Todd Graves, founder of Raising Cane's, details the initial capital raised to launch the very first restaurant in Baton Rouge.
Insight
Graves: Incremental Cost Cuts Destroy Fast-Food Craveability
“If you start cutting a little bit here to save a penny, and you start cutting a little bit here and a little bit here, it's death by a thousand cuts. Then your food one day is not craveable. That's what's happened to so many quick service chains over the years…”
Opinion
Graves: Private Equity Ruins Fast Food by Cutting Wages and Quality
“When you lose that founder personal, that this is their baby, you start making the wrong decisions right now. You really do. And so, so profit equity, they have their shareholders and they have to make a certain amount of money. They're not getting the returns…”
Insight
Graves: Leaders must stay in details and supplement before delegating
“So, I say you don't delegate, you hire great people, you help them and do it, and if they do it better than you, then you can back off, and you make sure all those components of the business, look, I'm not great at IT, I have an exceptional IT team. They do it…”
Insight
Graves: Founders should retain 100% equity to protect company vision
“If it's special to you, hold on to your equity. Take the risk, get more financing, but keep it yours because you'll always be able to protect your baby. You know what makes it work better than anybody else.”
Assertion Supported
Graves: Raising Cane's Is Valued at Over $20 Billion on 20x EBITDA
“We're trading on, not trading, we don't trade, but we're valued on over 20 times EBITDA, those company restaurants. Go into that. So the profitability that comes into all of it gets on that, that higher multiple. That's why we have the twenty billion plus valu…”
Insight
Graves: Prioritizing High Sales Volume Generates More Profit Than Cutting Costs
“If you're sales driven, you're going to do exceptional customer service. You're gonna have more people on shift, right? And then cutting it shorter to try to save labor. You're going to, ah, you need highest quality products to do craveable, all those things t…”