Real good coffee, made in D.C.
Compass Coffee started with a simple idea carried home from Afghanistan: coffee is better when it brings people together. I opened the first café in Washington's Shaw neighborhood in 2014, roasting in the back and serving out the front.
From there Compass grew into a roaster and café company across D.C. and Virginia, with blends named for the neighborhoods they serve and a roastery in Ivy City built to supply cafés, grocery shelves, and offices. Along the way I wrote Perfect Coffee at Home, designed the Made in DC mark, and hired hundreds of people, many of them veterans.
Running cafés taught me the hard, unglamorous parts of hourly work: schedules, time clocks, tips, payroll. That education became the next company.
