In partnership with
Friends of Branded:
Happy Saturday and I hope you had a great week.
This week the Branded Team was down in Atlanta for WTWH Media’s QSR Evolution conference.
Did I have some FOMO sitting this one out? Absolutely. As someone who believes in Woody Allen’s “80% of success is just showing up” philosophy, the LinkedIn posts and photos from the event—which Branded proudly hosted with partners Ayden, Amazon Business, DoorDash and Olo—only fed the FOMO beast. But I skipped for a good reason: an incredible dinner hosted by Mr. Jeff Millard with a meal prepared by my new favorite Second City chef, Charles Webb. Good people, good food and great conversations. This is why showing up matters!
At dinner, someone quickly reminded me that restaurants are a sexy business and then followed with the punchline: “we don’t like sexy businesses, we like boring businesses.” (Shout-out to Team Phit Well for the boxing references!)
This got me fired up. You want boring? Let me tell you how boring restaurants can be—in the best way. “Boring is beautiful” is a disciplined investment thesis, and when you look closely, this “boring” industry is actually one of the most exciting, full of incredible people delivering experiences that matter.
Let’s go!
