Highlands Coffee

From $700 to $2.5B. Việt Kiều David Thai built Highlands Coffee® into Vietnam's Biggest Coffee Chain Even After Starbucks Tried to Abolish them. In 1995, David Thai returned to Vietnam with $700. He built Highlands Coffee by reinvesting everything he sold from his packaged roasted coffee beans into creating an experience that the community could feel. A Coffee that blended Western Cafés with Traditional Cà Phê Sữa Dá. In 2010 Starbucks had the intention of purchasing Highlands Coffee. Thai had been in talks for 6 months until one day he simply walked away. He realised they wanted to acquire Highlands, not to scale but to Abolish its presence and replace Highlands with Starbucks. Since building 56 stores out of pocket and rejecting Starbucks’ offer of making him “an instantly wealthy man”. He accepted a 50/50 JV with Jollibee paying $25M for their stake and $35M in expansion loans all while allowing Thai to stay on as CEO. Turns out, selling out to Starbucks isn't the only way of becoming an "instantly wealthy man". Today under Jollibee and Thai, the company is soon to IPO with an estimated valuation of up to $2.5B.