Student Experience
Richmond Bench Top Innovation students will take their idea to market
A group of seniors developed and branded a coffee product they’re preparing to launch with the goal to ‘revive your drive.'
Cool beans: How two Spiders brewed their way into coffee entrepreneurship
January 16, 2026
Alumni
These Robins School alumni — who graduated nearly 20 years apart — credit their Richmond education with shaping how they think about business.
Coffee is more than a daily ritual for UR alum David Blanchard. He is the founder of Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co., a Richmond institution that has helped define the city’s specialty coffee scene for the last two decades.
The 2002 business administration graduate’s journey into coffee began organically and locally. A lifelong Richmonder, Blanchard didn’t initially set out to turn his love of coffee into a living. “I had been into coffee as a hobby for a while and started researching manufacturers who make coffee roasting equipment,” he said. “I’ve always been a bit of a gearhead and like to know how stuff works and how it’s made.”
Around 2005, after finding a particular machine and watching it in action, Blanchard said it “set a hook” in him. He convinced his wife, Kelly, to sell the car her parents gave her as a college graduation gift so they could buy it.
Blanchard experimented with the equipment and found a method that resulted in coffee loved by family and friends. He and Kelly packaged the beans at their home and personally delivered them around town, including to Harold Babb, Blanchard’s favorite marketing professor from his UR days. During an unannounced visit, he found Babb meeting with a vice president of the now-defunct Ukrop’s Super Markets. That chance meeting put Blanchard’s coffee on the trajectory to being sold in grocery stores, and in turn helped it grow into a brand nominated as the best coffee in Virginia by Food & Wine magazine.
Along with its wholesale operation, Blanchard now operates several brick-and-mortar cafés. “Some days it feels like a miracle that we were able to have this small idea that turned into not just a job for me, but for dozens of people,” Blanchard said. “It’s really humbling.”
Working hard to make decaf trendy
Eric Gonzalez is the founder of Tranquila Coffee, a ready-to-drink decaf coffee brand slated to launch in New York early this year. He’s spent the last year figuring out supply chain, branding, and other details.
Gonzalez is getting Tranquila ready for release in the marketplace in early 2026.
The 2021 business school graduate, who majored in marketing, learned about alternatives to traditional business career paths while at UR. Tranquila Coffee grew out of Gonzalez’s recognition of a gap in the market — a skill he picked up from his customer research classes with marketing lecturer Joel Mier.
He noticed that fellow Generation Zers were becoming more caffeine-conscious, monitoring their intake to prevent anxiety and sleep issues. He recognized that while store shelves were filled with canned coffees, decaf grab-and-go options were nearly nonexistent. Gonzalez wanted to change that by creating organic decaf cold brews and lattes for coffee drinkers who want the flavor without the caffeine.
In late 2023, he started making decaf concoctions in his New York apartment, buying supplies from various roasters and experimenting with bean profiles.
He connected with the former head of research and development at La Colombe Coffee Roasters, a Philadelphia-based brand well known for its canned beverages, at a consumer-packaged goods meetup. He has since brought him on to lead product development for Tranquila.
Gonzalez is now working to build a brand community in NYC and line up his initial group of retailers.
Fueled by quality beans and strong relationships
Blanchard travels to other countries to meet with coffee growers.
Despite their different business models, both Gonzalez and Blanchard emphasize the importance of intentionality for long-term success.
Relationships are the central focus of Blanchard’s business philosophy — from maintaining contact with former classmates and professors like Babb to meeting in-person with suppliers. He often travels to Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, and other countries to build face-to-face rapport with coffee growers at the source.
Blanchard credits his relationship-first philosophy to his time at Richmond. “At some universities, you can get lost in the numbers,” he said. “At Richmond, you feel a real connection.” To give back, he recently served as a judge at the Robins School’s Bench Top Innovations Great Bake Off, evaluating canned coffee and tea beverages developed by student teams.
When it comes to building a coffee business, Blanchard has simple advice: “Find some way to be passionate about it. Passion fuels and covers a lot of the heartache of work.”
Gonzalez also sees relationship-building as a core tenet of his Richmond business education. His negotiations class with Associate Professor of Management Richard Coughlan taught him how to collaborate and communicate well with vendors and supply chain teams. He also remains closely tied to the Richmond alumni network and sees value in staying connected as Tranquila grows.