Star Bucks

Starbucks began in 1971 when the three founders, English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker opened a store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in the touristy Pikes Place Market in Seattle. The three founders shared fine coffees and exquisite teas’ and believed they could build a shop in Seattle much like that which had already emerged in the San Francisco Bay area. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker chose the name Starbucks in honor of Starbuck, the coffee-loving first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick(so company legend has it),The new company's logo, designed by an artist friend, was a two-tailed mermaid encircled by the store's name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks

The inspiration for the Starbucks enterprise was a Dutch immigrant, Alfred Peet, who had begun importing fine coffees into the United States during the 1950s. Peet viewed coffee as a fine winemaker views grapes, appraising it in terms of country of origin, estates, and harvests. Peet had opened a small store, Peet's Coffee and Tea, in Berkeley, California, in 1966 and had cultivated a loyal clientele. Peet's store specialized in importing fine coffees and teas, dark-roasting its own beans the European way to bring out their full flavor, and teaching customers how to grind the beans and make freshly brewed coffee at home. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker were well acquainted with Peet's expertise, having visited his store on numerous occasions and spent many hours listening to Peet expound on quality coffees and the importance of proper bean-roasting techniques. All three were devoted fans of Peet and his dark-roasted coffees, going so far as to order their personal coffee supplies by mail from Peet's.
The store did not offer fresh-brewed coffee by the cup, but samples were sometimes available for tasting. Initially, Siegel was the only paid employee. He wore a grocer's apron, scooped out beans for customers, extolled the virtues of fine, dark-roasted coffees, and functioned as the partnership's retail expert. The other two partners kept their day jobs but came by at lunch or after work to help out. During the start-up period, Baldwin kept the books and developed a growing knowledge of coffee; Bowker served as the "magic, mystery, and romance man."1 The store was an immediate success, with sales exceeding expectations, partly because of a favorable article in the Seatle Times. In the early months, each of the founders traveled to Berkeley to learn more about coffee roasting from their mentor, Alfred Peet, who urged them to keep deepening their knowledge of coffees and teas. For most of the first year, Starbucks ordered its coffee beans from Peet's, but then the partners purchased a used roaster from Holland and set up roasting operations in a nearby ramshackle building. Baldwin and Bowker experimented with Alfred Peet's roasting procedures and came up with their own blends and flavors. A second Starbucks store was opened in 1972.
http://consumerist.com/2011/03/starbucks-to-buy-peets-coffee.html

By the early 1980s, the company had four Starbucks stores in the Seattle area and could boast of having been profitable every year since opening its doors. But the roles and responsibilities of the cofounders underwent change. Zev Siegel experienced burnout and left the company to pursue other interests. Jerry Baldwin took over day-to-day management of the company and functioned as chief executive officer; Gordon Bowker remained involved as an owner but devoted most of his time to his advertising and design firm, a weekly newspaper he had founded, and a microbrewery he was launching (the Redhook Ale Brewery).
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004269831_bowker09.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks
http://consumerist.com/2011/03/starbucks-to-buy-peets-coffee.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004269831_bowker09.html