Better beans for the cafes that need them

Valentina roasts coffee in a small workshop in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires. She sells her beans to cafes. The cafes that need her most are the ones serving tired coffee, but she cannot taste her way through the whole city. So she sends samples at random. Most cafes already love their roaster, and her bags end up in the bin. With xMap Flows, Valentina built Beacon. Every Tuesday, around Palermo and Villa Crespo, Beacon finds the independent cafes, keeps the ones rated under four with plenty of reviews, skips the ones she has already tried, writes each owner a warm note, and offers them a free tasting on WhatsApp. This week, Beacon finds nine cafes rated under four. Valentina approves each message from her phone between roasts. Five owners say yes to the tasting, and three switch to her beans before the month is out. Valentina stopped giving coffee away. Now she rescues cafes.

The story in words