LIVE from sold-out Boston… we sat down with 2 of the 3 co-founders of Sweetgreen.
In this sitdown, Jon & Nic explain how 2 years after college, they booked The Strokes for a salad music festival, eventually landing Kendrick Lamar (for salads!).
Sure, Sweetgreen stock is down 80% from its post-IPO all-time highs, but they’ve bet a comeback on a $12 custom-wrap tortilla that took a full year to build. And they’ve figured out how to keep employees longer by hiring robots (the “Infinite Kitchen”).
Jon & Nick reveal the ROI on the wraps, why the $20 salad rep is undeserved, and how the founders rank taste/health/sustainability as marketing tactics. Want to know the 1 trait they look for in a job interview? The CEO and CCO of Sweetgreen told us
Plus, if you think “Slop Bowls” is an offensive term (which we do), we actually rebranded it in real-time on-stage with both of them #BonusBowls #FreshCasual.
But most of all, we just had fun catching up with 2 of the Caesars of Salads who turned kale from a Pizza Hut decoration into an economic force — And from the audience cheers, you know the hummus-headed Yetis did too.
CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro (Live from Boston): Sweetgreen Founders Jonathan Neman & Nicolas Jammet
2:04 - How Sweetgreen’s Founders Met at Georgetown and Why They Opened a Salad Shop
4:42 - Sweetgreen Opened on the Wrong Side of the Street, Then Booked The Strokes for 20,000 Fans
8:52 - Sweetgreen’s Best-Selling Menu Item: How the Company Ranks Its Bowls
10:14 - Sweetgreen Wraps: Gen Z Growth, $11 Price and the Custom Tortilla
15:09 - Sweetgreen Infinite Kitchen: How Its Salad-Making Machine Changed Employee Turnover
19:31 - Sweetgreen Stock Down 80% From All-Time High: CEO Responds
21:51 - Is Sweetgreen Too Expensive? The $20 Salad Debate, Prices and Protein Portions
24:08 - Sweetgreen Marketing: Taste vs. Health vs. Sustainability
26:45 - Sweetgreen Limited-Time Offers and Collabs: Dan Barber’s Squash, Naomi Osaka, Kendrick Lamar
29:36 - Sweetgreen vs. Chipotle: 300 Stores vs. 4,000 and Why No Brand Tie-Ups
30:19 - What Sweetgreen’s Founders Look For When Hiring
32:05 - Slop Bowl Debate: Sweetgreen Wants a Rebrand
33:35 - Rapid Fire: Best Brand, Business Book and Sweetgreen’s Stock Ticker
34:42 - Takeaways
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About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.
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