July 4, 2023 • 45 mins
Derrick 'Moe' Moore, Clint Gray, and Emmanuel ‘EJ’ Reed are the founders of Slim & Huskey's Pizza Beeria, a fast-casual artisan pizza shop with a love for Hip Hop and R&B culture. The Nashville Based company now boasts restaurants in Antioch, Chattanooga, Memphis, Murfreesboro, TN as well as Atlanta, GA and Sacramento. CA.
On this episode, Clint and Moe talk with AfroTech's Will Lucas about the Italian History of pizza places and how their take on a pizza restaurant instead amplifies Black culture, and how that takes each slice and topping to another level.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
As black folks, Man, we don't always have the opportunity
to be opportunistic, right because once we graduate college, man,
we thinking about these loans that we gotta pay back.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We gotta go get this job. You know, we gotta do.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
All the things that our counterparts don't have to worry about.
So we don't have canceled opportunity to just be opportunistic.
Where As if I had a nest egg and my
family set me up, you know what I mean, I
can go out there and make a thousand, two hundred
thousand dollars to stay.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money.
I'm gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names,
some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're
black and building or simply using tech to secure your bag,
this podcast is Field. Derek Moore aka mo Clint gray
(00:52):
An E Manual E. J. Reid Ever found us a
slim a Husky's Pizza Biria, a fast casual artist in
pizza shop with the love for hip hop and R
and B culture. The Nashville based company now both restaurants
are Antioch, Chattanooga, Memphis, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as well as Elanta, Georgia,
and Sacramento, California. I talked with Clinton Moe about the
Italian history of pizza places and how their take on
(01:15):
a pizza restaurant instead amplifies Black culture and how that
takes each slice and topping to another level.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I would say, you know, our initial vision concept
was all about being you know, authentic. We we wanted
to you know, basically put our story, our culture of
everything that you know creates the.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Black experience on our walls.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
You know, we grew up, you know, on the era
of adult nineties, you know, hip hop music videos, movies
such as Do.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The Right Thing, and you know we even got.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
You know, Boycott Soyles, you know, on our will and
our restaurants because you know, you know, we felt like
there was room for a concept and restaurant brand, not
just pizza actually, but just something that told, you know,
the story of Black culture in a high end way.
And so you know, the only thing you know Italian
(02:16):
about our concept is the pizza. Everything else is one
of African American culture and our way to tell that
story to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, And I was reading something where you positioned this
as music, art and good food obviously, and so how
how does the music part fit into Like what is
the experience like for somebody who's not been to Islam
and Husky's what is the experience like inside one of
your stories?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So yeah, it's a piece of art.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Music, man, that's something that we we live by Islam,
Huskies and and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Music is aside from fusing, aside from.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
The pizza in the art, the music is probably maybe
maybe a little bit more important than the art because
when you come into clim of Huskies, it's a feel
that you get when you listen, when you hear the
music through the speakers, and that's something that that when
Clint's talking about it's been authentic as an Afric American culture.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Man, Like we noticed that we would be going.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
To all these restaurants and stuff, but we wouldn't be
We wouldn't hear our music, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We wouldn't see our art on the wall.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
But you got a bunch of black folks in the
bad cooking, you know what I'm saying, or patronizing the spot, right,
So so so the music says off.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
The rip, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
This is aside from looking at all the employees. Uh,
this is a black owned business, you know what I'm saying.
But inclusive though, so like that's very important for us
to make sure that you know, as black as it is. Man,
you know, this is an inclusive business. So you know
there is green you feel me. So you know, we
(04:03):
ain't turning nobody away or you know what I mean.
But but our culture is uh, you know, we set
the trends in America, you know what I mean, from
the food, to the music, to the clothes. Uh you know,
uh you know the film you know, education, all those
type of things.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Man, We set the trends.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So so it's no so so it's no uh like
we don't apologize for it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It's just instead of instead of hiding behind uh you know,
some walls, man, we put it out out on the front. Man.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And so the music, we gotta Unplugged series that we do, uh,
which we feature local and artists from from out of town.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Man. And we do that once every other monthlyin so so.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And it's it's a huge deal man. And we do concerts.
We got a park called Piece of Park. We do
concerts with a live band. Uh so, so music is very
much important.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
To to slim a Huskies.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I love that, and I want you to go a
little bit deeper because I was I was reading a
lot about your story and this idea of gentrification. Like
you think that there's so many parts of our country
that are historically black, and you know, affluent white people
are moving in, and you found success in areas that
you know, are in the middle of that. And so
(05:26):
while they may love our culture, they love our music,
they love you know, the colors and all the things.
They may not always love us, but you guys have
found success in areas where that are being gentrified and
our you know, you got fluent white people moving in,
but we're still here trying to hold onto those properties.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So talk about how.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
How slim and Huskies fits into geographies and how you
bridge the gap in those communities.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, what's crazy is when we first opened up, you know,
it was it was stemming from the sale of our
initial business, which was a moving company, and a moving
company was like you know, community base.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We were hiring our friends that have been incarcerated.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Uh, you know, we had a we had a big
just you know, focus on giving back to our people,
right and giving them jobs, providing opportunities.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And so, you know, we sold.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
That business and now we had this, you know, this
money that you know we need to you know, do
something with and that we couldn't just ride off from
the sunset. Man, we're entrepreneurs. It's like, man, what we're
gonna do? So we decided to open up a restaurant.
