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StumbleUponJason Araghi gripped his seat belt as the C-130 violently pitched and rolled high above Afghanistan. He'd hitched a ride on a U.S. military flight to deliver a machine part to the café he operated at the American base in Kandahar. But the Taliban was on the attack, and now the C-130 was dodging fire. Araghi wondered if he'd ever see his wife and kids again. All this, he thought, for coffee?
In the 11 years since its founding, Araghi's Green Beans Coffee Worldcafé company has overcome daunting obstacles—hijackers, snipers, suicide bombers—just so it can offer lattes and mochas to U.S. soldiers serving in the Middle East and central Asia. "Our customers are very picky," says Araghi. "Soldiers don't make that much money. So the product is obviously something that gets them to sit back and say, Ah, this takes me back home."
The son of Iranian immigrants, Araghi grew up in Los Gatos, California, and began his career as a chiropractor. After he'd set up a clinic in Saudi Arabia, one of his patients, a Saudi princess, offered him an intriguing opportunity: Would he open an American-style coffee café in a furniture showroom she owned?
Enlisting the help of his brother, Jon, Araghi started selling coffee to Riyadh locals. Soon U.S. military personnel were flocking in. Within months, their commander asked the Araghis to build a coffeehouse right on the base.
As American troops moved into Kuwait and Qatar, the Araghis followed, opening 15 Green Beans cafés in the region by 2001. Because of shifting troop deployments, they've had to be mobile—and innovative. "We took shipping containers that were 40 feet long and 8 feet wide and converted them into fully furnished cafés with wood cabinets and marble counters," Araghi says. "Then we put them on the back of a truck and transported them."
It soon became apparent that the cafés made a difference in the overall quality of life of the soldiers. "Everyone was on edge, under pressure," says Araghi. "Our shops were 15 minutes of tranquillity, a chance to listen to music, play some board games, hang out with friends." And enjoy familiar fare: an espresso and muffin, a smoothie, or a panini.
Then came 9/11. American troop deployments to Afghanistan and later Iraq meant that Green Beans would be serving coffee in war zones. "It was risky, dangerous," says Araghi. "But we couldn't say, We'll go to the safe places, but not where it's dangerous."
The logistics of shipping supplies into a war zone were nightmarish, not to mention costly. Containers often arrived riddled with bullet holes, if they arrived at all. Hijackers nabbed two containers, each carrying merchandise worth up to $110,000. "There's no insurance out there," says Araghi.
There were personal dangers too. Kidnappings of Americans unsettled Araghi and his staff. Some took to wearing body armor and helmets—"our business casual," Araghi calls it—as they served coffee.
These days, Jason spends most of his time at headquarters in Larkspur, California, while Jon manages overseas operations from London. What started with a $20,000 investment and a single café has become a thriving $20.8 million business with 68 shops, all on or near military bases. The Araghis have opened four Green Beans cafés in California, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, and plan to open eight more in the U.S. by the end of the year.
For Jason Araghi, Green Beans Coffee has become more than just a business venture. Wherever he goes, soldiers stand at the coffee bars, M16s slung over their shoulders as they show him photos of their kids and talk wistfully about their hometowns.
"That's when it hits home that they're just guys like me. They have kids; they're just doing their job," he says. "They want their kids to have the same freedom as they did when they were growing up. When you see soldiers just off a 12-hour patrol, smelly, dirty—the first thing they want is a cup of coffee to unwind. To me, it's priceless. And it puts what I do, with all the personal and financial risks, back into perspective."
Getting Ahead with Jason Araghi
How does your wife handle what you do?
The day a suicide bomb went off near my hotel in northern Iraq, I decided not to tell Negissa. But then someone from the government called her. She said it was the most frightening phone call because she hadn't heard from me. She supports what I'm doing and understands the risk involved but says she can't even think about it when I go overseas because she worries too much.
What makes you crazy?
Some people want to make this a political issue by saying we are in business to profit from the war. But we're a company that just wants to serve our customers.
What's been the key to your personal success?
Commitment, integrity, hard work. The whole Green Beans experience is about not giving up. It took a lot of "inner" negotiations to make a career move from health care into something different. When you make that move, you can't give up or go back. I tell my boys-they're 12 and 8-there are always obstacles that pop up in life. You have to figure out how to get around them.
Tell us about your company slogan.
You can't compete with the motto "Honor First." Jon and I came up with "Honor First, Coffee Second" because a lot of what we do is about honor, keeping our word. When the war started, the honorable thing to do was to go to Iraq.
Who are your heroes?
My parents. My father was working in Iran before the revolution. They had to leave overnight and take the family out of the country. When they came to the States, they had nothing; they had to start from zero. Their story is about being good role models.
What's your favorite beverage?
Double espresso. And our house blend.
Giving back is so important to you. Why?
I can't see being any other way. Our company donates up to two percent of sales to military charities. And we're putting together a program so that veterans interested in setting up coffee cafés will receive a ten percent
discount on franchise fees.
What words do you live by?
Like the song says, if you don't have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?
Got a Dreamer we could profile? Write to us at dreamers@rd.com.
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