The Story of Sweetgreen: Building the Next McDonald’s | Jonathan Neman, Co-founder and CEO

Jonathan Neman is Co-Founder & CEO of Sweetgreen, an American fast casual restaurant chain that serves salads. Jonathan and his co-founders started the company in 2007, opening their first restaurant just three months out of college. Sweetgreen opened its second and third locations in the middle of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and went public in 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweetgreen’s focus on locally sourced quality ingredients has built it into a national brand with more than 200 restaurants across the US.
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Read the transcript: www.thespl.it/...
In this episode, we discuss:
- How the restaurant industry actually works
- How the US food system leads to over $2 trillion in indirect healthcare and environmental costs
- Sweetgreen’s origin story
- The early constraints that led to Sweetgreen’s ingenious business model
- Launching a music festival headlined by Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and The Strokes
- Killing a major product line to double down on online ordering in 2015
- How to build an enduring brand
- Sweetgreen’s new salad subscription and gamified loyalty program
- The surprising benefits of Sweetgreen’s new automated Infinite Kitchen
- How the best entrepreneurs never give up
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Where to find Jonathan:
Twitter / jonnynemo
LinkedIn: / jonathan-neman-9a28aa8
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: www.thespl.it
Twitter: / turnernovak
Timestamps:
(2:35) The state of the restaurant industry since 2007
(6:03) How COVID-19 changed the restaurant industry
(9:05) The bad incentives holding back the US health system
(10:58) How Sweetgreen built a local AND national brand
(13:07) How he made $40,000 a year in high school
(15:30) How a stint in Australia inspired Sweetgreen
(17:45) Sweetgreen’s 50-person friends & family round
(20:14) Challenges of opening the first restaurant
(21:58) How a tiny 500-square-foot restaurant unlocked Sweetgreen's success
(22:50) When sales suddenly dropped 70%
(23:40) The moment he realized he wanted to start his own business
(26:23) Opening early restaurants during the Global Financial Crisis
(27:35) Using a farmer's market to start a music festival and promote Sweetgreen
(29:49) Landing Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and The Strokes as festival headliners
(32:41) Why they shut down their second-largest product line
(35:16) Launching Sweetpass (a gamified loyalty program)
(38:19) Launching Infinite Kitchen (a fully automated restaurant)
(42:05) Online ordering trends
(44:13) The challenge with customizable food
(45:36) Using automation to reduce preparation error rates
(46:50) Acquiring a startup built by MIT grad students
(49:04) The surprising benefits of Infinite Kitchen
(52:25) The key to making healthy food accessible
(53:30) Unfortunate facts of the US food system
(57:25) How to “do the right thing” AND maximize profits
(59:58) His favorite board game is...
(60:52) We need to stop glamorizing overnight success
Read the transcript: www.thespl.it/...
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[@KevinLi-liveink]

This episode was great! Eye opening

[@ThePeelPod]

Right? Fascinating learning what's going on behind the scenes.

[@eugeniocg3079]

hell yeah

[@ThePeelPod]

Thanks for listening 🙏

[@WarrenCassellJr]

Loved the interview!

[@ThePeelPod]

Thanks for tuning in! 🙏

[@anashassnn]

First subscriber 😳🥇

[@ThePeelPod]

Want a Banana Cap?!? Shoot me an email or DM on Twitter, etc and I'll send you a free one

[@anashassnn]

@@ThePeelPod
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