Tour The First-Ever Raising Cane's With Billionaire Founder Todd Graves

Forbes

Billionaire Todd Graves, the legendary founder of Raising Cane's, gives an exclusive tour of the very first Raising Cane's location—where the $22 Billion chicken finger empire began!  Forbes’ Senior Editor Chase Peterson-Withorn joins the man himself to explore this iconic piece of fast-food history. How did Todd Graves go from being a "naive kid with a bad idea" who was rejected by over a dozen banks to building one of America's fastest-growing chains with over 900 locations?  Watch as we walk the halls of the first Raising Cane's store, uncover the origin story, and hear the inspiring business advice straight from the billionaire founder who never gave up on his fanatic vision for a single, perfect product.  Watch the full Raising Cane's documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu7d4DyzalI&t=83s  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2025/09/24/how-the-raising-canes-founder-built-a-22-billion-chicken-finger-empire-thats-snoop-doggs-favorite-fast-food-chain/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00original menu board built the structure here like literally down the street state lumber built it

00:08this has changed because the original logo was black and white but built that it's been here

00:12the menu hasn't changed but the menu this menu has changed exactly right we had a big blank wall

00:17out here and it was just kind of ugly and then then i was like we're going to do something out

00:22there a mural and that's where we took the bread mural from inside to be uncovered and then put

00:25the big canes logo up here because this is the original logo i did a sign shop in all about 10

00:30minutes the black and white is oval raising canes yeah well they tell you to you know what all the

00:36theory behind it red makes people hungry and all that black and white maybe maybe not as appetizing

00:42that's kind of a cool look but it wasn't appetizing is that the red the yellow the white the black

00:47popping through yeah you know sometimes you get lucky right you have these inspirations and

00:51there you go here's my baby from mothership what do you think it's uh it's unlike any canes that i've

01:00ever been to yes it's smaller and uh you know but it's uh you can tell it was the start of something

01:06that's for sure wow it was just like shotgun shack right yeah louisian i have these deals the whole

01:12idea is like shoot a shotgun from the front door out the back door right and so it was just a shack and

01:15so it had all this different paneling on the walls so it had been a hundred different things it

01:20was at one point it was like a arcade so we found this old paneling that was rainbow painted for

01:24the arcade started pulling all that off and then i found this layer of all these like cypress you

01:31know plank boards that went and i was able to put together enough just enough just for this stretch

01:37for this because the rest of them were like all battered and ripped up and things like that so i was

01:41able to do this stretch and this side got down to this stucco right and then so one little part had

01:47brick down there and i got a crowbar and i started you know giving it character all the way down i was

01:52like it's looking good till i got down to this and i'm like wait what's behind that you know and so i

01:58uncovered this old bread mural from from a bakery in the 1930s in louisiana right and literally i was

02:07like i took it as a sign yeah you know that it was great and so literally took this exact design

02:13and we had the big wall outside that was just big and bare and we said let's do a canes mural the

02:18exact same way which we had the wolf's baker we used the same type of font the white with the black

02:25relief behind it up here was talking about real that's what came the raising yeah yeah and on the

02:30bottom it says bread is best we put chicken fingers down there which became our long-term logo yeah

02:36got it there you know got it here man i mean literally on the thing it's like taking stuff as a sign it means

02:42something right the colors were great all that just fell into place for us right yeah what are the odds

02:47you know it's like it's the fast food colors you know and 100 fast food colors you know what are the

02:53chances of that right yeah and amazing so we did all the work ourself you know because i didn't have

02:58i didn't have much money to put on expenses of things so like we built like this old bar here

03:03where people could come up you mind you this is like it's almost 29 years ago right yeah we built

03:08still going strong still going strong and if you worked here and helped me you got to put your

03:13your name in here right so i put graves 8 10 96 right 1996 we did it and people would come and put

03:21their names you know different parts of the deal broils help that coulard there's different names

03:26around that was kind of how they could put their mark who were all these guys were they early

03:30friends and friends and early helpers yeah they just were willing to come out and help out like

03:34we can't pay anything they said no we want to be a part of it we'll help you out you know and

03:38people can learn to paint they can learn to do all these things and to go and you know we put

03:43their things like you know with the cane we got pictures of cane like original like that's the

03:47original original cane i could get him dressed up as anything i could put a golf club in his mouth

03:53teed up to a ball right i bet he would love to wear elvis's sunglasses yeah right i wanted i was a big

