Veteran founder of multimillion-dollar company: 'This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The founder and CEO of Black Rifle Coffee Company, Evan Hafer, said he would rather return to combat than face rebuilding his business again from scratch.
"This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and I'm a former Green Beret [who] spent seven years in combat zones," Hafer told veteran correspondent Lara Logan on her Fox Nation show "No Agenda with Lara Logan."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In Season 3 of "No Agenda," Logan investigates the current state of affairs of America's veterans through the eyes of those who served — from veteran entrepreneurs to those carrying out humanitarian missions, to wounded warriors on the front lines of the veteran suicide crisis.
Hafer started Black Rifle Coffee in his Salt Lake City garage five years ago. Prior to that, he spent about 300 days a year, for a decade, deployed to some of the most remote and hostile regions of the world, with both the U.S. special forces and the CIA.
Today, Black Rifle Coffee is one of the most successful veteran-owned businesses in America, though Hafer said the company nearly never made it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I remember I was in my garage sitting on a box and, you know, I'm like looking around and I have nothing else. And I was like starting to cry," said Hafer, recalling how he sold nearly everything he owned to keep his business afloat.
"For years, I told myself all these things, you know, like you're a special forces guy, you're CIA, you know, 1 percent of 1 percent. Why can't I make this work?" he told Logan, explaining that he reached a turning point.
"I gave myself a speech, an internal speech, and it was, 'Don't do that ever again. This is a time that you have to define whether or not you're going to succeed or fail'... and from that point forward, it has been a completely different company."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the company, Black Rifle Coffee earned over $80 million in revenue in 2019 and they've seen revenues increase by 50 percent every year since they launched.
"Their brand is about standing up for the country, the principles and the people they believe in," narrated Logan, "regardless of who disapproves."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Co-founder Mat Best, a former U.S. Army Ranger and social media sensation, is the creative force behind Black Rifle's hugely successful marketing campaigns. Over the last 12 months, their social media platforms have racked up more than a billion unique views.
However, it's that online presence – that promotes constitutional rights like the right to bear arms and freedom of speech – that also attracts the ire of critics.
"I have this profound love for coffee. I have a love for firearms," said Hafer, a lifelong coffee aficionado. "It tends to infuriate progressives, too, which is also just a tertiary benefit that I never expected."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BLACK RIFLE COFFEE CO-FOUNDER RESPONDS TO CRITICS WHO ACCUSE HIM OF PROFITING OFF WAR
The company also makes a point of walking the walk.
When the chairman and CEO of Starbucks coffee, Howard Schultz vowed to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years in response to President Trump's suspension of Syrian refugees in 2017, Black Rifle Coffee pledged to hire 10,00 veterans.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}To watch all of season 3 of "No Agenda with Lara Logan," and meet more of the company's employees, including a former senior Afghan special forces commander, whom Hafer met overseas, go to Fox Nation and sign up today.
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