Bagel Boss CEO Shares How He Transformed a New York Staple into a Growing Franchise

Andrew Hazen, CEO of Bagel Boss, began his career path in law school, but his love for business and branding soon led him in a different direction. Having started with a bagel shop job in high school, Hazen’s journey has come full circle as he now leads the iconic New York bagel brand, using his marketing expertise to expand its reach across the country.

In a recent episode of the “Meet the Zor” podcast, Hazen sat down with Nick Powills, founder and publisher of 1851 Franchise, to talk about how his early experiences, love for bagels and digital marketing skills have helped him grow Bagel Boss. Hazen also discussed the challenges of scaling a legacy brand and shared his vision for the future of the company.

A summarized transcript of Hazen’s interview with Powills has been included below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity, and style.

Nick Powills: What's up, everybody? Nick Powills, publisher of 1851franchise.com here with another episode of Meet the Zore. If you like these videos, click subscribe, and you can meet other franchise brands. Today we are talking Bagel Boss, coming up next. All right, Andrew, let's start with your story. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What's your franchise story?

Andrew Hazen: Thanks for having me, Nick. Excited for the dialogue. I started with franchising by accident 36 years ago. I was 15 years old, working at a bagel shop in Long Island called Bagel Boss. I was in 10th grade and, as an admitted workaholic, fell in love with the business and the brand. This was all pre-cell phone, so people actually spoke to you when they were in line every weekend, out the door. I worked there from high school through undergrad on breaks and vacations. I went to school upstate at Oneonta in Oswego, then law school at Michigan. Even when I was in law school, my parents shipped me bagels. It was like a commodity — I could have traded them for anything legal.

After law school, I practiced law for about 10 weeks, hated it, and realized my passion was marketing, branding and building businesses. In '98, I started my own digital marketing agency, doing SEO and paid search in the early days of goto.com and Dogpile. I built that business and sold it to private equity in '07, then sold it again to a public company in 2011.

Being an internet marketer and domainer, I’ve always been passionate about Bagel Boss. I’m very close with Adam Rosner, whose family started the brand. In 2010, I started bagelofthemonth.com, using my SEO skills to rank for New York bagels, bagel delivery and gourmet foods. I took orders and passed them to Adam for fulfillment. At one point, Adam called, cursing that his store was filled with boxes and all his staff worked for me because of the FedEx shipments. So, I said, “Let me be your partner. Let me buy into the business and help you grow nationally.” That conversation took about six years.

In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I bought into the business. We went from 12 locations to 18 open and 12 in development. Even though we’re almost 50 years old, we're still an emerging brand with great history. I started working there at 15, and now my partner, who’s turning 60, is down in Florida while I’m in New York. The last three and a half, four years have been a roller coaster.

When I turned 50, instead of buying a new car or taking a golf trip, I bought a bagel factory on Long Island. We’re now producing authentic New York bagels with our fifth-generation recipes, handling logistics and fulfillment. We just opened a store in California, our fourth in Florida, and we’re expanding to North Carolina and continuing in New York. We're learning day by day as we build this brand.

Powills: All right. I have a million follow-up questions. First one: you go back to being a teenager and tell yourself this is what your story is going to be. Were you dreaming big then?

Hazen: No, at that point, I wanted to be an attorney, which is why I went to law school. But I’ve always been an entrepreneur, starting my own businesses or collaborating. For example, when I worked at a clothing store, I would bleach Champion sweatshirts and sell them for $80 instead of $20. I was always looking for opportunities. Back then, without cell phones, people would talk to you in line. Customers were flying with bagels in suitcases or shipping them to loved ones outside New York.

That’s kind of how I fell into the dotcom business. I told Adam, "There’s a Cigar of the Month, Harry & David Fruit of the Month, Beer of the Month. We should do a Bagel of the Month Club." He literally punched me in the arm and said, "All right, bring me the orders, and I'll f***ing do it." I started building the infrastructure, getting orders, transferring them to his store for fulfillment, and built it into a mid-six-figure business — all through drop-shipping.

Powills: All right, let’s switch gears to the digital marketing side. The landscape is much different today, which I’m sure you’re noticing on the franchise marketing side. If you had bought into this franchise back in 2000 or 2001, pre-2008, I bet your brainpower mixed with franchising could have skyrocketed this to be as big as you wanted. Today, it’s a little different. Talk about how the landscape has changed and what you’re finding now in creating exposure for this business.

