Mike Rypka explains that the Torchy's Tacos founding team was not forced out by the board, but voluntarily stepped aside to hire an experienced CEO.
Insight
Rypka: Banks will not lend $600K to first-time restaurant founders
“I didn't have any money. I didn't know people with money and that's really kind of almost how you have to start a restaurant. You know, bank's not going to just take a bet on you and give you a 600 grand to go open a brick and mortar restaurant.”
Disclosure
Rypka: Torchy's Tacos operated illegally from a co-founder's driveway
“We ended up for a week literally cooking out of Bill's driveway. We Took the trailer, and we hooked up the power to the trailer at his house, which was totally illegal at the time, but, you know, we were trying to stay in business and, you know, keep some cash…”
Insight
Mike Rypka: Food trailers are great for starting but unsustainable long term
“Hey, look, this is a great way to start, but it's not a good way to sustain. It's very weather-dependent, It's a lot of heavy lifting every day of like shipping food back and forth. And so I was really like, hey, we got to get a brick and mortar.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rypka: Only two of 300 promo customers agreed with critical review
“And I think out of the 300 articles we got only two people agreed with the article, so you can't please everybody, but that's a pretty impressive vote change there, so.”
Assertion Supported
Rypka: Torchy's won an 18-month lawsuit to shut down a copycat
“We definitely went to the lawyers, and the thing went on for about 18 months, but we were able to get them to close everything down, so thank goodness for that.”
Opinion
Rypka: Torchy's lost its identity by building 5,000-square-foot mega-restaurants
“The restaurants started to get
Away from our core, you know what I mean?
Like, we're a cool local taco shop, right?
Like, that doesn't look like 5000 square feet.
That looks more like 3000 square feet.
Like, cool, funky, graffiti on the walls not this big…”