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Podcast

Raising Cane's- Todd Graves

How I Built This with Guy Raz

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  • Bank Rejections
    • Todd and Craig, in cheap suits and with briefcases, presented their business plan to every bank in Baton Rouge.
    • Each bank rejected their loan application, citing the restaurant industry’s high failure rate. Transcript: Todd Graves Then, we thought you could actually, this is being naive, you could actually go to a bank, bring a business plan, and they’d lend you money. Here’s my plan. I need $100,000. Yeah, and I thought they’d give it to you. Isn’t this a great plan? Isn’t this a great idea? And did you do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, we bought a couple of cheap suits and went to Office Depot and bought boxy briefcases with the brass combination locks. You remember those? Yep, yep. We went and we went and saw every bank in town. I had a briefcase. Craig had a briefcase, and we would put it on their desk sitting across from them in our chairs, and we would open the brass combination lock like somebody was going to steal our chicken Finger business plan. (Time 0:03:10)
  • College Restaurant Jobs
    • Todd worked at various restaurants and bars throughout college, fueling his passion for the restaurant industry.
    • He enjoyed the fast-paced environment and the immediate gratification of serving satisfied customers. Transcript: Guy Raz You did theater? Yeah, yeah. Todd Graves I would say I had different groups of friends. You know, I had the real smart kids that were friends, you know, and then sometimes they complained about the jocks, you know, not being friendly to them. And I’d kind of bridge those together. Then you had the artistic kids and, you know, I would kind of bridge all those along. And I didn’t really think that was my role. But later in life, I kind of understood that it was, you know, when I look back. And, you know, I think that made me more well-rounded and made me more empathetic to people, being around different people in different backgrounds, different interests, but also Seeing their challenges with the other groups. So you were the high school quarterback and a pretty good athlete. Guy Raz I think, I mean, Louisiana, I would say, Louisiana, Texas, big football, and Louisiana also baseball states. Did you ever, ever like have dreams of playing at the college level? Did you ever think, you know, maybe I can play in college? Todd Graves Yeah, I did. And I wanted to, I just wasn’t good enough to play Division I. I wanted to play major college football. So we’re talking LSU, you know, a big Southeastern Conference school. And so I wasn’t that good. I actually got offers from smaller schools to go play, but I realized I really wanted that college experience. You know, I wanted the big school. I wanted the party. I wanted to have fun. I’m a kid of the 70s and 80s, man. We grew up with the movies of college being just the ultimate, so I wanted to be able to do that. (Time 0:08:38)
  • First Restaurant Job
    • Todd’s first restaurant job involved managing the kitchen for his fraternity house where he learned about food costs and operations from Martha and an owner.
    • This experience solidified his love for the restaurant business and its teamwork aspects. Transcript: Guy Raz Me a gin and tonic, son? I love that. Where was your first restaurant job? Todd Graves The first restaurant job I had was actually I functioned as a kitchen steward for our fraternity. And that gave me great experience. I just signed up to do it, you know, my freshman year. And from there, we had a chef. Her name was Martha. And she was, man, she was an amazing cook. She cooked, you know, just great Southern food. We’re talking mac and cheese and collard greens and fried chicken. And I mean, she could cook great. So I spent my time in the kitchen with her going over the food, the food quality and learning that way. And then the owner of the business that did this for a lot of fraternities, he taught me things because I asked about food costs, you know, what is your food costs? And he had the real simple answers of, you know, it’s a third of what you, of what you should sell something for. So, you know, if you’re going to sell something for a dollar, your food cost should be 33 cents. And from there, I just went, worked at different, I can’t even remember all the names of them, just different college bars that other people worked at that I could jump onto. And working for these entrepreneurs and learning about food, you realize, you know, how hard of a business it is. (Time 0:11:56)
  • Love for Restaurants
    • Todd’s love for the restaurant business stemmed from its fast-paced, problem-solving nature and teamwork.
