ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Cooking up an Entrepreneurial Storm
How many of us have once dreamed of opening up our own corner café, cupcake shop, or cool downtown bar?
We meet two alums who have turned their food and beverage dream into reality. Discover Bryan Delaney’s (MBA
Boston, 1993) New York beer bars and Roz Edison’s (MBA Boston, 1998) Marination food trucks and stations.
It is enough to make your mouth water with entrepreneurial appetite!
Becoming a fixture in the New York neighborhood
Bryan Delaney shares the tale of his journey from business school entrepreneurial dreamer to bar
owner, and consultant.
Q: ell us more about your journey from Hult to becoming an owner/manager of several bars
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and restaurants in New York, and starting to work as a consultant.
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n 1992 I joined Hult (then the Arthur D. Little
Management Education Institute) with a desire
to increase my business skills and pursue a
career in international business.
My journey into the bar and restaurant industry
started with several courses offered at the
school in conjunction with Arthur D. Little’s
consulting firm. These included a class on
industry analysis and one on entrepreneurship.
The industry analysis class exposed me to
the beverage industry and more specifically
the growing craft beer market in the United
States. Coincidentally, one of Arthur D. Little’s
consulting clients was brewer Anheuser-Busch
and the interaction we had with the company
introduced me to the brewing process.
The class on entrepreneurship allowed me to
focus specifically on opening a small microbrewery and put together a detailed business
plan. I began discussing the possibility of
opening either a small microbrewery or brew
pub with two classmates. After attending a seminar at the University of California Davis and
working for two small breweries – the Mass Bay Brewing Company and Brooklyn Brewery – I then
met my future business partner. Over the course of several months we discussed the possibility of
opening a brewery in New York City. We soon learned however that the price of real estate in the
city was prohibitively expensive and it would not be feasible for us to open up a stand-alone craft
brewery so we decided on the next best thing—to launch a retail outlet dedicated to serving craft beer.
The Blind Tiger bar was very successful from the start. It was not long before my partner and
I were being solicited by potential new investors and real-estate brokers to open up another
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