Roaster — Coffee Ops Software for Independent Micro-Roasters

The Idea

Roaster is a purpose-built operations platform for independent coffee roasters — covering green bean inventory, roast batch logging, subscription customer management, wholesale account pricing, and QR-code-linked tasting notes that ship on the bag.

The Problem You Solve

Craft coffee is booming: thousands of micro-roasters operate out of small warehouses, garages, and shared commercial kitchens. But their software stack is a disaster: Shopify for retail, Google Sheets for roast logs, Square at the café counter, and a notebook for wholesale accounts. Nothing connects. Nothing is roasting-specific.

Roasters waste hours every week on logistics they should spend on craft. The only purpose-built software for this space is Cropster (enterprise, $300+/month, built for 1,000-lb/week operations) or Roastpath (basic roast logger, no business ops). There is a wide-open gap at the $49–99/month tier for the indie roaster who cares deeply about quality and is outgrowing spreadsheets.

Core Features (MVP)

• Roast Log — batch logging with green bean lot, weight in/out, roast profile notes, development time, cupping score
• Green Bean Inventory — per-lot tracking with low-stock alerts; links lots to roast batches automatically
• Subscription Manager — recurring customer subscriptions via Stripe, grind preferences, auto-shipping reminders, pause/cancel flows
• Wholesale Accounts — tiered pricing per account, order history, one-click invoice generation (PDF)
• QR Bag Tags — generate printable QR codes per roast lot; scan links to a public tasting notes page with origin, process, flavor notes, and roast date

Pricing

• $49/month — up to 50 lbs/week volume tier, 30 subscription customers, roast log + inventory
• $99/month — unlimited volume, unlimited subscriptions, wholesale accounts, QR bag tags
• $199/month — roasting collective or multi-roaster account (shared green bean inventory, multiple users)

Tech Stack

• Next.js + TypeScript + Supabase (auth + database)
• Stripe Billing (for roaster subscriptions AND their end-customer subscription management)
• Vercel (hosting)
• qrcode npm package for QR generation
• react-pdf for bag tag printing and invoice PDFs

How to Build MVP

Week 1–2: Auth + roast log (batch CRUD, weight in/out, cupping notes, lot linkage) Week 3: Green bean inventory — lot tracking, low-stock alerts, automatic lot deduction per batch Week 4: Stripe-connected subscription customer manager (create/pause/cancel) Week 5–6: Wholesale account manager + PDF invoice generation Week 7–8: QR bag tag generator + public tasting notes landing page per lot

How to Get First Customers

1. Spend 30 minutes reading r/roasting posts tagged "workflow," "spreadsheet," "inventory" — screenshot 5 posts describing pain. Reply with "I'm building this, want early access?"
2. Cold DM 50 micro-roasters on Instagram (filter: <5K followers = small/indie, posts showing raw green beans or roasting equipment)
3. Offer 3 months free to first 10 beta users in exchange for weekly feedback calls and a testimonial
4. Post a 3-minute screen-record demo of the roast log + QR bag tag on YouTube — this community watches workflow videos obsessively
5. Reach out to specialty green bean importers (they know every roaster customer) — co-market in their newsletter in exchange for a shoutout

Revenue Math

• Month 4: 30 customers × $79 avg = $2,370/month
• Month 8: 80 customers × $85 avg = $6,800/month
• Month 12: 140 customers × $85 avg = $11,900/month
• Churn is low in niche B2B ops tools — roasters don't swap their workflow software casually
• Annual billing option (2 months free) accelerates early cash

Why This Is Different

No software exists at this price point with this feature set for small roasters. Cropster is enterprise. Roastpath is a roast logger with no business ops. Shopify knows nothing about green bean lots. Roaster is the first tool that connects the production side (roast logs, inventory) to the customer side (subscriptions, wholesale accounts) in one place — with the QR bag tag as a tactile differentiator no spreadsheet can replicate.

Path to Quitting Day Job

• Month 1–3: Build + beta (free for 10 roasters, deep feedback loop)
• Month 4–6: Launch paid tier, target 50 customers ($3,500–$5,000/month)
• Month 9–12: 140 customers, $10k+/month
• Year 2: Add green bean lot marketplace (roasters sell excess green inventory to each other), roaster directory with public profiles — platform layer that creates compounding switching costs and new revenue streams

Risks & Mitigations

• Risk: Market is niche — perhaps 15,000 viable US micro-roasters at target size
  • Mitigation: You only need ~130 customers for $10k/month. That is less than 1% of the addressable market. Niche is a feature, not a bug — it enables tight community credibility.
• Risk: Cropster or a VC-backed tool targets this segment
  • Mitigation: You move faster and price lower. Your authentic coffee community presence gives you distribution they can't buy.
• Risk: Roasters are not tech-forward
  • Mitigation: The craft coffee community is extremely active on YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram — they adopt opinionated tools when presented by credible community members.

Why This Works for You Specifically

• Your coffee interest (CartBase idea showed genuine coffee curiosity) gives you authentic community credibility in a space where outsiders are obvious
• Your exact stack — Next.js, Supabase, Stripe — maps directly to this build with no learning curve
• Roast logging and inventory is focused CRUD with high workflow value — fast to build, immediately useful, sticky once in use
• The QR bag tag feature is the kind of tactile-meets-digital detail that only a software engineer embedded in craft culture would think to build — it is hard to copy without understanding why roasters care about provenance storytelling on the bag
• You can reach early customers by being genuinely helpful in communities you already understand

First Action

Join r/roasting (or scroll it now — you don't need to post). Search "spreadsheet" and "inventory" in the subreddit. Read 10 posts. Find 3 roasters describing workflow pain. Reply with a genuine message: "I'm a software engineer who's been deep in the coffee space — I'm building a roast ops tool specifically for small roasters. Would you be willing to jump on a 20-minute call to show me your current workflow? No pitch, just research." Get those three calls scheduled before you write a single line of code.