    • The intensity and immediate gratification resonated with his background in sports. Transcript: Guy Raz Know, you don’t have a problem going to sleep that night. And you accomplish something. You accomplish something. Was there a point in college where you thought, I think I want to do this. I think I want to, I want to start a restaurant or run a restaurant professionally because you were studying telecommunications. It seems to me that you already in college were thinking, I think (Time 0:14:40)
  • Business Plan Grade
    • Todd and Craig’s business plan received a B-minus, the lowest grade in the class, due to its limited menu and focus on chicken fingers.
    • The professor’s critique fueled Todd’s determination further. Transcript: Guy Raz Open. And that’s the hardest part. They were right. So Craig’s in his class and you say to him, let’s do this as our business plan. Cause there’s a professional business school professor who can evaluate it. And by the way, I’ve seen an image of this business plan online and there’s some, on it that I thought they were made-up names, but they’re real names. They’re like these two Swedish guys. Todd Graves Were they from Sweden, like Sweden Swedish guys at LSU? Yeah, yeah. These guys were brilliant. It was three of them. It was Casper. Guy Raz Casper Odquist, Frederick Norton, and Manz Holmgren. I thought they were made-up names. No, these are real. Were they like exchange students? Yeah, they were. Todd Graves So they were like MBA level Ford exchange students or LSU. All right. They happened to get paired with Craig for this project. Guy Raz But I’m just wondering, was Casper or Frederick or Manns, were they like, wait, who’s this guy pointing at you? Like, how is he in the picture? He’s not even in the class. Exactly, right? You know, but I mean, that’s the brilliance of like being a college student. Todd Graves You’re just more accepting this stuff. They’re like, okay, this is cool. Plus, they knew they had, you know, a guy that’s so motivated about this. Plus, I knew the restaurant business. You know what I mean? I knew it. And I knew food. For example, I knew exactly what an apron would cost per shift for each crew member. And I knew that because I met with a sales rep. And so nobody had that level of detail in their business plan because it’s more about ideas and what they want to do. We were going to start this thing, man. So I needed to know every detail for the business. So I basically took my time, and during the days when they’re in classes, I met with sales reps. I called businesses and companies and got an idea of everything. So our business plan was really spot on. Plus, I’m a little mildly obsessive compulsive. So the details were just really over the top. So you were, I mean, you were like literally going to like chicken suppliers and (Time 0:24:20)
  • Boilermaker Job
    • To fund his restaurant, Todd worked as a boilermaker in Louisiana refineries for about four months.
    • This experience exposed him to In-N-Out Burger’s success with a simple menu. Transcript: Guy Raz Got a business plan, B minus business plan, but you got a plan. There’s a slight obstacle that you’ve got to overcome, which is money, money to start a restaurant. Todd Graves So where did you go? What did you do? Well, we knew the next step was to take that business plan and go see the banks. We needed the money. We didn’t have any. And you guys didn’t have any family money or anything? No, no, we had no family money. I mean, our families both did pretty well. We’re middle class and they did well, but we were raised with the belief that once you’re done with college, you’re on your own. And so back then, we thought you could actually, this is being naive, you could actually go to a bank, bring a business plan, and they’d lend you money. Here’s my plan. I need $100,000. Yeah. And I thought they’d give it to you. Isn’t this a great plan? Isn’t this a great idea? Oh, goodness gracious. And did you do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We bought a couple of cheap suits and went to Office Depot, true story, and bought briefcases because, you know, we had seen businessmen and women with briefcases. That looked official, right? So, you know, they had those cheesy, fake leather, boxy briefcases with the brass combination locks. You remember those? Yep. Oh man, they were iconic, you know? And so we went and we went and saw every bank in town. You know, we’d walk in and, you know, there’d be a loan officer there, you know, he or she, and they were nice enough, you know? And so we walked in with our suits and I had a briefcase, Craig had a briefcase and we would put it on their desk, sitting across from in our chairs, and we would open the brass combination Lock like somebody was going to steal our chicken finger business plan. And look, they were all nice enough to us. You know, they were nice. We went through it. But the common answer was, you know, this is not something that our bank would lend towards. You know, the restaurant business is, you know, it’s 90% failure rate. And, you know, franchises are the things that work because they’re proven systems. You both have college degrees. Why don’t you go work in the industry and get some management experience and save some money and then come back and see if you really want to do this and really want to start your own business. Guy Raz In the meantime, were you like experimenting with chicken finger recipes in your apartment? Were you like frying up chicken for friends and trying out different spices? Because you had the idea for the sauce and the chicken and the fries (Time 0:35:50)
  • Refinery Work
    • Todd took a job as a boilermaker in refineries, involving intense physical labor in challenging conditions for about four months.
