Angel Medina
Smalltime Roasters | Portland, OR
APRIL 2018
A Californian of Mexican descent, Angel Medina started off as a small business specialist at U.S. Bank and went on to ReVrt Consultants, where he became a business development consultant and later held a position as director of physician recruiting. In February 2014, Medina joined Airbnb for which he coordinated the CX Red Team and helped create the “last minute cancellation” response team.
Smalltime Roasters began in 2016 as a project built by Medina and his girlfriend, Lucy Alvarez. Medina roasted coffee at home, and the couple wanted to support United We Dream, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrant youth and their families. It’s a cause that hits close to home for Medina whose brother is a “Dreamer.” The response to their grassroots efforts and coffee was unexpectedly overwhelming. Airbnb alone asked Medina for 100 pounds a week. Medina took his roasting operation from home to Aspect Collective, a shared roasting space where he upped his production and honed his skills.
Soon Medina and Alvarez decide they needed a space of their own to sell coffee. In June 2017, the duo opened small riverfront shop Kiosko. They’ll add at least two more outlets in 2018 and plan to grow Kiosko across the country, integrating the shops into communities with Smalltime Roasters supplying the roasted coffee. Medina and Alvarez are first-generation Americans with a simple goal: to be the largest and most recognized Latino-owned craft coffee business in America.