04:00you know elvis fan so i wanted to have a velvet elvis well we couldn't find a velvet elvis they

04:04found a velvet towel elvis towel it's pretty close at the mall so close enough so elvis is carried on

04:10and the things we do so what's the big elvis uh love i just the elvis has had such amazing style

04:15and incredible talent you know that stuff i just like draw inspiration on you know just an amazing

04:21person it's like you know the king and having these artifacts around the king like keeps me like

04:25inspired to keep our marketing up right wow you know of course we're here at lsu on the campus here

04:30all the way down here's some original uh uh pictures of when we did the construction yeah and actually

04:36we we cataloged it we you know we we weren't we weren't thinking anything more than just it was

04:40special to us and let's remember this time and one of my original crew members she put it all

04:45together in a collage and then we hung it here right look if you don't have a money or a tight budget

04:50you know shoestream budget it's like you learn how to do these things so i'm on the auger literally with

04:54barred a friend's uh mother's tractor went through the property he set it out i couldn't do the

04:59concrete laid the concrete but we helped finish and do everything to where we can save money

05:03and look for us we wanted to keep it classic kind of like that's my tree house now

05:06yeah old cypress louisiana these are old reclaimed cypress boards right we did that and then we had

05:11a yeah what's the deal with the disco ball i gotta gotta hear about the disco ball well like we we had

05:15a skylight and you know i'm like what do we do with a skylight and so we're like well we'll finish it

05:20out with the wood let's put something fun up there like what do y'all want to do and someone said

05:23hey let's do stained glass like that could be fun and someone said hey how about a disco ball

05:27more fun let's do the disco ball right more fun and uh we put it up there now you see these disco

05:33balls up the theme carried over to all the raisin canes where we do big loris disco balls three of

05:38them spinning but taking these icons right from the beginning and carrying them over in your business

05:44that means it's special things where we came from right where here's where we came from and so

05:48you'll yeah you'll find a lot of this stuff in every every canes right you've got a mural you've

05:52got a disco ball you've got canes disco ball velvet elvises on the wall we get an artist a special

05:57velvet elvises yeah all those things are carried over and it means something that's our crew and it

06:02was just stuff that you thought was fun at the time when you work one year at raisin canes your

06:06anniversary one year anniversary award is a hard hat from when i worked in the hard hat in refineries

06:11and wore a hard hat and year five you get a sockeye salmon to be your you know we fished in alaska to do that so

06:17these things they mean something you know i think so many companies now they go hire a great marketing

06:21firm and they they make up these icons and not on the stories they really don't they're they're

06:25they're made up you know they're they're things that go if i tell entrepreneurs as you go document

06:30what you're doing and things that are special to you and carry that over into what you're doing in

06:34the future like this location i'll have all the managers come to this location and see it and walk

06:39it with me we get pictures here and do it because i want them to know we got big shiny restaurant

06:42buildings now like this is where we came from this is our soul right they take that back to the

06:47communities across the country yeah so all right and so then the menu let's talk about the menu

06:50hasn't changed right since since day one have you changed anything at all is there anything you ever

06:55added and then took off the menu anything you've really tweaked significantly same skus in the

07:01restaurant from day one but when we started off we had just just the chicken finger meal and you can

07:08get sweet tea or or lemonade yeah uh and get that but it was just one way to get it and it wasn't

07:13comboed right and so learning progression when i when i got about i don't know seven restaurants i

07:18knew we were really going to take it and take it out regionally i brought in some great people called

07:22them partners and they came in and they were like actually from ohio the mccarthy family and they came

07:28in they're like hey you need to combo your meals i'm like why because i said that's real what quick

07:32service does i want to be anti it's like but your drink incidence is high like and you're making money

07:37through your drinks more people will get drinks if you make it easy and combo it so i added the combo

07:41they also said doing a little smaller meal and a little bit bigger meal will also be good to add

07:46so we added the caniac then we added the three finger combo and that's the only thing we changed

07:51the only thing we added so all you did was group it together people said you need to add all this

07:55new stuff you need to change you need to add new concepts no and you took all that and you said okay

08:00you can put it into groups right right you bundled it differently right that's it the only thing we

08:05added we only can be added that we didn't have day one is fresh squeezed lemonade and the reason why is we

08:09went through the school year and then summer it got slower and i was like what is a product we can

08:13do that will signify summer but be as high quality as us lemonade lemon sugar water and that's the

