Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Bluestone Lane Founder: How Nicholas Stone Is Redefining the U.S. Coffee Culture With Zero Coffee Experience | E72
Tue, 21 Jan 2025
It seemed like all was lost after Nicholas “Nick” Stone was cut from three different teams during his sports career. However, he used this setback to transition into finance, eventually founding Bluestone Lane, a successful coffee shop chain. Despite having never made coffee before, his love for the premium coffee culture of his home country, Australia, inspired him to transform the U.S. coffee experience into a more personalized one. In this episode, Nick joins Ilana to share how he transformed an 87% revenue loss into an opportunity for innovation and reinvention, emphasizing his commitment to community, human connection, and exceptional quality. Nicholas Stone is an Australian businessman, former professional athlete, and banker. He is also the founder and CEO of Bluestone Lane, a premium coffee and café brand inspired by Australia’s rich coffee culture. In this episode, Ilana and Nick will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:50) The Resilience That Took Him from Sports to Finance (07:13) Moving from Australia to Chase a New York Dream (09:15) Building Connections and Networks in New York (12:23) Founding Bluestone to Fix U.S. Coffee Culture (14:59) Keeping His Day Job to Launch Bluestone Lane (20:35) Creating a People-First Café Experience (23:09) Tough Lessons on Expanding Too Soon (25:52) Filtering Advice in the Early Stages of Business (27:33) The Hidden Challenges of Running a Café Chain (32:33) How Nick Manages Founder Stress with Support (37:35) Surviving the Pandemic After Losing 87% of Revenue (45:02) Why Bluestone Sticks to Quality Over Shortcuts (48:40) Nick's Focus on Values and Promoting Internally (50:21) The Power of Celebrating Small Wins in Business Nicholas Stone is an Australian businessman, former professional athlete, and banker. He is also the founder and CEO of Bluestone Lane, a premium coffee and café brand inspired by Australia’s rich coffee culture. Under his leadership, Bluestone Lane has become the fastest-growing premium café brand in the U.S., raising $70 million in venture capital and expanding to over 65 locations. Nick has been featured in The New York Times, CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and more. Connect with Nick: Nick’s Website: https://bluestonelane.com/ Nick’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nicholas-stone-49465767 Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training
Full Episode
If you can't pay your rent and you're trying to build an organization, I think that's tough.
Today, I actually get to talk to Nick Stone, who is the founder and CEO of Bluestone Lane. Bluestone Lane is bringing Aussie coffee culture and better coffee right to the US.
When I was starting Bluestone Lane, I had an extraordinary amount of people that said to me, it won't work. I actually never had ever made coffee at all. I just missed that feeling of being a local where I walked in and they knew my name, face and order. So we had to make a difference to the coffee culture in the US. 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 when COVID hit, we lost 87% of our revenue. So we went from 51 stores to 14. We had to keep stores open for three reasons.
as a founder it hurts how do you cope i'm very very fortunate to have For those who don't know me, I am such a coffee snob. And today I actually get to talk to Nick Stone, who is the founder and CEO of Bluestone Lane, which is such an incredible place that I love coming again and again to. They have 55 cafes, if I'm not mistaken, coffee shops across the country, and I'm
Blue Zone Lane is bringing Aussie coffee culture and better coffee, right, to the U.S. And I am just so excited to have Nick with me here to talk about his career because you were not always in coffee, Nick, were you?
No, well, it's a pleasure to be here. I actually never had ever made, whether it was commercially, professionally, or even at home, I'd never made a coffee at all. I was also a coffee snob. It was entirely dependent on these great independent coffee shops and cafes making beautiful flat whites as we talk in Australia.
And yeah, Blue Stone Lane, we had to make a difference to the coffee culture in the US. We've made a little dent, but hopefully it keeps gathering more momentum.
Oh, and I love that, Nick. And right before we start recording, we talked about when we came here to the U.S. about a decade or two ago, we felt like it was completely a desert of really good espresso drinks. So we welcome you with... Big arms and you actually have an incredible Bluestone Lane coffee shop here in Los Altos, right next to my house. And I'm very excited and a lot in San Francisco.
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