So we started, you know, we had the funds to
go in any of Nashville's fluent areas, right, Like, we
went and looked at them all and you know, solid
real estate prices, you know, and that wasn't an issue.
(06:39):
But what was an issue was we just didn't really
feel connected to any of the areas. Like it's like
we were lacking purpose if we went to one of
these areas that you know, we're about to reinvest all
of our you know, money and time into. And so
you know, we started really think like do we have
to open up in these areas that are already booming
or do we want to open up somewhere that's need
(07:00):
and like, you know, what we can bring value? And
so that's when we decided to open up UH in
ZIP code three seven two zero eight, which is North
Nashville historic African American side of town, home to you know,
severalations we cused Tennessee State University, Fish University, Maherry Medical College,
but also home to you know, some of the highest
(07:22):
you know rated uh highest rate of crime, uh, you
know in America. And so you know, there's reasons for that,
and it was not our culture. The reason was that
our city wasn't you know, just like other cities, wasn't
reinvesting the time, money and resources into our neighborhood the
same way as they were the others. Uh and also
(07:42):
taken away from the neighborhood by you know, changing infrastructure
and you know, running interstates throughout the middle of our neighborhoods,
cutting off economic you know, uh commerce and things like that.
So uh, you know, we said, you know what, like
this is where we want to go. We want to
bring life, energy, business jobs back to our own communities
(08:04):
because not just because it feels good, because it's needed, right.
And so we opened up on the tenth block of
a street called Buchannan And you know, Bucannon had suffered
for a long time from you know, crime.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Drug use, and there was not an open business.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
For probably like ten blocks and not you know, it
was considered a food desert in a very populated area,
you know, populated you.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Know, African Americans, and so we decided to open up.
And you know.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
From day one we saw what it meant to, you know,
to open up a black business in a black neighborhood,
you know, by providing jobs. We had a fifteen year
old come apply for a job and we told them like,
you know, hey, man, unfortunately, you know, you got to
be eighteen to work here, you know. But he gave
us a spell. He was like, man, I've been getting
off this bus for three years. You know, I'm sorry
(08:57):
for Yeah, it wasn't fifteen, he was seventeen. Yeah, he
was seventeen. We couldn't hire because it was eighteen. He
hadn't you know, he'd been riding the bus for three
years and couldn't get off the bus and find a
job close to the way he works. So he had
to get on another bus ride to go find you know,
work to help support his family. So I said, you
know what, man, if you show up tomorrow on the
(09:18):
dock at three o'clock, man, and you know, we'll see
you know, we'll see what you're talking about, and we
may hire you know what I'm saying. And he ended up,
you know, being one of my best employees, turned around,
became an entrepreneur itself, you know what I'm saying. Now,
He created his own business, can start, you know, supporting
his own family. And you know, we just realized that, Man,
if it will work, If this works in North Nashville,
(09:42):
it could work anywhere. You know, it could work in Atlanta,
it can work in Memphis, it can work in Miami, Houston, Dallas.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know. You see, it doesn't matter because you know,
neighborhoods are.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Being gentrified everywhere, and what they need the most to
sustain and continue to keep the heritage in history is
ownership of those that live in the community.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And so that's what we've dedicated ourselves to do. Now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
All of our restaurants aren't in you know, areas that
are being gentrified right now, but we are still very
focused on those areas and committed to serving them.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, I want you to. I want to spend some
more time because I think this is important because I
was thinking about like the belt line in Atlanta when
I was thinking about this questions because you talk about uproars,
like when they are a whole around around that belt
line is you know, property values are skyrocketing there, for
property taxes are skyrocketing. Therefore people are getting pushed out
and then you see, you know, new cultures come in,
(10:37):
And I wonder from your perspective, what role does small
business play? What role do entrepreneurs like yourself play and
protecting that heritage and creating opportunities. So if you can
go in there, I think I.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Think the role for entrepreneurs especially you know, I'm gonna
just single out, you know, I want to I don't
want a general realize it. What role for for Black
African American entrepreneurs, UH, to maintain that culture is is
at the highest level, you know what I mean, Like
we have to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's our responsibility to do to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
As well as take part in the in the economic uh,
you know, advantages and benefits of being a part of
an area such as you know in the line where
the belt line is, right, it's it's our responsibility when
it comes to owning property. But if you can't do that,
put your business in these areas to allow the culture
(11:39):
to continue to be there, continue to thrive because as
just to be honest, when you when you have a
black owned business, nine times out of ten, your employees
are gonna look like you, you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that allows that allows you to number one, uh,
maintain the culture by the people that work there. Maintain
the culture by giving your employees on the opportunity and
economic opportunity, Uh so they can go out and replicate,
you know, what you've done in your business. And then
also ownership, just ownership of the street, ownership of the business.
(12:12):
I mean, I think it's for us, it's detrimental in
our community that we start and not start because we
had a mentality, but continue to advance the mentality of
ownership in our communities and not just allowed to be
not just be allowed to be pushed out, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Like and you and and you know it's his thing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Like you know, we talked about a little bit about
the family and in La you know that sold.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The beach bag right to the city.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But you know we can say, well they should have
went with a developer, they should have diddas, they should
have did that. But man, lord knows how much the
taxes were was right? You know what I'm saying, Lord
knows how much you know, how much infighting or maybe
disagreements it was with the family, they just had to say,
you know what, we just got give it up, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But so so I'm saying that to say it's like.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
At times, you know, we can talk about being not
being pushed out, we're giving up Grandmama's house and all
that type of stuff. That's not necessarily true all the time,
you know what I mean. We literally can be pushed
out by how much it costs just to maintain to
live in that neighborhood, you know what I mean. So
we have to like form these groups, just like you know,
some of these other cultures that help each other out.