08:19only thing we've added in 30 years and don't plan to add anything else look i won't even add dessert

08:23because i think it loses focus on what we do do you feel that you're able to execute it so much better

08:28because you only have a limited number of things absolutely right and so does that keep the lines

08:34faster it keeps the food fresher keeps everything simpler is that 100 that's exactly what it is you

08:39know what you're coming to order so it goes quick right and and when you have to drive through

08:44business we make tiny margins on large volumes so you want people to be fast speed is key so they

08:49know what they're what they're getting and then if i added menu items it wouldn't even just add to the

08:53speed it would add to hold times different products different things i wouldn't have that

08:58quality because we have this focus menu we can deliver with fast food speed and convenience but

09:03in a cook to order fashion so it's like homemade going through the line cooked we don't have hold

09:07times we don't have have heat lamps we don't have things like that it's just a fresh product served

09:12quickly and so do you ever worry that of the veto vote you're talking about earlier uh you know losing

09:18sales that way you think you make more of it up by just knowing who you are and sticking to yes

09:24having a craveable meal that people want and serving with fast food speed and convenience is the key

09:29absolutely the key if i change that i would change my concept my concept quality food served with fast

09:35food speed and convenience if i added menu items then it would add to it would take away from the

09:40quality because you'd have different stations you'd have to have it you had to put it on heat lamps and do

09:44it you'd lose that or if you tried to do it all cooked order that way you couldn't deliver it with the

09:48speed so staying focused that's the concept don't get off that concept what about even just you know

09:53uh something simpler right putting some cajun spices and just you know having a spicy tender

09:58or something like that um yeah it would it would add another one decision point which would go down on

10:04on speed and then secondarily take away from our fully flavorful already product that doesn't need

10:09that look if somebody wants a hot that nashville hot chicken they go somewhere else and get that

10:13for us you know you're coming to this flavorful meal that's not regional it works around the country

10:17works in other parts of the world the same product around the world that is absolutely key if you try

10:22to be all things to all people you're going to not serve any of you won't be special don't be all

10:26things all people do what you do well and execute on it brilliantly brilliantly every day yeah okay and

10:33looking for the veto vote it's interesting because that's what so-called experts told me that you're

10:38going to lose somebody in the car that wants to get something else not true our average unit volumes are

10:43the highest of the industry us and chick-fil-a are the of the highest and way beyond everybody else

10:47and my average unit volumes being that high with other restaurants that have all this variety and

10:51different things that going it's i proved it out yeah and um what about do you worry that the trend

10:58will change right that the interest in chicken tenders you know chicken fingers is going to decline

11:04you know or the price of chicken is going to go up or something like that where you're not uh you know

11:08you're not hedged you're right all your eggs are in in one chicken basket right so how much do you

11:13worry about that sort of that sort of stuff you know i don't i don't at all because um it's fried

11:18chicken which is a staple around the world chicken fingers are of the most popular menu items in the

11:23world it's chicken fingers it's hamburgers it's pizza it's all the major things that go and so any

11:29trend that goes and we see it i love what some of these people are doing the korean uh chicken and

11:33these different ideas and asian chicken different way they're going we don't get hurt by sales from

11:37them because they'll go get that chicken one way and they'll come get the chicken from us another

11:40way it's the number one protein of the world right so supply chain stays up because the demand is there

11:45so we're all in it's a resilient protein and and uh the food uh supply system is safe with that so

11:51that's why we're all in within just a few moments of being at the first raising canes location you could

11:57tell that todd is in and out all the time and very involved in the detail of his business ever since i've

12:04been to kane's you know he's always stopped in the restaurants and high-fiving the crew seeing

12:08the crew you know checking in and he really cares about everything that they're thinking about and

12:12anytime that we give him ideas you know he really he really takes those things to heart

12:15jesse here and crew back here come on y'all come in now

12:19look rich original fry line here right all this how's it going give you the other how are you

12:25great and so what's important on this you see this whole line

12:30yeah you can see orders come in everything comes from the freshly grilled toast all the way down

12:37through chicken and fries that they make it and they get it out the door because you have this

12:41system going is you know exactly what orders are coming in so you cook to order if it's busy you cook

12:45a little ahead if it's slow then you you pull it back but you can see all this when you're cooking

12:50if you're a restaurant guy this is heaven it's not multiple lines going to see all this you got

12:54nothing nothing under a heat lamp everything is just straight simple and fresh right out the door

12:59remarkably high volumes remarkably high volumes besides my kitchen how many hours do you think

13:05you've spent in here oh my god millions i mean look i just i lived here right you did you did your

13:0910 000 hours and then some right 100 man i spent so much time like counting tills they didn't have

13:14technology back then you couldn't like run through dollar bill things you actually counted everything

13:18out every penny doing that working schedules doing the next deal jumping back on the fry line

13:22jumping back on drive through in and out yeah wow this is the engine nothing in here comes in frozen

13:28that you get you get raw chicken in here that's right yeah and they bread it here yeah deep right

13:33here and battered and breaded and look it's milk and egg uh batter it's it's it's uh top quality flour

13:39with the special seasonings we have in there all herbal all great and it's been the same same way we

13:43done it in day one the new challenges with supply chain is opening up in different regions making sure it

13:48all tastes the same i got to do my very own celebrity style

13:52raising cane's drive-through takeover

13:58all the way there we go nice good and then we just kept sorry just grab a lid there first lemonade

14:09he's pretty good huh

14:12all right one minute one minute see it's served fresh gotta be as fresh as possible and you want that food

14:19coming in fresh like that details guy i get it yeah it's 100 man you don't you want to be waiting a

14:23little bit for your food then your food waiting on you right yes i feel like with the first location

14:29being right here on lsu's campus it's a big part of lsu and baton rouge's identity here everyone is

14:35flocking to the cans after the game and it just feels like one giant family interacting with each other so

14:39it's a really cool experience just can't beat the consistency that taines has so it's just really

14:44incredible full disclosure i've had raising canes before but it's a little different when you're

14:49eating it across the table from the billionaire who created the brand so here it is it's our meal box

14:55combo four golden fried chicken fingers critical cut fries buttery garlicky toast cane sauce and coleslaw

15:04here it is this is everything this is everything you serve on the sitting on the table right now

15:08that's what it is man dig in all right let's see i'm gonna go for one of these first

15:13you can taste the quality right that's a billion dollar uh idea right there believe it or not

15:19that it is every meal all over the world should taste just like that it does here in the mother show

15:25yeah god are you awake one thing graves is great at is getting celebrities to promote raising canes

15:31i want to talk about celebrities for a little bit so there are a lot of celebrities that you know

15:38pitch raising canes your marketing budget has to be enormous how does that come about you know and

15:45you know how much do you spend on that and you know how do you see the role of marketing and you

15:50know promoting this whole thing yeah i mean marketing is so important right you know best form of marketing

15:55is solid operations right you can market something if you can't deliver on a great product or service then

16:00you won't make it right but like with quick service food it's top of mind is the key like

16:06you there's a lot of good places to go eat you want canes to be in their head when they're making

16:09a decision so if you're driving to work in the morning there's going to be a billboard that you

16:13see canes at are you going to hear it on the radio when you go and normally during uh you know during

16:18lunch and you're at the office right people are like hey where do you want to eat that person has

16:21that canes then everybody loves canes you go to canes right are you sold on tv the night before it might

16:26show mom or dad picking it up for the family next day they're going to say hey top of mind i'm going

16:31to pick up food for canes when you go home and so general broad advertising look just quick service

16:36restaurants total budget off sales is three to four percent that's how much money we put in to to

16:41marketing to keep our brands top of mind i like to tie into celebrities who are caniacs you know ones

16:47that love canes ones that i have a relationship with so is that organic connection and people can see

16:52whether it's a paid endorsement or it's somebody that really loves the brand and i love to tie into

16:57their fans right and it's whether it's sports or entertainers artists their massive fan base they

17:03might already be a fan of canes and go to canes but once their person that they're a fan of is like

17:09totally into canes it builds long-term yeah and so how do you find those celebrities that are caniacs

17:14you know for me it's got to be organic it's got to be people that love canes and i don't like going

17:19around hitting up people to come endorse a product that they might not be crazy about so

17:23just about all of our relationships we have with celebrities is coming from hey they wanted to to

17:29meet the canes guy they love canes they heard the story and wanted to meet and the ones we make friends

17:33with and do it after that period we make a good friendship uh and that's when we'll uh we'll go and

17:39we'll do a deal if it makes sense for for both parties you know like i was became friends with post

17:43malone and post love canes he grew up on it loved it and he wanted to meet the canes guy so

17:48his people called my people post light invite todd out his family out to see a show and uh and come

17:54out and do it so i went and you know walked just watched the show and then we met afterwards and

