Nodari Andguladze Is Laying the Groundwork for Next-Generation Coffee Shops in California

An expert in international consulting and cross-cultural communications, former General Manager of the consulting firm Awatera Dubai, and a partner at Basera Properties, a property management company, Nodari Andguladze is bringing a new concept to the U.S. market: a digital-first coffee shop. The first location is set to open in California in early 2026.

Andguladze is confident that this business model, which remains rare in the U.S., can reach break-even faster by leveraging digital technologies and serve as a launchpad for a new format in the food and beverage sector, while keeping prices attractive for retail customers.

This ambitious project is being developed in partnership with a group of co-founders. Plans for 2026 include opening at least four locations, with long-term ambitions to scale the network to more than 1,000 coffee shops.

From Dubai to California

Andguladze built a successful international career. He began as a project manager at Awatera, one of the largest localization service providers in the CIS. Within five years, he rose to the position of marketing director before relocating to Dubai.

“In 2021, I was entrusted with leading the company’s expansion into the Middle East, particularly in Dubai, UAE, as General Manager of the local office of Awatera Dubai,” Andguladze recalls. “There, we broadened our focus. We moved beyond pure localization to full-scale market entry support, including legal structuring, marketing, financial planning, and turnkey operational launches.” Under his leadership, Awatera Dubai supported dozens of large and small brands in entering the UAE market.

Over the course of his international consulting career, Andguladze developed universal frameworks that proved effective across the vast majority of projects, regardless of industry.

“My core expertise lies in taking an idea for entering a new market and turning it into a functioning system, with clearly defined roles, processes, metrics, and a team capable of operating consistently across different countries and cultures,” he explains.

His distinctive approach combines quantitative metrics, strategic thinking, and disciplined operations with a deep understanding of regional cultural contexts. Andguladze’s responsibilities included shaping companies’ positioning in new markets, defining their business models, and making key strategic decisions. At the same time, he designed operational processes to ensure they were viable within local realities — from multilingual communications and team structures to internal reporting systems and service standards.

This approach quickly proved its effectiveness and gained recognition within the business community. In 2023, Andguladze received the “Expert of the Year” award in the category of International Business Expansion and Development. A year later, he won the “Business Breakthrough” entrepreneurship competition for projects in linguistic consulting. He was also awarded the UAE’s Golden Visa by the government of the United Arab Emirates in 2022.

“A natural continuation of this journey was pursuing an MBA,” Andguladze says. “I moved to the United States because I see it as a global leader in both education and business. Initially, I planned to return to Dubai immediately after graduating, but once I arrived, new and compelling projects began to emerge.” Today, Andguladze intends to focus primarily on developing digital coffee shops in the U.S. market.

“This is a large-scale, long-term project with significant growth potential,” he emphasizes. “I want to dedicate myself to it as fully as possible, because I genuinely believe in its prospects in the American market.”

Personalization and digitization

The coffee shop will operate under the Drinkit brand, part of the international group Dodo Brands. Today, the brand operates more than 130 coffee shops across four countries—Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and the UAE—and is preparing to launch in the United States as its fifth market. Andguladze first encountered the digital coffee shop format in Dubai through Drinkit itself. His collaboration with Dodo Brands, however, began earlier. In 2022, Awatera Dubai supported the entry of the group’s pizza chain into the UAE market. Around the same time, Andguladze met entrepreneur Ilia Farafonov, who was then representing Dodo Brands in Dubai. Three years later, already in the United States, their paths crossed again. Together, they began working on the launch of a digital-first coffee shop in the United States.

Drawing on his extensive experience in international consulting and his involvement in launching dozens of business projects, Andguladze identifies three core elements in this initiative that he believes have the potential to reshape expectations in the U.S. food and beverage market. First and foremost, he highlights the project’s digital-first approach.

“At Drinkit, everything is fundamentally built around digital,” Andguladze explains. “Orders are placed via an app or digital kiosk. Drinks are fully customizable. Ingredient and calorie information is clearly displayed, and the service is fast and contactless. This is not a coffee shop where an app was added later. The digital layer is part of the brand’s DNA.”

While mobile apps, loyalty programs, and pickup formats are already common among U.S. coffee chains, Andguladze emphasizes that the approach he and his partners are implementing represents a fundamentally different model. In this case, digital is not an optional add-on to counter service. It is integrated into the concept from the very beginning.

Equally important, he notes, is the fact that the project is built around coffee and product quality rather than technology for the sake of technology. All recipes are standardized. Signature drinks have gone through dedicated R&D. Customers are given the ability to fine-tune beverages to their individual preferences.

The digital coffee shop format has already proven successful in several countries and across markedly different consumer audiences. “For someone who works with international and multicultural projects, this is a major advantage,” Andguladze says. “You can see how the system performs in different contexts and understand how to adapt it.”

In this large-scale initiative, Andguladze plans to apply his full experience in managing multicultural business projects. He is doing so within an industry where the product, the technology, and the operating model all align naturally with California.

Testing the concept

The initial groundwork has already been completed. The team conducted a competitive analysis and carried out an in-depth study of the market, both in California and across the United States. Key contractors and suppliers have been selected, and the menu and overall format have been adapted to local preferences. Based on his extensive experience, Andguladze knows that integration with local specifics is essential for any business, including those that have already proven successful on other continents.

“Working across different countries quickly stripped away the illusion that there is one universal way to do business,” he says. “What works perfectly in Moscow may fail in Dubai, and an approach that feels natural for U.S. clients can be completely ineffective with partners from, for example, China or Western Europe. This forced me to stop relying solely on personal experience and to start asking far more questions.”

The first coffee shop will serve as a testing ground for the business plan developed by the founders. This is precisely the approach Andguladze has long recommended to entrepreneurs launching companies in new markets.

“We will be testing our initial hypotheses around the product, the format, unit economics, and operational processes,” he explains.

“From the very beginning, we’ve preferred to think at scale and build a system designed for growth,” Andguladze adds. He is confident that American consumers will embrace digital coffee shops and that within a few years, they will become a familiar part of the U.S. urban landscape.

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