- 7 weeks ago
Nick Kenner, Founder and CEO of Just Salad, is reshaping fast casual dining with a focus on sustainability and smart growth. His mission-driven approach has taken the brand from one Manhattan shop to more than 100 locations nationwide.
Watch now to learn about scaling Just Salad from one small Manhattan shop to 100 locations, the lessons behind sustainable operations, and what it takes to build a brand with purpose.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about scaling Just Salad from one small Manhattan shop to 100 locations, the lessons behind sustainable operations, and what it takes to build a brand with purpose.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00We don't have food background. How hard could it be?
00:06Harder than anything you've ever done.
00:08Right.
00:16Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walsh.
00:20This is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new
00:25creator economy. We learn through lessons and stories. I want to give a special shout out to
00:30Toast, our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants in San Diego for believing
00:35in this show. We've been doing this show since 2022. Our goal is to have the greatest storytellers
00:42on to this show so that they can share what they're building, how they're building,
00:47and how it's impacting the communities. I have Nick Kenner. He is the founder, CEO of Just Salad.
00:54You can find them at Just Salad, over 100 locations on the East Coast. He recently raised
01:00$200 million for a billion-dollar valuation. Nick, welcome to the show.
01:06Thanks for having me.
01:07Where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:13That's easy for me. MSG.
01:15MSG.
01:15Madison Square Garden. Yeah. And since the Knicks are playing game two tonight, go Knicks.
01:20Fantastic. All right. We're going to go to MSG. We'll talk to Entrepreneur Toast.
01:24We'll get some other brand partners involved. But we're going to put on a TEDx-style restaurant
01:30conference. Not your typical conference. No panels. Just you. Just the mic at MSG. Full
01:38restaurant owners, leaders in there, fired up to hear the Just Salad story. And I'm going to give
01:44you the mic and say, Nick, tell us how to raise $200 million for Just Salad.
01:49Okay. Well, it takes 18 years and you better have a lot of EBITDA. But yeah, no, I would say everyone
02:01grab a drink and just lock into what you're doing because it's a roller coaster. You have
02:11to have a lot of grit. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs. But ultimately, if you want to raise
02:16$200 million and get a large valuation, it always comes down to profitability. And I will say brand and
02:26white space. Those seem to be the three big things that investors are really focused on. How profitable
02:33is your model? How much are you putting into the bottom line? What's your white space? How many of these can you
02:39truly build? And how good is your brand? Do people truly love your product or depend on it?
02:49Can you bring us back to the beginning of Just Salad?
02:51Yeah. So a little about me. I grew up in New York City. I went to Colgate University. I graduated
03:01in 2003. Always thought I wanted to be in finance. I didn't really have that entrepreneurial kick that
03:09some other people did coming out of college. I thought I wanted this stable career in finance
03:18where I could do well financially enough to support a family that I kind of knew in the back of my head
03:25I wanted to have one day. And I found out pretty early on that I just, I kind of settled in after
03:36a year and I couldn't imagine myself doing this the rest of my life. Not that I hated it. I didn't.
03:41There were aspects I really liked. There was just something inside of me that really wanted
03:47honestly an adventure. I didn't want my whole life to kind of go by and never have tried to do
03:55something different, to try and do something special. So that started to kind of tick into my head
04:02about a year, year and a half into doing my job. And I started thinking about different ideas. Well,
04:10what can I do? Right. I mean, everyone, sure. It's great. Have a great idea. Sure. What is that
04:14actual idea? And there were different ideas that I tossed around with my roommate and best friend at
04:22the time, who was my eventual co-founder and talked about rental storage facilities in college towns
04:29because we just come from college towns and all these other things that we couldn't raise. I mean,
04:34these were million dollar, uh, capital raising ideas. And at that time we didn't have that ability
04:40to raise that type of, um, capital. So eventually I came home one night after ordering lunch for an
04:50entire trading fork, cause I was a junior, um, associate. We all took turns, uh, ordering salad for
04:57everyone. It was my day. And I was amazed that everyone wanted a salad, right? It didn't matter,
05:03um, age, race, CEO, or admin. Everyone wanted a salad. And this was 2004, 2005, where everyone,
05:16I thought everyone had sandwiches for lunch, right? That's what America had for lunch at that time.
