Nick Bayer originally went to school with the intent of becoming a lawyer. He wanted to go out on his own in business, though, so he went into consulting to learn business skills. Feeling ready to get started, though, Nick entered the coffee business in 2005, knowing nothing about the industry per se, but sees the industry more as a hospitality one, with the coffee as the vehicle for that hospitality and customer service, and his business is thriving today.

On the show, Nick discussed entering a viscously competitive market with little specific coffee experience and succeeding by seeing the business differently. He saw the industry as one of hospitality, and hired employees accordingly, then saw the movement of coffee consumption away from just in the morning, and began offering more variety and better, fresher food. Interestingly, he spoke about how they learned lessons in transparency from Chipotle and others, and remade the pumpkin spice latte, by listing the fresh ingredients used right on the cups, and it was tremendously successful. A new initiative of the company is a completely student run Saxbys location to come at Drexel University. The concept is of experiential learning to supplement entrepreneurship education in classrooms, and while it’s highly risky, the upside for its potential to benefit students is enormous, while also giving the opportunity for Saxby’s to learn about teaching new and inexperienced franchisees successful, along with how to stay contemporary with college students.