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Entrepreneur
29-07-2025
- Entrepreneur
Raising Cane's CEO Shares His Mindset for a Billion-Dollar Success
Todd Graves was turned down by every bank in town when he started. Here, he sits down to share his mentality on success, leadership and building a billion-dollar brand. This story appears in the July 2025 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe » When Raising Cane's opened a new restaurant in Miami, it hired local influencers to hype it up. That included two of the city's buzziest names — Hanna and Haley Cavinder, twins who rose to fame while playing basketball for the Miami Hurricanes, and cofounded the TWOgether fitness app and Hustle Beauty brand for athletes. Recently, we asked the twins what entrepreneur they'd most like to talk with. They circled right back to that chicken restaurant — and said they'd love to meet Raising Cane's billionaire founder, Todd Graves. They'd seen his business from the outside, but they wanted to understand it from the inside. And Graves, who believes that partnerships are the key to success, was eager to meet and learn from them too. So we brought the three of them together for a conversation. In turn, they drew up a game plan for growth — in business and in sports. This conversation was part of a new series we call The Playbook, produced in partnership with Sports Illustrated. We pair entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial athletes for career-spanning conversations. Here's an edited version of their conversation; you can watch the full video here. Related: 5 Work Ethic Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Elite Athletes Haley Cavinder: When you started Raising Cane's, did people understand what you wanted to build? Todd Graves: I got turned down by every bank in town, because it was a weird concept back then: Just chicken-finger meals. Other restaurants were adding more items to add more sales. The only model I could think of was In-N-Out Burger — which primarily sells hamburgers — but nobody in Louisiana, where I started, had heard of that. But I just believed in myself. I said, "If you can serve a 'craveable' meal consistently, over and over and over, it's going to be a success." So I knew I had to take it into my own hands. I worked in oil refineries, I worked as a boilermaker, I worked in commercial fishing in Alaska — all to make money for this business. The fishermen in Alaska could see me working so hard for this chicken-finger dream, and they'd tell me, "You're going to make it." That was my first encouraging group. Image Credit: Courtesy of Jeffrey A. Salter | Sports Illustrated Haley: Once you got going, what was the hardest part? Todd: When we started, we didn't really know what we were doing. We were open seven days a week — and we still are. But back then, the college students I hired wouldn't show up to work. So I'd call friends, call family: "I need you to come help me cover this shift." I didn't do much sleeping. We were open every night until 3:30 a.m. By the time we got out, it'd be 5:30, and then we had to be back opening at 8:30 every morning. Haley: Jeez. Todd: There is not a balance of life at a startup. You have to put 100% into it. It's why I started Cane's when I was y'all's age. I opened up at 24, and at that time I could devote everything. It was that drive, that passion. Look, I profited $30 my first month, and I was thrilled. Because it meant I could pay my people, I could pay my vendors, I could pay rent. That's when I knew this was going to be a success. The next hard phase was going from one restaurant to two. I didn't know how to build teams. I got as much advice as I could, but it was more about learning through trial and error. I burned through people. I felt bad about that, not knowing what I was doing. Then I learned to get the most out of people and be able to coach 'em and lead 'em to where they became managers. Now we have 75,000 crew members, and I have a platform to teach them. For most of them, Raising Cane's is their first job. So I tell them: "Work hard. Have fun. Let's deliver quality product. Let's earn our money." Related: Smart Entrepreneurs Don't Leap Without Looking — Here's How to Strategically Approach Starting a Business Haley: Darn, you make a good coach, too! Hanna Cavinder: You played football, correct? I feel like that started with the athlete mindset. Todd: A hundred percent. I learned leadership through sports. For example, when someone does something wrong in business, leaders might think, Oh, I'll talk to them about that in a couple days. But coaches don't do that! They course-correct right then. Haley: In the moment. Todd: And the culture is: Everybody's always trying to get better. Mistakes don't mean you're bad. We have a culture where it's okay to make mistakes — but we need to learn from 'em. How has playing basketball helped you with starting and growing your businesses? Hanna: We learned consistency and discipline. You have to show up every single day, regardless of the highs and lows. Haley: We also learned how to get the most out of a group of people. When you all have one common goal, it doesn't matter what someone's past is, or where they come from. You just ask: How can we all accomplish this? Also, recognize that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. That's true even for Hanna and I, but we have one goal: to be successful. And you can't fake it. If you feel like your coach is just saying empty things to you, you don't want to show up for them. You need people to think, I want to show up and do this because they really care about me. Todd: That's true. The crew's happier. They're working better. It affects quality. It affects everything else. Hanna: Also, we learned how to respond to things outside our control. It's like, "Okay, the coach didn't play me. I can't control that. So what can I control and still have success?" Related: Why Every Athlete Should Think Like a Startup Founder Image Credit: Courtesy of Jeffrey A. Salter | Sports Illustrated Todd: You're years ahead of your time. I literally tried to control everything and make everything so perfect. One of the biggest lessons I learned was: Concentrate on progress rather than perfection. For example, I wouldn't release my first training manual because I kept thinking, I've got to make it better. But people were like, "Hey, just do version one. Then work on that." That was good advice. You've built a great community for your businesses. What is your secret sauce for bringing people together? Haley: When we started our health and fitness businesses, we thought a lot about having a purpose. And that purpose is to help young girls. That allows us to stay happy and in a good mindset. Hanna: That helps us through hard times, too. For example, we both had an eating disorder — but we were able to turn it into a positive for other people by making an app to help them eat better. It was like, "We're going to impact a little girl, or somebody who's struggling in life, and that's a win in itself." Todd: That's purpose. Haley: That's the passion that keeps you going. Todd: Look, if you love what you do, you'll do it till the day you die. In business, people often value money and wealth more than purpose. That's why so many great entrepreneurs sell out early on. Then their company is bought by private equity, and it doesn't have the same values. You lose that special founder deal. People ask me, "Hey, what's your endgame?" I'm gonna grow old and die with this business, and the kids are gonna take it on and keep those values going, and then hopefully their kids, and we'll just keep those values going forever. Hanna: There's never an endgame. Todd: I love that. Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.
