Wow... It's actually really nice to see how well the Five Guys franchise is doing. I remember going to one often senior year of high school in Northern VA. That would be like... 8-9 years ago.<p>It's really crazy because I drove around my old high school the other day and a Five Guys opened in a shopping center right next to it.
I wish I could understand what's behind the 5 Guys hype - has anyone seen an analysis of that? It's definitely not the food quality. I've eaten at a few of their locations and their burger patties are thin and utterly flavorless. Even factoring that its a fast-food burger, it still pales in comparison to say, NYC's Shake Shack or DC's Elevation Burger, and of course if you're not talking fast food burgers, all bets are off (e.g. Ray's Hellburger in VA).<p>I'd like to understand why they're so popular, just to understand what makes the business really tick. I don't think it's about the food quality; I'm guessing it's a sort of social status thing - being "in the know" by going there?
Great story about sticking to your ideals, and how to manage growth. I think it's amazing how easy it is to enter the food business compared to selling software.<p>If you make food, someone will be hungry and buy it. If you make software, there is no guarantee that anyone will ever use it.<p>edit: I guess what I hadn't considered was that they were making <i>good</i> food and still serving it to people, despite competition from faster, cheaper companies. People tend to flock to good software, so maybe they aren't that different?
I have to give this guy some respect as the only honest franchisor I've ever seen:<p>"We make 6 percent of sales on the franchises. All franchises work the same way: People say they want to sell your product. So you give them a Franchise Development Agreement that explains all the ways we can beat them down. I don't know if I would ever sign it. We can get out of the deal a million ways, but they are stuck."
> <i>"If you're in a hurry, there are a lot of really good hamburger places within a short distance from here."</i><p>This kind of thing separates different kinds of entrepreneurs very sharply. I'm not necessarily sure one is better than the other, but I know which kind I am. I like opinionated people, companies, and products.
Remember hearing from people for a long time about 5 guys before I tried it on a trip to D.C. Quite frankly I was underwhelmed and don't understand the hype.<p>The Wisconsin chain, Culver's, absolutely blows them away.