At Lucky Ones Coffee, a small coffee shop tucked inside the public library in Park City, Utah, loyal customers regularly purchase coffee, tea, and pastries from the company’s hard-working employees, all of whom have intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The business, which opened in 2018 and expanded in 2022 to a second location in nearby Kamas, could serve as a model for other companies, including organizations that shy away from hiring people with disabilities, says Harvard Business School Professor Richard S. Ruback.
Roughly 6.5 million people in the United States have intellectual disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome, but less than 23 percent of working-age disabled women and men were employed in 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate among disabled adults in 2023 was 7 percent, more than twice as high as the rate of people without disabilities.
Businesses, particularly those with high turnover, are missing out by failing to tap this segment of the workforce, says Ruback, who worked on a recently released multimedia case study about Lucky Ones Coffee. The company’s 17 employees have intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the business has a waiting list of about 40 prospective applicants who are eager to step in when a position becomes available.
“People who hire people with disabilities have almost no turnover,” Ruback says. “We began the project by asking if businesses could provide employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities that were both good for the business and good for the people. I think the answer is largely ‘yes.’”
Ruback, a Baker Foundation Professor and the Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance, Emeritus, developed the case with Robin Greenwood, the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking, as well as HBS executive fellow Joe Higgins, HBS multimedia producer Matt Preble, and HBS creative director Dave Habeeb.
Bringing light to ‘a massive disconnect’
Since 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has prohibited companies from discriminating against disabled people and has required employers to make reasonable accommodations for them. Still, the researchers note that many employers are reluctant to hire this population, partly because they’re concerned about the cost of providing reasonable accommodations or because they fear they’ll face lawsuits if they terminate an employee.
“Employment of the special needs community really doesn’t get attention. It’s a massive disconnect, and we wanted to bring light to that,” Higgins says. He has a personal connection to the topic: His sister has Down syndrome, and he’s seen her thrive working in a laundromat, where she has forged a close bond with her colleagues.
Lucky Ones Coffee founders Katie Holyfield and Taylor Matkins touted their purpose-based mission in their request for the library space. “We want to create fulfilling jobs for individuals with disabilities, promoting acceptance, independence, as well as community inclusion,” the pair wrote in their proposal to Park City. Local officials ultimately chose their proposal over others developed by people with more experience and agreed to provide the space rent-free.
A purpose-based business
In the multimedia case, barista Preslee Simmons explains how much working for Lucky Ones Coffee means to her: “Working makes me feel useful,” she says. “The customers are so nice to me, and I feel seen. It makes me so happy.”
Most small, independent coffee shops operate on tight margins, and Lucky Ones Coffee is no different, Ruback says. The business initially showed net profits in 2019 and 2020, but suffered losses following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022. The two entrepreneurs have formed a nonprofit called The Lucky Project, enabling them to accept donations and protect their brand’s intellectual property.
Podcast: Ruback and Higgins discuss the case in this episode of Cold Call
While the founders are determined to ensure the company’s long-term success, the main goal was never to make huge profits, but to provide a meaningful contribution to the community, the researchers say.
“They really care about employing people with disabilities,” Ruback says. “That’s just who they are and how they define their lives, and it’s inspirational to see. I wish we all were more like that.”
Creating new opportunities
Ruback says other businesses, including those considering employing intellectually disabled workers, can learn some important lessons from the experience of Lucky Ones Coffee:
Pursue a personal mission
Holyfield and Matkins had extensive experience working with people with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities at the National Ability Center in Park City, where they started a job-skills program for adults. That made employing disabled people a natural fit for their coffee shop. They named their company Lucky Ones to reflect how fortunate they feel to work with the population.
Passion is an asset
Holyfield and Matkins built their pitch on inclusion and won over city officials who believed the proposal mirrored their own inclusive vision for the city.
“I wasn’t sure they’d even made a cup of coffee after talking with them, but they had a real heart for the neurodiverse community,” Park City Mayor Nann Worel says in the case. She called the approval a leap of faith, noting that the city didn’t typically award contracts to vendors without small business experience.
“The really interesting feature is that Katie and Taylor were extraordinarily inspiring. They threw themselves into this in a way that broadcasted their entrepreneurial enthusiasm,” Ruback says.
Training is essential and pays dividends
Thanks to their extensive experience working with people with disabilities, the duo knew how to train people for appropriate roles—even employees whose parents had never asked them to work in their home kitchens for fear of getting hurt. The owners had high expectations for staff performance, so they worked closely with each employee to provide the skills they needed to do well. In turn, that meticulous training has paid off in terms of generating stronger employee engagement, Ruback says.
“If you match the person to the task, they are extraordinary workers,” Ruback says. “They’re loyal. They show up on time. They’re careful. When taught a routine about how to do things in a clean and safe way in a restaurant setting, they never fail to execute those safety procedures.”
What’s good for society can also be good for business
“It’s all about impact, not just necessarily the P&L (profit and loss) of a company, which is very important, but the P&L of society: What are you doing to make your community a better place and make an impact and still build a better business?” Higgins says.
These objectives aren’t at odds, the researchers say. Businesses like the Lucky Ones enjoy higher retention, better performance, and more reliability—something other entrepreneurs and business owners should keep in mind, particularly in industries that struggle with high turnover, Ruback says.
“There’s enormous opportunity in exploring whether you can use neurodiverse employees to solve some of your business problems,” he says.