Evan Hafer joined the United States National Guard at the mere age of seventeen, and right away he knew it was a fit. Excelling in all that was required, Hafer strived to obtain an even higher goal, the coveted Army Green Beret. After going through the grueling training, selection, and eventual graduation as a Green Beret, Hafer spent 20 years serving in the U.S. military. Throughout his deployments, Hafer was always drinking coffee. This carried over to civilian life-likewise, where Hafer would seek out different coffee and espresso shops in the Seattle area. This eventually culminated in Hafer roasting his own coffee for personal use and to sell to friends. As more and more people flocked to buy Hafer’s roasts, Hafer made the leap of faith from producing coffee simply as recreational, to an actual day job.
Where are they now?
In the winter of 2014, Hafer made the next big decision, to start his own company. Hafer founded Black Rifle Coffee Company with the purpose of being by veterans, for veterans. BRCC is known for its quality coffee, but also for its top-notch costumer interaction and involvement. The company effectively cuts out the middleman by selling its coffee directly to consumers via online subscription. In 2020 alone, BRCC had over 100,000 subscribers to its coffee deliveries, not to mention its two physical coffee shops in Boerne, and San Antonio, TX. As mentioned before, Hafer brought with BRCC a unique being of experience and community, and that community is what really sets the brand apart from the competition. By selling primarily to veterans, Hafer found a strong target market but also an almost militant (pun not intended) fan base. And it is that same fan base that sky rocketed BRCC revenue from $1 million in 2015, to $30 million in 2017, and finally a stunning $80 million in 2019; all within 5 years of operation. Hafer’s drive, dedication, and entrepreneurial mindset serves as an inspiration and shows just what is possible to be achieved with hard work and a clever mind
I love this example of the Entrepreneurial Mind. While Evan Hafer probably never intended to create a business selling his coffee, his passion that began while in the military became his day job. While this simple action carried him to the business idea, Hafer still had to find a unique value proposition to differentiate himself from the plethora of others in the coffee market and that is what he accomplished.
Coffee is an interesting market. More and more you see people getting into this branch as you can localize it or make it as big as you want. Similar with brewing companies. I love that military men would take on a entrepreneurial mind to tackle and take on a project like this
I love this example because they see a problem with veterans and want to support them. They didn’t solve the problem of providing super new and different coffee, instead they found a good market that could produce support for the real problem they are trying to solve. Good stuff!
I love watching the advertisements for Black Rifle Coffee Company. They are very comedic and convincing. I would like to try their coffee. This story shows that anyone can be creative. I feel like military men are stereotyped as being very stoic, strict, and serious, without any room for self expression. But this company breaks those assumptions by showing the creative nature of coffee and their humorous advertisements.