WAYNE RICHMON: co-founder, coffee curator AND PART-TIME EXTROVERT
Before opening Roast Rider, Wayne spent six years exploring wine and specialty coffee on the Oregon coast, and in Boston, New York and California. In 2012, he felt it was time to break out of his role counseling entrepreneurs on their finances, and got down to writing a business plan of his own.
Roast Rider is what happens when a successful CFO suffers an acute bout of reinvention psychosis.
When he opened RR in 2013, during Specialty Coffee’s Third Wave, Wayne had every intention of being the hand-drip guy. But after two days at the Specialty Coffee Association of America event, guided by Equator Coffees CEO Helen Russell, he was converted to ‘Trifecta Dude.’ He liked that the Trifecta outperformed a French press in its ability to offer a full expression of exceptional beans.
Wayne is always on the lookout for the next best thing with the knowledge that an exceptional shot of espresso is the sum of its parts.
An Evergreen “Why”
In 2024, Lisa and Wayne still see themselves as curators, not specialty coffee engineers. They don’t roast beans or run a full kitchen. They leave that up to award-winning B-corp roasters and purpose-driven chefs who always knew that social responsibility and transparency are foundational to good business.
As customer experience overachievers, Wayne and Lisa respect their role feeding and fueling weary parents, remote workers, scared patients, brazen entrepreneurs, lost loves, and anyone in transition. Everything they serve you is organic, from-scratch and powered by the fewest and purest ingredients.
At Roast, riding the Third, Fourth, and soon the Fifth wave is all about sharing coffee tips and exciting discoveries, while also valuing what customers have learned on their coffee journeys far and away.
LISA RICHMON: co-founder,curator & CHIEF CHARISMA OFFICER
Averages zero cups of coffee a year, but has an eye for baristas. She can spot who has it, who wants it, and who is gonna bring it.
Lisa is a professional journalist who married business and storytelling before it was mainstream. Wayne is still getting used to the spice Lisa adds to the shop’s social media marketing. (Secretly, though, he’s obsessed.)
MOST IMPULSIVE THING LISA EVER DID?
Moved from Boca Raton, Florida to Virginia Beach to live with a young CPA she met on a blind phone date. He didn’t offer to pay for her ticket, but did pay her back with interest when she agreed to move into his Virginia Beach townhouse a month later. (Lisa’s father was a CPA so she knew what she was getting into.)