Hazen: It’s all about exposure and reaching the right audience. The digital landscape has changed tremendously. It used to be mainly search; today, it’s a lot of video and AI. Backlinks are still extremely important. As a domainer, I’ve built an incredible bagel domain intellectual property portfolio. We own BagelFranchise.com, EverythingBagels.com, PizzaBagels.com, ChallahBread.com. We have a lot of great IP that we can leverage, which is a differentiator for us. Whether it’s ChocolateRuggler.com or something else relevant to our brand and manufacturing, we have more visibility to get eyeballs.

We excel in search and understand paid, but video is really important. Having been an agency owner, I know it’s like putting out fires and dealing with whoever’s screaming the loudest. On the other side, we’ve tested and worked with agencies and PR firms, but a lot of our best exposure still comes from self-generated efforts and collaborations. The bagel business, aside from maybe Bantam Bagels on Shark Tank, has been pretty flat for 30-40 years. So we’re constantly innovating — tie-dye bagels for holidays, green and white cookies for St. Patrick’s Day. We even do a giant party bagel that feeds 12 people. We’re always trying to stand out and not just be a typical bagel shop for a schmear and a coffee.

Powills: If I were unpacking your story as it relates to the business today, I’d try to translate it to the message you’re putting out to buyers. You say, "Bring us your community." But what I’m hearing is that you’ve perfected something many brands don’t: customer acquisition. When you talk about the Bagel of the Month Club and the chaos it caused because of high demand, or how people would ship bagels home to loved ones, it all ties back to customer acquisition. If I’m a franchisee, that’s a major struggle. You’ve taken the struggle of customer acquisition off the table. It’s almost like bagels are secondary—customer acquisition comes first. So, you’re really in the business of customer acquisition.

Hazen: Correct, and we have an extensive list. One of the things I brought to the table was a large database of customers who were buying online, along with their locations. We fulfill across the entire U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska. So when we open two new stores in North Carolina, we already have thousands of email addresses from customers who have purchased from us, whether they’re originally from New York or just local customers. We're also using geofencing and beacons to track traffic patterns. Times have changed from just using direct mail and coupons — now we can get much more personalized with our messaging and offerings.

Powills: Yeah. If it were me, I’d emphasize that because, as a buyer, the bagels are a great product, but for someone who's not an entrepreneur, they’ll need to see that you’ve already engineered the magic of customer acquisition. It shows that when changes happen in the business climate, you know how to adapt. You’ve been through 2001, 2008, and you bought in as a partner in 2020. You have that institutional knowledge, and that’s a point of differentiation. You said the perception of bagels is flat right now, but cookies were flat five years ago before Crumbl came along.

Hazen: Correct. That’s a good point we mention to potential buyers. We’ve definitely had failures along the way and will continue to learn from them. But our first store opened in 1975 and is still in business today. The second store opened in 1982 and is still operating. The third store, which I got involved with in 1988, is also still in business. Many businesses don’t last 10 years, but making it 20, 30-plus years says something.

We’re finding that when we open in places like California, there are a lot of transplanted New Yorkers. However, I’m not sure how well that holds if we open in places like Kentucky or Alabama, where the brand may not be as well-known. I’ve learned about a new demographic called "halfbacks," people who move to Florida and then move halfway back to the Carolinas. But people are eating bagels everywhere, across all nationalities. We have kosher and non-kosher options. We used to have more kosher stores without meat, but now a third of our sales come from bacon, egg and cheese at Bagel Boss Deli.

Powills: As you continue to grow, you're in a category where consumers approach bagels in similar ways, partly due to mainstream brands like Starbucks and Dunkin' adding bagels to their menus. A good comparison is Philly Pretzel Factory in Philly, where people buy a dozen pretzels in the morning to take to work. But in the Midwest, people would be confused and say, "I buy one pretzel." So Auntie Anne's listened to the customer and adapted—selling single pretzels that align with ballparks and snacks, adding another occasion. You're in a space I like because consumers are already trained. Bagel sandwiches work at every day part, and the spread options are fantastic.

Hazen: So correct.

Powills: When you bought in as a partner, what was your expectation and how has that been?

Hazen: My expectation was to get us organized — systematize our playbook, operating procedures, and get everyone aligned with a new look, feel and brand. At the time, we had 12 stores, which we refer to as legacy stores. These weren’t franchise sales but stores Adam opened and eventually sold to managers or partners. My goal was to have all training procedures in place, grow to 25 stores, then 50 and ultimately to 200. Acquiring a bagel factory was also part of the plan, giving us more control over product and distribution.

