Jackson Vacation Rental Mogul Now Roasts Specialty Coffee By The Ton

If you ask Jackson vacation rental maven Mekki Jaidi if he’s a risk taker, he would answer without hesitation that he’s not.

He avoids skiing, for example, for fear of blowing out a knee, and he doesn’t hike remote trails for fear of encountering a bear.

Jaidi also knows, perhaps better than most, what risk really is. Not only is he a former currency options trader for the Royal Bank of Scotland, he studied probabilities and risk at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and finished with a near 4.0 GPA.

But the story Jaidi tells of how he came to Jackson Hole, Wyoming — and ultimately became one of its largest employers — suggests there’s more nuance to his risk aversion than perhaps even he realizes.

“I went into work for a week after a two-week vacation out here (in Jackson),” Jaidi told Cowboy State Daily. “And on that last day, which was a Friday, I didn’t know I was going in to quit, but I just had this feeling inside of me that was just like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”

Jaidi didn’t weigh the pros or cons in making this decision. He didn’t think about weighing risks and probabilities.

It was just a gut instinct that said, “You can do this. You can forge your own luck.”

And that is exactly what he did.

In 2014, he started a vacation management and rental company called Outpost, starting with just his own initial unit, as well as units for his sister, and mom and dad.

Within eight months of starting the business, he had his Wyoming real estate licenses, and within four years had built Jackson Hole’s largest vacation rental company by units, completely from scratch.

“Now we’re sitting above 250 units more than the next company here,” Jaidi said. “So, it’s been an amazing journey. A lot of hard work, sweat, tears, bankruptcy a few times — close to bankruptcy a few times, I should say.”

Real Luck — AKA Vertical Integration

When Jaidi said he got lucky, what he really means is he realized early on that he needed to vertically integrate his business or the local labor crunch was going to hit home in a big way.

Vertical integration refers to the concept of building in everything a business will need from start to end product or service.

“We had been outsourcing our cleaning for the property management company,” Jaidi recalled. “And that company we had been using kind of said that, you know, we can only have you grow by four more units this summer.”

That kind of limit didn’t sit well with Jaidi at all. So he decided to start his own cleaning company, which would clean not only his company’s units, but those of others as well.

More opportunities to vertically integrate came along, like his friend’s catering company, Jackson Hole Provisions. That was started by two chefs who lost their jobs during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

And then, with his brother-in-law, Jaidi started a landscaping and snow removal company that services units in Outpost’s portfolio as well as some others.

The Next Horizon

Jaidi has had a lot of fun building Outpost, he told Cowboy State Daily, but now it’s time for an entirely new focus.

That focus is Snake River Roasting Co.

Jaidi has owned Snake River Roasting for a couple of years now, but he’s recently taken over its management and become a lot more hands-on.

“Outpost was a fun project and one that I’m still involved in, but I think my brain and where my passion lies is growth and startup companies,” he said. “And while Snake River Roasting was founded in 2007, it very much feels like a startup to me because of the changes and the growth aspect that comes with it.”

Outpost, he added, is now about as large as it can get in Jackson Hole, while Snake River Roasting has no real geographic border. It will always have its headquarters in Jackson, but the coffee can be sent anywhere in the world.

As part of his effort to rebrand and expand Snake River Roasting, he’s opened a new cafe in Jackson Hole’s town Square at 50 W. Broadway, which features a variety of coffees from Snake River Roasting Co. alongside a menu prepared by Provisions Jackson Hole.

The cafe, Jaidi said, is meant to be a symbol of his commitment to community as much as it reflects a passion that he feels for Snake River Roasting Co. and its coffees.

“Once we have a solid foundation, I think then we could look at expanding our presence by reaching out to different cafes across the state or regionally,” Jaidi said.

Sales from Snake River’s Shopify site and through local grocery stores have increased by 100% year over year, Jaidi said, and the roasting company is producing 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of small-batch roasted coffee for sale every week, or around 150,000 pounds per year.

“For a specialty coffee company, we are moving a lot of coffee,” Jaidi said. “And a lot of that is going local right now. But we do have partners in Texas and Wisconsin, as well as in Wyoming.”

Jaidi has already added a few personnel to this next venture, but expects that more will be added down the line, as some of the “green shoots” from his new effort starts to grow.

He’s looking for initial growth along the Snake River, as well as other places in Wyoming. But he’s not averse to looking into places like Salt Lake City as well.

“We have a lot of data from Outpost on where people are coming from,” Jaidi said. “So it would make sense to kind of look at the overlap there.”

Jaidi is betting that many Jackson Hole tourists will buy into a subscription that can give them a year-round connection to what is a beloved destination for millions of visitors every year.

“I always wanted to get back to Jackson Hole when I was in New York,” Jaidi said. “And I wished I’d known about Snake River Roasting Co. then. I feel like coffee can and does give people that sense of connection, and you know, we see that on our social media. People are constantly engaging with us, and we feel like that message is really resonating with people.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.