Todd Graves: Raising Cane's was profitable from month one and expanded in 18 months
Todd Graves · Raising Cane's CEO Todd Graves: Building a billion-dollar brand on one menu item | Masters of Scale · May 8, 2026 · at 11:55
Raising Cane's founder and CEO Todd Graves recounts the early financial trajectory and rapid expansion of his restaurant chain.
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“Luckily, we made money from the first month, right? I said, 30 bucks, then we started doing well, and actually, we had so much success that I opened my second location 18 months later.”
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Founders should avoid selling restaurant brands to private equity
“And the reason why I try to talk these business founders into not selling to private equity is, and look, they're not all bad. And so, I'm not talking about all of them, but a lot of them are. And look, if you have, Investors, if you have shareholders that the…”
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“So, for me, as you have, you know, we do fresh chicken, but we have frozen supply to get us through any kind of outbreak.”
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“Ultimately, if people just stop eating chicken, then I'd be extinct. I would absolutely be extinct. I wouldn't start serving steak fingers or something like that. I'd go, look, it's time for me to hang this up.”
Graves: Raising Cane's kept identical menu when entering the Middle East
“Even when we went to the Middle East, we kept the product exactly the same. We kept the same thing, and there was a lot of talk there about, there's another sauce they have there. It's like a mayo base and garlic and all this stuff. It's the most popular sauce…”