For someone who didn’t take coffee, it may sound pretty absurd that he will venture into that industry, coffee. That is exactly what Nick Bayer did.

He initially started with one café financing with credit card debt and a badly thought out plan in 2005. This is a decision he regrets to this day. After three years he declared bankruptcy.

Just like most successful people and ideas, he didn’t give up. This time it took some time but all the hard work paid off. This time he thought carefully and thoroughly at his business plan whilst learning from his mistakes.

He realised early that it was unwise for him to franchise especially since he didn’t start with a flagship business. The next step was to find an angel investor. Although he had finally written a great business plan, it was still 100% predicated on franchising.

An advice his angel investor gave him was, ‘You need to be willing to spend money to be able to make more money’. Moving from Atlanta to Philadelphia to one of the locations of Saxbys owned by the investor, he began litigation.

The litigation took 2 years to complete due to litigation from former investors. Things started to look up when MVP Capital, a private equity firm bought the company out of bankruptcy spurring Saxbys for growth.

One difference the company seeks to make is through its employment practices and strategies.

The company hires people based on their personality and not their coffee knowledge. Thus creating an opportunity and education opportunity.

They even hire from Philadelphia Chapter of Covenant House, an organisation that runs homeless shelters for homeless shelters for young people.

There is no doubt that the perseverance of its leader and the passion and aims of the staff will propel this company to greater heights.