teams off-site when companies call for those services.
Companies that have taken a chance on PALS haven’t been sorry, Mary Angelini said. But there has been reticence, she said.
“We need more work,” she said. “We have way more people who want to work here, and there’s just not enough.”
With each customer, however, perceptions are changing.
Today, 46 people are on the roster, making their own hours. And like Gabi Angelini, most can’t find work anywhere else. And when they can, they’re subject to jokes – or even set up to fail.
“The real world has been cruel to them,” Mary Angelini said. “They feel safe here. … No one’s giving them a chance.”
She compares it to what the neurotypical experienced during the pandemic.
“It’s kind of like Covid for them every day,” she said. “It’s like nothing to do, nowhere to go.”
There are a handful of companies in the Triangle focused on hiring people with special abilities, meaning more opportunities than ever before. Companies such as 321 Coffee, Howdy Homemade Ice Cream and Esteamed Coffee all hire people with intellectual and development disabilities. But Angelini said the demand is enormous – and easily overtakes what’s available.
Ask Gabi Angelini, and she’ll tell you entrepreneurship could be the answer for more of her friends.
Gabi Angelini had advice for other entrepreneurs: don’t take no for an answer.
“Just chase your heart’s dreams, that’s what I do,” she said. “Just do it. Don’t think. Just turn off your brain and just go. Live your dream life.”
