Ted Chan, Founder and Managing Editor of CoffeeRoast.com.
A coffee lover and explorer, Ted Chan builds and drives mission-driven organizations with strong business fundamentals that allow them to scale. In particular, he is an expert in building review sites to deliver information, help people discover products and services they love, and avoid negative experiences. Ted is a speaker and expert on marketplace ethics, fake review detection, and multi-sided network businesses. In addition, Ted is an experienced medical, health, science, and food editor with over 100 publications. Ted has writing or editing credits for institutions such as the Boston Globe, ESPN.com, and Forbes.
As the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for the Better Business Bureau, Ted transformation of North America's leading consumer protection and ethical marketplace non-profit. I work to empower our 97 local BBBs and 3,500 team members to serve their communities best.
Ted was the Founder and CEO of a healthcare review site website that was used by more than 3 million people a month to search for the right medical care. The company reached nearly $7M in revenue on a $500K seed round.
Ted founded Upward Mobility, a leader in mobile education delivery with more than 150 apps across six platforms, including PracticeQuiz.com, one of the most popular free test prep websites. PracticeQuiz.com also publishes 75 popular test-taker workbooks. Upward Mobility provides cost-effective educational materials to over 18 million users a year.
Ted also served as a management consultant for over ten years, advising C-level executives on telecom, media, and technology strategy.
A Letter from Ted Chan, Founder, and Managing Editor
In 2015, I went to a technology conference, and George Howell was a featured speaker. Afterward, he taught a one-hour class on the intricacies of cupping class. As a former restaurant manager and wine connoisseur, it resonated. Coffee can be as expressive, if not more so, than wine. So I started to buy specialty roasts from all over and take a discerning approach to appreciating coffee’s most subtle characteristics.
My other expertise and passion is building consumer transparency by building review sites. So one night, as I looked over old coffee notes searching for a remarkable Gesha I’d had years before, I thought, why couldn’t my two passions meet? And that’s how CoffeeRoast.com was born.
Am I a coffee expert? Well, as I’ve talked to more and more people who share my passion, many have agreed I have a knack for identifying great coffee. That’s it, though, and I don’t pretend to be anything more. I built this site with that lens as a place for coffee aficionados to share their opinions.
I designed it for myself, someone who wants to track what they’re drinking meticulously, rank it, and compare it. One thing I know about reviews on eCommerce sites about coffee is to someone that loves coffee, they don’t feel right. The darkest, cheapest mass-produced coffee can be 4.7 stars on Amazon.
In our house, we drink coffee in many ways…mostly because we drink a lot of coffee! My wife drinks cappuccinos, lattes, cold brews, and iced Americanos. I drink pourover, espressos, and Moka pot. At one point, I worked at a pourover crazy company, where we easily ran through 5 bags of beans a week (and a keg of cold brew!).
Ultimately, I’m just one opinion, which is why I decided to build this site - so the global community could share its views on the coffees they love. And most importantly, tell me which roasts I need to be trying!
Ted Chan