17:58enjoyed then we went back to his house and we became friends that way and so it was several years

18:03that we had the friendship and then we started talking about doing something together and uh you

18:08know i was like well what do you want to do he's like man i want to own some canes i just want my own

18:11canes i was like well that's that's a fun idea i said but you know to actually own it you know you're

18:16not gonna be frying chicken just like i'm not gonna be up on stage with you how about how about

18:20we do some post malone restaurants where you want to put them you design it exactly how you want it

18:25and uh let's have fun with that and then we'll just with the profits of the restaurant which worked

18:30out great you know post got to design some crazy restaurants he was like what's the budget i'm like

18:34nothing you do whatever you want to do so you create this big pink restaurant with pneumatic ping pong

18:40balls going through it and all this birks and memorabilia made it really special and we wanted

18:45his ideas and from his team versus us go in and think what we're going to do and it came something

18:49really special and now like people will do layover flights in dallas and in salt lake just they do

18:54later flights of the day just to be able to go to that raisin canes supposed to go to raisin canes

18:58and then fly where they're going crazy so those are really organic organic you know deals all these

19:03i mean because the list of celebrities is very very long i mean it's yeah a lot a lot of people so you

19:08really are these are people that are mostly coming to you yeah absolutely right their teams call and

19:12say hey you know and it always starts with they'd like to meet you know like so just look i was on

19:16the phone yesterday with kevin hart and i got to meet him and he was the super bowl and he came by the

19:20suite and you know our friends knew each other then we got to get a rapport together and then um i was

19:26just recently out in la and then we met up together and and then like he called and said hey i want to

19:30do he's got some really cool ideas right but it came from knowing each other and the friendship behind it

19:35then it comes out organic cool real genuine which that's what that's what consumers are looking for

19:42real real things you know not corporate uh paid gigs yeah and so and you think that's do you think

19:48that's a big part of the success is that the the all the the branding and everything feels it feels

19:54that it's real you know it doesn't feel like it's coming from a marketing agency yeah absolutely and

19:58you got so so you know it's it's real relationships right it's a founder of a company with the superstar

20:04that loves cane so we love what we do together and we'll always do charity things together and

20:08support their foundations so it's full circle it's it's it's you know people people today can see

20:14through corporate things so quickly it's a turn off to them and then the brand's not special anymore

20:19right you have these celebrities around that are doing cool things and working hard and doing good

20:24for community and things like that it really amplifies your brand yeah and so what do you see is

20:29um your role in all this you know you've got the cane shirt on now i see you know you changed into

20:35some some corporate branding and um yeah i mean what do you what's what's your role now at canes you

20:41know how much are you overseeing the day-to-day how much of it is you know sort of playing the the

20:46chicken man yeah yeah the main guy yeah so i mean my role now is to make sure the company is

20:53like living our values living our values right our non-negotiables right so like one of the non-negotiable

20:59is always use the highest quality ingredients i'll never be touched we could save so much money make

21:04so much more money for the short period if i've lowered on quality that's never going to happen

21:08taking care of our crew making sure the culture is there making sure we're bringing in people from

21:12outside the company that share in our line with our vision and values and then people from within have

21:17growth opportunities right so it's scaling that same culture we've had since this location almost

21:2130 years ago goes to every location and then on the marketing end it's me getting out there organic

21:28founder driven great relationships great celebrities and doing really cool marketing yeah and it seems

21:34like uh you know you've been um you're out there a lot you know and maybe getting out there even even

21:41more so you know do you see that as a as a big benefit are you yourself you know in some ways becoming a

21:48celebrity and are you you know yeah yeah trying to be a celebrity interesting yeah no so i mean like

21:54for me it's it's good it's great because i'm around these superstars so it's always the attention's

21:58on them and i'm like the the chicken finger guy like hanging out and doing that and being myself

22:02right and so that's where we make these these fun relationships i mean for me too as a business

22:06person when i hang out with these celebrities whether they're world-class athletes or artists entertainers

22:12they're all driving for success right they're all grateful you know not not all of them but the ones

22:17that i that i align myself to i can get inspired i can learn so it's just like hey look if i'm

22:22tired on a friday morning and it's early and i got all these things to do is i'm like like post

22:26malone's working hard right now joe burrow's working hard right now you know snoot dog's working

22:30hard right now too doing good for the community and doing things so it pushes me to do well i'm around

22:35business people all the time that's why they like me too because it's not another athlete performer

