The Exchanges

Q I'm too interested. You had that first restaurant. When did you know it was working? When did you look at each other and go, we should ramp this. We need more restaurants. More people need food.

A So, you know, you mentioned, uh, the job that I had and it's true. So we started building the restaurant called the beginning of Senior year. September of senior year, we decided we're going to do it. If you remember, when you're in college, you'd get job offers and apply for jobs right around that same time. So I applied for jobs. I got what I thought was my dream job, Bain & Company. Accepted the job. Got a signing bonus in October. Forgot about it. Said, I'm going to go build this restaurant. We'll see what happens. We build the restaurant. We open that summer, and all of a sudden, it's September, October, and it's time to report to work. So I had a conversation with my co-founders, and We have two things. I can go or I cannot go, and they're like, you know what? This restaurant's too small for the three of us to even fit inside of it, and we can't pay the three of us anyways. Why don't you go learn something, help us from there, and then come back, and so I went. I thought I would go for a couple years. I made it about nine months. Ultimately, my heart was with Sweetgreen. We had already opened the one restaurant. It was doing well. I was spending half my day in the bathroom on the phone with my partners and every weekend flying back and forth, and it just got to this Point where it felt like this mission was calling me. I could see what we could do. I remember I had a conv…

AI assessment note: “I made it about nine months. Ultimately, my heart was with Sweetgreen.”

Q I'm really interested. You said there about becoming CEO four years ago, and when I spoke to Scott, in particular, Scott Belsky, he said, ask John about the time when there were three CEOs. How did that work? And with that experience, what would you advise founders contemplating single versus multiple CEOs?

A Yeah, so very interestingly, we ran the company as co-founders and CEOs for the first eight years. And it worked phenomenally well. It was awesome because the three of us were so close. We share an office. We still share an office, by the way. We share a desk and an office. And it worked because there was immense trust between the three of us. Really a rule that we do not bring our egos into this. We always say, what's best for Sweetgreen? One of our leadership principles is win together. So we really put this owner hat on and what's best for Sweetgreen and put our personal opinions aside. I think the partnership, it's unique. We have such a shared Vision, mission, and values, yet very different skill set. So we complement each other in a really, really great way, and it's what allowed the three CEO situation to work for so long. We, about four years ago, as I mentioned, we transitioned where I became CEO and my two co-founders each took very large media roles within the company, and that's how we're operating today. And it's a unique setup because we still share parts of that CEO role, really that founder piece. Setting the mission, the vision, setting the strategy, really defining the culture. You know, the way I see it is, you know, I happen to sit in the CEO seat today. It's an honor to be able to do that. But, you know, I share that responsibility with my co-founders. And …

AI assessment note: “it worked because there was immense trust between the three of us.”

Q Can I ask a bit of a weird one? You know, bluntly you as the leader, you have to expel the brand and the mission and the vision every day. To every journalist, to every employee. I get founders and they're like, I'm bored of saying it. Like, how do you keep it fresh for yourself, where you deliver it with the same enthusiasm and gusto that you just did?

A You know, I think you really have to believe it. You just can't fake this, is where I get down to. It has to be so much a part of you, and something you so believe in deep down in your heart, and it's an emotional thing. For me, it is a mission. I do get very emotional about this. I do believe, you know, we can really change the world through food. I see so many of the problems that we're having today, whether it be the COVID crisis we're in, the environmental crisis we're in, and how much of that is related to food. So I think what keeps me going is this true belief that we can do good in the world, and by doing good in the world, we can create a really profitable business. And I tell my team all the time, these things go hand in hand. Don't tell me, like, we're going to do things that are great, but they're not going to make money. You have to be able to mirror the two, this Capitalism with the social good, and I think people get lost on that oftentimes.

AI assessment note: “what keeps me going is this true belief that we can do good”

Q I'm too interested. You had that first restaurant. When did you know it was working? When did you look at each other and go, we should ramp this. We need more restaurants. More people need food.

A So, you know, you mentioned, uh, the job that I had and it's true. So we started building the restaurant called the beginning of Senior year. September of senior year, we decided we're going to do it. If you remember, when you're in college, you'd get job offers and apply for jobs right around that same time. So I applied for jobs. I got what I thought was my dream job, Bain & Company. Accepted the job. Got a signing bonus in October. Forgot about it. Said, I'm going to go build this restaurant. We'll see what happens. We build the restaurant. We open that summer, and all of a sudden, it's September, October, and it's time to report to work. So I had a conversation with my co-founders, and We have two things. I can go or I cannot go, and they're like, you know what? This restaurant's too small for the three of us to even fit inside of it, and we can't pay the three of us anyways. Why don't you go learn something, help us from there, and then come back, and so I went. I thought I would go for a couple years. I made it about nine months. Ultimately, my heart was with Sweetgreen. We had already opened the one restaurant. It was doing well. I was spending half my day in the bathroom on the phone with my partners and every weekend flying back and forth, and it just got to this Point where it felt like this mission was calling me. I could see what we could do. I remember I had a conv…

AI assessment note: “I made it about nine months. Ultimately, my heart was with Sweetgreen.”

