CREDIT: HALEY FRIESEN PHOTOGRAPHY
(From left) London natives Michael Potters and Jake Van Buskirk founded Parachute Coffee, a company that delivers freshly roasted coffee beans from different Canadian roasters every month.

In the midst of studying for his master’s degree in political science at the University of Toronto, Michael Potters realized he had had a coffee problem.

He was drinking a lot of it then and brewed his own using a French press, a coffee pot in which you combine the water and coffee and filter the drink with a plunger.

The problem was that he had a hard time finding freshly roasted coffee beans.

“I knew that small batch coffee and coffee roasting happened all across Canada, but I didn’t know where to find the good ones and how to get their coffee easily,” Potters said.

So, he founded his own company, Parachute Coffee, which does just that – finds freshly roasted coffee beans and ships them to coffee drinkers across Canada.

Born and raised in London, Potters studied political science at King’s University College before moving to Toronto to pursue a master’s degree. His plan had always been to work for the government or a non-governmental organization, possibly abroad.

But Potters said he was having so much fun coming up with a solution to his coffee problem that he decided to commit to it.

“It was by accident,” he said. “I never actually intended on going into business.”

Potters started his business plan in May of last year. At first, the idea was to make a website where people could easily buy fresh coffee.

He approached London native and childhood friend Jake Van Buskirk, asking him for branding advice. While not a coffee drinker then, Van Buskirk joined the project.

“I have faith in Mike,” Van Buskirk said. “It’s one of those ideas [that] seems very simple, and it’s just kind of bizarre that no one else has executed it, yet.”

The idea shortly thereafter evolved into a subscription service – they had become popular, and Canada didn’t really have any coffee-subscription services, Potters said.

Van Buskirk got hooked on coffee after coffee roasters the duo visited for the project repeatedly offered them cups of coffee.

“The coffee was so, so good,” Van Buskirk. “I was like, ‘this is the greatest coffee I ever had in my entire life,’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s always this good.’”

Parachute Coffee made its first shipment in April. For $25 a month, the company chooses a different Canadian roaster, makes an order and ships the beans on the day they’re roasted.

Past roasters have included Burlington’s Detour Coffee Roasters, Toronto’s Pilot Coffee Roasters and Pig Iron Coffee Roasters in Mississauga, among others.

“Our goal is to become Canada’s coffee club,” Potters said. “This is a way to get fresh coffee conveniently delivered on a regular basis.”