{"id":4246,"date":"2026-07-26T07:42:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4246"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:42:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:42:56","slug":"the-pete-behind-jersey-mikes-was-only-17-years-old-when-he-borrowed-125000-to-buy-the-chain-with-some-help-from-his-high-school-football-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4246","title":{"rendered":"The Pete behind Jersey Mike\u2019s was only 17 years old when he borrowed $125,000 to buy the chain\u2014with some help from his high school football coach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By the time Cancro joined what was then called Mike\u2019s Subs, the shop, started by Mike Ingravallo in 1956, was already a mainstay of Cancro\u2019s hometown of Point Pleasant, N.J. But Cancro\u2019s vision would later turn the small operation into Jersey Mike\u2019s\u2014a national chain with 4,000 locations open and under development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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As the sub chain approaches a potential blockbuster IPO set to value the company at about $8 billion and bring in at least $1.1 billion in immediate proceeds, here\u2019s a look at how Cancro helped turn a mom-and-pop sandwich shop into a franchise giant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cancro, born and raised in Point Pleasant, was a normal teenager with a knack for business from an early age. At only 10 years old, he was mowing lawns for between $3 and $5 a piece and picking up the loose change that fell through the boardwalk along Point Pleasant Beach for some spending money, he said on the Our American Stories<\/em> radio show and podcast earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was his brother, having worked the year before at Mike\u2019s Subs, who got him a job at the sandwich shop that would later become his life\u2019s work. When he first joined as a 14-year-old in 1971, he started out making $1.75 an hour. Today, his net worth sits at a whopping $4.9 billion, according to Forbes<\/em>, and should grow after the IPO as he still owns more than 30 million shares in the company, according to Jersey Mike\u2019s S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n

Before Cancro had even thought about buying what would become Jersey Mike\u2019s, he had planned to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and possibly study law. But he \u201cbought a sub shop instead\u201d and embarked on a 50-year journey to make Jersey Mike\u2019s a national success.<\/p>\n

It was Cancro\u2019s mother who told him that the owner of the sub shop was planning on selling, and ambitiously suggested he buy the business. But at first, he brushed off her suggestion.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI sort of laughed at her, turned, went up the stairs, and it took one flight of stairs before a trigger went off of my head,\u201d he said on the podcast.<\/p>\n

Soon after, he called the owner of the sub shop to tell him he was interested, and quickly started searching for the six-figure loan he needed to buy the business.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI went out literally knocking on doors, telling people you know, \u2018I worked there for four years, I know the business, this is what, you know, I\u2019m looking to do,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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After approaching several potential investors in nearby towns, he still had no leads.<\/p>\n

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Eventually, he called up Rod Smith, his former youth football coach, who was also a banker. They met at Smith\u2019s house on a Sunday night and he helped Cancro get the $125,000 loan he needed\u2014which today would be worth about $775,000.<\/p>\n

Cancro purchased the shop officially on March 31, 1975, and continued attending high school while running the business. He said he frequently went to his morning classes but then skipped others in the afternoon to go work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He almost didn\u2019t graduate because he had missed three months of gym class, but he made up a medical excuse to get by, he said. While some people warned him buying the shop and abandoning his college plans would damage his future, he was confident in his decision.<\/p>\n

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Cancro operated the original location for more than a decade before beginning to franchise the business and eventually changing the company\u2019s name from Mike\u2019s Subs to Jersey Mike\u2019s. Still, the process of franchising required him to meet with attorneys and juggle a complicated process alone, he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere wasn\u2019t any roadmap. I had to figure it all out.\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any mentors in business to kind of show me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the decision paid off. Soon Jersey Mike\u2019s had opened locations in Ohio and Tennessee and potential franchisees came running.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would come in, try the product: \u2018Oh my goodness, this is great, I want to open up one,\u2019 so that\u2019s how it evolved, and really grew through word-of-mouth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the journey to success didn\u2019t come without obstacles. In 1991, a recession led to banks in the Northeast sharply restricting financing, which deeply affected a rapidly expanding Jersey Mike\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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Cancro recalled being $1.5 million-$2 million in the red and even had to liquidate his 401(K) plan to keep the business afloat,<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a dark time because it was the first time in my life that I went down and got stripped, sold everything,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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While Cancro later was able to rehire the employees he had laid off, the struggle to get back to normal took a couple of years. From this experience he learned to resist the temptation to grow too fast, he said.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2025, and Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Jersey Mike\u2019s that valued the chain at $8 billion. <\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Cancro stepped down as CEO last year and was succeeded by the former CEO of Wingstop, Charlie Morrison. Cancro is still chairman of the board.<\/p>\n

Jersey Mike\u2019s didn\u2019t immediately respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Even five decades after his journey with Jersey Mike\u2019s began, Cancro says the chain\u2019s story is just beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we are still in the early innings of Jersey Mike\u2019s growth story,\u201d he said in a statement last year when the Blackstone deal was announced.<\/p>\n

Read more AI safety experts say OpenAI\u2019s rogue models may mean the company has already blown past its own internal red lines<\/a><\/p>\n

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Peter Cancro had worked at the Jersey Shore sub shop since he was 14; the six-figure loan would be worth $775,000 today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[485],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-founders"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pete behind Jersey Mike\u2019s was only 17 years old when he borrowed $125,000 to buy the chain\u2014with some help from his high school football coach - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pete behind Jersey Mike\u2019s was only 17 years old when he borrowed $125,000 to buy the chain\u2014with some help from his high school football coach - 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