05:22That was the default lunch item. So an epiphany was like, wow, someone just did salad and did it
05:30really well. Uh, there might be an opportunity. And I, I said that to my roommate that night and I said,
05:37what, what are you guys at your firm ordering for lunch salad? And this was, um, you know,
05:44there were no dedicated salad places in Midtown, New York. And so, um, you know, that was the kind
05:52of start of, of a, of an adventure and journey. And where, how did it get from the idea to the
06:00actual day one opening up? Yeah. So, uh, started to write the business plan when I was at work
06:06and had the business plan, which by the way, obviously when I went into the garbage, like the
06:12second we opened the doors. Um, and the point of the business plan was to convince myself and my
06:21business partner, this was a good idea, had the business plan, went out to people we worked with,
06:27um, each of our fathers, family, anyone who would listen to try and get 25 to $50,000 checks.
06:34And we realized we had to raise about half a million dollars to get the first restaurant open.
06:40Now it'd probably be double, right? But this was back in, Oh, um, Oh five. We get,
06:48you know, basically, um, 20 people doing $25,000 checks. Uh, and we, we get enough money and then
07:01it's becomes pure entrepreneurship. It's like, well, we don't have food background. How hard could
07:07it be? Um, um, let's go anything you've ever done. Right. Yeah. Pretty, pretty much. Um,
07:16and it was like, let's find, um, you know, uh, chef and nutritionist. And we found, um, uh, a woman
07:24named chef Laura Pensiero to work with in the beginning. Um, let's find, uh, who does Chipotle
07:33and Jamba juices architecture in New York city, Google, let's find that talk to them. No AI back
07:40then. No, right. Exactly. And then it was like contractor, like who's doing McDonald's general
07:47contracting work in New York city. So it was really just, uh, being extremely resourceful
07:53and entrepreneurial in getting it off the ground. And, um, I think our story is pretty unique in
08:00that when we open the doors, it's a very rare problem is like we had the line out the door
08:06from day one. And it was people just reacting. We, our product was crap in my opinion, day
08:13one, like we were not executing well, our operations were, were pretty poor, but we had a nice logo
08:22at the time and we had just salad and that's what, um, that's what people wanted. Um, and so
08:31our, our, our issues, we were very focused the first couple of years on learning how to operate
08:37and execute, um, versus brand and marketing. Bring me back to the brand and marketing, obviously
08:43just salad makes sense now. Yeah. Then, were there any other ideations of logo brand name?
08:53Um, on that business plan, on that business plan, was it just salad or was that, was that what you're
08:58getting the checks for? Yeah. So in the beginning it was just salad and we didn't mess with the name.
09:04Ironically today, uh, we serve a lot more than just salad. And so we, every few years we talk about,
09:13should we change our name even now? Um, like an ampersand just salad. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Uh, exactly.
09:21Um, I mean, ultimately we come out every time it's like it, it, it, listen, I'm the first to admit
09:28it. It's kind of weird to have a company called just salad that is serving wraps, smoothies, warm
09:36bowls. And now we just introduced a couple of weeks ago, market plates, which has, um, become a
09:41significant part of our, um, our menu mix. But the, at the end of the day, what just salad has come to
09:48stand for people is, um, healthy, fast, affordable, delicious. That's what people like associate.
