Inspiration
Growing up in a coffee-producing country and watching my father run a coffee export business, I’ve always known how hard rural farmers work especially women and youth. Despite producing some of the best beans in the world, they often earn the least. They don’t have access to direct buyers, branding tools, or training to grow their income. Many of them are stuck in informal work, surviving rather than thriving. That’s where the idea for Coffee Connect began.
What it does
Coffee Connect is a web and mobile-accessible platform designed to create decent jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for smallholder farmers. The platform empowers rural youth and women through training in basic business skills and coffee processing, translation support to help them communicate with buyers, a marketplace that connects them directly with ethical, traceable coffee buyers both local and international. Rather than selling unprocessed coffee for low prices, farmers can now brand, market, and sell their own product increasing their income, control, and dignity.
How we plan to build it
We plan to launch a minimum viable product (MVP) starting with 10–15 interested farmers already connected through our network. The MVP will include: farmer profiles, basic training resources, a simple marketplace with translation support, secure payment options via local providers. Our revenue will come from small commission fees per transaction and premium services for bulk buyers. We will reach farmers through co-op partnerships and buyers through diaspora and ethical sourcing channels.
Challenges we ran into
Low connectivity, trust, and language differences are real. But we’re solving this through human-first tech designing for simplicity, offering translation tools, and building strong local relationships from the start.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
After speaking with over 15 farmers, it became clear that Coffee Connect meets a real need. With insight from my family’s export business, which earned over 140 million birr last year, we shaped a solution that’s practical, grounded, and focused on what matters most: access, simplicity, and impact. Coffee Connect is more than a concept, it’s a step toward decent work and inclusive growth for rural communities.
What we learned
The problem isn’t the quality of the coffee, it’s the lack of connection. Farmers have the potential but not the access to training, tools, or markets. Through conversations with over 15 interested farmers and insight from our family's export business, we’ve seen clear demand on both sides: producers seeking better opportunities and buyers looking for ethical, direct trade.
What's next for Coffee Connect
We plan to launch a lean MVP using no-code or low-code tools, starting with a small group of farmers we’ve already connected with. The initial version will focus on core features: farmer profiles, basic product listings, translation support, and secure communication between buyers and sellers. We'll work with local cooperatives to support onboarding and logistics. From there, we aim to expand regionally and scale through partnerships with NGOs, diaspora communities, and ethical buyers. Our approach is focused, realistic, and built to grow starting with what we can do now, and evolving as we gain traction.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.