Rivers & Roads Consulting began the way many bold ideas do — over a couple of beers.
Ross and Sam were sitting in a brewery with their families, swapping frustrations about the limits of their day jobs. Ross was working in destination marketing, Sam was running a county chamber of commerce after a stint in economic development. Both were passionate about helping communities thrive, but both felt boxed in by city and county lines that didn’t match the scale of the problems they saw.
Their conversation turned into a realization: the challenges communities face — struggling nonprofits, stagnant local economies, unprepared governments — don’t stop at borders. So why should solutions?
The timing mattered. COVID-19 was still reshaping the way people lived and worked. Remote work was surging, social dynamics were shifting, and organizations everywhere were being forced to confront hard truths: apathy, lack of vision, burned-out leaders, underused assets, and outdated strategies. It was clear that the problems of tomorrow couldn’t be solved with yesterday’s playbook.
Ross and Sam both knew this firsthand. As elected officials, they had experienced the messy realities of public leadership. As organizational leaders, they had sat across the table from business owners, nonprofit directors, and government staff trying to make sense of stalled growth and constant constraints. They had seen the weariness, the doubt, and the slow creep of stagnation — but also the sparks of potential when the right ideas and leadership entered the room.
So they launched Rivers & Roads with a simple but radical commitment: to be the consulting firm that shakes organizations out of survival mode and helps them chart bold, clear, and actionable paths forward.
From day one, Rivers & Roads was built differently. Not “corporate.” Not cookie-cutter. Grounded in civic values, informed by entrepreneurial grit, and fueled by an unshakable belief that communities thrive when their organizations, businesses, and governments are strong.
Today, that brewery conversation lives on in every project, every client meeting, and every big bet we help an organization make. Rivers & Roads started with frustration, but it’s fueled by conviction: we are here to make bold thinking and decisive action the new normal.