YouSaid · the spoken record

Jonathan Neman

lines on the record: 85
first: 2018-12-17
most recent: 2018-12-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, so there's definitely things we do nationally. So we have a lot of goals. Yeah, yeah. So bulls, olive oil, you know, organic olive oil, organic wild rice. There's definitely things that come nationally. And for us, it's all about transparency. It's about actually knowing transparency and traceability, knowing where all our food comes from at any given moment, which is very unique. So to know in this store, in this bowl, our lettuce came from here. And being able to share that with you Is very unique. Most restaurants have about 20% traceability into where their food comes from. We're approaching 100% traceability to where all of our food comes from.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which now is created all these other issues. We're trying to unwind that and remind people that you should eat with the seasons and you should eat what is available because that is one more delicious. It's better than for the environment and it's better for you.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's how a high-end chef would build their menu? Sure. And that means our food will be different in different parts of the country, in different parts of the world eventually, and we'll be different at different times of the year. We celebrate that. We celebrate the fact that more.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the thing is, you don't know what you're getting then. So, for us, we get to know the farmer, and it really starts with the soil, because that's where the taste and the nutrition comes from. From there, we establish relationships with them and we actually build our menus based off of the supply.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not everything locally, but we have a local supply chain set up in every city that we're in. So we think about our company almost market by market. We work with a combination of small, medium, and large farmers. And large portion of what we do is organic, and then the rest is pretty much the rest of that is local. For us, it's less about these monikers of what that is, but it is about the soil. So unlike most restaurants, we don't buy food directly from a distributor. We go straight to our growers. We get to know the growers themselves.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you were thinking of entrepreneurialism when you're a younger person, most of the people moved to California, essentially. Most of most entrepreneurial efforts have gone on there. And your competitor, you have one competitor that's pretty big in salads, right? Or one or two? You have a couple in the area. How do you differentiate between you and them? Because they pop up in most things pop up first in San Francisco. You see them come and go and various things. How do you think about yourself with competitors or don't you look at it that way?”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're a food company first. You can have the best tech, the best process. It doesn't matter. If the food is not delicious, like you say content is king. The user experience can be beautiful if the food is not delicious and food is emotional. If it doesn't taste good and you don't have that trust, nothing matters. So our team is built. So, you can't have one without the other. Everyone before us, it's either you are a great restaurant that was not scalable, delicious food, but no process Or you had all the process, but no culinary credibility. So you need to merge the two.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so when you're putting these prices in place, there's been a bunch of restaurants that have tried to do this, like Aid Cent, San Francisco. There's been a bunch of others haven't worked as well, which is, you know, the idea of putting products in place makes sense because McDonald's did it. I mean, they just did.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it takes our experience and makes it very customizable. And our vision for it is to make a personalized food experience. So your menu should be different than someone else's menu based off of your taste and your nutrition, what you like and what makes you feel good.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're prepped just before, and then so when an order comes in, it takes us just seconds to put it together. Today we have about 120 ingredients, which means we can make combinations two to the 120th combinations with those ingredients”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For the consumer. And then the cool thing about what we do is because our food is made, it's essentially made mesum plus. So what that means is we make the food is prepped and then it's assembled in a customizable way.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Delivery versus in store, then it tells you how much essentially we have an app for our oven. In our cold prep that says whoever's running that here is exactly what you need to make when. So it's red. You have just enough food ready to be then made.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Base and how do you design a physical space for something that can be executed? In a consistent and scalable way, but also what's the What I say the Uber turn by turn instructions So, when you're working in a kitchen, how do you make it easier to not mess things up? And so you can focus on the consumer experience and not, okay, what needs to go in this bowl? How much chicken do I need to make? You know, how much kale do I need to chop? What are my sales going to be today? How do I order? How much food to order? So you think about an OS that tells a head coach or GM, here's what your sales are going to be for the day based off of weather events, your recent trends, et cetera. Based off that, here's what it is spread out through the day by hour and the product mix that's going to be there by channel for.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's not distributed. But what's allowed us to do that is getting really just being intentional and thoughtful about the process. So we built something that we call Squeaker and OS inside of the kitchen.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, what we've spent a lot of time thinking about is how do we redesign the operating environment to also be scalable? So, how do we think about the processes within the kitchen? How do we build technology that makes it easier for our store teams to execute real food from scratch? One thing about SweetGreen is. Not only do we have local supply chain, we make all our food from scratch in every location every single day.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Complexity. So there's definitely a lot of complexity in terms of the operation and people matter, right? People in the service matters. The thing about, you know, I use the media example where we create hits and then we have a platform where we distribute it. Which”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No one really doing it. And I think at different stages of the business, we've looked at different people. So Starbucks being, you know, we've looked at Starbucks in the early days. We definitely looked to Whole Foods in terms of the food ethos that they had, looked at a brand like Patagonia and their commitment to sustainability, but also looked at companies like San Cliche, but like Apple.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For any kind of real food. And they've done it in a different era, so their innovation was really on format in terms of store format, whether it's all different shapes of sizes of that Starbuck exist, whether it's in hospitals or airports or universities and your office, et cetera. Whether it's Via or the pods, how do we do that for real food?”