Jeff and Danielle Perera opened their bagel enterprise out of their dwelling kitchen in 2020, and fewer than three years later, they’re hoping to have eight brick-and-mortar places open throughout the subsequent six months.

The speedy enlargement is being made attainable by the couple’s new enterprise companion, Justin Wetherill.

Wetherill is the proprietor of 1337 Capital and the co-founder of the uBreakiFix chain of cell system restore retailers.

The couple first got here into contact with Wetherill as they had been opening their second location in School Park.

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“(Min Cho) started coming into the shop and — friendly guy — bought bagels, come in the next day, bought some more bagels,” Jeff Perera stated. “(He) was continuously chatting me up, and one day, he just stopped me. He said, ‘Hey, Are you the owner?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ He’s like, ‘I’m Min.’ I said, ‘I’m Jeff. Nice to meet you.’ And he’s like, ‘We love your bagels at the office.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I’m so glad you enjoy them.’”

Cho continued visiting the School Park store, ultimately revealing that he had been speaking up the Pareras’ enterprise to his boss, Wetherill.

“Like a week later, he comes back,” Jeff Perera stated. “He’s like, ‘I’ve been talking with my boss and the team at the office, they like love your bagels so much. We’d love to do something.’ I’m like, ‘Great! Why don’t you just send me some information? It’d be great to catch up.’ He emails me, I don’t respond. Text me, I don’t respond. This is in like August, September goes by, October goes by.”

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Cho stay persistent and ultimately was in a position to persuade the Pereras to have a gathering with Wetherill.

“Justin shared his story with us about how he built his business and where it started,” Jeff Perera stated. “It’s strange to say — Danielle’s like, ‘It was a kinship.’”

“Building something from scratch — there’s not a lot of people that truly understand what that feels like,” Danielle Perera added. “I think there was like this understanding and I think that for us, that was really nice and just made the conversation more organic and just natural.”

Wetherill stated, previous to assembly the Pereras, he had really been contemplating investing in a bagel franchise.

“There’s the stalwart brands that we all know and are aware of and there’s not very many emerging brands in the space. So, we struggled finding a brand that we were comfortable partnering with — that had a vision different than what was already happening in the bagel space,” Wetherill stated. “I enjoyed meeting Jeff and Danielle and appreciated hearing their vision for the business, but I think what really made the difference was, I think our second or third meeting, they’re like, ‘Why don’t you just come bake with us, come see the experience, work in the kitchen.’”

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What lastly sealed the deal for Wetherill was experiencing a scorching bagel recent from the oven for the primary time.

“To me, that was really life changing,” he stated. “And I think (that hot bagel) really sums up the opportunity we all have going forward — introducing the world to that experience. Because I have never had a hot bagel. I don’t eat cold ones anymore.”

Wetherill and the Pereras plan to make Jeff’s Bagel Run extra of an expertise total. They plan to have an open kitchen idea with their new places to “bring people into the experience and educate them on how bagels are made.”

Wetherill stated they’ve already signed a number of leases, with plans to signal extra.

“We have pretty aggressive plans,” he stated.

On the most recent episode of the Florida Foodie, the trio of enterprise companions speak extra about their plans for enlargement. They share tales from a current pilgrimage to New York Metropolis to pattern bagels and the way they hope to usher in new know-how to enhance the bagel enterprise.

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Florida Foodie is a biweekly podcast from WKMG and Graham Media that takes a more in-depth take a look at what we eat, how we eat it and the influence that has on us right here in Florida and for everybody, all over the place. Discover new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you obtain your favourite podcasts.