The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by MAP IT FORWARD

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This episode is brought to you by Map It Forward Podcast Advertising. Interested in advertising on this podcast? Email support@mapitforward.org to learn more.
Episode Description
This is Part 5 of a five-part series with Matthew Thornton from Arkena Coffee Market on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar, exploring where technology is genuinely changing the coffee industry, and where it still isn't.
Throughout this series, Lee Safar and Matthew Thornton have examined where technology is appearing across the coffee supply chain, why some innovations succeed, where important gaps remain, and how technology often looks very different from the perspective of producers.
The series concludes with one final question: Why do so many coffee technology products fail to gain adoption?
Building software has never been easier. Artificial intelligence has dramatically reduced the barriers to creating new digital products, and coffee is seeing more technology startups than ever before. But creating technology is only the beginning. Convincing people to trust it, change their behaviour, and continue using it is a far more difficult challenge.
Lee and Matthew explore why adoption depends on much more than features. They discuss the importance of trust, relevance, convenience and incentives, and why many technology companies struggle because they build products before fully understanding the people they hope to serve.
Matthew also shares practical advice from his own experience building Arkena Coffee Market, offering lessons for entrepreneurs, software developers and anyone creating products for the coffee industry. From identifying genuine customer needs to embracing minimum viable products and remaining flexible as markets evolve, the conversation becomes as much about building sustainable businesses as it is about building technology.
The series closes with a reminder that technology alone cannot solve coffee's structural challenges. Lasting innovation begins by listening carefully, understanding incentives, and creating solutions that make life meaningfully better for the people using them.
Connect with Matthew Thornton and Arkena Coffee Market here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Website: https://arkenacoffee.com/
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
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About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
‘The Coffee Report’: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/
Contact: support@mapitforward.org

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Get “The Coffee Report by Map It Forward” directly to your inbox every Friday by signing up for either our Green Coffee or Roasted Coffee Patreon tiers in our Patreon community. Head to https://www.patreon.com/collection/2275485 to read our first report for free. Sign up for as little as $5 per month.
Episode Description
This is Part 4 of a five-part series with Matthew Thornton from Arkena Coffee Market on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar, exploring where technology is genuinely changing the coffee industry, and where it still isn't.
Across the first three episodes, Lee Safar and Matthew Thornton examined where technology exists, why some solutions succeed, and where the industry's biggest gaps remain. This conversation shifts the focus to perhaps the most important question of the entire series: What does technology look like from the producer's perspective?
Many of the digital tools being introduced into coffee are promoted as solutions for origin, but are they actually designed to solve producers' problems, or are they primarily helping buyers meet their own commercial, sustainability or compliance requirements?
Lee and Matthew explore the growing disconnect between technology built for coffee-producing countries and the people expected to use it. They discuss the important distinction between farmers and producers, why those differences matter when designing technology, and how many existing platforms prioritise reporting and compliance over improving everyday decision-making at origin.
The conversation also examines one of coffee's longest-standing structural challenges: information and pricing rarely flow equally across the supply chain. If producers are expected to adopt new technology, they must receive genuine value in return—not simply become better providers of data for someone further downstream.
Rather than criticising technology itself, this episode challenges the assumptions behind its design. It argues that meaningful innovation begins by understanding the realities of coffee production and recognising that lasting adoption only happens when technology creates measurable benefits for the people using it.
This is a conversation about incentives, trust, and why the future of coffee technology may depend less on writing better software than on asking better questions.
Connect with Matthew Thornton and Arkena Coffee Market here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Website: https://arkenacoffee.com/
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
***************************************
About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
‘The Coffee Report’: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/
Contact: support@mapitforward.org

Advertising Sponsor
MIF Coffee Business Plan Review Service: AI can write a business plan. We'll help you determine whether it will work in the real world. Email support@mapitforward.org or DM @mapitforward.coffee to get started.
Episode Description
This is Part 3 of a five-part series with Matthew Thornton from Arkena Coffee Market on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar, exploring where technology is genuinely changing the coffee industry, and where it still isn't.
In the first two episodes, Lee Safar and Matthew Thornton explored where technology exists across the coffee supply chain and why some technologies succeed while others struggle to gain traction.
Now they ask an even bigger question: What are the industry's biggest technology gaps?
Rather than focusing on building more sophisticated software, Matthew argues that coffee's greatest opportunities lie in solving much more fundamental problems. Information remains fragmented across the supply chain. Pricing lacks transparency. Communication often breaks down between origin and consuming countries. Valuable data exists, but rarely reaches the people who need it most.
Throughout the conversation, Lee and Matthew examine why these disconnects continue despite rapid advances in artificial intelligence and digital tools. They explore the difference between creating technology that impresses investors and creating technology that genuinely improves the way coffee businesses operate.
One of the recurring themes throughout this series becomes increasingly clear in this episode: technology cannot fix broken incentives on its own. Before the industry can build better tools, it must first understand whose problems deserve solving and why many of today's systems continue to leave critical gaps unaddressed.
As more technology companies enter coffee, this conversation challenges founders, business owners and industry leaders to think beyond features and ask whether they are addressing the issues that matter most across the supply chain.
Connect with Matthew Thornton and Arkena Coffee Market here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Website: https://arkenacoffee.com/
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
***************************************
About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
‘The Coffee Report’: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/
Contact: support@mapitforward.org