(13:28):
And it doesn't have to always be a monetary help,
you know what I'm saying. It could be, Hey I
gotta account, They can show you how to save some
money this way. You know what I'm saying, Hey, I
got a we got an opportunity. We can do this
on the street together. Like, we have to maintain these
working relationships in order to stay in these neighborhoods that
are being gentrified because it is unaffordable. You know what,
(13:51):
I'm saying, so it's to ask your question, man, we
have a true responsibility as black entrepreneurs to maintain and
to hold on to a little bit of peace of
what we have because as you know, you know, we'll
like these property values.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know they go up. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So right, So if you got a restaurant, a busy like, man,
I need some help with just with just the property itself.
Get you a partner, get you somebody that had it up.
Don't necessarily want to be in the operation side. But
hold on to the property because it's going up, that's
absolutely if that's if that's the case, but don't sell
(14:37):
it to the to the lowest to the lowest bitter.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
And one thing you said was so important is because
it's so it's important to know about the economic advantages
to be in in these areas. Is because when I
bought my three commercial real estate properties right in the
same neighborhood, lower economic disadvantaged area, but it's on the rise.
And if I was, if I was not aware of
(15:00):
and things like opportunity zones and things like we have.
I'm blanking on the name right now, but it's a
program you can lock in your property value tax for
ten years off to fifteen, up to fifteen depending on
how many improvements you made, and et cetera, because they
want you to invest in these areas. But you can
buy the property and not know these things are available
(15:21):
and end up getting your taxes raised. But you got
to understand how to play with governments, and so have
you ever had to, you know, engage with politicians to
make these things work at the scale that you're at.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, we you know, unfortunately where we're from Nashville, there
hasn't been as many advantages to engage the politics, especially
when it comes to reinvesting in our own communities.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
At one point, there was the opportunity zones that they
were you know, trying to push, and there was I
think there was a blight and property grant where if
you if you spent one hundred thousand, uh, you know,
on on your property exteriors and can get to the.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Tem percent back how many how many how many you
know startups got one hundred thousand just to burn to
get temperacent.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But then but then I have a friend and uh,
you know in d c. Uh, you know, she's a
restaurant tour as well. Uh that was telling me about
you know, a program there that uh, you know, if
you want to open up a concept and you have
you know, history of being a business in business, then uh,
you know you can get a grant for eighty thousand
(16:41):
you know in certain neighborhoods to be able to open
up you know, your your business, uh, to improve the
economy there. And so I think a lot of it
depends on, you know, what the city is looking for
and what they were going to do and what their
leadership already looks like.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
We gotta yeah, yeah, we got a grant from Memphis. Uh,
you know it's in the exterior. It was black like
almost like a bland and property grant. But but you
didn't have to you didn't have to have a spin.
It was automatic. If you if you open a business
in this area, you know we're gonna give you sixty
eighty eighty grand uh, you know for your exterior for
(17:18):
your facade.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That went. That went a long wait for us, Yeah
you know what I'm saying. And then you go vice versa.
You know here in town.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know we've had and there's articles about it where
uh you know they bring in an economic development person
within the like mayoral's office, and that person came out
publicly it was basically like, man, I don't have any power.
I'm here to be a to be a face, uh,
you know for an administration. And you know, so that
(17:46):
takes a lot out of you when you think about
going and you know, fighting because at the same time,
we have responsibility to make sure we're seeing to open
up uh businesses and run them.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know, well that right, Yeah, So I think it depends.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
On the place a lot of times versus you know,
the person that wanted to fight the battle.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, and it did come to me it was what
I was talking about. It's called a community reinvestment area CRA,
and a lot of geographies across the country have them.
So if you're looking into buying commercial real estate, it
is something to look into, whether it be calling your
mayor's office or the city administration economic development offices looking
to community reinvestment areas. They are often in the lower
(18:28):
income zip codes and they because they need them to
turn around, So we need that investment. Clinton, you had
said something a couple of times about investing in these areas,
particularly historically black areas. You said it's needed, and it's
one thing for it to be needed, it's another thing
for it to actually make money in that area. Because
you could have something that's needed and you can't get
(18:50):
two nickels out of it. How do you balance what's
needed in a particular geography, whether it's be your pizza
shop or whether it be one of your other businesses
and having the need to turn a profit.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I mean, well, I got a piece of damn.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's it's It is a it's a tough balance, man,
because on one end, you want to do what's right
for the people in the neighborhood. You want to do
what's right just for your people, right, but you know
you gotta you gotta make a profit. And I think
that for us, we found a good formula uh two
(19:33):
to be able to do both. And that is it's funny,
but it's true when we talk about these these gentrified areas. Right,
so when we go find a spot, the spot in
Atlanta on Metropolitan, this one on but Cannon, Man, we'd
be like, man.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
If you see, uh, if you.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
See some little black kids running around and you see
a white a white woman walking the dog or running
on the street, you found it right, because it's it's
the perfect mix when you know, you know, you know
that the affluent they moving in. You know what I'm
saying that number two, they don't fear the people in
the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
They feel safe enough to run with you know what
I'm saying, take a run early in the morning.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
But you see these black kids and they still here,
you feel what I'm saying. So so we we we
that formula has worked for us. It's getting a little
bit more tricky because you know, gentrification is on the rise,
and it's and it's a fast rise, so a lot
of that is going away, you know what I'm saying.