Axios
26-06-2025
- Axios
Construction kicks off on Austin's Iris Gardens
An affordable senior living complex kicked off construction in southeast Austin this week. Why it matters: Amid Austin's housing affordability crisis, the new complex, known as Iris Gardens, is geared toward older people on fixed incomes. Zoom in: Located on Montopolis Drive, the 150-unit Iris Gardens will offer one- and two-bedroom apartments to households at 30% to 60% of the area median income, with an age requirement of at least 55 for residents qualifying for senior living. A single person in greater Austin earning 30% of median income makes about $28,150 annually. A community room, fitness center and laundry areas are folded into the building's design. Programming will include employment assistance, financial literacy initiatives and health classes — as well as Rainbow Connections, a program focused on promoting the well-being in the LGBTQIA+ community. What they're saying: Developed through a partnership between local nonprofit Family Eldercare and developer Vecino Group, the building is meant to provide opportunities for people who often face barriers to securing affordable housing. Iris Gardens "is an important step in addressing the need for a safe and inclusive place to call home," Mandy DeMayo, interim director for Austin Housing Department, said in a statement. Follow the money: Iris Gardens is forecast to cost $50 million to build, per city officials. Money will come through an $8 million loan from the Austin Housing Finance Corp. and about $4.5 million in federal money from Travis County. Real estate firm Redstone Equity and Citi Bank are also involved in the financing.
Business Insider
24-06-2025
- Business Insider
The cofounder of the viral AI 'cheating' startup Cluely says he only hires people for 2 jobs
At the AI startup that promised to help people "cheat on everything," there are only two job titles: engineer or influencer. "There are only two roles here. You're either building the product or you're making the product go viral," Chungin "Roy" Lee, the CEO and cofounder of Cluely, said in an episode of the "Sourcery" podcast published Saturday. "There's nobody who's not a great engineer who has less than 100,000 followers." Cluely launched earlier this year as a tool to help software engineers cheat on their job interviews, among other use cases. Lee went viral after he was suspended by Columbia University over an early version of the tool. Cluely has since removed references to cheating on job interviews from its website. It still positions itself as an "undetectable" AI that sees its users' screens and feeds them answers in real time. The San Francisco startup, which announced a $15 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz on Friday, has made it clear it's betting big on influencers — not marketers — to drive growth. Cluely needs to be "the biggest thing" on Instagram and TikTok, the 21-year-old said. "Every single big company is known by regular people," he added. Lee previously told BI that his main goal for Cluely is to reach 1 billion views across all platforms. "Marketing teams can try," he said. "The reason all these big consumer app guys are so young is because you need to be tapped in with young culture to understand what's funny." "You can have a 35-year-old marketer who scrolls as much as they want. For some reason, they just won't have the viral sense to come up with hooks that are capable of generating 10 million views." No work-life balance Lee said most of the team lives and works together — part of his belief that "work-life balance should not be a thing." "You need to work where you live if you're serious about building the company," Lee said. "Your work should be your life and vice versa." "You wake up, go straight to work, go to bed on the couch," he said. "That's sort of the culture we're trying to promote here," he added. Lee told BI on Tuesday that "work-life balance at an early-stage startup is a myth." "The only way to succeed is by being all in on your company, not by working 40 hours a week and going home early," he added. Lee also said on the podcast that he doesn't have to worry about his employees because "everyone is on board with the craziness." "We understand that this is like the lifeline of the company," Lee said. "We're either crazy enough to make it or we're crazy enough to die." The rejection of work-life balance is hardly new in startup culture. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said during an episode of the "Diary of a CEO" podcast that startup employees shouldn't expect work-life balance if they want their business to take off. "Work-life balance is not the startup game," Hoffman said. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said on an episode of "The Playbook" that "there is no balance" for the most ambitious people. "If you want to crush the game, whatever game you're in, there's somebody working 24 hours a day to kick your ass," he said.
