We were lucky to catch up with Adam Ritchie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Adam thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In the middle of the pandemic we had loads of time to think. Business was a little slow but we had just opened our first coffee shop in the town of Roanoke, Va. The coffee shop was located right near Interstate 81 so we had loads of traffic from travelers passing through.

After speaking to the travelers a common theme kept coming up. Everyone would talk about how hard it was to find independent coffee shops while they were traveling. Anytime they searched coffee near me they would only find the big guys.

So this got me thinking….. What if we came up with a way that would help coffee drinkers find independent coffee shops. I started to reach out to other coffee shop owners all over the world. from Cheeky Monkey in North Carolina, Coastal Coffee Roaster in SC, 13 Ravens in Alaska and Moon Mountain Coffee in So Cal.. We even added the Busy Bean in New Zealand, Bean & Gone Espresso Bar in the Uk and many many more.

My thought was how do I help my customers find great places to get their fix when they are not near my shop ir while they are traveling. And in turn how do I get coffee drinkers into my shop when they are in the area? So I came up with Global Coffee tours. An Independent Coffee Shop Loyalty App.

Customers receive discounts from partnering shops as well as points from every shop they visit that can be redeemed for free drinks.

Through this process we have found that the coffee world is really a very large community. A lot of the shop owners feel the same and most everyone is looking for help in some way.

We want to be the piece that ties us all together and helps everyone find the best independent around the globe!

Adam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Global Coffee Tours excited to share and help promote the best independent coffee shops around the globe. We find ways to work with shop owners that help them bring a few more people into their shops. We help market the shops through social media and we are always looking for new shops to tell coffee drinkers about. All of the big guys have a program that applies to any location you go to. We want to put independent coffee shops on that same map!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I use to work from home and lots of coffee shops. In the area I live currently I was not happy with the coffee shops in my area as a place to work. So as I was sitting at a restaurant the space next door ad been vacant for about a year. It was a pharmacy before and had a drive through.

Not knowing anything about the coffee world I jumped in and figured I would give it a go. I brought on some great staff that helped get things in order than learned as much as I could about the coffee world. I did know customer service and how a customer would want to be treated.

So from opening a shop right when the everything was shutting down for Covid to starting a global app company. I say follow your dreams and take a chance!!!!

How’d you meet your business partner?

After someone I knew tried to steal my idea I reached out to someone I use to nanny for (yes I was a male nanny :-). ) He was a developer and really loved the idea. So we partnered up to create Global Coffee Tours!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @globalcoffeetours