Have you Met Mike? Part 2
Mike Safai is the founder and Master Roaster at Safai Coffee. his story continues with the initial sparks that lead to his entrepreneurial journey and subsequent start in aviation.
Mike’s life as an immigrant teenager had many challenges. “Well firstly, my parents weren’t here, so I was raising my 3 siblings. Plus, I was in Salt Lake City Utah, in high school, with little English comprehension while the Iranian hostage situation was taking place for almost a whole year. Not a great formula for an idyllic Senior year,” Mike laughs. During the Iranian revolution, funds from his parents stopped coming in. “My siblings had to split up, and we all had to work. My first job was at Village inn, kinda like a Denny’s. I was a dishwasher and they had these little cups for sides of butter. I hated those things.”
Eventually, Mike’s parents made it to the United States. Losing everything in the Iranian Revolution, the family worked together in the US to start over. “We started selling at what was called the Swap Meet,” Mike remembers, “it was a parking lot and every Saturday we would set up a table with 100’s of other people. This was the late 70’s, and earphones had just come out, we started with those, then worked our way up to handheld cassette players, then boomboxes, speakers, and turntables.”
The swap meet was competitive. “Now the trend is pop-ups and cute Flea Markets where all the vendors are supportive and respectful of each other, but back then,” he laughs “it was cutthroat. We constantly had to bring in new items, when other tables saw people buying your items, the next week everyone would have it, and they would slash the prices so then you couldn’t even make anything on it. They would bundle it with something more expensive, but leave you in the dust so you had to be constantly updating your offerings.”
Trying to get ahead of everyone at the Swap Meet, Mike bought a screen-printer. “It was perfect because I could have something different all the time. That thing was miserable,” he laughed, “it stunk, and it was hot, and I had it set up in a shed in the backyard and in the summer it was a sauna. But it worked out really well. I had it going for about 8 months before I got a letter from the Feds to stop.” Mike had been printing t-shirts with band names on them. “They were flying, and of course, I had no idea you couldn’t just print whatever you wanted. Then I had to start with my own designs.”
“My family would all work together, mom, dad, and siblings.” Eventually, setting up every weekend, including taking everything out of boxes and then packing them all back into boxes at the end of the day got old. “I finally got a brick and mortar store, Mortaz Modern Sound, featuring punk band music, speakers, car stereo systems, clove cigarettes, earrings, t-shirts and landed the rights to sell Yamaha, Nakamichi, and Sherwood speakers.”
Mortaz, Mike’s first store, was a combination of his family’s first names
“I had been attending technical college, working in the store on weekends and in between classes. Then I got an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Mike’s childhood dream had been to be a pilot. “I love airplanes. I have always been fascinated by them. My dad was completely against it, taking me to graves of pilot’s who had died in airplane crashes when I was little. I didn’t care, I just loved them and the idea of flying was irresistible.”
Mike with his first flight instructor
Utah Tech was starting an aeronautical engineer course. And Mike, who had been put on the waitlist, was called at the last minute to fill a vacant spot. “I just dropped everything. I couldn’t wait to work around airplanes.“ He graduated in the inaugural class and began working shortly after with Evergreen Airlines, an air freight line, which eventually led him to work at UPS.
“It was difficult to close the shop, but I felt like my big break had come and I had to try it. I loved working in my shop. I would sponsor bands to come to town, including Violent Femmes and New Order. Utah was such a small venue and these guys were all just starting up. My family did branch off, my brother would repair TVs and then resell them and my mom and dad would take a box van and travel to all of the State Fairs to sell sound equipment. They liked the freedom, income and road trips. They did that for years.”