But if we can find that, then then that's that's
(20:38):
then we know we got some balance. We can provide jobs,
but we also got these affluent people here that can
afford our product. They feel safe and they want to
be a part of the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
They just don't really know how. So we we Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And then on the you know, on the young investment side, right, well,
we found is you know, it's hard, you know, it's
a young African American to go out and you know
areas that already thrive and purchase property. But what we
can do is find areas like moj just suggested where
(21:15):
you know it's still affordable, right, and you can find
some commercial real estate that's affordable, uh, you know, fits
your budget, and you open up a business in it,
then you can play the prop co OpCo game.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
So like for us, for example, we own about fifty
percent of our properties. Well, we come in, we purchased
a property, let's take Atlanta, a there park close to
the story West End for example. I think we you know,
we purchased that property for what about three hundred and
thirty thousand. Where can you find, you know, buy an
entire corner in a huge metropolitan city for three hundred
(21:51):
and thirty thousand, right, But we found that in West Atlanta,
So uh, you know, we reinvested, got some financial with
the bank to build a brand new restaurant on.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Top of it. We come out of there.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
You know, the building's worth over two million dollars at
this point, right, But that's an extreme amount to be
able to have the mortgage. But when you have a
business that can come in as a tenant initially and
do business, now you're paying your mortgage at the same
time you're paying your rent.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So we own two companies on that block.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
We on the real estate side of it, and we
own the operational side of it. And the operational side
is paying the bills. And so playing that game in
the right areas with the right deal can be very advantageous.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And you know, look at that area that I was
just describing.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Now, when we first went there, there was nothing on
the street that we invested. Now there's a multi use,
a huge project being built across the street. So that
two million dollar evaluation is going to probably go up
to about you know, hopefully three or four, you know,
in the next six months with that, once that's complete.
And that's all about just taking uh an opportunity on
(23:01):
reinvesting in the hood. And so I think it's very
important to learn that game if you own a business
and you're looking to you know, by property. Uh you know,
prop co op co game was taught to us by
our mentors we were coming up, and.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It really works.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Too often entrepreneurs, especially black entrepreneurs, are asked about what
makes them so passionate about an idea that they need
to start a business around it. However, it is an
idea called opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That we don't perceive as possible for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Mo.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Clinton E. J.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Didn't grow thinking about starting a moving company or a
pizza restaurant. They saw an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's it. Most speaks on it as as black folks.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Man, we don't always have the opportunity to be opportunistic,
right because once we graduate college, man, we thinking about
these loans that we got to pay back.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
We got to go get this job. We you know,
we got to do.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
All the things that our counterparts don't have to worry about.
You know what I'm saying. We got to go back
and get mama some money. We got to help MoMA
on the bills. So we take on jobs even though
we had these grand ideas. But we take these jobs
just based off responsibility, you know what I'm saying, and
what we don't have. So we don't have the opportunity
(24:31):
to be don't have, yeah, a chance of the opportunity
to just be opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Whereas if I had a nest egg and.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
My family set me up, you know what I mean,
I can go out there and make a hundred thousand,
two hundred thousand dollars mistake, you know what I'm saying.
So but for us, I mean, I think that we
were young enough, didn't have as many responsibility as we
have now to take advantage of of opportunities that came
(24:59):
our way, and and we didn't go in looking at
when we started a moving company. We were twenty five
when we started our first company, and we started that
company with three thousand dollars, right, So we were naive.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Enough to think that this would work.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You feel what I'm saying, And it did, you know
what I mean? But it's how can I say it?
We just wanted to solve a problem.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You know what I mean. We saw a need.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It's it's not like we were passionate about moving furniture,
you know what I'm saying, But we had we but
we had a passion of being entrepreneurs and we had
a passion for solving problems and filling voids and the need,
and that trickled down to a great business. So that
you know what I'm saying, for seven figures something that
we started with three thousand dollars into what we're doing
(25:48):
now with slim and huskies. And again we see avoid
We see avoided in our community socially, but we see
avoid economically because we have the these all these restaurants
we have, you know, Chinese restaurants, Messtern restaurants, all these
cultures have their identity within the restaurants, and we needed ours.
(26:10):
So we feel the void a need there and then
also an economic or opportunity void by providing our people
to look like.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Us with jobs, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
So I think our thing is man We see an
opportunity to solve a problem and we and we jump
on it.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And sometimes you know, when you you just know a
market and you go after an opportunity, do you feel
the need to go deep into.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Like market studies.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
It's like when I started my social club here, like
I didn't do a whole market study. I knew the community,
so I guess from that perspective it was a market study.
But how do you when you say there's Chinese restaurants,
there's other types of restaurants, How did you know pizza
was the one to lean on that you could actually.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Add value to?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And so what I think about is you started the business,
there's this you know phrase tech, like you got to
lean into the thing that you have a unique value proposition,
Like what do you what makes you the person to
solve this problem, right, And how do you think about
from your perspective starting in Nashville, what made pizza the
thing that you're going to tackle versus the other opportunities
(27:18):
that could have been in front of you? And that
word for you?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm sure, Yeah, I think there's several reasons.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
The first reason was, you know, we grew up those
TGIF kids, you know, watching you know, our favorite shows
on Friday night, watching wrestling, you know, with a sleepovers,
you know, with our friends, and always eating pizza, you know,
and like pizza was just one of those things that
we love. So that kind of falls into you know,
(27:46):
we were talking about being authentic. I think pizza is
just one of those things that you know, if you
don't like pizza, man, I get a trust you. So
we already had a love for pizza. Other thing, you know,
growing up in the South, you know, and a lot
of our neighborhoods, you know, a lot of our black
owned restaurants and concepts offer a lot of similar things.
