Eric Hadley is trying to “brew better days.”
The Springfield resident’s business, Got Your Six Coffee Co., has been shipping bags of java around the country for almost five years, with a storefront in the works. But the heart of Got Your Six, Hadley says, is in the company’s philanthropic efforts for service members — partnering with and donating to nonprofits fighting homelessness, suicide and mental illness in veterans.
Got Your Six’s online storefront sells a variety of roasts, as well as mugs, stickers and other company memorabilia. They also host donation campaigns — such as the “Coffee is Community Campaign,” in which Got Your Six donates two bags of coffee to “healthcare professionals, first responders and veterans who are battling COVID-19” if someone orders four bags.
Hadley, who spent 12 years deployed overseas as a military engineer, moved to Springfield in 2013. After being laid off from a job at Transocean, he began to navigate the world of unemployment, and soon decided to take a different route.
“I got to the point where I started tapping into my retirement to keep the lights on,” Hadley said. “I was like, if I’m using my money for my retirement, I’m gonna do something good with it.”
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The inspiration for Got Your Six came while Hadley was enrolled in classes at Missouri State University, doing an exercise involving market research and funding small business ideas. Hadley made an off-hand decision for the topic of his research, for the very product he had in his hand — a cup of coffee.
“The next day when I got the research, I started to realize — the engineer brain took over, and I saw coffee as a tool,” he said. “I can use the profits from coffee sales to make a difference.”
That drive to contribute was due in part to Hadley watching his uncle, a Navy veteran, who died of cancer.
“When he was going through treatment, I saw how the VA system was treating him,” Hadley said. “It got to the point where I said, I’m going to do something good. Draw a line in the sand if you will, and make a change.”
The first four years of Got Your Six’s operation, he said, were dedicated primarily to “proving the mission” through partnerships and events focused on philanthropy. That included military training events dedicated to fallen service members and holding raffles and fundraisers to help Operation Safe Haven, a New Jersey nonprofit, build tiny homes for homeless veterans.
The company also turned its attention and effort to local causes. About two years ago, when a Branson-area Marine veteran died of suicide, the man’s family was looking for a dress uniform to bury him in. Hadley used his company’s Facebook page — which now has over 9,000 followers — to ask if anyone could provide one. Within nine minutes, he said, they found success.
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