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Digitally, so applying all those digital platforms. So we'll get to that in the next. But restaurants are notoriously hard for margins and very tight margins. It's not a business that has attracted venture money because of that, because it's not something that's scalable would be the right word. But you think it is.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But really, this food ecosystem. So restaurants of all different shapes and sizes. We have delivery on demand or sweet green outposts, which is the kind of like a batch delivery service. And then being able to order in many, many different ways, whether it's voice ordering, text ordering, Slack ordering. We want to take these trends. You've seen in e-commerce and apply to food, which is so huge. Food is one and a half trillion dollars.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Restaurant itself, you own your platform, you go direct to consumer. The world is now shifting where there's some sort of digital disintermediation of the customer. In the media world, you had networks and distributors that took the content and distributed it. In our world, you now have these platforms, the Uber Eats of the world. Our goal is to be a content creator and a food platform. So a full vertically integrated food system from supply chain, production, content creation, and ordering, which is the platform. And I think that's what's interesting in terms of how we're positioning the restaurant is having that direct relationship with our customers so we can better understand them, better understand their taste profile, their nutrition profile, how they live their life, and then be able to create different kinds of food for them and also meet them wherever they are. So over time, we see us not as a restaurant company.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To hear this food platform. So, the way to think about it is restaurants were content creators. So think about it in the media world. Oh, all right. Whereas a restaurant creates content. So our salads are hits, our series. Most restaurants, if you're just have your...”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We had now had 20 restaurants in DC. She was eating it. And one of Steve's associates or one of the partners at the firm, his name's Evan Morgan. Became a good friend and it was helping us with the business, helping us think about capital structure and things like that. And he then introduced it to Steve. To revolution. Yeah. And Steve actually was a personal investor.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Saw what we were doing and gave us angel investment checks. And so we did that for the first five years, raised about $10 million, got to about 25 restaurants, and had just started to expand outside of DC. We're in Boston, Philly, Boston, and New York at this point. And then Steve and Ted came in.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the first raised $300,000 from family and friends. And then it was the next five years was us building a network and asking for money and getting advice or asking for advice and getting money. But we raised about. Just over $10 million in the first five years.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We want to open a restaurant that was farm to table fast food. That was the pitch. It was these two things that shouldn't go together, which is very high quality food and a very quick casual environment.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About it, our book, yeah. way beyond salads so you started this thing and you dc is not the center for venture capital there is steve case and tableiances and i think that's it and a couple of guys that they work with and i say guys because they're all guys but there's not much venture going on in that part of the world”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and it was Sal was always and still is just kind of the first act of, and where we chose Salad's because it's a great way to focus on vegetables, which focuses on the soil and really build that supply chain in that way and build our brand around real food. But the vision long term is to be way beyond salads Today, 35-40% of our menu is sold with warm bowls and a lot of hot food. Over time, salads will just be kind of how I think about it, our book. Our Amazon books, and we will expand way beyond salt.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there was going to be a McDonald's, not even Chipotle. Not even Chipotle. I love Chipot And there hadn't been that many salad oriented. You have a few competitors. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but there hadn't been very many salad oriented places.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was not McDonald's did not speak to us. Chipotle, these places did not make sense for us. And there was going to be a McDonald's. Not in Chipotle. Not even Chipotle. There was going to be a McDonald's of our generation. What Starbucks did for coffee? Sure. And we saw an opportunity to completely create a new type of food system and an iconic brand that spoke to this. And there hadn't been.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was on the MSB. Yeah, and we just wanted to, first of all, it was this friendship with my two partners, but also it was wanting to create something. All of our parents were first generation immigrants and entrepreneurs. And we always saw a world in which we wanted to create something that a business that had a big impact on the world. And being at this, you know, kind of, I'm 33 years old.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's really great. It's actually great. The idea was creating a restaurant or a place to eat that made you feel excited to eat it. While you were eating it, good right after and good many years after. And all restaurants before it really only solved half of the problem, right? Either excited to eat and delicious while you're eating it or made you feel good and were good for you long term, but no one had optimized across the four stages of food. And we wanted to create a place that made you, you know,”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. So, sweet green started 11 years ago. We were students at Georgetown senior year trying to figure out what we were going to do with our life. And had a simple problem, I had nowhere to eat. And saw the world in which food was either fast and cheap and really bad for you. Or it was delicious, slow, and good. And wanted to create”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it's actually Steve who was always saying I should talk to you, which was great, which I always wanted to. I'm very interested in how new companies are formed. And we've interviewed the people from Phil's. There's a bunch of companies, coffee companies mostly, actually, oddly enough, that have raised a lot of money from venture capitalists. But it's unusual for a restaurant type of chain to think. So first, why don't you take me through how you founded Sweet Green? And they're all over the place. You find them everywhere Talk to me a little bit about how you came to do that”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hi, I'm Kara Swisher, editor at large Abri Code. You may know me as the inventor of the Swisher diet. The only things you eat are salad and deep-fried marshmallows, but in my spare time I talk tech and you're listening to Reco Decode from the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today in the red chair is Jonathan Neeman, the co-founder of Sweet Green. It's a fast, casual restaurant that serves salads with 87 locations around the country. Unlike most salad restaurants, they raise tens of millions of dollars in venture capital from people like Steve Case, Jonathan Welcome to Rico Decode.”
2018-12-17 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Why salad chain Sweetgreen thinks like a tech company · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT