IBJ Podcast: Why would a young couple from South Africa open a bookstore on Mass Ave?

For all of the people who have said at some point in their lives, “Wouldn’t it be fun to open a small bookstore,” consider the story of Julia Breakey and Jake Budler, a married couple who opened Tomorrow Bookstore on Mass Ave in 2023. They hurdled all of the concerns that likely dissuade most folks from following through. Questions like, “How do I get startup capital?” How do I compete with Amazon?” “Why try to sell printed books in an increasingly digital world?” And “How can I, a constitutionally introspective person, survive a career that requires intense customer service?”

The origin story of Tomorrow Books seems all the more unlikely given that Breakey and Budler hail from South Africa and are in their very early 30s. But they had a built-in advantage, in that Jake has a wealth of expertise related to startups as an employee of a global firm that supports high-growth entrepreneurs. In this week’s edition of the podcast, Julia and Jake explain how they chose to settle in Indianapolis and open their own business, how they divide the duties of running a bookstore, how they found the right mix of financing and why they have embraced the recent wave of new independent booksellers in Indianapolis instead of considering them competitors.

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