He grew up spending his summers at his grandfather’s coffee farm in the highlands of Brazil. That’s where he learned valuable lessons about being able to sustain the family business — from relationships with the workers on the farm, to the soil, the trees, and, of course, growing great coffee.

Today, Carneiro is based in Portland and leads his company, Nossa Familia Coffee, which sources coffee from an ever-expanding “family” of producers in Africa and Latin America. Each time the company adds a new producer, they develop a relationship with the farmers, which includes visiting the farm and getting them a good price. For example, when they set out to find an African producer, Nossa Familia sent the director of coffee to spend some time at the farm in Kenya.

Although the business started small, Carneiro had an ambitious vision to have a direct impact on coffee farmers’ lives and communities by following fair trade and sustainability practices.

At the outset, Carneiro and his partner each put in $400, and his grandfather shipped them a container of coffee on consignment. Slowly, their product gained traction, and today, they have a storefront and a roasting facility, which they opened thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012.