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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
Jeff Perera<\/a> wasn\u2019t walking the halls during the 2026 Restaurant Leadership Conference. He was in the kitchen.<\/p>\n At the JW Marriott in Phoenix, the founder of Jeff\u2019s Bagel Run<\/a> was boiling and baking nearly 300 bagels to serve more than 650 restaurant executives before breakfast.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s insane,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna see if we can figure this out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Six years earlier, he had never made a bagel.<\/p>\n In 2019, Jeff lost his job. His wife, Danielle<\/a>, returned to work while he stayed home with their kids. The family had one problem they couldn\u2019t solve: finding a decent bagel without driving 45 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo she\u2019s like, \u2018You should just learn to make me one.’\u201d Jeff said. \u201cI had no culinary background, never made anything from scratch in my life<\/p>\n What began as a challenge quickly became something bigger. Friends and neighbors started asking if they could buy his bagels.<\/p>\n \u201cI literally learned how to do this three months ago,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy would you buy them from me?\u201d<\/p>\n The demand kept growing. Before long, Jeff and Danielle had sold roughly $85,000 worth of bagels from their home, eventually outgrowing Florida\u2019s cottage food laws and searching for their first storefront. Opening a shop meant betting everything.<\/p>\n Jeff and Danielle sold their house to help fund the business. Danielle had built a successful corporate career and wasn\u2019t ready to walk away from a steady paycheck, benefits, a 401(k) and stock options.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Just go full bagel,’\u201d Jeff said. She wasn\u2019t convinced.\u00a0However, the leap paid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before opening their first store, Danielle budgeted about $800 in sales for opening day. Instead, Jeff says, they did about $1,600. For Jeff and Danielle, \u201cgo full bagel\u201d became more than a phrase. It became a commitment to bet on themselves when there were no guarantees.<\/p>\n Jeff estimates he\u2019s baked more than 1.5 million bagels. About 800,000 of them came before Jeff\u2019s Bagel Run ever started franchising.<\/p>\n At the Restaurant Leadership Conference, he worked with unfamiliar ovens and someone else\u2019s equipment while explaining every step of the process.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re gonna bake them right here,\u201d he said. \u201cBaking off premises is wild, but we\u2019re gonna do it.\u201d<\/p>\n As trays move in and out of the oven, Jeff explained why bagels are boiled before they\u2019re baked, why he uses barley malt syrup and the small adjustments that come from years of repetition.<\/p>\n \u201cI love peeling back that curtain,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n For Jeff, the same philosophy that led him to teach strangers in a hotel kitchen also shaped how he built his brand.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to share our story,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s all part of the journey. This storytelling experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Long before Jeff\u2019s Bagel Run grew to 35 locations with another 180 in development, he documented the business one day at a time. He posted an Instagram<\/a> Story every morning for 397 consecutive days, introducing the bagel of the day and inviting customers into the process.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople would ask me, \u2018How did you get so many followers?\u201d Perera says. \u201cConsistency. I went 397 straight days posting a story that said, \u2018Good morning from The Bagel Run. Today\u2019s bagel of the day is\u2026’\u201d<\/p>\n That same commitment led to The Weekly Run <\/em>podcast<\/a>, where Jeff and his team continue to share what they\u2019re learning as they build the business.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many people are like, \u2018Don\u2019t come in the kitchen. This is where the secret\u2019s made,’\u201d Jeff said. \u201cNo, you\u2019re looking for people that love bagels as much as you do.\u201d<\/p>\n Storytelling didn\u2019t replace great bagels. It amplified them.<\/p>\n Restaurant Influencers<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. Toast \u2014 Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about\u00a0Toast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Restaurant Influencers is proud to have PepsiCo as a sponsor of this episode. Partnering with PepsiCo Foodservice helps restaurant operators drive sustainable growth through smarter digital experiences, AI-backed menu optimization, and tools designed to create more profitable online orders. Check out PepsiCo Foodservice<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nPull back the curtain<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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