After a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, he and his wife, Kim, decided to raise money and start a coffee company.

His wife stayed with a job at General Motors while John moved to Minnesota to find the first site and put together financing.

[5][6][7] The initial concept for Caribou was a five-day-a-week schedule aimed at downtown office workers, mimicking what worked in Boston.

Caribou locations would remain open in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and ten international markets.

[17][18] Caribou Coffee has 282 franchised outlets across nine international markets, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

[21][22] After four years in private hands, on November 8, 2021, Panera Brands filed paperwork for an initial public offering of stock.