Noah Alper Speaks - Great Job by Entrepreneurship Association

Last Thursday I had an opportunity to eat a fine steak (it sure had been a while) and hear Noah Alper (UW BBA - Economics, '69) give a talk about his experience in entrepreneurial endeavors. He talked a little bit about his failures, as most who give these kinds of talks do. But then he also spent a good portion of time telling the story about how he came upon the Noah's Bagels idea.

If you don't know the story, he started his first store in Berkeley, CA. In a short time there were 38 stores and he sold it to what was then Einstein Bros. Bagels. I believe the price tag was at or above $100 million for the business - I could be wrong on that detail but I recall that number coming up in the discussion. (Noah's is currently owned by New World Restaurant Group, which I believe is 96% owned by hedge fund Greenlight Capital)

At any rate, it was a neat story to hear about and I'm sure I picked up a few things even if I did not write anything down. The main reason for my post is to give a shout out to the Entrepreneurship Association here at UW who did a nice job with the event!