09:56They can depend on health, healthy food that tastes great. And so we haven't messed with that. Um,
10:05but we, we have gone back to the name every few years. Um, but so, so that didn't change. The logos
10:11changed, um, a bunch as well as the, um, the colors we went from like that orange green, um,
10:19kind of denoted health in, in the mid two thousands. Um, and now it's a Navy blue, um,
10:27you know, like this. Um, so, but yeah, everything's always evolving, you know, as you know, Sean,
10:34did you know that toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada
10:40and UK? It's an incredible company. I'm on the toast customer advisory board. They are proud
10:46sponsors of this show restaurant influencers. We couldn't do it without their support. They power
10:50our barbecue restaurants in San Diego. If you have questions about toast, if you're thinking about
10:56bringing toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
11:01I'm happy to get a local toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean
11:07P. Welch on Instagram. Once again, thank you to toast for believing in the power of technology,
11:12the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality back to the show. Do you remember in the beginning
11:19that first store location, would you attribute those lines to the demand that people wanted healthy
11:25options to the location? Did you do any PR, any marketing beforehand? How did you get those?
11:30No PR and marketing. It was a great location. I say it was because we just changed it this past
11:39summer. We moved it to a block away. The reason is no restaurant owner in their right mind was
11:48looking at this location. This was a 900 square foot former shoe store on 51st between Mark Park and
11:58Madison, 320 Park Avenue. Opening that location, we were the customer, right? Because we were in those
12:09office buildings looking for what we were doing. We knew the exact right location and it was a great
12:16location. It was just the location and the advertising was our awning. The name was very
12:22descriptive. So everyone knew what we were doing. We've now moved it to between 49th and 50th on Park
12:32Avenue, twice the size. And everyone's like, oh, aren't you sad? I'm like, no, I just erased all my
12:40mistakes that I did when I was 25 years old and didn't know what I was doing. And now I can walk into
12:46this store at 300 Park Avenue and feel really proud of what we're doing. You said that no restaurant
12:53owner in their right mind would pick that location. Have you met any restaurant owner that is in their
12:58right mind?
13:00Aren't we all?
13:01Yeah. No, I'm trying to. Yeah. It's a self-selecting group, I guess.
13:08It is. In those early days, can you share a story potentially about how difficult it was?
13:15Like when you realized like this is way harder than finance?
13:20Yeah. I honestly, I had like, I could break down crying if I really went into like how hard it was,
13:26but, um, cause it really does catch you off guard. Like you're just like, wow, there are so,
13:32I think the thing that I realized very early on is I was just like, wow, there are so many moving
13:39parts to a restaurant. You know, it's like, I thought you could just focus on this or that.
13:45And it became, um, you know, pretty overwhelming. So I was doing the bookkeeping myself at night and,
13:54um, I was there, I was working from, you know, probably seven 38 in the morning until like 10
14:02every, every day. And, um, just, you know, dying in quicksand is what, is what it felt. And so
14:12I think one moment that was pretty critical is three months in, I said, I can't do this and
14:19survive as like a human being. Um, but I need to keep this restaurant going. And it was like,
14:26I'm going to hire a bookkeeper right now. Yeah. And we hired a bookkeeper, God bless her. Su Ling Zen.
14:32Um, she was, uh, you know, came in and, um, just really helped with the backend, right? That was our
14:42CFO at the time. And that was the, that was a critical decision because that was the first step
14:50in becoming a chain is trying to put someone else into, uh, some admin role. So I could step back a
14:59little bit and have a little bit more time, um, and a little bit more clarity to, to, to improve
15:05the concept and see what's next. When you go back, when did you really start scaling at what store
15:12number? When you, by the way, Sean, the other thing that was really early on was we had a line
15:16out the door and we were losing money. That was also like really tough to understand. Like, how do
15:24we, how do we have a line down the block and how are we losing money month after month? Yeah. Was it a
15:31labor or food cost or both? It was both. Oh yeah. It was both labor. It was everything but rent.
