Success Story with Tuan Huynh, Owner of Vietfive Coffee in Chicago

In the face of unprece­dent­ed chal­lenges posed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, small busi­ness­es across the Unit­ed States have strug­gled to stay afloat. Among these entre­pre­neurs are Asian Amer­i­cans, who have not only faced the eco­nom­ic fall­out but also con­tend­ed with ris­ing inci­dents of dis­crim­i­na­tion and xeno­pho­bia. In times of cri­sis, sup­port net­works become essen­tial, and one orga­ni­za­tion has emerged as a bea­con of hope for Asian-owned busi­ness­es is the US Pan Asian Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce (USPAACC).

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions of USPAACC dur­ing these chal­leng­ing times has been its assis­tance in access­ing finan­cial resources. As busi­ness­es grap­pled with rev­enue loss­es and uncer­tain­ty, secur­ing loans and finan­cial assis­tance became crit­i­cal for sur­vival. USPAACC stepped in to pro­vide guid­ance and sup­port, help­ing busi­ness own­ers nav­i­gate com­plex appli­ca­tion process­es and con­nect with lenders who under­stood their unique needs. One of the busi­ness­es that ben­e­fit­ed from USPAACC’s sup­port and guid­ance was Viet­five Cof­fee in Chicago.

Tuan Huynh came to the US at three years old with his fam­i­ly as one of the boat peo­ple from Viet­nam. He had a suc­cess­ful career as a Cre­ative Direc­tor at one of the top adver­tis­ing agen­cies in Chica­go. But a trip back to his home­town for the first time in 2019 for­ev­er changed his career and his life.

He said when he first tast­ed the cof­fee back home, it was the best thing he’s ever con­sumed and tried. In the spe­cial­ty cof­fee space, Viet­nam is the num­ber one pro­duc­er of Robus­ta cof­fee in the entire world, and they’re only right behind Brazil as the num­ber two exporter of cof­fee in the world. So, he decid­ed to for­go his cor­po­rate career and a steady pay­check and get into the Robus­ta cof­fee busi­ness, start­ing with cof­fee grown and har­vest­ed from his fam­i­ly farm, in the cen­tral high­land of Vietnam. 

He said he found the medi­um of cof­fee, as the con­nec­tor of peo­ple. Cof­fee is the most con­sumed prod­uct in the entire world. Viet­nam pro­duces the best cof­fee in the world, but they haven’t got­ten the cred­it they deserve. There­fore, he found his work both pur­pose­ful and mis­sion­al. The name of his shop, Viet­five, is the direct trans­la­tion of Viet­nam, he wants to hon­or his five sib­lings, their five days at sea on the boat with fifty-five souls onboard. In numerol­o­gy, ​“five” means mak­ing choic­es that leads to change and leads to free­dom. Through their brand, they get to empha­size and tell their sto­ry in the US and in the world. 

He said before the Pan­dem­ic, he has nev­er heard of USPAACC, and he’s only been cer­ti­fied as an Asian-owned busi­ness by USPAACC for about a year. But USPAACC was instru­men­tal in help­ing him get a loan. As a new­er busi­ness with only one year in oper­a­tion, they wouldn’t qual­i­fy for a lot of tra­di­tion­al loans out there. And after work­ing with USPAACC for sev­er­al months, they received a loan to help with inven­to­ry. Since they grow and har­vest their cof­fee in Viet­nam, the ship­ping and freight costs can get high, so the funds did help ele­vate some of the cash flow. 

In terms of future plans, Tuan said he wants to scale by hav­ing a 2^nd loca­tion, and to 

devel­op a ready-to-drink cof­fee prod­uct. As a com­mu­ni­ty focused busi­ness, they share their sto­ry first and build com­mu­ni­ty through their doing, that’s in their mod­el, in how they hire, from social­ly depressed areas. And they do it through the cel­e­bra­tion of their Viet­namese cul­ture. Their cof­fee is their story. 

When I asked him about advice for oth­er Asian/​Asin Amer­i­can entre­pre­neurs, he said a lot of times, Asians came from war-torn coun­tries, and peo­ple tend to con­sid­er Asia as third world. And with this nar­ra­tive, Asians are being looked at as less­er, and our sto­ries are some­how insignif­i­cant in the world plat­form. Things that are made in Asia are con­sid­ered cheap­er, con­sid­ered less. Prod­ucts com­ing from Asia are con­sid­ered less valu­able, and some­how it relates to its peo­ple as well. But Asians are a force, and Tuan wants to remind oth­er Asian entre­pre­neurs, that each of us from the Asian con­ti­nent who now resides in the US and around the world car­ry that force with us. 

As the pan­dem­ic con­tin­ues to present chal­lenges and uncer­tain­ties, the work of orga­ni­za­tions like USPAACC remains as cru­cial as ever. USPAACC did­n’t just stop at pro­vid­ing finan­cial assis­tance and sup­port, they also offered edu­ca­tion­al resources and train­ing pro­grams to help busi­ness­es of all sizes, piv­ot their oper­a­tions and grow. By pro­vid­ing a life­line of sup­port and resources, they not only help Asian-owned busi­ness­es sur­vive but also thrive in the face of adver­si­ty. To learn more about USPAACC and their work, go to www​.uspaacc​.com.