S5E6: Spencer Rogers - The Business of Hospitality and ETA
On this episode of the Leeds Business Insights podcast, host Claire Stewart speaks with Spencer Rogers, hospitality entrepreneur, founder/CEO of Third Place Hospitality, and an alumnus of the Leeds School of Business, about entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) and his career path from product management at Apple to a PTSD-recovery app startup, then full-time hospitality.
Spencer explains how bartending alongside his tech career led him to Denver and into bar management, prompting him to pursue an MBA at Leeds to build his finance and marketing skills. Spencer found ETA and the search-fund model at a key time through a class and a mentor, leading him to form Third Place Hospitality in 2024, focused on “third places” that build community amid increased loneliness and blurred work/home life.
He describes LOIs, due diligence, and ultimately acquiring the establishment Lady Jane in 2025, as well as lessons in ownership, misconceptions about hospitality, shifts in cocktail culture post-COVID, and why ETA is growing in Colorado due to the “Silver Tsunami” of retiring owners and expanding curriculum and events.
Leeds Business Insights Podcast is a production of Leeds School of Business and is produced by University FM.
EPISODE QUOTES:
Merging industry intuition with MBA education
14:38: My thought and hope, and what I'm betting my career on, is that having that background in hospitality and knowing the space really well, combined with what I learned in the MBA program, a much stronger base in finance, I can find and get myself into deals for bars that perhaps other people in the ETA world wouldn't look at, and perhaps other people who are just purely in the hospitality world wouldn't necessarily have the knowledge to structure those deals.
Being an entrepreneur really is how you handle unexpected punches
19:35: Unforeseen things are just always going to happen. You can't foresee everything. Things are going to change. Things are going to shake up. And I think a big part of being an entrepreneur really is how you handle those unexpected punches and how you're able to navigate them, go around them. Sometimes the only way is through them. But it really is just always something different, something new, which is scary and exciting at the same time.
Lessons learned through acquisition
20:00: Another thing you really don't understand until you're in it with entrepreneurship through acquisition is once you're done with the search process and you close a deal and you buy a business, you're now responsible for all of your employees and their wellbeing. So overnight, you become the person who makes sure the lights stay on, the paychecks get signed. You make payroll every time you need to, all of that. And that's obviously there's pressure with that, but it's really, really fulfilling knowing that you are able to support people in their careers.
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