15:38Yeah. Everything but rent. Um, yeah. Thinking about the scaling side, do you, do you remember
15:45like at what location number? Like, have you, I mean, obviously we're always figuring it out even
15:52now to this day, we're figuring it out. And as you scale, but was it like from store three to four
15:57or was it from seven to eight? Like at what point where, or was it a human thing where you actually,
16:02you know, to your point of a bookkeeper, once you start bringing in talented people that can solve
16:07problems, um, it helps you scale the company. Yeah. There were, there'd been different phases. So like,
16:13uh, the first three stores came relatively quick and those were done with no corporate infrastructure
16:21other than, um, a bookkeeper and accountant. And then, um, we kind of muscled it from store four to 12
16:31with very select tires, you know, call it like a handful. We got to 12 and, um, that was a
16:43really tough stage to go from that 10, 12 to like 40. Every store we'd open, we needed more in head
16:52count corporate to, um, to make it all work. And so we started building out our corporate infrastructure,
17:00um, at that time. And that was, look, that's really tough also for an entrepreneur. Cause
17:05that's a new journey for me, right. It's like, how do I hire and manage white collar labor,
17:11um, in an effective way. And so that was, um, a journey and, you know, I, I wasn't, um, a good
17:20manager in the beginning and I was learning as a 20 year old with not a lot of experience in, um,
17:27but like anything you do, you just have to kind of learn, grow and get better. And so,
17:32but that was a tough face 10 to 40. You're just not as profitable as you want to be. Um, but then,
17:39you know, around that is an inflection point. And I always say like, I think, um, it takes anywhere
17:46from eight to 12 million bucks to put in a corporate GNA that you can build a base on. And we were always
17:54profitable. So we were always building as the, as the stores, um, open, but you really didn't see
18:00any of that profit in a real way until you get to like 50. And then all of a sudden you're opening
18:05restaurants and you're not really hiring that much more on the corporate side. And all of these
18:12corporate owned, or do you have a franchise? We're 99% corporate owned. Wow. Amazing. That's
18:20incredible. Um, looking to the future. I know you just opened up your first drive-thru location.
18:26Um, can you share that? Congratulations. That's a big, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. Can
18:31you tell me about site selection? What went into this? Is this a, is this a pivot? Are most stores
18:36going to have a drive-thru? I mean, at least the stores that it makes sense for drive-thru. I'm
18:42guessing, I'm guessing your drive-thru location isn't in New York city. No, that would be some real
18:47estate play. Uh, uh, yeah, we took out the gas station on 96th street and put in a drive-thru.
18:53Um, good news is it does 20 million a year in sales. Bad news is we're still unprofitable. Um,
19:01no, yeah, it, it, um, we've, we've last two or three years, we, we realized we wanted to have a
19:09full drive-thru, not pickup lanes, but a full drive-thru where you can point and shoot at the order
19:16uh, ordering a station. And, um, in an, if we're going to disrupt fast food in a real way,
19:24and our mission is to make everyday health and sustainability possible. If you're going to do
19:28that on an everyday basis, you, you've got to do drive-thru and you've got to do it well. You've
19:33got to do it fast and under three minutes. And you have to, um, you have to make it convenient and
19:38easy, but you also have to respect the brand and the product. Um, so luckily we, on the corporate
19:45side, we have a lot of employees who've worked at places like, uh, Panda Express or Panera. And so
19:51there was a lot of help, um, of past experience. Um, and we found one in Livingston, New Jersey.
20:00Um, it was actually a developer who owned the center, who had a pad, who wanted to put something
20:06in unique. Um, and so the stars aligned, um, it's opened, it's done very well. Um, we're serving,
20:14um, salads, wraps, warm bowls, uh, in about three minutes, uh, time. And, um, it's been, we're,
20:23we're executing and operating it. Um, well, so we're definitely looking for more drive-thru locations.
20:30It's probably one of the hardest pieces of real estate to find in this country. Um, drive-thrus
20:36are highly, uh, competitive and a lot of the bigger chains, um, you know, honestly are often,
20:43um, either outbidding us or they're just getting the look before we even see it. So, uh, the truth
20:50is, uh, we'll sign them when possible. Um, I think it'll be part of our strategy going forward,
20:58but, um, you know, a, a small to medium part of it. How important is storytelling to you?
