Amadeo Falce is the founder of Blue Dove Coffee, a viral coffee brand that started as a cart in Union Square and has since expanded to a brick-and-mortar café on Canal Street. A former Army paramedic turned entrepreneur, Amadeo started Blue Dove Coffee in September 2023 with a welded cart, a disabled-veteran permit, and a relentless work ethic that had him waking up at 2:30 a.m. and getting home at 9 p.m. seven days a week for 6 months straight.In less than a year, his viral “day-in-the-life” videos racked up millions of views, doubling sales and bringing customers from all over the world to his Union Square cart. That momentum led to the opening of Blue Dove’s first brick-and-mortar café at 307 Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, a sleek, Italian-inspired coffee shop built with grit, vision, and a few hundred thousand dollars of self-taught mistakes (his “$75K tuition”).In this episode, we dive into how Amadeo went from roofing to roasting, scaled from a single cart to a storefront, and built a premium coffee brand from the ground up, all without outside capital or prior experience in hospitality. He shares the hard truths about permits, buildouts, content strategy, and what it really takes to go from the street to Soho.We cover:How a disabled-veteran permit unlocked his entry into NYC vendingThe 2:30 a.m. grind that built Blue Dove’s foundationTurning viral TikToks into real-world revenueWhy he calls $75K in mistakes “tuition”Coffee Cart economics: from $1K/day to $2.5K/dayCoffee Store economics: from $2k/day to $6k/dayOpening Canal Street for $8.5K/month rent and a few hundred thousand buildoutHow to choose the right espresso machine (and the ones that fail fast)Expanding to Chelsea and beyond through data and demandWhy he plans to sell Blue Dove within 3–5 years and return to solarThe mindset shift from soldier to CEO to storytellerIf you've ever dreamed of running your own coffee cart or coffee shop, this is a must listen to hear what it takes to build a successful coffee business.Resources & Links Blue Dove Coffee: https://www.bluedovecoffee.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluedovecoffee TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bluedovecoffee Amadeo Falce: https://www.instagram.com/amadeofalceSponsored by Signs and Mirrors, the leading sign and furniture shop for retail stores. Opening Soon Links & Resources→ Signs and furniture for retail stores: https://signsandmirrors.com→ NYC and Houston’s first self-portrait studio: https://fotolab.studio→ Follow us on Instagram: @openingsoonpodcast→ More episodes and guest info: https://www.openingsoonpodcast.com→ Your Host Alan Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-li-711a8629/

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