Nadeem Bajwa immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1991 and attended college in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He supported himself with multiple side jobs, including delivering pizzas for a local Papa John's for $4.25 an hour, dishwashing, and working at Taco Bell. Bajwa rose through Papa John's ranks to area manager by 1996 and found corporate jobs paid no more than his chain earnings. He opened his first Papa John's franchise in East Liverpool, Ohio in 2002, investing $150,000 and doing most startup labor himself. The store exceeded customer expectations but faced staffing and training challenges, teaching him the importance of readiness. Bajwa now owns 270 Papa John's locations in North America.
In a little over three decades, Nadeem Bajwa went from being a college student struggling to pay the bills to the owner of a fast food empire, owning 270 Papa John's locations in North America. The 58-year-old told CNBC that he immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 from Pakistan. He attended a college in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and worked side hustles to make ends meet.
When Bajwa graduated from college in 1996, he had already worked his way up the ranks at Papa John's, going from delivery driver to area manager. He submitted applications to corporate roles at other companies, but found that he couldn't get a job that would pay more than what he was making at Papa John's. He decided to stick with the pizza shop for that reason.
In 2002, he opened his own Papa John's restaurant in East Liverpool, Ohio, saving money on startup expenses by doing most of the labor himself. The store took $150,000 to build out and was an instant success, with more customers showing up than expected. However, the crew was undertrained and overwhelmed, and half of them walked out that first day alone.
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