Never Too Old to Get Rich

CHAPTER 4Cockpit to the Coffee Shop

Mike Foster, FosterHobbs Coffee Roasters

Decades of downing cups of crummy airplane coffee, mixed with milk to make it drinkable, were the driving force for former airline pilot Mike Foster’s venture, FosterHobbs Coffee Roasters, an artisan supplier of specialty-grade Arabica coffee beans, in High Point, North Carolina. You can’t get many beverages there: iced coffee, yes; espresso, no. The attention is on ground or whole beans that coffee devotees can brew at home or at the office.

“I discovered my passion for coffee on my first transatlantic flight in the mid-1990s as a pilot for American Airlines,” says Foster, 59. “The coffee I drank trying to keep my eyes open was awful. I made it a hobby to seek out new coffee shops wherever I had layovers.”

In 2009, after 23 years with the airline, Foster accepted an early retirement from his six-figure salary and captain’s perch at American Airlines, with a dream of creating his own coffee shop.

Like a pilot crossing items off a preflight review, he set about this with focused planning. Foster spent two years meticulously doing research and bouncing his ideas off a coffee industry specialist. The consultant counseled him to skip serving specialty beverages, and instead build a possibly more lucrative business retailing freshly roasted high-end coffee beans.

To confirm that was the right recommendation, ...