So you know, you got your wing spots, you got
(28:08):
your soul food spots.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
We wanted to come.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
At something in Nashville home with hot Chicken, you know,
we got tons of hot chicken spots, and you know,
we loved those places, but we wanted to come, you know,
with something different, something that we knew everybody would love,
and something that we could just really put our culture
behind that wasn't done before. And also something that's not
too expensive. So you know, knowing that we wanted to
(28:34):
serve our people, we wanted something that was affordable, they
could be created in a healthy way, fulfilling and you know,
just just offer who we are and our best way possible.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And we and we did as far as like the
research part about.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
It, man, we we knew, we did research on what
do Americans eat, you know what I mean, what are
the popular foods? And that was Hamburger's, hot dogs, piece
of tacos. You know what I'm saying. It was we
didn't want to new Hamburgers. It was it was it
was during the time where craft Burger spots was popping
up all over the place in.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The city, you know what I'm saying. And then and
then hot dogs.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Man, we you know, we we didn't feel like we
could jazz that up enough.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
To where you know, it would feel good to us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know what I'm saying, we already in our community,
you eating the glizzy.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Saying, already behind the eight ball, right, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You can't be then you know what I'm saying, So
you know what I mean. So it was like we're
gonna leave it. We're gonna leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And then uh, you know, and then you know the
tacos man. You know, we didn't feel like we could
do we we could do anything, but we didn't want to.
We wanted to leave that to where where where it
was already working. So it was like pizza, man, We
Americans eat pizza, eating the bondics of pizza.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It has high growth, high growth raised as far.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
As an industry or food industry, and and we understood
the costs, and you know, it's it's not so like
it's not segregated into like, you know, like a demographic
of people that will won't eat pizza.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Everybody's eating pizza, you know what I'm saying. And so
it's like, man, we can dive into that and make
that cool. It fits us. We grew up on pizza.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
We grew up on pizza parties, Ninja turtles, all that
type of stuff like, we could do that, you know
what I'm saying, and it worked out for us, you know,
And so it was a little bit of research, a
lot of bit.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Of chance, and we knew that we didn't just want.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
To depend on pizza to be the selling point of
to bring people in the doors. It was the music,
it was the art, it was the community aspect of it.
So and we understood that that that was the need
to be felled in all of those areas.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You know, how do you decide because you're in multiple
states even now, and forget your cities, but how do
you decide which markets to explore for new locations?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, you know, that's a very good question because you know,
we when we initially start going places, I think our
first city we went to ventured into was Atlanta, and
so we just knew that, man, Atlanta's gonna hit. It's
six million people down there. Uh, you know, it's the
you know, arguably the new mecha of hip hop. You know,
we got a hip hop you know based brand, like,
(31:21):
it's gonna work, right. We so we started off doing
the eyebib tests, you know what I'm saying, just kind
of filling it out, and then also using social media
and seeing you know, what kind of traction were we're
getting from different places outside of you know, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Atlanta was that city where everybody's like, non, y'all got
to come here.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Y'all gotta come here, right, So we listened to the
consumers through social channels and engaging it that way. But
I think you know now that we you know, got
to you know, about ten units and looking to grow
even more. Now we're starting to dive in because it's
it's gonna become a lot of you know, a lot
more about dollars and cents now than ever before. As
we you know, grow the more locations and so you know,
(32:02):
now we're taking you know, advantage of the studies that
are out there, you know, getting with real real estate
and community you know professionals to say, can you guys
give me the data that we need to ensure that
this location is going to be a hit, because you know,
we've had some locations where we went where you know,
we honestly, you know, thought that our brand and our
(32:23):
stories and marketing has been done on us would carry us.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But we started off a little slower than what we expected.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And so that was a learning curve and business to say,
you know what, like you know, we're starting to get
up there with the big dogs.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
We got to do what the big dogs do.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, and so so you know, data is key for
us now.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And it was one thing to open up a shop remotely.
It's another there to manage it, you know from a distance.
And how do you do that because you got to
scale at this point.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, and we got a great team. So first the
way the skill is processes. Man, you know what I'm saying,
So sps right, So no matter where you are, what city,
what time zone. You know, at nine o'clock in Atlanta, uh,
they're doing the same thing. Uh you know when it's
(33:15):
nine o'clock in Nashville, when it's nine o'clock at nine o'clock,
don't matter. We should be at a call at their
time zone and look on the camera and they're doing
exactly all the same things, you know what I'm saying
at the specific time. So so process is important, document
those and training those is the most important thing we
(33:36):
thinking about scaling, right, and I think as a community
we missed that.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Like we go into it with the mom and pop attitude.
