The Founders
Heya, I am Ritima, the founder of Paddle & Brew. And there, right next to me is Anuj, my husband and our head roaster. And squeezed between us are our two CCOs (Chief Cuteness Officers). The older one, Ziana, is three and a half and knows all our coffee names and sometimes insists on sticking labels on the boxes. The littlest one is Ameya shares her birth year with Paddle&Brew's - 2025.
The Story of Paddle & Brew
For 12 years, coffee was just my morning routine. But when I immigrated to the United States in 2018, that routine became my anchor. As a software engineer navigating a brand-new country, exploring local roasteries helped me find my footing and feel at home.
Then one day, my husband brought home a bag of coffee from New York City that changed everything.
I took a sip, and my mind was completely blown. It tasted vividly of passion fruit, yet it was distinctly and beautifully coffee. No syrups. No artificial additives. Just the pure, hidden magic of the bean. In a decade of drinking coffee, I had never experienced anything like it.
Since we couldn't find that caliber of coffee anywhere nearby, and the online options felt like an afterthought, we took matters into our own hands. My husband, Anuj (who is also a gear hoarder) bought a tiny home roaster. We began sourcing exceptional green beans and Anuj started tuning the heat and air to take the coffee from "I don't know what this is" to "Wow, I can't drink any other coffee now". For eight months, our kitchen smelled like a coffee sanctuary.
The turning point arrived because of our 90-year-old neighbor, Rumie. Rumie, a Japanese coffee connoisseur with a lifetime of high standards, tried our roast one morning, looked at us, and said, "This is the coffee I want to wake up for every morning."
That compliment planted a seed. Deep down, I had always dreamed of building my own business—a spark passed down from my father, a serial entrepreneur. But as an immigrant, the financial risk felt too massive, so I stayed on the safe, corporate path.
Until January 10, 2024.
That was the day I was laid off from Google. The corporate reasoning was cold and transactional: AI agents could now do my job, and human resources were being replaced. While I studied hard and eventually returned to Google to pay the bills, something inside me had fundamentally shifted.
I realized I wanted to build a company where people are never treated as mere "resources"—but as People - complete People.
That is how Paddle & Brew was born. It came from a profound love for coffee, a missing flavor in our community, and a deeply personal mission. Now, at P&B, we obsess over 3Ps - People. Product. Process, to bring to your kitchen the coffee you'd want to wake up for Every Morning.