Advertising Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Arcadia Green Coffee, Colombian coffee exporters taking fresh green coffee from Colombia to the world, farm to roastery, direct. New office now open in the UK.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcadiagreencoffee/
WhatsApp: https://wa.me/353877871523
Episode Description
This is Part 2 of a five-part series with Matthew Thornton from Arkena Coffee Market on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar, exploring where technology is genuinely changing the coffee industry, and where it still isn't.
After examining where technology exists across the coffee supply chain in Part 1, this conversation shifts to a more practical question: Where is technology actually delivering meaningful value?
Not every digital tool improves the way coffee businesses operate. Some technologies become indispensable because they remove friction, improve decision-making, or solve problems people experience every day. Others generate excitement but struggle to produce lasting impact.
In this conversation, Lee Safar and Matthew Thornton explore the characteristics shared by successful coffee technologies and why adoption often has less to do with innovation than with usefulness. They discuss examples of technology that has become embedded into daily workflows, the role convenience plays in encouraging adoption, and why the most effective tools are often those users barely notice because they fit naturally into existing business processes.
The discussion also challenges the assumption that more advanced technology automatically creates greater value. Instead, Matthew argues that successful innovation begins by understanding the people who will ultimately use the product and the problems they are genuinely trying to solve.
As AI continues lowering the barriers to building new software, this episode offers an important reminder that creating technology is becoming easier every day, but creating technology that people continue using remains much harder.
Understanding why certain tools succeed provides an important foundation for the next conversations in this series, where Lee and Matthew begin exploring the industry's biggest technology gaps and why many opportunities remain largely untouched.
Connect with Matthew Thornton and Arkena Coffee Market here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Website: https://arkenacoffee.com/
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
***************************************
About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/
Contact: support@mapitforward.org

Advertising Sponsor
Want to join our Map It Forward Monthly Community Discussion Group? Head to https://patreon.com/mapitforward to join the community by signing up for the "Roasted Coffee" tier for 20 USD per month. Find other like-minded people in the coffee industry. This community is open to all stakeholders in the coffee industry
Episode Description
This is Part 1 of a five-part series with Matthew Thornton from Arkena Coffee Market on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar, exploring where technology is genuinely changing the coffee industry, and where it still isn't.
Artificial intelligence, automation, traceability, digital marketplaces, and data are dominating conversations across coffee. Yet despite all the excitement surrounding technology, many parts of the global coffee supply chain remain surprisingly disconnected from the tools that promise to transform them.
In this opening conversation, Lee Safar and Matthew Thornton step back to ask a deceptively simple question: Where is technology actually showing up today?
Rather than focusing on future predictions, they examine the current reality across the supply chain, discussing where technology has become embedded into everyday coffee businesses, where adoption remains slow, and why the experience of technology often looks completely different depending on whether you're a roaster, importer, exporter, producer or farmer.
Throughout the discussion, they begin laying the foundation for one of the central themes of this series: technology is not inherently valuable simply because it exists. Its value depends entirely on whose problems it solves, who benefits from it, and whether it creates meaningful improvements for the people expected to use it.
As AI lowers the barriers to building software and new coffee technology companies emerge at an unprecedented pace, this conversation offers an important framework for thinking beyond innovation itself and towards practical usefulness.
If the coffee industry hopes to build a more resilient future, understanding where technology is already succeeding, and where significant gaps remain, may be one of the most important conversations we can have.
Connect with Matthew Thornton and Arkena Coffee Market here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arkenacoffee/
Website: https://arkenacoffee.com/
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
***************************************
About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
Mailing list: https://mapitforward.coffee/mailinglist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mapitforward
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapitforward.coffee/
Contact: support@mapitforward.org