// About
Riley Westbrook //

Riley Westbrook is a co-owner at Valor Coffee, with over a decade of hands-on experience in the coffee industry. He currently guides everything from the brand’s creative direction to the oversight of Valor’s acclaimed coffee offerings. He’s deeply committed to sharing his passion with both coffee newcomers and seasoned connoisseurs, focusing on education, innovation, and memorable café experiences. Whether sourcing exceptional beans or developing exciting marketing campaigns, Riley’s mission is to see genuine connections made—one cup at a time.
‍
Back in 2016, Riley was an 19-year-old, aimless seeking a degree in business. He’d grown up in the North Georgia mountains, developing a love for coffee after tasting a wild cup for the first time at 17. While working as baristas, he and his friends Ethan and Ross dreamed up their own coffee company. One that didn’t just serve drinks, but brought people together. Through a Kickstarter Campaign and all the cash they had (…it wasn’t much), they started a mobile coffee cart, and thus, Valor was born.

They parked it outside farmers markets, local events, and weddings, slinging lattes with a smile while balancing their full-time barista jobs. But what they lacked in budget, they made up for in hustle and heart. Word got around fast. Locals loved the way the trio remembered their names, took time to chat, and made genuinely good coffee. Within a couple of years, they’d grown a loyal following and and had landed a daily pop-up operating in downtown Alpharetta, right next-door to where there soon-to-be cafe would open its doors.
‍
In 2019, they opened their first brick-and-mortar café in downtown Alpharetta—a 600-square-feet bundle of joy with a disco ball and plants hanging from the ceiling, and the same welcoming energy that fueled their cart days. They had also since picked up roasting, renting other local roaster’s equipment on nights and weekends, until they could afford to take a leap into their own roasting space, dubbed Valor HQ, in late-2020.
‍
Today, what started as a weekend hustle has grown into a full-fledged coffee operation. Their company—aptly named Valor Coffee—now runs two of the busiest cafes in the Southeastern United States, a roastery, a wholesale program that supplies coffee shops, restaurants and businesses across the globe, and one of the most in-demand catering teams in the Southeast. They've served weddings, Fortune 500 corporate events, film sets, and more. Through it all, Riley, Ross and Ethan still pour their heart and soul into Valor daily, each truly taking on the owner-operator title. It’s still about great coffee—but more than that, it’s about people, stories, and staying grounded in the roots that started it all.