Second-generation entrepreneurs bring Hawaiian coffee brand to VirginiaSecond-generation entrepreneurs bring Hawaiian coffee brand to Virginia

Joanna Fantozzi

If founders, chefs and other creatives are the beating heart of the restaurant industry, then franchisees are the veins delivering their ideas to all corners of the globe. Franchising is critical to the success of the industry, allowing brands to quickly scale their big ideas using other people’s capital. And whether it’s a mom-and-pop restaurant owner with one or two franchised restaurants or a seasoned veteran whose influence in the industry is well-known, franchisees — with all their individual attributes, styles and personalities — make a huge impact on the success of a business.

In this week’s installment of Franchisee Spotlight, we spoke with Richard and Michelle Lee, two second-generation entrepreneurs who opened a Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii location in Alexandria, Va., with plans to open three more. We spoke about Richard’s experience as a first-generation Chinese-American and Michelle’s experience as someone born in Korea and how their backgrounds helped to shape their franchisee journey together.

Store count:

One in Alexandria, Va. (opened March 2023) with three more on the way

Backgrounds

RL: My parents were Chinese immigrants coming to the U.S. and started their careers in the restaurant business. They had a mom-and-pop restaurant in Chinatown in D.C. We lived upstairs from the restaurant, so I learned a lot about running a business. I went to college and graduated Virginia Tech an as an engineer, and started working in consulting….Then we tried the [Bad Ass Coffee] products, met with corporate, and that’s how we got to where we are now.

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ML: My grandparents came to the United States from Korea back in the ‘70s, so my family has been here for such a long time…. My grandmother started off as a seamstress in Korea, and then took her talent and brought it over here to the States where she actually owned a denim factory in California…. After she passed, the family still kept up with their entrepreneurship. My dad had a successful construction business, and my aunts and uncles owned their own businesses, so becoming an entrepreneur felt inevitable for me… I studied health education at the University of Maryland, and I did dentistry for quite a long time…. Then I was at the point where I wanted to find something different…We did our homework [on the Bad Ass Coffee brand] and we found it was a great company with great people behind it.

All in the family

ML: I saw how hard my dad worked—he always had his ups and downs, but whenever he had a low, he always found a way to bring it up. I felt like because of that characteristic of not wanting to give up, it created that same sense in me too…. It just made me stronger as a person too. Like, you’re going to have a hard time when you fail, but it’s not the end of the road and you have to keep on going.

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Why Bad Ass Coffee

RL: Opening a business is not easy… We chose the franchise route because we didn’t want to run a business similar to my parents, like a mom-and-pop business…. [When choosing a company], first and foremost, do we stand by the product? Yes, check that box—it’s amazing, premium Hawaiian coffee…. Then, second was the people  and the culture. And We flew out to meet with Scott Snyder, President and CEO. It's not a huge franchise, it's small, and they acknowledged the fact that there's still a lot of room for growth. But I think a lot of it was having that culture, that ‘Ohana is family’ vibe of ‘let’s grow together…’ it wasn't all about the bottom-line numbers. It was about providing the best cup of coffee to the community, and we wanted to build upon that. It allowed us the opportunity and the mindset to think, ‘okay, why don't we scale?’

ML: I love the fact that they were even a year later [after we first opened], I still get calls from like Scott MacDonald [Director of Operations] checking up on us. You would assume at a certain point in time they just kind of let you go and do your own thing. But with Bad Ass Coffee, they really do care.

Working as a couple

ML: Richard is the Yin to my Yang. He does balance me and he pushes me… it's nice to have to have someone who allows me to think outside the box… usually, when it comes down to decisions, we always do it together and I think that's just fair. We’re able to hear each other out so that we're not too fixated on our own opinion.

RL: A lot of what has created our success is in being upfront and clear about our roles. We make decisions but Michelle is more the day-to-day operations – being with the staff, making sure we have consistent operations, etc. whereas I’m more on the back end with financials and inventory…. Sometimes, it’s not easy, especially as a husband and wife and mom and dad…. But I would argue it’s brought us closer together. 

Challenges faced

ML: For me personally, it was the fact that I had to adjust to and accept different personalities that come into the group, but still set standards and protocols that each of my staff follows…. I feel like learning the different personalities, especially of the different age groups was a challenge for me… I think I'm still learning. The key to success is just patience and focus.

RL: I also think of it as having a mindset of, how do we proactively address things even if we haven't experienced it yet?’ So, learning to always anticipate what’s to come, and sometimes it's just having the right mindset of, ‘if something does happen, how do we adapt?’… For example, there were some occasions where our oven broke, so we had to adapt our operations and our recipes to make sure that we weren't wasting inventory. It’s about having a positive outlook to proactively address these things.