- 6 weeks ago
Andrew K. Smith, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Savory Fund, left the tech world behind and started his restaurant career in the dish pit of his wife’s bakery. Since then, he and his team have grown over 320 restaurants, generated more than $2.5 billion in sales, and raised over $750 million across three funds.
Watch now to learn how storytelling drives scale, how founders lead, and how family stays part of the journey.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn how storytelling drives scale, how founders lead, and how family stays part of the journey.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00Storytelling is the impetus of what you do, not just what's the product you're selling,
00:04what's the experience you're getting inside the restaurant, but what is our story?
00:07And there's a lot of mediums like this that you can tell your story.
00:10It's, I think, 25 to 50% of your marketing of your business is storytelling.
00:21Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:24I'm your host, Sean Walchef.
00:25This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy.
00:32We learn through lessons and stories.
00:34We are live at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago.
00:37Thank you to Informa for bringing in creators, influencers, podcasters, restauranteurs,
00:43giving us the opportunity to tell these stories for those that can't make it to the show.
00:47So thank you for being here.
00:49Andrew K. Smith, Savory Fund.
00:52And I've been watching, admiring the work that the Savory team has done.
00:57Not only are they building something impressive, but they're building it in public so that the rest of us can learn.
01:03I feel like I know him.
01:04I feel like he's a mentor.
01:06I feel like he's a friend.
01:07But this is actually the first time that I've ever met him in real life.
01:10So, Andrew, welcome to the show.
01:12It's good that we've met finally in person.
01:13But the thing about this whole world is that we can be connected without being in person.
01:18It's really amazing.
01:19Yeah, I mean, that's part of the reason why we built a media company on top of our restaurant.
01:23I watch my wife is from Bulgaria and her family is connected because our family is willing to share.
01:30So they feel a part of their grandkids' lives.
01:35And when we go home and we're going to be going this summer to the village,
01:38they're able to feel like they know them in a much deeper level.
01:43It's incredible.
01:43Because of Facebook, because of Instagram, because of all the things that we have.
01:46Yeah, what a great event to be at, right?
01:48Like, when you walk around, just the energy and the feel of being at a show like this,
01:52it feels like there's energy in the industry, even though we see so much negativity.
01:56Here, you feel the excitement again.
01:58And it's good to be with our counterparts in the industry because it's exciting.
02:01Can you tell us, high level, what's the Savory Fund?
02:04Savory Fund is a fund that invests into the emerging elite, is what we call it.
02:08Emerging elite.
02:08Emerging elite.
02:09So brands that have grown over the years, 10, 15, 20 years, kind of hit that fictitious wall.
02:15But this wall of, what do we do with this amazing brand?
02:18They have elite economics.
02:19They have an elite brand.
02:20They have incredible loyalty with their customers.
02:23And they just don't know how to get from that 5, 10, 15 units to real true enterprise value of 50, 60, 70.
02:29That chasm is a hard one to jump, Sean.
02:32And when we meet with these teams, they want it.
02:34They just don't know how to do it.
02:35Just like I don't know how to create the restaurant concept because that's just not what I am.
02:39That's not my skill set.
02:40I knew what my skill set was, my team's skill set.
02:43And when we roll up to a great brand like Cali Barbecue, we say, this is an incredible brand.
02:48You've proven it.
02:49Guests like it.
02:50Let us help you with our team get it to the next level.
02:52So we have a team of 85 people in Salt Lake City, Utah.
02:56And we have hundreds of millions of dollars we've invested.
02:58And we have a couple hundred million dollars left to invest right now.
03:01Can you remember when you first started?
03:04Oh, yeah.
03:04I remember.
03:05What was the thesis?
03:06Initially, the thesis was to be an operator.
03:08I wanted to be an operator.
03:08I came from the tech world.
03:09Did you know that?
03:10Yeah.
03:10No, I didn't know that.
03:1111 years tech.
03:12Really?
03:13Yeah.
03:13Tech entrepreneur.
03:14Founder, CEO, venture backed, and private equity backed.
03:17Wow.
03:18Sold my first one to a public company.
03:19The next two to private companies.
03:21Shauna, my wife, came to me and said, hey, I'd love to start a restaurant.
03:25In 2007.
03:26And I'm like, oh my gosh, a restaurant.
03:28Are you kidding me?
03:29When I was a tech CEO.
03:31But the thing that I said, though, because you know, you love your wife.
03:34Yes.
03:34And she's the mother of your children.
03:36The same way for me, too, Shauna.
03:38I was like, in my mind, I'm like, that's the worst idea.
03:41But you know what I responded?
