BUSINESS

Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Square praises Yassin's Falafel

Jim Gaines
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and Twitter, made a fast visit to Knoxville on Thursday to highlight Yassin Terou, owner of Yassin’s Falafel House.

Square is making a series of short films about American small businesses, to show that people from anywhere can succeed if given the right tools, according to a company news release.

And Terou, who arrived in Knoxville as a refugee from Syria, is the first to be featured. His story, 8 minutes and 40 seconds long, can be seen at Foreverydream.com.

Dorsey personally questioned Terou on Thursday, in a restaurant packed with cameras and well-wishers but closed to the public for the event. Big screens showed their interview.

This phrase, the American dream what does that mean to you?” Dorsey asked.

“Life. The American dream is life, because if you don’t have a dream you don’t have life,” Terou responded. “The American dream can be real.”

Yassin’s Falafel House has been open at 706 Walnut St. for three years. Now Terou feels like he knows everyone in downtown Knoxville, he said.

Terou said Thursday that he’s looking to expand into a new location – or more than one. He wants to find a partner at each site, and that will govern how quickly he expands.

Flanked by his family, he said he’s able to make a good life for them thanks to his business.

“Thank you, everybody,” Terou said. “Thanks, Knoxville. Thanks for adopting me.”

He presented Dorsey with a plaque of thanks. Dorsey posed for pictures with Terou and his family, then left quickly.

The film opens with Terou and his family, worried about anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. As he drives around Knoxville, with a “Falafel” license plate on his minivan, he describes fleeing Syria in 2011. Terou left Syria in 2011, hoped to come back when conditions improved.

Coming as refugee, Terou didn’t speak English and was scared of “almost everything” when he came to Knoxville, he says in the film. He made connections at a local mosque, and began selling sandwiches and falafel there.

They were a hit. With a partner he opened Yassin’s Falafel House in an empty spot on Walnut Street, and hired other refugees.

A study by the Center for American Progress found immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to become entrepreneurs, and Syrian immigrants in particular are more than three times as likely as U.S.-born workers to open their own business, according to Square spokesman Dan Mahoney.