21:08Um, not very important. Yeah, no, I'm being like, I'm old school. I really appreciate that. I, I, I,
21:16um, I really am old school. I'm very passionate about the product and the experience that the
21:27customer has. So a lot of people look at your salad or like, look at me and they're like, yo,
21:33your mission is to make everyday health and sustainability possible. There's going to be,
21:37um, a lot of, um, fluff or BS that goes into that. There's not like that is genuinely our mission.
21:46And we are just very diligent, not about telling that story, but about, um, making sure that when
21:54everyone has their lunch that they have, they love it, that they can tell the flavor profiles,
22:01what they want. The freshness is great. Uh, the value is great. Um, the product is great. And
22:08the connection with our, like, we're very passionate about hospitality, you know? And so, um, we're pretty,
22:16we're pretty focused on the X's and O's and the fundamentals. And we feel like if we do that,
22:22right, um, great, great brands that do that trader Joe's, Ikea, um, the product and experience tells
22:33the story for them. I love that. Um, that's a great answer. When you think about marketing,
22:40given how long you guys have been doing this, how has marketing evolved, um, for the brand?
22:48Yeah. So we started before social media, right? So, yeah. So like, I mean, um,
22:56it was, it, maybe that's why I have the perspective I do because when I started, it was all about, um,
23:03product and, and price point that shifted like within a couple of years after we, um, opened.
23:09So I think obviously, um, from a social media perspective, it's, it's, you know, that's become,
23:19um, way more important for brands, but, um, I hate to bring up traders. Those again,
23:25they don't even have a social media account. Right. So yeah. Wow. That's incredible. So,
23:30I mean, you don't, um, you don't really need to be, I think you just need to make sure
23:39the customers are happy and that you're in a place where, um, you have a product that people
23:45want. Um, so I think storytelling has become more important, but it's not the most important
23:52thing in my opinion. That's great. Well, you're, you're focused on the product. You're focused on
23:57the experience that, that becomes the story. You let, you let, you let other people that are your
24:02customers sing your praises. Yeah. Yeah. And look, we mess up like everyone else, but that is,
24:08that is, that is our, what we're passionate about is we, we have something, um, called the three C's
24:13in operations and it's about, uh, culture, um, creating a great culture within the restaurant,
24:21a culture of opportunity, a culture of positivity, connection, connecting with the customer,
24:26every guest that comes through. Our goal is to connect with that guest at that point, um, and
24:33just be really present and lock in. And then it's, um, uh, culture, uh, connection and consistency,
24:39right? So culture and connection don't matter if you don't have a consistently great product.
24:48Yep. So true. Um, leadership, you just recently hired some big leaders, chief marketing officer,
24:58CXO, CDO, um, lots of letters. What are you looking for when you're hiring?
25:05Um, it's a great question. Um, we like to hire leaders that want to get their hands dirty,
25:16that aren't coming on to bring on a bunch of team members to do the work for themselves. Um,
25:23but ones that actually want to do work, which I know it sounds crazy, but that is really important
25:29to vet out through, um, the interview, um, process. And we, we want people that can add value. So
25:36we really like to hire from within, um, and promote from within. But when we find truly, um,
25:45talented individuals with great experience, so you mentioned CXO and CDO, our CXO came from Kava.
25:53He, uh, was instrumental in helping them with their loyalty program and third-party, um, marketing.
26:01Those are just things we don't have within. So we've got to look without. Let's find, if we're
26:08going to go and look without, let's find someone who's done it, proven it. Um, they don't need to
26:13have been the leader, but they have to have been a major part of it, um, and bring that person in.