You know what I mean. You know, mom and pop
gonna go open the doors, turn.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
The lights on, and operate the business right and we
never scale, you know what I'm saying. With great ideas,
never scale. So for us, we knew that we didn't
want to be in a building all the time. We
knew that we wanted to go take advantage of of.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
What we have and grow it.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So we start these processes so the way you cook,
the temperature of the oven is the same, where you
get the product is the same.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
All those things allow you to scale.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And we did that with the moving company, even though
we stayed in Nashville. We started building these SOPs at
the ten age of twenty five twenty six, man, and
we understood.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
That we wanted to scale.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
One day we read a book called Built a Seal,
which helped us out a whole lot. And uh So,
but anyways, man, that's how you scale, and that's how
you manage UH in these other locations.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
As well as having a good team, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So you got a good team with general manager, you
got a good good director operations and UH and UH
and chief Operations, and those two guys make sure that
what we what we implemented what we built is happening
all across all across our stores in these different states
and time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Zone, and then it's all it's so important to know.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Like when we had the moving company, as most said,
we were building those SOPs, but as guys were coming in,
we're training and we're giving them paper package like you
take that home, you know, read you know, read the handbook,
look at this training module.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But now with the restaurant, we've been able to take
advantage of technology because you know, we know that you know,
papers are things in the past, but you know, we
work out checklist that you know, as he said, every
store is doing the same thing at the same time,
and we can put up on our cell phones and
log into the app and see which GM at this
store didn't do what, or you know, who's at one
(35:33):
hundred percent completion rate? You know, so it You know,
technology is so important to a doc when you're starting
to talk about scale nowadays, especially within hospitality, because it
saves us so much time.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And money.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
And for the people who are listening, who are thinking
about anything in the near the vertical. You guys, I
want you guys to leave them with some words about
partnership because obviously.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
You guys, three of you guys you know.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
With EJ, and talk about how because you mentioned, you know,
you went in the scale a little bit, and how
we get stuck in the mom and pop, you know,
here in MO and so part of why partnerships get
broken up is because we don't understand our responsibilities. You know,
Clint's doing what most should be doing, Mos doing what
EJ should be doing, and.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
How do you guys designate who does what so you
don't feel like you're stepping on each other's toes. In
order to continue to build a great partnership with the
three of you guys, we define roles early on, you know,
and we.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Understand each other's strength and weaknesses. Right.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
So, uh so Clint Clinton, out of all of us,
he is he's a lot more social, you know what
I mean, Not a lot because me and Clinton by
here and there. But but but I mean, he's but
I understand and I have the mind for logistics and
operations more because I was an air traffic controller, you.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
At one point in time in my life, I worked
in sales. At one point in time in my life,
I had all these jobs that I got fired from
at what point of time in my life that prepared
me for what I am what I can do now,
you know what I mean, construction.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Jobs, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
So so you know, we define roles really early on
and don't step in.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And made it made it a goal to not step
on each other's toes.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Now, sometimes these roles intertwined where I need to pull
on Clan or I need to pull on EJ for something.
But but we we define these roles and we trust
each other to do these roles the right way, you
know what I'm saying, as well as you know, forming
the form of these operating agreements before we open the door,
you know what I mean. So so uh so we
(37:53):
make sure the legal paperwork is right and that that
that alleviates, you know, so there's one worry that we have.
You know, we go into it as partners making sure
that that's right. You know, we can that freeze us
up to think thing forward and start thinking about new
ideas and stuff like that. And you know, we just
(38:14):
like I said, understand each other strength and weaknesses, man,
and define these.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Roles, and that allows us to work.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Not it's not always great together, because I mean we're
human beings, but that allows us to grow and scale
and and when and when things get go straight, we're
able to fix it a lot faster than if we
were intertwining all these roles and I was doing Clint
job and I was doing EJ job.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Like, so yeah, yeah, that's how we That's how we
pretty much work the partnership. Man. And what would you
leave the audience with.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Things that they should do if they're interested in getting
hospitality anywhere? Hospitality, food service? What kind of things were
the things that you wish you would have known in closing?
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Uh? I wish I wish I would have under understood. Uh.
You think about taxes.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Man, you know the you know businesses and in the
movie industry, we didn't have.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Nearly as many taxes as we have now.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
You know, liquor tax, food tax, you know, franchise and
excise tax, all these taxes.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I wish I would have understood that early on, you know. Uh,
as well as uh doing more market research, site selection research. Uh,
those type of things you know as a restaurant are
very important.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
And sometimes man, like like you can go back to
the opportunities thing like, sometimes we just have an idea
and we just need to.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Bust it open and try it right and learn as
we go.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
So I never want to say know everything or know
all these things before you start, because then you start
to talk yourself out of it. But but but definitely
do your research, have a have a have a good
working idea, not just an idea, but the go working
idea of what you're.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Getting yourself into.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
And then I mean, just go for it, man, and
you know, to try and to feel man, you know,
you gotta do it.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
So, yeah, a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
First thing, if you're looking to go into a partnership,
kind of stemming off the last question, don't think that
you know everyone in your friends is gonna be a
great partner, right, Like, I think what makes us great
is that, you know, we all bring something different to
the table.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
We all have a certain level of responsibility.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Of you know, and you know we we know that
you know, we're working with good guys on the other side,
right Like, we we trust each other and so you know,
we all got friends that you know, have a lot
of fun with, but they ain't gonna make a great
business partner, So you gotta know how to you know,
cipher through that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
On the hospitality side, man, I think one thing that
anybody can do.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
That's interested in, whether it's you know.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Food service or you know, opening up their own spot
