Alex Haynes O’Connor – Restaurateur Today, Entrepreneur Always. (Co-founder of Dedwood Deli)
Entrepreneurial journey told by six students
Story written by Julia Bessen
My name is Alex Haynes O’Conner, and I am an entrepreneur that owns a cafe, NOT a cafe owner that innovates.
The line between business owner and entrepreneur is often blurred, leaving many great scholars to attempt to define the two, in order to provide some clarity. I believe one’s goods and product offerings are not what defines entrepreneurship. Moreover, it is the spirit of the individual. The drive to solve a problem, meet an unmet need, and a hunger to continue creating new solutions in the future. That is what I believe makes an entrepreneur, and that is my story.
My story began as a salesman, bored of my psychology degree hoping to find purpose and create something that lasted. Sales didn’t bring me much passion, and I wanted to only work for myself, so I put down $900 on a fancy waffle iron and started selling waffles. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that right there was my minimum viable product. People loved my food, and I’ve always loved to cook, so I figured why not open my own restaurant?
A couple months, and a whole lot of “bricolage” later, I’m running Dedwood Deli with my best mate. As sparkly as it seems now, when we started it out it was anything but that. I didn’t know the first thing about operating a restaurant, so my first step was figuring out our value. We decided to open up a shop in the heart of the CBD, since it was a busy working area, but had no lunch spots! There was a huge customer need for a convenient lunch stop near offices, making Dedwood more than just a food offering, but an offering that was meeting customer’s unmet needs.
Whether I was building our furniture from scratch, renting equipment off of Facebook marketplace, or going door to door asking other business owners for help, I was constantly using what I had at hand to make Dedwood a success. Anyone with capital can open a restaurant, but only an entrepreneur can do what I did. Recognize a need, and fulfill it with the few resources you have at hand.
To some I may be just another restaurant owner, but I am much more than that, I am an entrepreneur. Who’s to say what exactly makes someone one or not? All I know is that entrepreneurship is built on innovation, and innovation is how I’ve gotten to where I am today.
Story written by Tessa De Neidels
I had studied psychology and worked day after day as a salesperson, out on the streets, trying to sell people charities when they left the supermarket, but that bored me. I was not challenged by what I was doing with my life, and I did not like working for someone else; I wanted to build something lasting and not start from scratch every day. That is how I began my journey to Dedwood Deli. It’s been less than five years, and I have done and learned more than anticipated. I was 21 and had absolutely no idea about anything. My work experiences were valuable but did not cover by far all that I would have needed to know. But I was lucky to have my business partner and people in our network. Some people we asked for their expertise during a lunch or business meetings; I mean, so much stuff is well proven, and we could use it, cleaning protocols, order lists, and so on. It’s not like we invented the concept of a café by ourselves, we just gave it our own interpretation.
But it was not all rainbows and unicorns. We had limited capital, and our team had to get creative, not just by taking help from our network. I built tables with my own hands. Same with the rest, we had to be creative to save money and quickly become profitable. But it was not enough; no one would sign a lease contract with a couple of 21-year-olds without the proper experience; it did not seem risk-free at all. So, I begged my parents to sign the lease as guarantors, believing in me and what I wanted to build. And it worked out. I think it was a mix; we had to improvise, think one step at a time, and learn it for ourselves. There were so many brains working on this project, and I could pick them; the community has been supportive.
Ultimately, I do not regret getting into this project, but I am restless to learn more. I want to do something outside the industry, but for now, I will start by expanding into supermarkets. Maybe afterward, the future will tell, but I will keep searching. Right now, I am only focusing on the next three months at a time.
Story written by Yingqi Liang
I have been asking myself: “What do I really want to do? Are the majors I am studying and my current job really what I love?” Before I established Dedwood Deli with Adrian, these two questions plagued me for several years. I was a psychology student, and then I found that I was getting bored with psychology, so I chose to become a salesman after graduation. But soon, I found that every day in sales was like a new start, and there was nothing I could continue to build and develop, which made me feel exhausted. I couldn’t help but start asking myself those two questions again. “How about trying to start a business?” But I don’t know which industry to enter to start my own business. Then the experience of doing a part-time job at Starbucks and being a sales manager came into my mind. I think hospitality should be a good choice. So Adrian and I became partners and decided to start our own entrepreneurial journey in the city center. We noticed that there are a lot of commercial buildings in that area, but the people who work there don’t have any good lunch options other than supermarket food. Isn’t this our potential entrepreneurial opportunity? So Adrian and I decided to define our start-up as a cafe that primarily sells sandwiches. Thus, Dedwood Deli was born. With no business experience and a large capital base, we chose Lean Start-up. Even so, we encountered many problems in the early days of our business: lack of finances, equipment, and business skills, no business network of our own, etc. We were unable to secure investment and made many costly mistakes. However, the Lean Start-up also offers us the opportunity to learn quickly and grow from our mistakes. We learn skills and experience from coffee suppliers. Through the Internet, we meet and build our own business network with people who have business experience in the catering industry. We are constantly making mistakes, and we are constantly learning rapidly. So, me, Adrian and Dedwood Deli grew into what it is today! Furthermore, we will continue to move forward according to our long-term goals. Now is just the beginning!
Story written by Daksh Monga
Ever thought of starting your own business, but did not know what to do and how to begin your journey as an entrepreneur? I am Alex Haynes O’Conner, and here is my story of ups and downs in the world of starting a business in the hospitality industry. A ride I want to take you along on.
