Nick Stone

I just thought there's a very good chance that this will work if we can execute well. Most businesses, the idea is the easy part. Execution is everything. As it relates to taking advice, It is a really, really challenging thing when you're building a company because a lot of people feel obligated or encouraged or excited to give you advice.

I just thought there's a very good chance that this will work if we can execute well. Most businesses, the idea is the easy part. Execution is everything. As it relates to taking advice, It is a really, really challenging thing when you're building a company because a lot of people feel obligated or encouraged or excited to give you advice.

And it is hard looking out in because there's so many different machinations, your corporate culture, your understanding of people. Ultimately, we're just a people-centric business. Without people, there's no coffee being made. So I'm not really in the game of products on shelves that don't talk back. I'm in the theater of humans working together congruently as a team.

And it is hard looking out in because there's so many different machinations, your corporate culture, your understanding of people. Ultimately, we're just a people-centric business. Without people, there's no coffee being made. So I'm not really in the game of products on shelves that don't talk back. I'm in the theater of humans working together congruently as a team.

It's the same as playing professional sport. It's not about the balls and the boots and the uniform. It's actually about the people. Can you get them all aligned to know their role, execute their role, and do it often in a very selfless manner? And that's the art of hospitality. And I probably didn't fully appreciate it until we opened the doors and got going.

It's the same as playing professional sport. It's not about the balls and the boots and the uniform. It's actually about the people. Can you get them all aligned to know their role, execute their role, and do it often in a very selfless manner? And that's the art of hospitality. And I probably didn't fully appreciate it until we opened the doors and got going.

I was like, wow, it's nothing to do with the beans. It's all to do with the barista and how they're feeling and how aligned and engaged they are. So if I think about different lessons over the time, there's been some that are the advice I should have taken. Absolutely.

I was like, wow, it's nothing to do with the beans. It's all to do with the barista and how they're feeling and how aligned and engaged they are. So if I think about different lessons over the time, there's been some that are the advice I should have taken. Absolutely.

There's some that I didn't probably think deeply enough about their counsel, but there's others where I didn't trust my intuition and I went with their counsel. Some of those decisions have had some really, really challenging outcomes that you look back in time and go, wow, I wish I didn't make that call.

There's some that I didn't probably think deeply enough about their counsel, but there's others where I didn't trust my intuition and I went with their counsel. Some of those decisions have had some really, really challenging outcomes that you look back in time and go, wow, I wish I didn't make that call.

There's a few different examples. When we were looking to expand to outside of New York, we had gone to Philly, we'd gone to DC, we'd gone to California. There was the discussion about expanding to Florida. And there was also discussion about expanding to Canada. And we looked at Toronto and thought, wow, this is the fifth biggest city in North America. It's very similar to New York City.

There's a few different examples. When we were looking to expand to outside of New York, we had gone to Philly, we'd gone to DC, we'd gone to California. There was the discussion about expanding to Florida. And there was also discussion about expanding to Canada. And we looked at Toronto and thought, wow, this is the fifth biggest city in North America. It's very similar to New York City.

It has this critical mass finance orientated, a lot of young people, young professionals, affluent, high spending, sophisticated culture. There's some commonality with Melbourne and Australia. It's close to New York. Why don't we open in Canada? And I did have a number of people say, no, maybe just stick to the US, like go to Florida or look at Texas. And we chose Canada.

It has this critical mass finance orientated, a lot of young people, young professionals, affluent, high spending, sophisticated culture. There's some commonality with Melbourne and Australia. It's close to New York. Why don't we open in Canada? And I did have a number of people say, no, maybe just stick to the US, like go to Florida or look at Texas. And we chose Canada.

And we opened two stores in Canada just prior to COVID arriving in the early stages of 2020. And Canada effectively quarantined the country, much like they did in Australia. We couldn't get anyone in. So Americans weren't able to go in. Australians weren't able to go in. And effectively, only Canadians. And when COVID hit, we shut both stores down. And we unfortunately laid off all that team.

And we opened two stores in Canada just prior to COVID arriving in the early stages of 2020. And Canada effectively quarantined the country, much like they did in Australia. We couldn't get anyone in. So Americans weren't able to go in. Australians weren't able to go in. And effectively, only Canadians. And when COVID hit, we shut both stores down. And we unfortunately laid off all that team.

We were stuck. We couldn't get in. We couldn't get our stuff out. We couldn't pack up the stores. And I think about it now, that that was a decision that In hindsight, it was the wrong call. It was too early in our life cycle to go internationally. And even though I thought, hey, it's closer to New York than Chicago. I think Toronto is closer to New York than Chicago. It's about the same distance.

We were stuck. We couldn't get in. We couldn't get our stuff out. We couldn't pack up the stores. And I think about it now, that that was a decision that In hindsight, it was the wrong call. It was too early in our life cycle to go internationally. And even though I thought, hey, it's closer to New York than Chicago. I think Toronto is closer to New York than Chicago. It's about the same distance.

It's closer than Miami, that's for sure. It was the wrong call. That's one example where I didn't follow the advice. I've received a lot of advice regarding spending and deploying capital. When we did our benchmark round in the middle of 2018, The thought process was to pretty much scale at whatever cost.

It's closer than Miami, that's for sure. It was the wrong call. That's one example where I didn't follow the advice. I've received a lot of advice regarding spending and deploying capital. When we did our benchmark round in the middle of 2018, The thought process was to pretty much scale at whatever cost.