I've been involved with the brand for 36 years, but Adam is the bagel guy — he's the product expert. My focus was on making the business more scalable, so anyone could bake the bagels, reducing reliance on skilled labor and ensuring product consistency. Now, almost four years in, the legacy stores are somewhat resistant to change, which I understand, since I’ve known some of these guys for 20-30 years. But overall, they’re running successful businesses, and we’ve grown to 30 stores, with plans to hit 50.

It's been a lot of constant communication, dealing with customer feedback, franchise partners’ concerns about territories and day-to-day issues I didn’t fully anticipate. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the strength of the brand and the interest in franchising. Even with signage and promotions, some customers are just discovering we’re franchising, leading to a lot of organic interest. The stores that have opened over the past year have proven that our New York bagels work both here and out of state. We’re opening our fourth store in Miami Beach this week and are excited for continued growth.

Powills: A few comments and a question. First, I’m sure there’s a hidden camera in that Adam bobblehead, so he’s always watching you. Secondly, that burn on your arm is like an honorary tattoo — you’ll remember it forever. Third, as a former agency owner, you’ve probably been asked every five seconds, “Where are my leads?” So you know how to handle conflicts. These are all just clients, a different story. Lastly, what you said about systematizing the business is spot on. I remember Brooklyn Water Bagel — they brought Larry King in, but they didn’t systematize and it stalled out. You’re right to say, “Let’s pump the brakes a bit and put the business in order.”

Now, my ultimate question: You’ve clearly built businesses to exit. You know how to structure things. Whether you exit tomorrow or in five years, is that part of your plan — setting this up for a trade?

Hazen: It’s not the plan. I’m blessed with three boys — two out of college and one who just started. My youngest is very interested and involved in the business. My partner Adam has four children, and his son, Alex, is in the business too. I’ve known Alex since I catered his bris with Power Rangers running around the backyard. So, I’ve thought about this as a great family business. Adam is fifth generation; Alex is sixth. Can this continue for more generations? That’s an option.

I’m always thinking about strategic partnerships. Surrounding myself with people who’ve “been there, done that” has been key to my success, and I’m trying to do the same for our franchise partners. The gentleman who bought my media company was the former president of NBC Universal Television, so he knew far more about media than I did. It’s been heartwarming to get advice from experienced people in the industry.

The goal was to get to 25 stores, which we’ve passed, and now we’re aiming for 50 and then 200. I know I can’t do it alone — we’ll need to build the team. I’ve had teams in the past with the agency, so I know it’s difficult, especially in today’s climate with remote work, talent all over and the digital landscape changing. It’s always a challenge, but you just have to adapt, pivot, and iterate.

Powills: If it were me, I’d blow up your website. You just mentioned something important — multi-generational. When I see “Our mission is to feed anyone craving,” that’s not your real mission. Your mission is to build generational wealth and businesses. The mission for franchisees should be different from that for consumers. I get it on the consumer side, but for franchisees, I’d highlight this. I don’t want to see pictures of bagels; I want to see pictures of generations. The stories you’ve shared are so rich, and that’s what will resonate with someone 45 to 55 who’s thinking about what they can do with their kids. You already have the blueprint, but it’s buried in the story. I’d put these messages front and center because you have something more magical than you're playing on right now. You’re positioning yourself as a bagel business, but you’re so much more than that.

Hazen: I appreciate that. If I wasn’t concerned about the Department of Labor, I’d show you videos of my now 18-year-old, who was on the bagel machine at seven, coming to work with me as long as I can remember. It really is something special. We’re already seeing that today — one of our franchise groups on the West Coast is a father and son, and in Florida, a father and his three sons are doing 10 units. They’re all about the mission you just wrote for us, so thank you.

Powills: I appreciate this conversation. Your background — paying for some of college by selling New York bagels, law school, and your business journey — is such an interesting backstory. It’s going to be invaluable as you build generational wealth with your son. So, let’s close on this: Anything else you want people to know about the business opportunity if they’ve watched up to this point?

Hazen: No, just that we’re excited for people to enjoy our award-winning, authentic New York bagels. There’s a great market for it, and we look forward to talking to anyone interested.

Powills: I love it. And when someone signs up to buy a franchise, you can start making bobbleheads of them, too. Get all your friends up there — awesome stuff!

Watch the full episode above or on YouTube.