Tech Troubles: Executive settles into the coffee roasting business

By JENNIFER PITTMAN
Sentinel correspondent

SANTA CRUZ, CA — Huge burlap bags of green coffee beans from exotic places are piled on racks in the back of Java Bob’s Coffee Roasting Co., a wholesale distributor owned and operated by high-tech engineer Rich Hansen.

Hansen, the former head of a multimillion-dollar company, can see the stacks from his small office where he tracks a growing number of orders and plots strategy to edge into the local retail market.

Java Bob’s is one of the top roasters in the county behind Santa Cruz Roasting Co. and, for Hansen, it’s a symbol of a new chapter in his entrepreneurial life.

Hansen delivers the beans himself so he can chat with loyal customers throughout the county and get a feel for business. It is a long way from serving as chief executive officer of Silicon Engineering, an $8 million company Hansen co- founded in the early ’90s with four other engineers for a combined investment of $6,320. They eventually sold it to Creative Advanced Technology Center for $24 million.

Hansen says he couldn’t be happier.

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