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Kat Cole

CEO, AG1 · 1 appearance on the record.

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executiveoperatorinvestor@KatColeATL ↗LinkedIn ↗drinkag1.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗

Kat Cole is the Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of AG1. She previously served as President of Cinnabon and President and COO of North America for Focus Brands.

13statements → 6claims → 4claims resolved → 75%fully supported → 3.92/5average certainty → 1.38/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated →

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

6 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 2 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 Kat 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
CPG innovation drove Cinnabon to over $1 billion in annual sales
“I went from managing a brand that everyone knew, Cinnabon, with tens of thousands of employees and this beautifully expressed brand, now well over a billion in annual sales. That we had grown in just a few years out of the recession. Both the core business and…”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 52:56 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Alcohol accounted for only 18% of gross sales at Hooters
“I think our percentage of alcohol of gross sales was like, 18%. It's quite low, lower than TGI Fridays at the time”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 3:30 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

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 Kat Cole on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Kat Cole said on Masters of Scale that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Leaders should initially assume all incoming critical feedback is entirely correct
“Whenever you're criticized, assume first it's correct. Just allow yourself. The opportunity to assume that something in how you're being judged or being given, you know, negative feedback is correct. And one of two things will occur as a result. Either, A, you…”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 16:59 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Insight
Kat Cole: Answers do not scale, but questions do
“Answers don't scale. Questions do.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 20:43 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Insight
External leaders succeed because they are unburdened by historical sunk costs
“When a real hotshot does come in to take over a company or a team. They aren't burdened by the company's wins and losses. They don't feel saddled by sunk costs. They don't feel a sense of loyalty to a series of initiatives that maybe should be the very things …”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 24:35 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Opinion
Cole: Roark Capital are the unquestionable kings of private equity franchising
“Because they were early investors in franchising and now You know, the kings, the unquestionable kings from a private equity perspective”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 40:17 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Not checkable as stated
AG1 bootstrapped to $160 million in revenue before raising outside capital
“When I joined we were doing, at the end of that year, we did around a hundred and sixty million. It's the only time we've revealed revenue numbers. [3960] Jeff Berman: All direct to consumer. [3961] Kat Cole: One product. [3962] Jeff Berman: Yep. [3962] Ka…”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 1:05:51 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Insight
Hypergrowth companies often outgrow exceptional employees within two years
“Someone who was amazing for two years in a role, which might represent five years at a slower growing company, it might be time. It might be time for them to be in a different role or to no longer be with the company.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 1:15:52 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kat Cole secured Executive MBA recommendation letters from 10 CEOs
“I went and got 10 CEOs to write recommendation letters famously including Ted Turner, because he had run Ted's Montana Grill as one of the smaller of his accomplishments, but that's where we interacted because I was head of the Georgia Restaurant Association.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 36:27 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Supported
CPG innovation drove Cinnabon to over $1 billion in annual sales
“I went from managing a brand that everyone knew, Cinnabon, with tens of thousands of employees and this beautifully expressed brand, now well over a billion in annual sales. That we had grown in just a few years out of the recession. Both the core business and…”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 52:56 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Disclosure
Rapid scaling left AG1 vulnerable with a single New Zealand blending facility
“One of them for AG one was the growth was so rapid that we only had one blending house in New Zealand. And so we were running out of capacity. You have incredible risk in a single point.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 1:07:35 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Insight
A 10% annual growth rate is considered backwards in a hypergrowth company
“If you're growing a mature business at 10% year over year, you are like crushing it. You are top decile. You're getting all kinds of love. That's, you know, backward in hypergrowth.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 1:15:06 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Contradicted
Alcohol accounted for only 18% of gross sales at Hooters
“I think our percentage of alcohol of gross sales was like, 18%. It's quite low, lower than TGI Fridays at the time”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 3:30 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Supported
Kat Cole led Hooters' international franchise launches at age 19
“By the third international opening, I was asked to start leading the teams. I was still 19. This all happened in a series of quarters back to back.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 12:37 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale
Assertion Supported
Hooters generated up to $800 million annually during Kat Cole's vice presidency
“And I became a vice president at Hooters that was doing, you know, seven, eight hundred million in, In annual revenue at the time.”
Kat Cole Jul 25, 2024 ▶ 33:24 Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Masters of Scale

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Kat Cole: How to scale iconic brands (Athletic Greens/AG1 CEO, Cinnabon, Hooters) | Master Jul 25, 2024 1h 1m
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