Before he landed a deal to become majority owner of Honeybee Coffee and spurred a mass staff exodus and the closure of two stores, business coach Aaron Hensley made offers to other Knoxville small businesses with promises to help them grow.
Both owners declined Hensley's overtures, telling Knox News his strategies did not align with theirs.
One of those owners was Matthew Jackson, who bought Puleo's Pizzeria in West Knoxville in July 2023. Just months after Jackson moved to Knoxville and bought the company, Hensley sent him a letter offering to purchase Puleo's outright for $40,000 in cash. Jackson says his pizza oven alone costs $75,000.
Jackson said Hensley's plans included kicking Jackson's father out of the business and switching staff to salaries rather than hourly pay.
"Our vision's didn't match," Jackson told Knox News. "I would never sign the dotted line until you physically have money in my pocket."
The offer came after Jackson contacted Hensley and asked if his company Rise USA would help produce social media content from a pizza challenge at his restaurant. Jackson was not pleased with the product he got back, which he said was plastered with the Rise USA logo.
Hensley tried to get the restaurant owner to sign up for his business coaching, which he said would help Puleo's grow fast. In the flattering offer letter, Hensley offered to provide another $25,000 in payouts for Puleo's staff after a year if the company reached "financial milestones."
By February, Hensley had persuaded another business owner, Honeybee Coffee founder Norris Hill, to hand over control of his business.
By June, the tactics that were once stored in letters and messages between Hensley and Knoxville business owners spilled into public view when the self-styled entrepreneur sent an avalanche of bizarre promotional messages to Honeybee customers.
"We want to create a new playbook where people can have a career and have a way to move up," Hensley said in a June 25 interview with Knox News. "The only way to protect a business is to scale and grow it."
Almost all of Honeybee's staff quit by mid-June as Hensley tried to enact his vision of "Honeybee USA," a franchise that would offer a full menu to customers and salaries to employees in place of the hourly wage and tips model common to coffee shops and restaurants.
Behind the scenes, staff say they were not being paid for their work, even as Hensley did away with tips and they took on more hours.
Knox News visuals editor Jennifer Dedman and husband Steve Dedman, who served as head brewer when beer was added to the operation in 2021, are no longer involved with the company. Under the USA TODAY Network Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms followed by Knox News, Dedman was excluded from editorial involvement in our reporting.
On June 25, Hensley texted Hill that he wanted to "bow out" from the company. He disconnected his phone number from service. A phone number listed for Rise USA is no longer in service. Hill is consulting with lawyers and declined to comment on the details of his deal with Hensley.
Hensley's playbook focused on visions for rapid growth
Kendale Ball never had a negative experience with Hensley personally, but he still did not enter a business deal with him.
Ball, the owner of a cafe called Simpl, started talking to Hensley about business opportunities after he closed Simpl's location near the Honeybee in South Knoxville. He also declined a business deal from Hensley, which he said was not for majority ownership. Hensley wanted to scale Simpl up fast.
"The thing that we didn't align on was he wanted to move a little bit faster on expanding," Ball said. "It was going to be too much work, too fast for me. I didn't want to take on going from one restaurant to, like, five or six."
While Hensley's vision for Puleo's Pizzeria was fashioned after Knoxville favorite A Dopo Pizza, his conversations with Ball aimed at turning Simpl into a local chain like K Brew.
"I had declined the offer, and the next thing I knew, he had bought into Honeybee," Ball said.
Ball runs a Simpl location in Newport, Tennessee.
Honeybee owner: 'Everybody's gonna quit you'
Hensley removed Honeybee's logo from his personal site June 28. The same day, he published a promotional video for Rise USA to his personal YouTube account.
"I'm starting new companies, buying companies, you're gonna watch how to do this through real estate and companies," Hensley said. "You're gonna do it with me. We're gonna take it to the next level and we're gonna rise together."
On June 25, Hensley told Knox News that Honeybee had around 25 employees and he had a vision to grow to 100 employees by the end of the year. Several staff members said almost the entire staff had walked out by then.
In a July 1 video titled "Leverage is Key," Hensley advised business owners that just such a thing might happen.
"You guys are losing because you're scared to actually to push on your people. What if they quit? Don't be a business owner if you're gonna be a little b----, cause everybody's gonna quit you," Hensley said in the video. "You can't find staff because you're not doing things big enough to attract people to come to you."
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.
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