For our Top CEOs in Franchising feature in the November/December issue, we identified notable leaders who are guiding their brands through periods of growth, change and, of course, challenges. Check out the complete lineup.
CEO Brandon Knudsen co-founded Ziggi’s Coffee in 2004 and has since pushed its unit count past 100.
Colorado-based Ziggi’s Coffee celebrated two decades in business last year, but CEO Brandon Knudsen said it’s difficult to fully absorb that milestone.
“It’s been such a slow and steady grind that it’s hard to see it from a 20-year perspective,” Knudsen said. “I’m so in the weeds that I haven’t had a chance to reflect on it.”
Those 20 years have had their mix of ups and downs, from having to come up with a name for the brand on the fly to establishing a working franchise system in 2016. Knudsen aptly referred to the experience as a roller coaster, but said while it’s been challenging, the coffee category adventure has been a “ton of fun.”
Founded in 2004, Ziggi’s Coffee has grown to more than 100 locations. For Knudsen and his wife, Camrin, the business that became Ziggi’s was the second coffee company they owned. Their first was Hava Java, which they went into after dropping out of college.
Knudsen had been attending Southern Oregon University after transferring from College of the Redwoods in California. Originally from the Golden State, Knudsen met Camrin at the California college and she went into the coffee business first with a job at The Human Bean. After getting to know the brand and founder, Knudsen said they decided to give franchising a shot.
“I wasn’t great at school and my wife wasn’t loving what she was doing,” Knudsen said. “So, we decided to drop out after my last basketball game. Our goal was to open a Human Bean location, but we very quickly learned that you need a lot more money than we did. We had nothing.”
Needing to pivot, Knudsen said they decided to move to Denver where his sister lived, after she suggested there was a coffee shop opportunity there.
“We packed up my pick-up truck with whatever we owned, which wasn’t much, and drove to Colorado,” Knudsen said. “We moved into my sister’s crap-hole apartment just off the interstate in Denver, and our first bed was a mattress on the floor.”
After getting settled, the Knudsens invested $60,000 into a coffee shop, Hava Java. The early days, he said, were a struggle, with the business averaging sales of $146 per day. To get by, Knudsen took a night job, working nearly all hours.
“I would work from about 8 at night until 6 in the morning, and then I’d meet my wife at the coffee shop and be there until 2 p.m.,” Knudsen said. “That was our introduction to business, and that was rough. But I think everybody should struggle like that as a franchisor. It gives you a little more compassion.”
When a more appealing site became available for a new coffee shop, they jumped on it. The plan for Gizzi’s was for the Knudsens to run the store while their partner put up money for operations.
That didn’t pan out, though, and Knudsen’s dad bought out the partner for $70,000. The partner didn’t want the name to be kept on the brand, either, meaning another roadblock for the burgeoning entrepreneurs.
“We were freaking out, and only had a couple weeks to change the name,” Knudsen said. “I called a sign company, and the estimate they gave me was up to $25,000. But if we could simply repurpose the letters, it would be just about $1,700. So we penciled it out on paper, coming up with Ziggi’s Coffee.”
In the ensuing years, the Knudsens found their footing. Sales increased, they opened more locations, including drive-thrus, and began working on a franchise program. As they approached the launch, Knudsen said he was studious when it came to learning about the model.
“I googled the worst franchises out there, as opposed to the best,” Knudsen said. “I wanted to know what pisses off all the franchisees the most. I also studied Quiznos very closely, about how they charged people too much for products and the support wasn’t there.”
(Quiznos famously collapsed from nearly 5,000 U.S. locations to fewer than 400 within a decade. It’s since shrunk to 144 domestic stores, with another 89 in Canada.)
Knudsen took what he learned to heart and makes a point to back owners every step of the way.
“You have to be available,” Knudsen said. “If you want happy franchisees, you need to provide an elite level of support. When it comes to opening stores, we spend almost $40,000. We send eight people out for two weeks, and we feel that’s the way to do it correctly. To be right on site.”
Knudsen said another important factor in his role is putting more offerings in the franchisee’s arsenal to be competitive. The latest example was the addition of dirty sodas to the menu.
“We want to stay innovative,” Knudsen said. “With dirty soda, we were the first to market as far as coffee companies go, and that was about assisting the franchisees. Other brands in the category have a lot more momentum and marketing dollars than us. So, this is what we’re able to do to help set our franchisees apart.”
As the brand grows its menu, Knudsen said Ziggi’s will also continue expanding its unit count, with an expectation to open between 30 and 40 locations in 2026.