We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabe Ulibarri a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gabe, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Real American Heroes started as an idea between myself and my two best friends while we were deployed overseas in 2018. We knew we wanted to start a business and we would meet up at a coffee shop on base to begin the process of brainstorming ideas we thought would work.

We came up with a lot of ideas about a branding and how we wanted to tell stories of Heroes when I said “why don’t we do coffee”? It made sense, We loved meeting up over coffee, it brought a sense of community, and all of our best ideas were created while drinking coffee. So, the idea of RAH (Real American Heroes) Coffee was created with the intention of telling stories of Real American Heroes.

When we returned we hit the ground running, we got our LLC then started working with roasters who saw our vision. We then found an awesome designer who created our iconic coffee bags and logo. When we had the bag, coffee, and vision we began creating social media, website, and attending events to bring awareness to RAH Coffee Company and what the mission was of our company Sip, Honor, Serve!

We have now donated hundreds of bags to deployed service members, police officers, firefighters, nurses etc. We volunteer our time in the community and ensure we are recognizing Heroes through our social media and beyond. In 2020 we were lucky enough to meet World Slam Dunk Champion Kenny Dobbs who became the 4th owner of the company and has excelled us into another spotlight to get our brand out.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Gabe Ulibarri I’m currently a firefighter Paramedic with the city of Tempe, I have also been in the United States Air Force reserve for 19 years. I drink lots of coffee and have spent countless hours at the fire station kitchen table solving the world problems over a cup of coffee. Same while being on multiple military deployments

I wanted to bring this same idea into our business. I’ve heard many countless stories of people I work with doing some amazing things in their communities such as as firefighters, police, officers, teachers etc. also as military members who constantly make a difference. This became a reality when we began telling their stories on our social media highlighting these heroes while giving back a percentage of sales to support them.

Social media has been a great resource for finding heroes from all around to tell their stories and to be highlighted with our brand. We are still actively working with up and coming influencers to create content while telling their amazing RAH story.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One story that I believe is unique to our journey and being resilient just occurred in the past year.

Myself and another business owner Dave were deployed again for six months around the world to support major military operations. Not only did we have to focus on the mission at hand but it left us running the business with only one owner Todd at home to run the day to day.

We showed we can do our best from our deployed locations while proving anything is possible. Successfully launching a nee blend in the process and running two online campaigns.

It was comforting knowing we had an operational business that can self sustain for the most part while we can continue our military commitments.

This has not only made us closer as business owners and best friends but has made us stronger as a small veteran owned business.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Myself (Gabe), Todd Martin, and David Martin are all the original Co-Founders for RAH Coffee, we are all best friends who met while serving in the U.S. Air Force. The 4th Owner Kenny Dobbs who is the international slam dunk champion joined us in 2020 after he took interest in our brand and saw our vision of recognizing heroes. I think our story is unique and it has only helped our brand and vision.

Contact Info:

• Website: Rahcoffeecompany.com
• Instagram: Rahcoffeeco
• Facebook: Rahcoffeeco
• Linkedin: Real American heroes coffee company.
• Twitter: Rahcoffeeco
• Youtube: Real American Heroes Coffee Company

Image Credits
Gabe Ulibarri