03:42I was like, I think it's a great idea.
03:44Of course.
03:45And we should absolutely do that.
03:46And because of that, Shauna, I just celebrated my 26th year anniversary.
03:49Congratulations.
03:50Because that's what you have to do.
03:51You have to support each other.
03:52So we built our first restaurant while I was still the tech CEO.
03:55The GFC, the Great Financial Crash, happens in 2008, September.
03:59We're opening our first restaurant in October of 2008.
04:02And I'm like, we're going to fail because my life is on fire now.
04:05Yes.
04:05Because I'm in tech.
04:06Yes.
04:07She opens up October 2nd, bakery and cafe concept in Utah, absolutely slams it.
04:13It was so busy.
04:15Really?
04:15And what I realized is, you know what?
04:17People don't give a crap what's going on in the stock market.
04:19No.
04:19They don't care if the market's down 1,000 points, if missiles are flying.
04:22They are going to go break bread with family, friends, co-workers.
04:25And in that moment in our restaurants, people don't care what's going on in the world, right?
04:30And I never made it that simple in my head.
04:32We stabilized my business.
04:33I sold it the next year.
04:35Yeah.
04:35They were going to let me stay on as president.
04:37And I'm like, I don't want to do that.
04:38Call up Shauna.
04:39I'm going to say, hey, I think I actually want to do something different.
04:41I'm going to come join you in the restaurant business.
04:43And she's like, uh-huh.
04:44I see how it is.
04:46So she's like, well, good, because my dishwasher called out.
04:48I'm like, great.
04:49Fantastic.
04:49So I went in there, and I literally went from the boardroom to the dish pit.
04:52No way.
04:53Yeah.
04:54That is amazing.
04:56How did the shift go?
04:57It was hard as hell.
04:58Because I'm a terrible dishwasher.
04:59I was awful.
05:00I was so slow.
05:02And it was hard, right?
05:03Yeah.
05:03But you know what?
05:04You fast forward now 16 years, O'Shawn.
05:06Any restaurant we walk into that we own or that we're part of, hundreds of restaurants,
05:11I always go back to the dishwasher and say, this does not happen here without you.
05:16It only works with you.
05:17100%.
05:17It starts with you.
05:18It ends with you.
05:18And it does not work without you.
05:19And they're always like, really?
05:20I'm like, yeah, it's an important job.
05:21I've done it.
05:22Yeah.
05:23What are you looking for when you're looking at new brands?
05:26How many brands are you looking at from over a year basis?
05:29It's going to blow your mind.
05:31How many?
05:31So our team, our investment team is a team of 11.
05:35And then our services team, which really supports our brands and our portfolio that Shauna runs.
05:39She's our CEO.
05:40My wife is our CEO.
05:41I love it.
05:42And she manages then supports them.
05:44But we look at about 400 brands a year.
05:47400?
05:48400.
05:49That's more than one a day.
05:52Constantly looking, talking to them.
05:54And the thing is, is some of them that we've actually decided to join.
05:57Are they applying?
05:58I mean, they're inbound.
05:59They're calling us and saying, hey, we'd like to grow.
06:01We see what you did with someone else.
06:02Can you help us?
06:03We'd love to have a conversation.
06:05Sometimes they're not ready.
06:06And so we guide them.
06:07We direct them on what they should do to get more stabilized before it would make sense for us to get involved.
06:11So we would say we have a lot of friends in the industry where we're helping them.
06:15But then you take South Block.
06:17We bought into South Block out of the D.C. area, Maryland, Virginia.
06:21And Amir Mostafavi, the founder there, we knew him for two years.
06:24We met him at my conference, Restaurantology Summit, and we knew him for two years and just talked and guided him.
06:29And after I saw what he did, I'm like, he's ready, and we invested.
06:32So sometimes it takes a couple years, but yeah, 400 brands a year.
06:36That's incredible.
06:37Tell me about how you view storytelling from the lens of savory.
06:42Really important, number one.
06:47Storytelling, in my mind, is what makes or galvanizes your consumer with your brand or with what your thesis is as a company.
06:55And I think that if you can't figure out what your story is and how to explain what your purpose behind that story is, it's a pretty hollow business.
07:02And so I think that even from my tech days to all of the different brands we've been involved with, which is now 14 different brands, storytelling is the impetus of what you do.
07:11Not just what's the product you're selling, what's the experience you're getting inside the restaurant, but what is our story that when you walk into my shop or I walk into yours, Sean, I can feel that there's a sense of something more than just food.
07:23Storytelling is, I think, the most important.
07:25Two, I think that if you get off of your story, you've got to figure out how to get back on the rails of telling your story.