or lounge or whatever the case is, go working one.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
You know, go working one.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Take take the opportunity to like see what it's like
on the inside out of operating a business.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
When it comes to hospitality, that's the best way you
can learn. You know.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
If somebody would work for us for you know, for
five years, they could easily leave here, you know, with
enough tools to go open up, you know, a restaurant,
just based off of general knowledge, you know. And the
last thing I would say is, uh, you know, we
we haven't put a business plan together in a while.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, I think we just got a knack now we
want to open up a business. We know what needs
to be done.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
But the very first one that we did, you know,
it took us a while to put it together because
we were doing so much research on everybody around us,
and we did we did market research on pizza restaurants
from the East Coast to West coast from you know,
all of Carson, United States to right here locally, we
broke everything down. We got you know, I never forget
(41:57):
we were creating our sauces. We went around, got about
ten different pizza sauags from places, did blind taste tests,
figured out which one we liked the best, you know,
measure that out to who was doing, you know, getting
the most sales.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
And you know, we.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Were just doing different things man to figure out exactly
who we wanted to be as a business and exactly
what you know, the potential competition.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Would look like in the marketplace. And so a lot
of people don't realize that when we opened.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Our first business, I'm sorry, our first restaurant, we had
been working on it for two years. If you look
at any one of our original locations, we got a
seal on the front. This is established twenty fifteen, but
we didn't sell our first pizza open our doors until
March twenty seventeen. But that established what represents us in
the lab, figuring this thing out, testing pizzas, passing them
(42:47):
out to the community at different events, getting the word
out of you know, figuring out our training program, working
on our floor plans, and going back and forth with
the architects man.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
At that point we felt like this is when it
got started. And I think that, you.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Know, entrepreneurs in any field need to know that, like
sometimes it takes a little time to build success before
you actually jump into it.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, and then I would leave you.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
One other thing is, man, I tell people all the time,
you got to fall in love with the sacrifice, right,
so like like if you don't love h if damn
love what you do, you gotta love the sacrifice. You
gotta fall in love with it because it's gonna be
so many times, so many hours, uh uh, in days
where your friends are able to go kick it, you
(43:34):
know in Jamaica or the Bahamas, or or take trips
to Italy and you want to be a part of
it's so bad. Or you got the homie that that
just popped up and pulled up in the new and
the new whatever, you know what I'm saying, or this
type of stuff, right, you know. But but but but
for what you're doing and what you're what you can't do, now,
that's the sacrifice, you know what I'm saying. Because you
(43:57):
setting yourself up for longevity.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I mean years and years and generations of wealth, you
know what I mean. Not saying that your homies just
taking the trips. They're not doing the same thing, but
it just ain't your time, you know what I'm saying.
So you gotta follow in love with the sacrifice or
you'll you'll just be living in a moment and all
the work that you put in is just be no
all the void.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in iHeart Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
additional production support by Sarah Ragan and Rose Mick Lucas.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Special thank you to Michael Davis.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
If that's a surroundo, remember by Mike cast the Other
Tech Disruptors an Innovator's afro tech dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
The video version of this episode will.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week,
So tap in enjoying Black Tech Green Money Shad with
Somebody Go get your money, Peace and love.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
H
As black folks, Man, we don't always have the opportunity
to be opportunistic, right because once we graduate college, man,
we thinking about these loans that we gotta pay back.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We gotta go get this job. You know, we gotta do.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
All the things that our counterparts don't have to worry about.
So we don't have canceled opportunity to just be opportunistic.
Where As if I had a nest egg and my
family set me up, you know what I mean, I
can go out there and make a thousand, two hundred
thousand dollars to stay.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money.
I'm gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names,
some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're
black and building or simply using tech to secure your bag,
this podcast is Field. Derek Moore aka mo Clint gray
(00:52):
An E Manual E. J. Reid Ever found us a
slim a Husky's Pizza Biria, a fast casual artist in
pizza shop with the love for hip hop and R
and B culture. The Nashville based company now both restaurants
are Antioch, Chattanooga, Memphis, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as well as Elanta, Georgia,
and Sacramento, California. I talked with Clinton Moe about the
Italian history of pizza places and how their take on
(01:15):
a pizza restaurant instead amplifies Black culture and how that
takes each slice and topping to another level.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I would say, you know, our initial vision concept
was all about being you know, authentic. We we wanted
to you know, basically put our story, our culture of
everything that you know creates the.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Black experience on our walls.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
You know, we grew up, you know, on the era
of adult nineties, you know, hip hop music videos, movies
such as Do.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The Right Thing, and you know we even got.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
You know, Boycott Soyles, you know, on our will and
our restaurants because you know, you know, we felt like
there was room for a concept and restaurant brand, not
just pizza actually, but just something that told, you know,
the story of Black culture in a high end way.
And so you know, the only thing you know Italian
(02:16):
about our concept is the pizza. Everything else is one
of African American culture and our way to tell that
story to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, And I was reading something where you positioned this
as music, art and good food obviously, and so how
how does the music part fit into Like what is
the experience like for somebody who's not been to Islam
and Husky's what is the experience like inside one of
your stories?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So yeah, it's a piece of art.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Music, man, that's something that we we live by Islam,
Huskies and and.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Music is aside from fusing, aside from.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
The pizza in the art, the music is probably maybe
maybe a little bit more important than the art because
when you come into clim of Huskies, it's a feel
that you get when you listen, when you hear the
music through the speakers, and that's something that that when
Clint's talking about it's been authentic as an Afric American culture.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Man, Like we noticed that we would be going.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
To all these restaurants and stuff, but we wouldn't be
We wouldn't hear our music, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We wouldn't see our art on the wall.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
But you got a bunch of black folks in the
bad cooking, you know what I'm saying, or patronizing the spot, right,
So so so the music says off.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
The rip, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
This is aside from looking at all the employees. Uh,
this is a black owned business, you know what I'm saying.
