Veteran Attributes and Ethos Permeate Company Culture and Mission
Do you remember the last time you were able to choose your team? This rarely happens in any industry or job function, regardless of seniority—and this is especially true in the military. Let’s just say you get what you get.
Nonetheless, as I’ve spent the past year meeting more than a hundred veteran entrepreneurs, I’ve observed two points in regard to their teams. Launching a venture tends to allow one the freedom to be your own boss and choose your own team, but let’s be honest. Start-up companies are not necessarily choosing—rather they are scrounging for best-value team members due to preciously tight initial capital. Second, veteran entrepreneurs tend to return to the stable and find their own—they surround themselves with other veterans. And this habit continues long after the revenue starts rolling in and they are cash positive.
It was my first conversation with Black Rifle Coffee Company founder Evan Hafer in which I met a business leader who zealously lived this truth and declared it his mission to hire 10,000 veterans. Before our interview, I had read something about Evan’s bold statement and wasn’t sure if it was serious or a flippant reply to the Starbucks goal of hiring 10,000 refugees. After all, Black Rifle has a reputation of brazen, uniquely humorous, unapologetic, edgy branding.
For example, if you thought it was rough when Tom Hanks spat the famous movie quote, “There’s no crying in baseball,” don’t read the next sentence. Black Rifle swiftly stamps phrases on enamel mugs in the more shocking, coarse vein of military lingo: “F*ck your sensitivities.” They don’t want everyone to buy their coffee.
Yet the longer I spoke with Evan, his genuine passion for veterans was palpable, matching his words. “We know the guys over at Starbucks. It’s not about them. Or refugees. It’s all about veterans.”
The veteran culture is a striking part of Black Rifle’s differentiation, considering they currently employ more than 100 people, of which 60 percent are military veterans. On our call, Evan shared he had approximately 3,000 résumés in his queue and was committed to peeling back the military camouflage (military occupational specialty jargon) so that the right fit could be learned about the quality and skill set of each candidate.
If you stay at the surface of Black Rifle’s culture, which absolutely has the shock and awe that will turn some away, you’ll miss the undercurrent of veteran attributes that offer an unmatched currency—gritty, hard-working, trusted individuals who take initiative without hesitation, complete a mission, and will do so with anyone standing by their side. Anyone. Because diversity is important not for the sake of quotas; veterans have learned on the battlefield that you need it to not only survive, but succeed.
As Evan pointed out, they are the fastest-growing coffee company in the United States. Thriving appears to be roasted into the recipe with Black Rifle. Yes, Evan knows his trade and has vision, but again, you really just need to be on the phone with him for more than a few minutes before he’ll quickly mention a member of the team—with sincere pride. And this is not done in one of those unauthentic, deflecting maneuvers because he doesn’t want to reveal his own impressive service story as a Green Beret and years working for the US government. Instead, he’ll eagerly talk about his team because it is who he is.
On the Friday we chatted, I heard about the remarkable cross-section of his operations folks, who alone will leave you wanting to learn more about the entire Black Rifle crew. Jeff Kirkham, his head of product development, spent nearly 30 years in Special Forces—eight of those years as “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan and Iraq as a member of a counterterrorist direct action unit. Never mind the fact that this man also studied six foreign languages, published multiple books, and is considered by his office mates to be the offspring of a Neanderthal, James Bond, and Q (Black Rifle humor returns!).
Then there is Amanda Higgins, program manager and a US Air Force pilot and weapons officer once responsible for putting warheads on foreheads, in her own words. You can learn more about Amanda in this short video produced by Black Rifle as part of their new series It’s Who We Are, in which she recounts harrowing tales of her heroic missions in Afghanistan and Iraq while piloting F-15E Strike Eagles (not F-52, to remove any confusion). The caliber and quality of people like Jeff and Amanda are unmistakable.
Still, veteran attributes alone are not what makes Black Rifle inimitable. Black Rifle exudes military ethos that permeates their culture and mission. Their predominantly veteran (and greater, like-minded) tribe are from all walks of life, recognizing that every person on the team adds value. And values unite.
There’s no better example than the story of screen print operator Mohammed Walid Tasleem, a distinguished Afghan commando who fought beside Jeff, Evan, and more than 500 American advisors over the span of a decade. In 2013, with grave threats to his family, he sought refuge and a new life in America. Walid embodies the brave, pioneering spirit needed first by the New World explorers who became American revolutionaries. And he is unequivocally part of the Black Rifle family.
With people like this, you can understand why Evan Hafer is choosing to seek more veterans on his A-team. His sight alignment holds steady on the key word I heard him say several times—opportunity. Black Rifle aims to scale by being known in the veteran community. And hiring 10,000 veterans doesn’t just literally mean hiring 10,000 veterans. It means creating more opportunities, being economically emancipated from the government, and sharing success (as his business model evolves this year to include a franchise program). “We need to do a better job at helping each other as veterans,” Evan said.
Choosing a team often has a lot to do with whether your team would choose you. In the military, that tends to come down to being tactically and technically proficient, living your military values, and caring. Black Rifle Coffee Company seems to have figured out this grind.