    • Despite the hardship, he earned around $25,000-$30,000. Transcript: Guy Raz State, but it doesn’t mean you know anything about oil. What did the job actually mean? What did you do? Yeah, so I had to learn all of it. I had no idea what being a boilermaker was. Todd Graves All I knew is you were going to make a bunch of money in a quick period of time and work my butt off. You know, that was it. And a little bit dangerous. So what happens is when, you know, when they shut down a certain section of their refinery to bring it up to date, right? You know, these things have been running for many years. And so there’ll be to be safety upgrades, technology upgrades, just replacing and doing preventative maintenance. So they bring in boiler makers, which I love that term, boiler makers. I thought that was a cool, cool, cool term. You go in and do this work. And look, I learned great things like, you know, cutting things with a torch, you know, like you have this hot rod you’re holding with basically battery cables going to a lot of juice And you can slice through metal like butter, you know and we cut these things out in pieces and then bring them out the tower it’s hot right hot as all get out because you’re wearing these Complete jumpsuits right you got your hard hat on you got your goggles on and if you were in there like i picture if you lit the whole thing on fire and you’re walking through that’s kind Of what hell would look like you know it’s just a it’s a pretty hard work environment. (Time 0:42:10)
  • Alaskan Fishing
    • Following a tip from a fellow boilermaker, Todd and Craig worked on an Alaskan fishing boat.
    • This dangerous job helped them raise additional funds. Transcript: Guy Raz If you want to make big money, you should go to Alaska and go to a fishing boat. Is that the story? Yeah. Todd Graves You know, everybody, Boilermakers give each other nicknames. It’s actually, there’s great camaraderie among the group. This was the first group of people that believed in my dream. They were encouraging. You would talk about it with everybody. Yeah, everybody. They all knew. All these bullet makers working in this refinery knew I was out working these jobs with them because I had this chicken finger dream. And they were all encouraging. And everybody gives each other nicknames. And so the group said, hey, have you met Wild Bill Tolar yet? And like I i said everybody’s got a nickname i’m like no which one’s wild bill and why should i talk to him he said well he’s the big guy over there and he does alaskan fishing and you can make More money there anywhere else and so i went and talked to wild bill and told him what i wanted to do and he had hurt my story but he’s like look this is real dangerous work. It’s commercial fishing for sockeye salmon, gill netting, in Naknek, Alaska. So about the point when I was wrapping up my bowler-making career, Craig was graduating from college, and I called him on the road. I said, hey, man, I met this guy, Wild Bill. He’s like, wait, what? And I’m like, yeah, yeah, I’ll tell you about him later. But he spends his summers commercial fishing in Alaska. And he says, we can make a bunch of money real quick, but it’s gonna be a really hard work. And it’s very dangerous. And Craig said, okay, let’s let’s do that. And so we flew into Anchorage, Alaska. Then we flew to King Salmon, Alaska in a little plane. We hitchhiked to Knackneck, Alaska, and we went to Tent City, where they had a little area where you could, it’s on the tundra, where you could put your tent, and then proceeded to go and Talk to every boat captain in the whole fishery to get a job as a greenhorn, which is a rookie, which is very hard to do. (Time 0:45:10)