Rad Coffee Co-Founder Unleashes DeskPanther Operations Software

All images courtesy of DeskPanther.

DeskPanther, a coffee shop operations platform created and tested by California-based Rad Coffee Co-Founder Jade Valore, launched publicly Sept. 8 with tools for tracking inventory, repairs, cash handling and shift communication.

DeskPanther was deployed in Rad Coffee’s three Southern California shops beginning in early July, giving employees a central place to report operational issues while owners monitor activity across locations.

The web app requires no download and can be accessed from phones, tablets or computers. Once bookmarked or added to a user’s home screen, it gives workers quick access to forms for inventory counts, out-of-stock alerts, repairs and other operational reports.

Owners can customize inventory forms by category, par level and unit type, distinguishing items stocked by the case, box, tub, bag or sleeve and accounting for products ordered less frequently.

DeskPanther employee interface.

A digital shift “Notebook” — conceived as a replacement for physical notebooks that often live within coffee shops — also carries notes between shifts, including information about service technicians, deliveries and other upcoming events.

“Us, as owners, shouldn’t rely on all of our employees to constantly remember all the stuff to tell us or to tell everyone else. Just write it out, press submit, no sticky notes, no texting,” Valore told Daily Coffee News. “It’s just another tool for them to use so I don’t have to micromanage, and they are good to go.”

DeskPanther also records cash drops, distributes team announcements and maintains shift logs. Valore said her favorite feature is its inventory-counting and ordering system, which builds resupply lists around each location’s par levels and vendors. The software is not designed to integrate with other POS or payment systems. 

“You can add a vendor, and it doesn’t email your vendor any order or anything. A lot of owners, like myself, we still do things ourselves,” Valore said. “[At Rad Coffee] we have 20 vendors, so we have to order things 20 different ways.”

Valore’s previous entrepreneurial pursuits have touched on filmmaking, personal beauty, Airbnb management and more before she opened the first Rad Coffee location in Upland with her husband in 2015. Rad Coffee brought roasting in-house in 2018, opened its second shop in Covina in 2020 and followed with its Long Beach location in 2022.

As Rad grew, Valore accumulated a patchwork of apps for scheduling, inventory, repairs, staff communication and other operational needs.

“I’ve always been really into technology. I love technology. Before building [DeskPanther], I had like seven to eight apps,” Valore said. “It was learning about the new AI tools that led me to be like, wow, I don’t have to have a software degree to actually get my product out there.”

AI-assisted development tools were used to build much of DeskPanther, while Valore also learned to write code as she refined the platform. AI is not currently used within DeskPanther’s operational workflows, according to the brand’s marketing materials. 

Valore sees DeskPanther as an example of how AI-assisted development can help independent operators build tools without automating away frontline jobs. She also hopes the platform gives smaller businesses access to operational systems more commonly associated with larger chains.

DeskPanther owner dashboard.

“I’m not going to compete with everybody. I’m not 7Brew, I’m not Dutch Bros. I can’t be those people,” Valore said. “But [DeskPanther] can help people in the industry just as much as [the systems] competing on that level.”

Subscriptions to DeskPanther start at $39 per location per month for a single shop or mobile unit such as a truck, cart or pop-up. The monthly rate drops to $34 apiece for two or three shops and $29 per shop for four or more. The flat rate holds regardless of how many employees use the app, while owners can monitor an unlimited number of locations through a single platform.

“My heart is just trying to make people’s lives easier and giving them the tools to succeed, whether you are working for me or you’re using something that I created,” Valore said. “If people already have an app they’re using, that’s great, but was the app developed by somebody that’s been in the fire like them for 10-plus years? DeskPanther is nothing like what’s out there, because if it was, I would be using that. It’s not, and that’s why I created it.”

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