Q I love this. This is too exciting for me. You mentioned that the cost of setting up each restaurant. I'm intrigued, you know, when you're doing one, one, one, it's obviously probably similar or the same. How does that improve or change in terms of the cost of setting up a restaurant over time, and what drives the efficiency of opening restaurants over time?

A The efficiency of restaurants really for us, it's different for different brands. For us, we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets. So what's unique about Sweetgreen is our customers are very, very frequent. Most restaurant companies, customers come once in a while, call it a couple times a year. Our customers are coming many, many times a month and many times a year. So our frequency, our LTV of our customers is very high, which means the more stores we put in a region, the more access points we create. Not only do we capture more data to better service the customers, we create more access or pickup points. Faster delivery times, and each store becomes, call it a billboard for us to tell our story to our customers. So what's interesting is where most restaurants, the more stores they put in a region, the stores will cannibalize themselves. For us, the more stores we put in a region, they actually all grow. So the average unit volumes grow because our customers become more frequent. So it's a really unique dynamic that speaks to the way people treat our restaurant, which is more as a nutrition, you know, type of fulfillment than it is A treat.

AI assessment note: “we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets.”

Q I love this. This is too exciting for me. You mentioned that the cost of setting up each restaurant. I'm intrigued, you know, when you're doing one, one, one, it's obviously probably similar or the same. How does that improve or change in terms of the cost of setting up a restaurant over time, and what drives the efficiency of opening restaurants over time?

A The efficiency of restaurants really for us, it's different for different brands. For us, we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets. So what's unique about Sweetgreen is our customers are very, very frequent. Most restaurant companies, customers come once in a while, call it a couple times a year. Our customers are coming many, many times a month and many times a year. So our frequency, our LTV of our customers is very high, which means the more stores we put in a region, the more access points we create. Not only do we capture more data to better service the customers, we create more access or pickup points. Faster delivery times, and each store becomes, call it a billboard for us to tell our story to our customers. So what's interesting is where most restaurants, the more stores they put in a region, the stores will cannibalize themselves. For us, the more stores we put in a region, they actually all grow. So the average unit volumes grow because our customers become more frequent. So it's a really unique dynamic that speaks to the way people treat our restaurant, which is more as a nutrition, you know, type of fulfillment than it is A treat.

AI assessment note: “For us, we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets.”

Q Can I ask a bit of a weird one? You know, bluntly you as the leader, you have to expel the brand and the mission and the vision every day. To every journalist, to every employee. I get founders and they're like, I'm bored of saying it. Like, how do you keep it fresh for yourself, where you deliver it with the same enthusiasm and gusto that you just did?

A You know, I think you really have to believe it. You just can't fake this, is where I get down to. It has to be so much a part of you, and something you so believe in deep down in your heart, and it's an emotional thing. For me, it is a mission. I do get very emotional about this. I do believe, you know, we can really change the world through food. I see so many of the problems that we're having today, whether it be the COVID crisis we're in, the environmental crisis we're in, and how much of that is related to food. So I think what keeps me going is this true belief that we can do good in the world, and by doing good in the world, we can create a really profitable business. And I tell my team all the time, these things go hand in hand. Don't tell me, like, we're going to do things that are great, but they're not going to make money. You have to be able to mirror the two, this Capitalism with the social good, and I think people get lost on that oftentimes.

AI assessment note: “what keeps me going is this true belief that we can do good”

Q I love this. This is too exciting for me. You mentioned that the cost of setting up each restaurant. I'm intrigued, you know, when you're doing one, one, one, it's obviously probably similar or the same. How does that improve or change in terms of the cost of setting up a restaurant over time, and what drives the efficiency of opening restaurants over time?

A The efficiency of restaurants really for us, it's different for different brands. For us, we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets. So what's unique about Sweetgreen is our customers are very, very frequent. Most restaurant companies, customers come once in a while, call it a couple times a year. Our customers are coming many, many times a month and many times a year. So our frequency, our LTV of our customers is very high, which means the more stores we put in a region, the more access points we create. Not only do we capture more data to better service the customers, we create more access or pickup points. Faster delivery times, and each store becomes, call it a billboard for us to tell our story to our customers. So what's interesting is where most restaurants, the more stores they put in a region, the stores will cannibalize themselves. For us, the more stores we put in a region, they actually all grow. So the average unit volumes grow because our customers become more frequent. So it's a really unique dynamic that speaks to the way people treat our restaurant, which is more as a nutrition, you know, type of fulfillment than it is A treat.

AI assessment note: “we find a lot of a Efficiencies as we densify markets.”