07:32And there's a lot of mediums like this that you can tell your story.
07:34It's, I think, 25 to 50 percent of your marketing of your business is storytelling.
07:39Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and UK?
07:46It's an incredible company.
07:48I'm on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.
07:50They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
07:53We couldn't do it without their support.
07:55They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
07:57So if you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
08:06I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
08:10You can reach me at Sean P. Welcheff on Instagram.
08:13Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality.
08:20Back to the show.
08:21I think one of the things that has always impressed me about the work that you're doing, the work that your wife is doing, and the entire Savory team is you can eat.
08:31You know that the brands that you represent have to have a good story.
08:34You know that they have to be strong on social.
08:35But you're also sharing the Savory story and your story.
08:39Yeah.
08:39And because of that, you build this attraction with other people that are interested in what Savory is doing and why you're doing it.
08:50Restaurantology is a perfect example.
08:52A conference that I've put on my calendar is a place that I want to go to because I can feel the energy online and I can only imagine what happens in real life.
09:01It's unreal there.
09:02This year, too, is going to be one of the ones that's probably the most over the top.
09:06We listen to everybody that comes.
09:08It's people like yourself, myself, that have been operators and are operators.
09:12And that's it.
09:13There's no vendors.
09:14There's no booths or anything.
09:15And there's a purpose for this show.
09:17Yes.
09:17But there's a purpose for us to come together and say, what are you dealing with?
09:20And how can I do something similar to what you're doing that's working for you?
09:24And then here's something that's working for me.
09:25You should know, too.
09:26And the people we put on stage, which you should be on stage this year.
09:28Honestly, with this, we should do a live recording.
09:30You heard it here.
09:31No, we should do a live recording up there.
09:33Because I'll tell you right now, the reason why I started Restaurantology,
09:36though, Sean, was exactly what you're saying is, how do we connect and how do we tell our
09:39stories and how do we share with one another?
09:41I can't figure out how to help enough people.
09:44Yes.
09:45And I'm busy, just like you are.
09:46And so I thought, how do I do it?
09:48Well, I use the medium of media.
09:49Yes.
09:50And I use the medium of doing a conference that we pay for.
09:52We pay for the whole thing.
09:53It's free of charge.
09:54We feed everybody.
09:55We pay for it.
09:55But come and we'll share with you what we're doing.
09:57And we want to know what you're doing.
09:59And that is a way that can help 600, 700 operators go off for the year and then apply
10:05some things that we all learn together.
10:06And it's incredible, Sean, the things that come back to me and they'd say, I did this,
10:10this, and this, and it worked.
10:12So we give them applicable things to leave the conference with.
10:15A lot of times you come to a conference, you leave and you're like, okay, what did I
10:17actually take from that that I can apply?
10:18What's the take?
10:18Yeah, correct.
10:19And it's hard.
10:19It's like, I did so much.
10:20I don't know exactly what to apply.
10:22So we always say, take this one thing for this segment of your business, go apply that.
10:26What do you think is your superpower?
10:31My personally or savories?
10:33Your personal.
10:34My personal, motivating.
10:36Motivating my team, motivating others in my industry and be an aggregator of not only
10:42talent, but like-minded individuals that want to push for something greater than what we
10:46are.
10:47I'm not driven by the money.
10:49I know people say that all the time.
10:50I'm not driven by the money.
10:51I really am not.
10:52I've never been an entrepreneur that's like, well, I'm going to do this so I can make a
10:55lot of money.
10:56And the surprising thing is, Sean, is because I haven't thought that way, people know that
11:01I'm not driven by that.
11:02We've had so much success.
11:04And then the money comes.
11:05And that would be the advice I'd say to any restaurateur, don't do this for the money.
11:09Do this for the love of building a business and sharing whatever you have to share with
11:14your neighbors through hospitality.
11:17And if you do that really, really well, the money does come.
11:21Are you curious?
11:23Oh, extremely curious.
11:25I mean, there's not a person that I've met, whether it's restaurantology, the 400 plus
11:29brands that we meet with, people to show here that I'm not always like, how are things going?
11:34What are you doing that's working?
11:36Tell me something I don't know.
11:37And it's crazy how many times we'll write things down.
11:39We'll walk back into our office and say, hey, I learned something great from Sean.
11:43This is what I think we should rethink it.
11:44And so, yeah, I'm extremely curious.
11:47If you're not curious, you're going to limit yourself.
11:49You'll be the limiting factor to yourself.
11:51As you know, a lot of the themes that run through the work that we do, the content we
11:55put out have to do with business, have to do with storytelling, and have to do with
11:59technology.
