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Brett Schulman

Co-Founder & CEO, CAVA Group · 3 appearances on the record.

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executivefoundercava.com ↗

Schulman joined CAVA's original founders to transform the brand into a nationwide fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain and consumer packaged goods line, overseeing the acquisition of Zoës Kitchen. Under his leadership, the company expanded to hundreds of locations and completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2023.

12statements → 9claims → 3claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.42/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 2said about them ↓

2 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 6 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 8 assertions · 2 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Brett argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Schulman: Integrating Zoës Kitchen made 2019 his hardest career year
“When we bought a company, Zoe's Kitchen, back in 2018, right? Devin Strahan: Yeah, I remember. Brett Schulman: Man, 2019 was the hardest year of my career.”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 14:12 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Brett Schulman on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Brett Schulman said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zoës Kitchen's same-store sales plummeted 12% right as CAVA's acquisition closed
“And when we were negotiating the deal, the sales were declining about three to four percent, same restaurant sales, you know, year over year. And I get this report just sent to my inbox, and I open it up, and it's -12.”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 1:03:56 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schulman: DTC customer acquisition has become too expensive for online-only marketing
“Post pandemic, the, you know, cost of acquisition or just awareness on the internet or being a DTC brand has gotten really expensive and people have gotten back out in the world. And even with the changes in third party data, privacy laws, it's restricted the …”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 25:46 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA
Insight
Schulman: Scaling physical restaurant operations requires upfront capital unlike SaaS
“Scaling restaurants is not like scaling SAS software. It takes people. It takes process. It's building physical restaurants. You're building physical roasteries. So that takes capital and it's hard to scale these things. So being able to afford the capabilitie…”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 41:03 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA
Insight
Schulman: Walk-the-line formats create labor efficiencies that fund premium ingredients
“And one of the things that struck me that really helped us make the decision was that the walk the line format allowed very efficient labor costs. You know, it's the old Henry Ford production line. That allowed you to invest in high quality ingredients”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 42:26 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Disclosure
Panera founder Ron Shaich helped engineer CAVA's acquisition of Zoës Kitchen
“Zoës had approached him, and he said, you know, what do you think about if our investors put together the capital, we acquire it, and give it to you, Brett, and your team?”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 1:00:57 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Assertion Not checkable as stated
CAVA locations generated nearly double the revenue of neighboring Zoës Kitchen stores
“We had a few Kava's that were across the street from a Zoe's, and we were doing almost twice the revenue, and that emboldened us to make that decision, and take Zoe's private.”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 1:02:53 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Schulman: Mediterranean Cuisine Is Next Major Large-Scale Cultural Food Category
“We see Mediterranean as the next big, large-scale cultural cuisine category, and we want Kava to be synonymous as the defining brand of that category.”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 1:13:03 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Assertion Supported
Schulman: Integrating Zoës Kitchen made 2019 his hardest career year
“When we bought a company, Zoe's Kitchen, back in 2018, right? Devin Strahan: Yeah, I remember. Brett Schulman: Man, 2019 was the hardest year of my career.”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 14:12 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schulman: CAVA turned around Zoe's Kitchen by simplifying and doing fewer things
“What you don't do is often more important than what you do do. And that really helped us turn the tide in the challenges of Zoe's is when I finally figured that out and we simplified and focused and did fewer things a lot Better. And that helped us get out of …”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 46:42 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schulman: CAVA's Mosaic location opened at twice previous locations' run rate
“And we had two hour long lines and the restaurant opened, you know, for its regular service the next day at twice the revenue run rate of the other restaurants that had opened and the other restaurants all started to grow in concert with it.”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 52:46 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Assertion Partly supported
Schulman: Zoës Kitchen had 240+ locations, 100% suburban Sunbelt
“Oh, over 240 locations. And a hundred percent of Zoe's portfolio was in the suburbs and the Sunbelt.”
Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 1:02:37 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman
Assertion Supported
Schulman: CAVA's Grocery Dips Predated Its Fast-Casual Restaurants
“The Consumer packaged goods, the dips and spreads being sold in grocery stores predated the fast casual.”
Brett Schulman Jul 4, 2024 ▶ 2:56 Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA

The other half of the tape: Brett Schulman's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on How I Built This. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1

Statements about Brett Schulman, by other people (1)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
CEO Brett Schulman warned CAVA's founders against giving him 25% equity
“I remember, you know, to his credit, he looked at me and he actually told me that that was, that's actually a bad decision. That's bad. You know, he's trying to give me good, good advice as a business partner already. Like, that's not a good thing to just give…”
Ted Xenohristos Nov 27, 2023 ▶ 40:01 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman

Every mention by year

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0112024episodes it came up in
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2024 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Advice Line: Growing Beyond Your Niche Oct 10, 2024 2m
Advice Line with Brett Schulman of CAVA Jul 4, 2024 11m
CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman Nov 27, 2023 17m
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