Rad Livin’: Meet Taylor London, Founder of Late Shake

You know when one of your friends invites you to a quirky event on Facebook such as “National Chocolate Day” or “Free Slurpee Day”? You have a good laugh, click attending and give yourself another reason to grab a friend and get a slurpee. The same happened to us ten years ago with “National Milkshake Day”, suggested by my friend Taylor London, founder of Late Shake.

Year after year, we received these invites from Taylor, making his passion for milkshakes not just a one-time novelty, but something that was just getting started. Taylor always had a love for shakes and wanted to share that passion with everyone around him. He’s an example of taking what you love, combining it with a passion for making people happy, and opening up a business that allows him to do both.

Late Shake, located in the heart of Southeast Portland, is a pop-up, late-night milkshake spot delivering high-quality, tasty shakes.

What we love most about Taylor’s story is that it shows us that you can do things differently. You can create your own dream, your own business, your own classification of success. It can be done the way you want it to, and opportunities may come that could lead you to create something that’s more you, and more aligned with what your vision truly wants to be.

Taylor is all about bringing people together, which is probably what has been making Late Shake such a success! Aside from their delicious shakes, Late Shake shows us the magic that can happen if you share your dreams with the people around you and are willing to give it a go, even if you don’t know how it all will all work out.

Meet Taylor London…

How do you follow your bliss?

Oh man, I go for a walk. Lots and lots of walks. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in life to avoid all that much stress, but when it invariably comes, I walk around my neighborhood and think about nothing other than what I see right in front of me. I won’t pretend this gives me “perspective” of any kind, but gives me a moment to take my mind off of myself. It’s nice. I think about myself too much, so all the more reason to quit all that nonsense and take a dang walk. And I need to work off the shakes.

When did the inspiration for Late Shake first come about?

Like any great idea, it was relatively simple: I love making milkshakes, people love drinking them (which I believe the creator of DTS can attest to, yeah?), so why not go for a milkshake business? I love to make people smile, and I have yet to see someone brooding over a milkshake. Which, if that ever did happen, would be quite funny. Anyway, I got together with a friend of mine who is a friggin’ genius when it comes to creating and mixing new flavors, and together we decided to give it a shot. Ultimately, the inspiration came from knowing milkshakes make people happy.

When is Late Shake open and where can we find you?

It is open on weekend evenings (around 7) in the heart of Southeast Portland, on 32nd and Division Street. The redeveloped Division Street (with just a hint of gentrification, if I’m being totally honest here) has lots of trees and gardens and old homes and I live three blocks away, so it works out pretty well for me, location-wise. Hopefully for everyone else wanting a shake, too!

Can you explain how you went about taking your love of milkshakes to then having your own pop up? What did you need to do in order to make this happen?

Yeah, it’s kind of weird telling people I’ve been making milkshakes for a decade or so at this point, but here I am, a pro shake-maker. Honestly, it’s kind of unfair how everything fell into place for this to happen. My aforementioned friend manages a lovely coffee shop that closes at 6pm. We asked the owners of the space if we could use it (while paying, of course!) and so we came to a relatively easy agreement on how and when we could come in.

Now, the agreement was fairly simple, but suddenly becoming a business owner meant a lot of work and research on my end. Getting recipes dialed for shakes, finding good pricing on materials, developing logos and designs, creating a dang website…all this took far more time than I anticipated. It always does, I’m told (though I wish someone might have mentioned this earlier). In addition, I needed my very smart and very talented friends to advise and guide me along the way. Grahm, my friend and business partner, has an enormous amount of experience in managing a space and reducing cost of goods while knowing very little about shakes, so we became a partnership in the truest sense of the word…other than that we are not married.

How were you able to fund the launch of Late Shake?

Part of my initial excitement in developing this idea was how little funding I would actually need, thus keeping the risk relatively low. A good mixer and a solid brand is a must, of course—this consisted of most of our costs at the beginning, but having friends who are Nike designers goes a long way in keeping design cost low as well. My grandpa bought us the mixer because he is literally the greatest grandpa I could ever hope to have, two friends who build furniture built a killer boardwalk sign for me, at cost, and our limited hours of operation requires little capital. By the end of the first week of business, we were fully profitable and had covered all remaining costs. Boo-freaking-ya.

Why do you love what you do?

Look, everything in life is simpler if you focus your energies on bringing joy to people. Not slavishly so, but as a natural extension of your talents and gifts. It turns out I’m pretty good at making shakes for people occasionally, so I decided to do it more often. It’s also a really, really good way to meet people and blow their friggin’ minds with an amazing milkshake.

Milkshakes are never going to be that stressful, you feel me?

Also, I welcome the challenge of starting something in Portland’s food scene! This is not your average customer base. People need to be impressed and thoroughly wowed in order for a pop-up like mine to succeed, so I’ve enjoyed taking that head on.

If fear ever shows up in your life, how do you move passed it?

Honestly, my main fear is waking up one day and discovering I am lactose intolerant. So far, so good on that end. How we respond to failure reveals the depth of our character, yes? Now, everyone works to avoid failure, but where’s the fun in avoiding lessons? Knowing this, I cannot help but be moved to seize opportunities that come my way.

What’s one of the biggest risks associated with launching Late Shake and how have you decided to go for it anyway?

The risk of the unknown is, I think, the most intimidating thing we twenty-somethings face. We can plan out our lives, go to the right school, have a killer Instagram profile and all, but these are ultimately accessories to a life needing direction. This is just as true for Late Shake. I can obsess over shake ingredients, buy the best mixer on the marker, have a great location, but will people actually come and purchase a milkshake (an expensive one, at that)? Early results suggest that yes, people will come, but is this a sustainable business? I have no idea, but I’ve already learned SO much. Late Shake, even if it turns into a professional failure, will be a personal success simply because I did it. I wanted to start a shake shop, and I did: if it ends, it ends. But to create something with my good friend, even for a little while, denotes triumph.

What would your biggest dream for Late Shake be? 

Quite frankly, I’m reluctant to limit this business to what I want. I realize this sounds weird, but it is firmly in line with my personal faith and belief in going with what God gives you and seeing where it ends. Seven years ago, an idea was planted in my mind (out of nowhere, mind you) to study Chinese. Three years later in 2011, I boarded a plane for China still not knowing what the heck I was doing. It led me to Indonesia for awhile, Europe for a bit, and back to Portland, where I now live and make milkshakes. You can’t script that stuff. So while I do have some future dreams sketched out, I’m also fully embracing the unknown of this whole thing and not being afraid to say, “yes” to the opportunities that emerge from Late Shake.

What advice could you give to someone who knows that they love to do, but haven’t gone for it?

What a great question! I’m very aware of the fact that not everyone can be so perfectly positioned to go for what they love like I was. This isn’t to say I didn’t work hard to get myself to that place: sometimes, going for it means waiting and learning for a while longer. Humility and patience go much further than privilege and attention ever do, I think. In the end, though, crossing into that unknown opportunity requires a leap, and maybe a friend or two to give you a boost.

Visit Late Shake at:

D&W Division Cafe
3158 SE Division Street
Portland, OR 97202

and follow their journey on Instagram x