Post by @theventure

Two years into Joe & the Juice, Kaspar Basse needed a shift covered for his mother's birthday, and a regular customer named Philip Finsteen offered to do it. Sales tripled that day. That shift is the reason the company hires the way it does. A juice bar has nothing to protect. The fruit is the same, the blender is the same, and anyone with a lease can open one next door, which is why most of them stay one shop. Chains answer that with scripts, uniforms and a manual, which makes the shop feel like ordering online, so people order online. Finsteen showed Basse the one thing that cannot be copied or moved to an app: the person behind the counter. So Joe & the Juice has no scripts and no manuals, hires on energy, and lets each store take on the personality of its staff. Basse says it plainly: everyone else talks about customer focus, we focus on our people, 100 percent. He sold the company to Valedo Partners for $48 million in 2013 and stayed on as CEO. In 2023 General Atlantic took majority control in a deal reported at $641 million, and in 2026 the company raised money at a $1.8 billion valuation with 480 stores in 23 countries. Follow @theventure for the greatest founder stories ever told.