Meet Joshua Crane of The Coffee Ride in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Crane.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The story really began back in 2006 with a personal struggle to find my own identity and place in life. Not satisfied with the current direction I was headed in Wisconsin, I packed up the car and moved to the mountains of Colorado where I began the long road to satisfy a deep inner desire to help improve the quality of life of others by becoming a medical doctor.

During the six-year process of working three jobs at a time, attending school, and volunteering in hospitals; coffee became as much a treat as much as it was a necessity. Long hours studying for medical school entrance exams meant a constant quest for finding new cafes, which of course means trying new coffees. Along the way, I developed an affinity to certain types of coffees, which were unfortunately tough to come by at the time. My curious and compulsive personality lead me to dive in and begin researching coffee and the coffee roasting process like a mad scientist, where unlike most scientific experiments, with roasting you get to consume the end result.

Simultaneously, the long quest for becoming a doctor slowly faded as the rejection from the application process became tiresome, and I began focusing on the next chapter. Confused and defeated, I turned to my old therapeutic friend the bicycle for advice. In a completely new direction, I began working in the cycling industry where the intent was to have a flexible schedule with the hope of being able to ride more. The result was finding a great group of friends and an office with unbearably bad coffee. Having been roasting coffee for a few years at home, I began perfecting the product with the help of the picky audience of my coffee-centric cycling coworkers. The best part of my day quickly turned into my 20-minute bicycle commute to the office and the 10 minutes of making a Chemex of my latest freshly roasted coffee. After a few months of seeing the increased level of self worth my co-workers experienced from the results of taking a moment to care for someone with coffee, I was hooked. While always having been nostalgic for my grandfather’s career as a milkman, I decided to take the two best parts of my day, riding bikes and sharing coffee, and turn them into a business by delivering fresh roasted coffee by bicycle.

The next stage began with selling our Subaru and purchasing our first commercial coffee roaster and setting up shop in our garage. While most fairytales would end at that, living happily ever after with great success… The reality is that just like life and riding bikes, business is really difficult. I barely could afford a 5LB bag of coffee to roast for the first couple of friends that purchased coffee. I printed out 5,000 door flyers, which was a massive financial stretch at the time, and went door to door offering our bicycle delivered coffee service; sadly I think only two people signed up. Business has been a consistent series of failures and learning from those mistakes to make improvements. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Considering giving up every single week, but never giving up. For me, what made all the difference was that one connection to a customer. That one person that tells you that they look forward to every delivery day when a bag of fresh roasted coffee shows up on their front doorstep. That every time they make a cup of our coffee, every sip reminds them of their favorite group ride or outdoor adventure.

These days we have moved into our new roastery, upgraded to a larger roaster, and have a few other talented individuals helping with deliveries and to help spread the good word. We’re currently working on building a network across the nation to help build a community around great coffee and getting more people on bikes. Through sharing our inspirational story we aim to motivate others whether it’s locally bike delivered coffee here in Boulder to brewing up some of our coffee to initiate your own neighborhood coffee ride anywhere in the nation. Although things are a little different these days, the end goal is and always will be to make others happy by delivering coffee by bicycle.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Things haven’t been easy by any means. I’m not sure that there is any business or business owner out there that doesn’t struggle at some point. Besides the business struggles explained on the prior page, personally I had been going through some pretty massive life changes. All while starting a business, my mom was going through the later stages of dementia which finally took her life, my relationship of 4.5 years ended and was battling back after having to short sell a townhome after the real estate crash of 2008. I disclose these struggles not for expectation of sympathy, but as a way to bring perspective to others. Sometimes in life, you feel like you’re the only one dealing with hardship. I feel like it’s extremely important for others to know the struggles that we are all dealing with daily and we are all having to deal with personal issues as well as having to still maintain professionalism. We are all on this planet together and we all have the ability to make each others lives easier by being a little kinder. Hopefully, this perspective can help combat this. I like to focus on the similarities of each of us and not what makes us different. That’s what’s so great about coffee. It’s a universal language that brings people together, makes them happy, and breaks down barriers.

The Coffee Ride – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Coffee Ride is a coffee roasting company in Boulder Colorado that focuses on roasting amazing coffee and delivering its goods around Boulder by bicycle. As far as I know, we are the only coffee roasters in the world that delivers locally by bicycle like you would get your Amazon or old school milk delivery, directly to your front door or office. The business was started as a test piece that you can have a successful business where everyone wins from farm to cup.

We source extremely high-end coffee, utilizing direct trade practices so that the farmers get treated better and the environment is also taken care of. When someone purchases coffee from us, they are able to positively impact the lives of others that they would otherwise have never been able to. Sustainable growing practices typically lead to better coffees, so both the farmer and the customer win.

I have a background in science and take that same approach to coffee roasting, understanding and always striving towards perfection in the resulting process.

Our packaging is all compostable and we use compostable poly bags for our local deliveries to help protect the bags from the outdoor elements.

I have personally ridden over 14k miles over the last six years on Thursday deliveries alone, showing that small changes can make a big impact over time. You don’t need to sell your car and solely become a bike commuter. Once a week, month or even a year is fantastic. If everyone just commuted using alternative transportation more often, it could make a huge difference.

While I’m proud of all the accomplishments above, I’m most proud of creating a business that makes a difference in peoples lives. Through telling our unique story, inspiring others, and building a community around coffee; we are able to deliver something more than just a fantastic product. We are delivering an outlet for escape and happiness for others directly to their front door via bicycle or all around the country by mail. Coffee is one of those unique products that induces memory. Everyone’s life is so crazy and it can sometimes feel out of control when trying to balance it all. We deliver a product that at any moment you need an escape, you can take some personal time back in your busy day and go make a cup of your favorite coffee that allows you to reflect back on your happy place; whether that is your favorite weekend group bicycle ride or that camping trip where you made a morning cup over the open fire with your family.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success by how you are affecting everyone around you. If you can make conscious decisions that positively impact others, that’s successful in my mind. For a business example, one of our delivery riders Neal has a full-time job somewhere else. What’s important to him is having to ride at least once a week to maintain fitness for bicycle touring trips as well has made some extra income to fund those trips. This past year he was able to ride from Colorado to New Mexico funded from doing coffee deliveries. How cool is that! I’ve also been on rides with retired grand tour professional cyclists and had them say that our ride was the most fun they have had on their bike for ten years. We have also received letters when we drop off coffee that describes how our coffee has improved the lives of our customers and how happy it makes them when times get tough. All are indicators of success in my mind. I feel like if you support others, they will support you back.