In an unassuming warehouse surrounded by old brick factories in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, something new is brewing: Lil’ Roadie Coffee Company, a startup led by Vincent Emery ’26, is shaking up the local coffee market.
The Bryant High School senior and student government president is a self-described “coffee nerd” who drinks five lattes a day. He founded the company in 2022, his senior year of high school, and it was profitable within four months.
“I’m amazed that it happened so quickly,” he admits, before adding a thought about the power of entrepreneurship: “When you start a business, you’re the one who determines your own destiny.”
Emery’s parents, though mostly hands-off, help out twice a week on aromatic roasting days, packaging the beans into 12-ounce bags. They roast up to 700 bags a week and sell them online and at local retailers, including the Newport Mansion gift shop.
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They’re consciously committed to sustainability: Using air roasting, for example, results in 80 percent fewer carbon emissions than traditional processes; in May, Emery won a $5,000 grant to further develop carbon-capture roasting techniques. Though their bean varieties come from tropical regions like Kenya and Honduras, the brand stays true to the Ocean State, producing blends called Rocky Point, Big Blue Bug, and Federal Hill (his favorite).
Emery’s path to becoming a coffee entrepreneur began as a young child sipping coffee from his family’s stovetop Moka pot. That childhood sipping evolved into regular coffee drinking when he jumped on the Keurig bandwagon.
“It was a different shock on Christmas morning when I found my family opening my products as gifts.”
But at age 15, he fell in love with the city’s coffee shops. “Whenever my dad went to Boston for work, we would always have coffee together,” recalls Emery, who is partly Italian. “We would have $9 coffees, brewed in a way that I’d never had before.”
He pored over books and articles to understand the complex evolution of bean to beverage. His biggest takeaway was that freshness drives flavor, which is why Lil’ Rhody uses just-in-time manufacturing to ensure fast delivery from field to customer.
“Coffee is perishable, just like fruit or meat,” explains the global supply chain student, who never keeps more than a month’s supply of green beans in stock.
Emery wants to disrupt the industry and grow coffee in the U.S., primarily to stabilize supply in uncertain times, a move that will require expensive R&D perhaps 20 years down the line. For now, the startup’s growth is driven by very real successes, like a strong holiday season. “It was a different kind of shock on Christmas morning when families opened my products as gifts.”
