Good Vibes and a Cup of Joe

Austin Dayton wasn’t built for a 9-5. So he built a coffee company that funds the life instead of replacing it. That’s the BOZOS model right there.

I met Austin Dayton in 2016 and liked him immediately. That’s pretty much everyone’s experience with the guy.

Austin wasn’t built for a 9-5. Too free, too curious, too unwilling to sit still while the world is out there doing things.

So he did other things. In his twenties he taught English in Korea, picked golden beets in Minnesota, guided whitewater rafts in Montana. Not a resume, more like a list of ways to stay moving. Through all of it he had this ambition simmering, a sense that one day he’d build something of his own. Something that funded the life instead of replacing it.

Then in 2019 he was diagnosed with cancer. And if anything, that made him want it more.

Nexus

He got through it. And when a coffee stand five blocks from his house came up for sale in 2020, he took it. During college Austin had worked as a barista at Dutch Bros, and something about that place stuck with him. The culture, the energy, the sense that a cup of coffee could be more than a transaction. He wanted to build that in Bozeman.

He called it Nexus. Today he’s running three locations around the Gallatin Valley with a fourth on the way.

The business does exactly what he always needed a business to do. It funds the rest of it. Motorcycling through South America. River surfing the Yellowstone. Hiking in the mountains with his dog Raff. Austin didn’t build a company so he could run a company. He built it so he could keep living.

That’s the BOZOS model right there. Not anti-ambition. Just pointed at the right things.

Next time you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Bozeman, stop by Nexus. Good vibes and the best cup of coffee in the Rockies.