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.