Kirk Perron Speaker & Booking Information

The individual behind the founding of Jamba Juice was Kirk Perron, who at an early age harbored a desire to start his own business. "I was inspired because my parents never owned their own home," he told QSF Magazine in a 1999 profile. "My parents both worked at blue collar jobs and I knew that wasn't the way to get ahead. So, I started developing ideas about retail business--the wheels started turning pretty early on." Rather than engaging in high school sports, he began investing in real estate, accumulating a $12,000 down payment by turning to the adults he knew from school, including his bus driver, a librarian, and a guidance counselor. At the age of 16, he also began working at supermarkets--bagging groceries at Vons and ultimately becoming an assistant store manager at Safeway--and in the process he gained ten years of valuable retail experience. Perron was 25 in 1989 when he quit his management position at Safeway, electing to spend his days working out and bicycling, supported by his real estate ventures and a late-night job stocking grocery shelves. Often after exercising, he bought a smoothie at his health club, a drink he found far more nutritious and satisfying than a frozen drink he might buy at a convenience store after one of his long bicycle rides. Still looking to realize his childhood dream of running his own business, Perron soon decided to open a store to sell smoothies.

With a determination bordering on evangelical zeal, Perron recruited people to help him launch the business that would one day become Jamba Juice. He met his future director of research and development, Joe Vergara, at a Safeway store. Vergara was already involved in the juice bar business, managing a handful of stores in San Luis Obispo, California. He often went shopping for good deals on overripe bananas and was buying a dozen cases at a Safeway when Perron struck up a conversation that ultimately led to Vergara's involvement in the new venture. Another person impressed by Perron's passion was Kevin Peters, who helped him scout for the location of his first store and would become director of partnership development. A fourth person who would be credited with cofounding Jamba was Linda Ozawa Olds, the later head of marketing.

Although his colleagues believed in his vision of a healthful fast-food restaurant that relied on the sale of smoothies, Perron was less successful with the bankers, who quickly dismissed such a concept. To fund the business, Perron had to sell a small apartment building and borrow money from his mother and her boyfriend, in all scraping together $115,000. He then secured a 700-square-foot location in San Luis Obispo and in April 1990 launched his smoothie business, originally called Juice Club. During the first weekend the store was extremely busy, serving some 1,600 customers, but Juice Club was far from an overnight success. During the first year, daily sales hovered around the $500 level, and it was not certain that Juice Club would succeed, although some people already began to inquire about obtaining a franchise. Gradually, the store built up a loyal base of customers, many of whom visited several times a week to buy the store's unique menu of smoothies, which were given such exotic names as Pacific Passion, Boysenberry Bliss, and Protein Berry Pizazz.