Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Oksayan.
Claire, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The birth of The Rush Coffee is both typical and unique at the same time. Typical in that it’s the story of burn-out from a non-profit corporate career and the need for freedom, more meaning and happiness. After ten years spent growing and learning in a corporate-run non-profit organization, co-founder Claire Oksayan (that’s me) was determined to make a change and break free. With two young boys at home, I felt like I was missing out on the most important pieces of life, and it was time to reclaim my freedom and my family. Together with my husband and co-founder, Parsegh, the idea for The Rush Coffee was born.
Riding on my experience as a barista and in my career at the non-profit and Parsegh’s experience and skills in everything else we would need, we set out to claim the American dream of working for ourselves, setting our own schedule, and playing by our own rules. Our first The Rush Coffee truck hit the streets in March 2017, the second truck came in 2018 and the third in 2019. Within three short years, The Rush Coffee had made a big impact in the San Diego County mobile coffee scene, delivering happiness to tens of thousands of people each year.
Fast-forward to March 2020 when the pandemic flipped everything upside down. You’d think this would be a story of so many other small businesses that struggled through 2020 and 2021 only to have to close their doors. But here’s where this story becomes unique. Unknown to us back in 2017, mobile businesses, specifically mobile food and beverage businesses, would be nearly pandemic-proof. Considered “essential” by the government, we were able to not only remain open but also avoided many of the closure struggles that brick-and-mortar businesses faced. In a nutshell, we were free to continue working the same way we had before – all we had to do was find the customers. But not too long into the pandemic, the customers started flooding in and The Rush Coffee experienced record-breaking months in 2021!
Riding on this success, we launched our franchise opportunity in October and just signed our first franchise owner in North Austin, Texas just last month.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Every entrepreneur we spoke with as we got started told us that the first five years would be the hardest, and considering that we’re five years into this venture, hopefully they’re right. Obviously, the COVID-19 closures were an unexpected obstacle for us all, but the biggest unexpected challenge for us has been the difficulty finding reliable workers to help us. Especially now that many of the workforce just isn’t back to work – all of us small businesses are desperate for good employees and we’re all coming up short right now. Running the business is hard, but running it AND working every day of the week feels impossible at times. We know things will change and we look forward to finding the right employees to join us!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are the largest and best mobile coffee truck company in San Diego County and now also in Austin, TX! We believe that a great coffee drink should not take more than 1 minute to make, and we prove that every day by pumping out the most delicious drinks in a fraction of the time of other coffee shops and trucks.
HAPPINESS DELIVERED. is our tagline because we deliver delicious cups of happiness (a.k.a. coffee) to our customers wherever we go.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Networking is very hard for me because I’m naturally an introvert. However, when I’m inside the coffee truck, delivering happiness, I can talk to anyone about anything. So we’ve flipped the old networking idea upside down and instead, we take our truck to new places and offer drinks to people. When it comes to networking, don’t feel like you have to do it everyone else’s way – find a way you are comfortable with and try something new.
Contact Info:
- Email: Claire@therushcoffee.com
- Website: www.therushcoffee.com
- Instagram: @TheRushCoffee
