After finishing his Peace Corps service in the South Pacific, Maryland native and Salisbury University graduate Tim Cureton made a life-changing discovery as he visited Australia and New Zealand: a quality and variety of coffee he’d never tasted before. It ended up changing his life.
In 2005, Cureton used a $16,000 business loan to found Rise Up Coffee Roasters , a small-batch roaster and retailer specializing in fair trade and organic coffee. Before food trucks were commonplace, Cureton and co-founder Abby West launched the business as a coffee trailer in a parking lot in the town of St. Michael’s.
For nearly twenty years, Rise Up has followed a simple plan of “cautious growth,” said Noah Kegley, Cureton’s lifelong friend who joined the company in 2010 and serves as a partner and head roaster.