22:39entertainer it's from business so it's that that that's that gets really keeps us all inspired

22:45right and doing we can learn and i'm constantly educating myself so as a business grows things

22:50things change right learning how to navigate those things learning how to use technology for your

22:54advantage we're doing great register systems we can take orders outside mobile things like that

22:59keeping us up keep the same menu you know and doing the same thing we've done for all these years but

23:03staying up to date on technology and things to help our people do their job better and serving the

23:07customer better i'll give you the 150 000 and i'll go uh 25 percent todd you animal why would you

23:15undercut me like that you're gonna talk about shark tank for a second oh yeah you know you were you're

23:19on shark tank you're a guest shark for a couple episodes what was that experience like you know

23:24why did you decide to do it and uh you know how was it you know shark tank when when they called and

23:29wanted me to show i was thrilled i'm a fan of the show right i love entrepreneurship i love how the

23:33sharks do that i like the values they teach and things like that so i'm like look plus it'd be a lot of

23:37fun i always thought about it right like man it'd be really fun to be on a shark tank and uh you know

23:42i did it for several reasons one promote the business always promoting raising canes um two

23:46was like really helping out entrepreneurs you know and so whether i was going to invest or not

23:50um i could help and give good advice you know from the things i know and and they could pick that up and

23:55then you know three i wanted to go do some deals uh and compete with sharks man so it was it was a really

24:01great experience you go in the morning we filmed all day like 10 hours you don't know any of the pitches at

24:07all you don't even know what's coming out they come out it starts and then you get to battle with

24:11sharks and and man you really really have to get your questions in and do it and um i was a little

24:17nervous going in because i've never done this and they're all so good at it all the sharks are good

24:21i i was friends with mark cuban he introduced me everybody and everybody was wonderful damon's

24:26wonderful laurie's wonderful mr wonderful's wonderful uh they're all great people and uh they say

24:31hey look let's have some fun let's do some good let's go chop it up so um i had to go in there

24:36and uh the producers told me like you're gonna have to interrupt and it took me i'm like i'm in the

24:41south you don't do that took me a couple of pitches and i couldn't get my stuff in and then i started

24:45just interrupting in the middle of the sentence and nobody cared and it wasn't wild but uh it's all

24:49great we got to battle for some deals i was able to do uh do several deals that yeah they're doing

24:54great yeah how are they doing yeah what's uh fantastic i mean the show's platform itself

24:59sales went up after they got a deal in shark tank for me from 300 to 1200 percent on sales

25:06year over year during that time period i mean it increased sales that much and look these are

25:11driven entrepreneurs so they they're very smart and they're very passionate a few things on you

25:16know mistakes i've made or different ways to do things and to do it helped them out they think it's

25:21a you know they think it's a great partnership and they're all doing doing great yeah you know it's

25:25interesting the one uh the one pitch that you know they were asking for an equity investment

25:29and you said i'm not going to do that i'll give you a loan but i think you should hold on to your

25:33ownership of of your company and uh you know hopefully they're they're doing all right now but uh

25:38they're doing great they just didn't have a lot they didn't have a lot of value and equity at this

25:41point to do it so to make to make make sense financially i had to take the majority of their

25:46company i'm like you're not gonna come this you'd be basically working for me this is your dream but let's

25:50do a high interest rate that i did and but you can only pay you can just pay a little bit on

25:55interest and things like that so it'll be set up right and and they're doing great yeah it's just

25:59really interesting it was you know you you you can't become todd graves if you uh give up so

26:03much of your company right off the rip so it's just really interesting to see right so i tell them

26:08learn learn from me here you know the reason that i'm this great success is because i didn't let

26:13somebody else take control of this thing exactly i was able to talk to him about franchising i'm like i can

26:17tell that you're such a passionate detail oriented you know founder of your business let me tell you

26:22why i don't think you should franchise and you should open company models and it better if you

26:26know what you're getting into you are going to lose some of the quality and the control and things like

26:30that so that's that's fun it's paying it forward uh entrepreneurs just since i've been around the

26:34block a little bit yeah yeah how's the tenders they're uh as good here as anywhere that's for sure

26:44and you're not a slaw guy huh i'm not either

26:49that's why at canes you can trade out your slaw yeah for extra fries that is so interesting

26:53extra toast or sauce you put four things on the menu and one of them you don't really care for

26:56i don't care for that's pretty funny coleslaw people say it's good i'm like no slaw is really good to me

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