26:18And so, uh, and then let them, let them go. Don't, don't micromanage them. Um, but understand
26:30intricately what they're doing, which there's a fine line between the two that I'm, I'm told I don't
26:36always walk it well. Uh, can you share a story about sustainability? Why is it so mission critical
26:43to just Alan? Yeah. I mean, uh, we started day one, um, with our reusable bowl program. So I, I think
26:54I've always had an aversion to, um, waste and whether that was environmental or financial,
27:03I always just bothered me. I can't explain why, but like, uh, still to this day as a, you know,
27:10as a family, I have three kids and it's like, um, we'll throw out food and it just, it's like,
27:18ah, it expired. And all I can think about is I would actually pay the money for it of not to expired
27:26because I just, I don't know why, but I just think of like, God, the farmer that put in the energy,
27:32the gas that took the truck to the grocery store to then us taking the cab to get it. And all the
27:40resources that go into everything that we do, um, is, is really always top of mind for me. And
27:47there's a real, um, guilt, an environmental tax that I feel when I waste as a person or as a company.
27:58And so, um, when we were testing, um, for just salad, before we open everything, we're in these
28:08plastic clamshells, uh, to serve salads in. And we were just throwing them out left and right because
28:14we were testing different products. And it made me sick to look at the garbage at the end of the day
28:20and see all the plastic crap that was in there. And so that was the impetus of like, wow, we could
28:26create, um, these were the original here. Like we could create the just salad reusable ball and we
28:37could incentivize, um, the customer to bring it back. And we could give them a free topping like
28:45avocado to incentivize them. Um, and so that became a big part of, of who we were. And then,
28:54um, you know, years in, we would become even better, uh, at sustainability and first to carbon label,
29:02uh, virtually eliminated all plastic from our, uh, supply chain and, um, you know, continue every day
29:10from a supply chain perspective, especially of how we can, um, be better from a sustainability
29:16perspective. And the last thing that's annoying, by the way, if anyone's listening, the gloves,
29:22right. We have to, from a health department perspective, wear these plastic gloves. We
29:26throw out a tremendous amount of gloves. And that's a, that's one where I, I really hope there's
29:32some entrepreneur out there that can, um, solve for that with the material that's either biodegradable
29:37or like truly, uh, compostable or maybe not plastic at all. That's a great point. Yeah.
29:43Speaking of let's real quickly go into, to your supply chain and how you, how you choose your
29:48vendor partners or from early days to where you are now, what, what are you looking for
29:53in those partnerships? Um, early days was a lot of like whatever we could get into the store.
30:04Like there wasn't as much thought. It was like, uh, our distributor had these people, let's use
30:09whatever tastes great. I would say the filter now for us is number one, I don't care whether it's,
30:17you know, we're based in the Northeast 25 in Florida, six in Chicago. You're in San Diego,
30:25right? So like, I don't, I, the first thing is it's got to taste great, right? So we're not going
30:31to source romaine from New Jersey if it's not as good as the romaine from Salinas, California,
30:38because product still is number one. And by the way, um, without getting into details,
30:46a lot of the shipping is more efficient, uh, from an energy perspective that's coming from some of
30:53these larger farms in, uh, California and Arizona. So there becomes sometimes a, a, a local element
31:01that's more about supporting the economy than actually reducing carbon. Um, the second thing is
31:07if we can find a great tasting product that is local, then we're, that is always ties going to go
31:13to the runner. Ties going to go to the local, um, provider. And so when we're introducing like
31:19market plates, um, we found, um, a Basmati rice vendor from India and a Basmati rice vendor, uh,
31:29from Oregon, both were great. We went with the one from Oregon because they also have a regenerative
31:37ag, uh, uh, agricultural program that was really important to us. But, uh, that's kind of just a
31:43sliver of how we think about supply chain from a sustainability perspective and in general.
31:47That's awesome. Uh, if you guys are listening to this, we also have a restaurant technology
31:52sub stack newsletter that we recently launched. So please subscribe to that. You can shoot me a
31:57message at Sean P. Welcher on Instagram, and I can send you a link, uh, Nick, before I let you go,
32:02I need to ask you about your personal tech stack. So are you Android or iPhone? iPhone. What version?
