In this episode of Grounded, Lauren Mitchell sits down with Billy Loesch to explore the mindset, risk tolerance, and systems required to scale a modern food brand. Billy shares his journey from Wall Street to founding Baya Bar in 2016, and how he grew the concept from a single Brooklyn location to 41 locations with more in development.
Billy Loesch is the Founder and CEO of Baya Bar, one of the fastest-growing smoothie and açaí concepts in the U.S., featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500.

🔑 5 Key Takeaways

Billy’s early entrepreneurial mindset showed up long before Baya Bar, from selling trinkets as a kid to viewing every opportunity through a risk-and-reward lens.
Wall Street taught him relentless sales discipline and negotiation—skills he later applied directly to franchising, leasing, and brand growth.
Scaling required unlearning the “do it yourself” mentality and replacing it with trust, delegation, and repeatable systems.
Baya Bar’s customer experience is highly intentional, from bowl design and music playlists to loyalty technology and ingredient sourcing.
One of the biggest blind spots in food & beverage today is bad leases—unsustainable rent can sink even great concepts before they hit their stride.

💬 Quote of the Episode

“Entrepreneurs are not made, they’re born.”
— Billy Loesch, Founder & CEO, Baya Bar

🔗 Connect with the Guest(s)

Billy Loesch — Founder & CEO, Baya Bar
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-loesch-956704122/
- Website: https://bayabar.com/

Book Recommendation: Traction by Gino Wickman - Get a Grip on Your Business

Podcast Recommendation: The Game

🎧 Ways to Tune In

Transistor: https://www.groundedonthepod.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2I7EoKaVff3SnW3CoIXjJ6
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grounded/id1680909033
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/451edb13-5534-43ee-b46c-be36a7581460
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-grounded-281280581/
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/grounded-5259267
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/1064441
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Grounded-Podcast