No Experience Needed

How a 17-year-old built a multimillion-dollar business one sandwich at a time.

Trial and Error

Fred DeLuca was just looking for a way to pay his college tuition. He ended up founding Subway, the multimillion- dollar restaurant chain.

It was the summer of 1965, and DeLuca, then 17 and right out of high school, had tagged along with his parents to visit Peter Buck, a family friend. At some point, Buck asked DeLuca about his plans for the future. "I'm going to college, but I need a way to pay for it," DeLuca recalls saying. "Buck said, 'You should open a submarine sandwich shop.'"

The idea wasn't so far-fetched. When Buck was growing up in Maine, he frequented Amato's for its Italian subs. And DeLuca often ate at Mike's Sandwiches in Schenectady, New York, before he moved to Connecticut. Says DeLuca, "I didn't know anything about subs, but Pete had noticed that people in the sandwich business did pretty well."

Sitting in Buck's backyard on that July afternoon, they agreed to be partners. They designed the menu and pricing, says DeLuca, "even though we didn't know what the food would cost." And they set a goal: to open 32 stores in ten years. After doing some research (chowing down at Amato's), Buck wrote a check for $1,000. DeLuca rented a storefront in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and when they couldn't cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1,000.

DeLuca's mom scouted out food suppliers, and his father looked for equipment. When they needed a sign, DeLuca's dad suggested they try a guy he worked with. "So we drive over to Dick's apartment and tell him the story. He jumps in the car, comes to the store, designs a logo and paints the sign." The first Subway was ready for business, with friends and family helping out.

"As far as product quality and operational methods, it was what you would imagine a 17-year-old doing," DeLuca says. "Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn't know how badly, because we didn't have any financial controls." All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.

DeLuca was manning the store and commuting to the University of Bridgeport. Buck was working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They'd meet Monday evenings and brainstorm options for keeping the business afloat. "We convinced ourselves to open a second store. It wasn't that costly, and we figured we could tell the public, 'We're so successful, we're opening a second store.' " And they did -- in the spring of 1966. A third opened the following summer. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error, DeLuca says.

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“ Take a small step to control clutter in your kitchen (and help the environment!). Buy cloth bags and use them when you go food shopping to cut down on the bags you bring home, and eventually dispose of. ”

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