32:09Uh, why I actually just got, I'm just upgrading from the 14 to the 16 today. There it is. What,
32:17why do you upgrade? What, what are your requirements for upgrading? When I just,
32:21I kind of just do it every, every two or three years, every two or three years. And which, uh,
32:25which provider do you use in terms of like cell phone provider or Verizon, Verizon,
32:31always Verizon, or do you ever switch? I've always used Verizon. Okay. Fair enough. Uh,
32:37do you prefer phone calls or text messages? I hate phone calls. Yeah.
32:41Uh, I prefer, I prefer emails actually. Um, you prefer emails. I prefer not to be contacted all if
32:50I'm being honest, but yeah, no, I, I, I like text over phone. Fair enough. Uh, so I'm guessing you
32:57don't leave voicemails. I don't leave voicemails and you don't listen to voicemails. No, I actually
33:03thank goodness for the, uh, you can just read. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Me too. Uh, how many emails do you get a
33:09day? That's a great question. I've actually asked Google this. How come you, there should be an email
33:15counter. So we use a Google enterprise. I have no idea is the answer, but it's, it's a, it's an
33:21insane amount. How many, how many of those emails do you enjoy reading per day? Um, my favorite is
33:29when sales are up year over year, those are, those are my, or, or new restaurant openings are doing well.
33:35Those are my favorite, uh, emails. Uh, I did get an email actually that really warmed my heart
33:41yesterday from a mother who asked me as a favor. Um, if I could email her son, congratulations on his,
33:49uh, graduation from high school on June 10th, because he's growing up eating just salad changed
33:57his life and he's a huge fan. And that was like, uh, that was, that was my favorite email of the week
34:02for sure. That's really cool. Um, do you, do you do Apple maps or Google maps, Google maps,
34:07Google maps? How do you, how do you listen to music? Um, on my, I'm still on iTunes. It's
34:14embarrassing. It's embarrassing. What's your, uh, what is your most embarrassing app that you use?
34:20If we looked at your, uh, not, not answering, not answering. You get most, you get more work done
34:29on your phone, your laptop or a desktop. Um, it depends for desktop for the most part, to be honest,
34:38desktop to be honest. Yeah. I mean, I still do a lot on phone, but if I'm in front of a desktop,
34:42I'm jamming and it's, it's usually my most productive. Any apps that you use that you can
34:49share that is like a productivity app, something that. No, I'm kidding. I don't really have, uh,
34:55any, any, any apps that I can share besides the just salad app that I'm looking at that from
35:01productivity perspective. Yeah. I mean, all these AI apps are, how do you, how do you use AI? How'd
35:07you use AI today? Search, um, essentially asking for, uh, an answer to some question. So for example,
35:19um, how many Chipotle's are there in the state of Florida? I'm trying to get a sense of what,
35:26what is possible with scale there. Got it. Um, I will ask chat GPT over Google now.
35:32Yeah, me too. Yeah. Well, Nick, I really appreciate you taking the time. Uh, what's the best place for
35:38people to connect with just salad. We'll put all the links in, but, uh, you let us know where,
35:43where we can learn more. Yeah. Um, and I mean, comments at just salad.com always, uh, appreciate
35:50it. And, um, yeah, I really appreciate the, uh, the time, Sean. Thank you. Look forward to coming
35:55out and visiting, uh, just solid next time I'm in the city. We'll get to you. Hopefully someone,
36:00we will, we will love to be at a grand opening in San Diego. You let us know when that happens.
36:05Awesome. We appreciate you guys for listening. Thank you. Stay curious,
36:08get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
36:13Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you've made it this long,
36:17you are part of the community. You're part of the tribe. We can't do this alone. We started,
36:21no one was listening. Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
36:27Please check out our new series called restaurant technology, sub stack. It's a sub stack newsletter.
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36:43out a lot of new original content. Hopefully you guys like that content. If you want to work with
36:47us, go to eat the show.media. We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
36:53We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling. You can reach out
36:57to me anytime at Sean P. Wellchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available. Stay curious, get involved.
37:03Don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
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