12:00How does Savory evaluate technology in the hospitality space?
12:05It's interesting because my background is technology, right?
12:07And everything that we look at, Sean, with a brand, when we're thinking about scaling
12:11it is systems, process, and people.
12:14So think about that.
12:15Those three things, they're all humans, but then the system they use and the process they
12:20use, but it's the people that do it too, right?
12:22So those are the first core things we look at any brand before that we're ready to scale
12:25it.
12:26The second thing is you have to have a right tech stack.
12:28And I think that there's a lot of technologies out there that they all want Savory to invest,
12:33and I just don't do that.
12:34We don't invest into tech, we invest into the restaurants.
12:36I've thought about doing a tech fund, but I just think it's going to distract me.
12:40I'm really good at just focusing.
12:42But there's a lot of peripheral technologies out there, Sean, that I think both of us look
12:47at and go, that's a nice to have, but it's not core to my business.
12:51And so I think the things that we look at for tech is what's core to our business that's
12:56going to actually make our business relevant and stick.
12:59And then you can look at some of the nice to haves, right?
13:02But if it's not core and sticky to the center of that P&L, we don't really look at that tech
13:06right now.
13:07And it's also use fewer and go deeper with them and get all of the value out of them versus
13:13having a lot of them, trying to have them all talk and manage them.
13:16You'll waste your time.
13:17So that's how we evaluate tech.
13:20And the thing is, I'm ex-tech.
13:21So I would tell you, more tech doesn't help you.
13:24It's the right tech and going deeper with the tech.
13:26It's like me telling you, you should probably learn two more percent of how to use Excel.
13:31And I guarantee you, you'd like Excel more, but we all use like 4% of all the features.
13:35Correct.
13:35Learn 6% and you'll probably be really bad.
13:37It's like people using their smartphone.
13:39I mean, we have an iPhone and probably the most incredible tool.
13:42And this is pre-chat GPT.
13:44That's right.
13:45Pre-chat GPT.
13:46That's right.
13:46Just the thing that's in your pocket, the phone, the cameras, YouTube, LinkedIn, like
13:50just that.
13:52And yet here we are.
13:54What gets you excited about the future of the business?
13:58So, you know, I think about 16, 17 years ago when I was a tech CEO and we were selling
14:02our business, I was like, I think I might go join this industry.
14:06And one thing that I looked at, Sean, was the previous 15, 20 years.
14:10That this industry just continually grows.
14:12If you think about it, it just grows up and to the right.
14:15It's a 6.4% CAGR industry, just consistently, right?
14:19When recessions happen, flattens out.
14:22But I've been part of industries where it's like you drop 70%, right?
14:26It's off a cliff.
14:27And there's other industries like that.
14:28Food and beverage is so stable.
14:30So even though there's like this feeling in the industry of sales are down, margins are
14:34tough, people are tough.
14:35I'm like, we've seen this before.
14:37Yes.
14:37Right?
14:38The future is better.
14:40Yeah.
14:40And I always tell people too, tough times pass.
14:44But then we get into these times where it's like this bull market for all of us.
14:48And we're like, oh, things are amazing.
14:50And that will pass too.
14:52So for me, I think there's cycles.
14:54I've gone through dot-com bubble, GFC, COVID.
14:57Now in kind of an inflationary, crazy political state, it always will come and go.
15:02And so for me, I'm always excited about what's the next cycle we can go into.
15:05And are we going to be prepared for that?
15:06So for me, I'm always excited about the innovation of what this industry is so innovative, right?
15:11Yes.
15:12It's so crazy how we all go, God, what are we going to do?
15:15And then it's like six months later, we're all like, oh, now here's the new mousetrap.
15:18And our consumer is like this.
15:19And if we apply it in our businesses, we'll win.
15:22You lay over and let that all roll over you, you're going to be dead.
15:25So I like the innovation of the industry.
15:27And I love that we all got to eat every single day.
15:29It doesn't matter what the hell's going on.
15:31And I believe that every business is a family business.
15:35Yes.
15:35And I know that you take family very seriously.
15:39Very serious.
15:40Yeah.
15:40Can you share to other business leaders that might listen to this podcast, watch this video,
15:45what it means to be family first while you're building your business?
15:50Yeah.
15:50There was always this time when I was a tech CEO.
15:52And then, of course, now I've been in this industry for 16 years.
15:5516 years this coming Monday, I was a dishwasher 16 years ago.
15:58Shauna was in the business a year before me.
16:01So 17 years, we've had this in our family.
