

James had many plans for that money, but one of the most obvious was building a better online store for selling fresh coffee beans. So in October 2012, Blue Bottle Coffee raised $20 million from a group of Silicon Valley investors, including GV. If that coffee cart had been Sputnik, the next phase would be more like a moon shot. He wanted to deliver freshly roasted coffee to people’s homes, even if they didn’t live anywhere near a Blue Bottle location. He was still just as passionate about coffee and hospitality, and he wanted to bring the Blue Bottle experience to even more coffee lovers. Even the interior design of the cafés was perfect: wooden shelves, tasteful ceramic tiles, and an understated logo in the perfect shade of sky blue.īut James didn’t consider the business perfect, or complete.

The baristas were friendly and knowledgeable. The coffee was ranked among the best nationwide. It was a business that many would have considered perfect. By 2012, Blue Bottle had locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. Over the next few years, as the business grew, he slowly opened more cafés. In 2005, he established a permanent Blue Bottle location in a friend’s San Francisco garage. Soon James and his cart, called Blue Bottle Coffee, developed a following. His manner was polite and accommodating, and the coffee was delicious. He carefully roasted beans in a potting shed at home, then drove to farmers’ markets in Berkeley and Oakland, California, where he brewed and sold coffee by the cup. In those days in the San Francisco area, it was nearly impossible to find coffee beans with a roast date printed on the bag. James was obsessed with freshly roasted coffee.
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