Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Ripps.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Mobile, Alabama and attended college at Vanderbilt in Nashville. After several years in banking in Atlanta, a friend recruited me to come work for a start-up internet company in Boston called Lycos. After four years in Boston, we packed up and moved to Singapore, where I was CEO of Lycos Asia for four more years.
Following the sale of Lycos and looking for a smaller city to settle in and raise our family, we moved to Athens, Georgia. My wife had attended UGA, and we had always liked to visit. While working on some consulting projects, I found myself spending a lot of time at the Five Points Jittery Joe’s a couple of blocks from my home.
Athens is a great community for networking, and ultimately I ended up meeting Bob Googe, the owner of Jittery Joe’s. Bob was looking for a partner to help expand the concept – at that point, I was a coffee drinker but had never considered coffee from a business perspective. After some due diligence, I believed the brand had great promise and became co-owner of the company.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In many ways, I have had three careers, each of which have had their ups and downs. The first ten years were spent in corporate banking, where I learned about many industries but didn’t love the work. A phone call to come work for an early stage internet company at first seemed risky, but I quickly determined that it was riskier to stay in banking and was actually the best time in my life to take a chance. The eight years at Lycos were a constant rollercoaster, as we continued to re-invent our business model to stay competitive with the Googles and Yahoos of the world. The years in Asia were the ultimate experience both culturally and professionally, as we launched Lycos websites in ten different countries, including China and India.
My third career at Jittery Joe’s has challenged me to use all of the experiences from my previous jobs, as we have worked to grow a small brand into a more regional one in a very competitive business. The key obstacle for Jittery Joe’s was several years ago when we moved away from the franchise model, which was not working, and pivoted to what we do best – roasting coffee. Today we have several of our own cafes strategically located throughout Georgia as well as a roasting facility in Athens, and we sell our coffee to wholesale customers all over the Southeast U.S., nationally through our e-commerce channel and through a partnership in Japan. The focus on roasting has allowed us to be successful in a growing specialty coffee market.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Jittery Joe’s Coffee – what should we know?
Jittery Joe’s Coffee is a specialty coffee retail and wholesale coffee company based in Athens, Georgia. It’s surprising to some to hear that Jittery Joe’s has been in business since 1994. I am most proud that the company has been able to remain true to its roots even as the coffee business has changed dramatically over the past twenty plus years. We are very involved with our hometown in all aspects of the community. But at the heart of our business, we love roasting coffee. Charlie Mustard has been our roaster since we started and a true master of his craft. We pride ourselves on creating fun and approachable coffees, such as our Widespread Panic, UGA Athletics, and Terrapin blends, as well as serious, direct trade single origin coffees from Nicaragua, Colombia, Rwanda, and Sumatra among several other countries. We enjoy working directly with coffee farmers at origin to roast the best beans we can source.
Twenty plus classes of UGA alumni have passed through Athens since our inception, which has helped us grow into Atlanta and throughout the Southeast. We are also proud that some of our Jittery Joe’s alumni have thrived in the coffee world, such as Philip Brown at Perc and Park Brannen at Counter Culture. After spending many years in banking and the internet industries, it is personally satisfying to create a tangible product that so many people enjoy.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The three people in my life who have had tremendous professional influence are my wife, Kim, who is a very accomplished business person, my friend Ted Philip, who recruited me to Lycos, and someone I have admired for his accomplishments in both the business and nonprofit worlds; and Keith Schroeder, friend and CEO of High Road Craft Ice Cream in Atlanta, whose talent and entrepreneur skills provide a continual source of learning and inspiration for me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 425 Barber Street Athens, GA 30601
- Website: jitteryjoes.com
- Email: michael@jitteryjoes.com
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