16:04But I've always been asked the question, like, how do you do the family and work-life balance?
16:11It's what you always get asked.
16:12How do you balance that?
16:13And you said this when I walked in this room too.
16:15You're like, I travel with them.
16:16I bring them everywhere.
16:17I include them.
16:19And I was going to tell you, that's what I did with my young boys.
16:21I have two boys.
16:22They're now adult men and one's married and the other one's going to be going into college here shortly.
16:28But at the end of the day, though, the one thing that I did that I think worked is you can put your family first and you can put work first.
16:35Yes.
16:36By meshing them collectively so that it's not work and life, Sean, right?
16:40It is just life.
16:42Yes.
16:42And for those that are listening, I'm kind of pulling both of my hands together and saying it's just one.
16:46Yes.
16:47And so to give you an example, I don't know if you do this.
16:49You probably do, but if I'm in the car and I'm driving with my son and I'm taking him to football practice or whatever, phone call rings, it's not like, oh, I can't answer that.
16:56Correct.
16:57You know, I can't answer it because I got to be a dad.
16:59I'm like, here, listen to this because I know who's calling me.
17:01Answer the phone.
17:02He hears the conversation, listens to the whole thing, how I speak back, how I treat people, how I hang up the phone.
17:09Hey, what did you just learn?
17:11And then they tell me like, well, this, that, and then why this?
17:13And they're interested.
17:14It's amazing.
17:15They're curious.
17:16It's incredible.
17:16It actually makes me better.
17:18Yo, for sure it does.
17:19Like questions that you would just never even cross your mind.
17:22No.
17:23And so we, we, we get to the point as they got older, I would, I'd be like, crap, I gotta, I gotta jump on the plane and go somewhere real quick for a business.
17:31They're like, yeah, cool.
17:32We totally get it because they were part of it with me.
17:34And then when I came back, he had that meeting go.
17:36Did we get that deal done?
17:38They were part of it all with me.
17:40That's how you can do family first and work first and just make it life.
17:43And I've done that my entire career.
17:45It's amazing.
17:46How can people learn more about you?
17:48Learn more about Savory Fund?
17:50Savoryfund.com.
17:51Uh, and then just right on LinkedIn.
17:53I'm pretty good on LinkedIn, but Savoryfund.com.
17:55You guys have a podcast too?
17:56We have a podcast.
17:57Yes.
17:58Restaurantology podcast.
17:58I do it with, and I don't do it like what you do.
18:01I, I do it with some of our founders, some of the other founders that we, we talk to too.
18:05And for me, it's not about how many people listen.
18:08It's if one person listens to it and they can get an idea from someone and use it, it was worth my time.
18:13I pay for it.
18:14I don't have sponsors.
18:15I don't care how many, I want to help one person at a time.
18:18Yes.
18:18And so we do it.
18:19We'll probably do one every 45 days this year.
18:21And we're going to do some live ones at restaurantology this year.
18:22And we're going to do this at restaurantology.
18:25We're going to do a tour.
18:26It's a concert.
18:26We're having a concert the night before.
18:28And then we're going to have the restaurantology the next day.
18:30We should do that.
18:30It's going to be all set up like a studio on stage.
18:32Done.
18:33Let's do it.
18:33You heard it here.
18:34Yeah.
18:34Yeah.
18:34That's how it's going down.
18:35Andrew.
18:36It is an honor to meet you in real life.
18:39It is a pleasure to have you on this show.
18:41If you guys are watching, you can reach out to me.
18:43I'm weirdly available at Sean P.
18:45Walchef.
18:46Instagram, LinkedIn.
18:47You can email me, Sean at calibarbecue.media.
18:50Thank you for listening.
18:51Thank you for what you do for this industry.
18:54I can't wait to see what you guys keep building, the brands that you keep investing in.
18:58And thank you for the leadership.
19:00Appreciate it, Sean.
19:01Thanks for having me.
19:01Appreciate you guys.
19:02As always, stay curious, get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help.
19:06We'll catch you next episode.
19:10Thank you for listening.
19:11If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
19:14You're part of the tribe.
19:16We can't do this alone.
19:17We started.
19:17No one was listening.
19:18Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
19:23Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
19:27It's a Substack newsletter.
19:28It's free.
19:29It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
19:32Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
19:36Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
19:38We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
19:40Hopefully, you guys like that content.
19:42If you want to work with us, go to etheshow.media.
19:45We show up all over the United States.
19:47Some international countries, we would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
19:53You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
19:56I'm weirdly available.
19:58Stay curious.
19:59Get involved.
19:59Don't be afraid to ask for help.
20:01We'll catch you next episode.
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