OpsLens

Frontline Leaders: Veteran-Founded or Focused Organizations and Small Businesses

Black Rifle Coffee Company – Fresh Roasted Freedom

Very few CEOs can say they spent years—years—of their lives serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even fewer have returned home to launch a company offering a high-quality product that they were fine-tuning on those deployments—and with an unshakable resolve to employ veterans embedded in their business model. Founder and former Green Beret Evan Hafer launched Black Rifle Coffee Company in 2014, a premium small-batch, roast-to-order coffee available for purchase online, and an operation staffed by more than 50 percent former military service members. In 2017, BRCC sold over a million pounds of coffee, continued to scale a popular apparel and gear product line, and made the bold pledge to hire 10,000 veterans over the next five years (which entails rolling out a franchise program).

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