After graduating with a degree in psychology, I worked as a manager at a Starbucks outlet within the central business district of Auckland for a while, till I got hired as a sales representative selling charity on the street outside of a supermarket. Frustrated and bored of the monotony of my days working for someone else, I decided that I need to take matter into my own hands and build something from scratch…but what?
With a passion for eating food, and the will to build something of my own, I began my journey officially when I bought a $900 waffle iron and a put together a small team of like-minded people wanting to build something. Through experimenting, I soon realized that my business of selling waffles was not scalable. Henceforth, enters the second protagonist of this journey, a business graduate and a friend of mine, Adrian.
One day, around lunch time, Adrian and I made our way to the city where we observed a great number of offices and a greater number of employees working in said offices walking around sorrowfully into a local supermarket and walking out with processed and microwavable meals. This is when the both of us identified ‘the gap’. The very next 3 weeks we get a store leased next to these office spaces we depleted most our bootstrapped money. Action is very important. Without it, ideas can never become reality.
However, through a highly cost effective approach, we created a ‘minimal viable product’. Adrian and I had leased majority of our large equipment such as refrigerators and ovens on a weekly basis. And also had decided to build our own furniture for the deli. I personally took branding, marketing and designing into my own hands. However, this can be distracting and can sideline entrepreneurs from the big picture.
Our minimal viable product surely was not generating enough cash flow in the beginning to sustain the business, it was enough to continue leasing our equipment, however over time it did paid off as we were able to invest in new resources and scale our business.
It’s a journey full of mistakes and failures, and the best way to get on top is through. Its through diving in straight into deep waters and making mistakes I was able to learn so quickly. Building relationships and expanding your network can further help you grow as an entrepreneur and successful business owner.
Lastly, through constant collaborative and knowledge sharing efforts the competitive world seems less hostile. It’s a game, a game where all of us can be winners.
It has been quite a ride, and now I am beginning to focus my attention to selling sandwiches across supermarkets.
Story written by Phoebe Reynolds
Mark Twain once said, ‘the secret to getting ahead is getting started’ with this in mind, I left my Monday-Friday 9-5 sales job, purchased a waffle iron, and started selling my crispy creations at the local street markets. As a result, I sought to create something fun and meaningful and partnered with my friend Adrian, who had just graduated from business school. We set up Deadwood Deli, a small café in New Zealand selling mouth-watering sandwiches.
Soon after beginning our entrepreneurial journey, we encountered our first obstacle (I’ve cleared so many hurdles at this point, I could compete in the Olympics, it’s part of the startup process). Given the agent’s lack of faith in a pair of 20-year old’s, I found myself begging my parents to sign the guarantor agreement for our café lease. We ran into our next hurdle when we didn’t have enough money for our venture – with only around $15,000 saved between us, we had to get creative. We leased equipment rather than buying it, and I spent many hours building furniture and countertops (I can now add carpenter to my resume…); in a startup, you tend to take on each department, and you learn so much.
Once the café and equipment were in place, our focus shifted towards securing suppliers, and I spent time networking with various individuals. Our coffee supplier had a wealth of experience, so we would meet for coffee regularly (ironically), and I would ask questions, effectively leveraging her as a free business consultant. We googled a designer and took him out to lunch even though we couldn’t afford his services. Thankfully, he let us pick his brains, proving there’s no shame in asking questions and seeking guidance.
Once the café was up and running, the next challenge was to grow. The biggest mistake you can make is letting the small fires distract you. I devised a 3-month timeline with a list of jobs I had to stick to within that period, starting with the most important, and this helped me stay on track. As the business expanded, I hired a general manager, meaning I could focus my energy on other aspects of the enterprise. The next part of my journey is to focus on the long term; we have many ideas and are excited to expand our passion. Good luck with your venture!
Story written by Vanya Sturm
I found myself thinking more and more about what it would be like to be my own boss; to start something I can build up and build on; to be able to feel like I really am accomplishing something day in and day out. That feeling of having to start over every day in my old sales role was frightening, as there was always uncertainty in how much I was going to sell that day, or the next, or the next. Even recently, working at Starbucks, with every coffee I sold, I felt as if I was caught in a cage behind bars made up of the minimum wage and the thousands of managers above me. I wanted to break free. I needed to break free. And that’s why I decided to go for gold and be my own boss.
I decided to pursue my passion for food and namely, create a name for myself in the food industry. For me initially, this was in waffles! As a recent university dropout, I felt a responsibility to provide a cheap but undeniably good food option to students. Not only was I driven by my personal love for waffles, but I saw a lack of them in the whole of Auckland! That’s where my journey began and since then I have learnt so much. Already I have switched from waffles, to now opening a new café with one of my best friends, Adrian! I have found that along the way, the mistakes I have made, have not only made me a more knowledgeable person in business but I have also developed as a person. This process has tested who I was, who I am, and who I will be.
On the business side, I have reached new networks and learnt so much through the people I have surrounded myself with, and this has also made me realise just how customer obsessed I need to be. Being a founder in the food industry has taught me to be resilient like nothing else, and especially when COVID hit, the business and I really suffered. Coming out on the other side though, all it did, is make me want to prove even more to everyone that a west Aucklander has just as much grit as anyone else and can make it in New Zealand.