But inclusive though, so like that's very important for us
to make sure that you know, as black as it is. Man,
you know, this is an inclusive business. So you know
there is green you feel me. So you know, we
(04:03):
ain't turning nobody away or you know what I mean.
But but our culture is uh, you know, we set
the trends in America, you know what I mean, from
the food, to the music, to the clothes. Uh you know,
uh you know the film you know, education, all those
type of things.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Man, We set the trends.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So so it's no so so it's no uh like
we don't apologize for it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It's just instead of instead of hiding behind uh you know,
some walls, man, we put it out out on the front. Man.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And so the music, we gotta Unplugged series that we do, uh,
which we feature local and artists from from out of town.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Man. And we do that once every other monthlyin so so.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And it's it's a huge deal man. And we do concerts.
We got a park called Piece of Park. We do
concerts with a live band. Uh so, so music is very
much important.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
To to slim a Huskies.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I love that, and I want you to go a
little bit deeper because I was I was reading a
lot about your story and this idea of gentrification. Like
you think that there's so many parts of our country
that are historically black, and you know, affluent white people
are moving in, and you found success in areas that
you know, are in the middle of that. And so
(05:26):
while they may love our culture, they love our music,
they love you know, the colors and all the things.
They may not always love us, but you guys have
found success in areas where that are being gentrified and
our you know, you got fluent white people moving in,
but we're still here trying to hold onto those properties.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So talk about how.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
How slim and Huskies fits into geographies and how you
bridge the gap in those communities.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, what's crazy is when we first opened up, you know,
it was it was stemming from the sale of our
initial business, which was a moving company, and a moving
company was like you know, community base.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We were hiring our friends that have been incarcerated.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Uh, you know, we had a we had a big
just you know, focus on giving back to our people,
right and giving them jobs, providing opportunities.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And so, you know, we sold.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
That business and now we had this, you know, this
money that you know we need to you know, do
something with and that we couldn't just ride off from
the sunset. Man, we're entrepreneurs. It's like, man, what we're
gonna do? So we decided to open up a restaurant.
So we started, you know, we had the funds to
go in any of Nashville's fluent areas, right, Like, we
went and looked at them all and you know, solid
real estate prices, you know, and that wasn't an issue.
(06:39):
But what was an issue was we just didn't really
feel connected to any of the areas. Like it's like
we were lacking purpose if we went to one of
these areas that you know, we're about to reinvest all
of our you know, money and time into. And so
you know, we started really think like do we have
to open up in these areas that are already booming
or do we want to open up somewhere that's need
(07:00):
and like, you know, what we can bring value? And
so that's when we decided to open up UH in
ZIP code three seven two zero eight, which is North
Nashville historic African American side of town, home to you know,
severalations we cused Tennessee State University, Fish University, Maherry Medical College,
but also home to you know, some of the highest
(07:22):
you know rated uh highest rate of crime, uh, you
know in America. And so you know, there's reasons for that,
and it was not our culture. The reason was that
our city wasn't you know, just like other cities, wasn't
reinvesting the time, money and resources into our neighborhood the
same way as they were the others. Uh and also
(07:42):
taken away from the neighborhood by you know, changing infrastructure
and you know, running interstates throughout the middle of our neighborhoods,
cutting off economic you know, uh commerce and things like that.
So uh, you know, we said, you know what, like
this is where we want to go. We want to
bring life, energy, business jobs back to our own communities
(08:04):
because not just because it feels good, because it's needed, right.
And so we opened up on the tenth block of
a street called Buchannan And you know, Bucannon had suffered
for a long time from you know, crime.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Drug use, and there was not an open business.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
For probably like ten blocks and not you know, it
was considered a food desert in a very populated area,
you know, populated you.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Know, African Americans, and so we decided to open up.
And you know.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
From day one we saw what it meant to, you know,
to open up a black business in a black neighborhood,
you know, by providing jobs. We had a fifteen year
old come apply for a job and we told them like,
you know, hey, man, unfortunately, you know, you got to
be eighteen to work here, you know. But he gave
us a spell. He was like, man, I've been getting
off this bus for three years. You know, I'm sorry
(08:57):
for Yeah, it wasn't fifteen, he was seventeen. Yeah, he
was seventeen. We couldn't hire because it was eighteen. He
hadn't you know, he'd been riding the bus for three
years and couldn't get off the bus and find a
job close to the way he works. So he had
to get on another bus ride to go find you know,
work to help support his family. So I said, you
know what, man, if you show up tomorrow on the
(09:18):
dock at three o'clock, man, and you know, we'll see
you know, we'll see what you're talking about, and we
may hire you know what I'm saying. And he ended up,
you know, being one of my best employees, turned around,
became an entrepreneur itself, you know what I'm saying. Now,
He created his own business, can start, you know, supporting
his own family. And you know, we just realized that, Man,
if it will work, If this works in North Nashville,
(09:42):
it could work anywhere. You know, it could work in Atlanta,
it can work in Memphis, it can work in Miami, Houston, Dallas.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know. You see, it doesn't matter because you know,
neighborhoods are.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Being gentrified everywhere, and what they need the most to
sustain and continue to keep the heritage in history is
ownership of those that live in the community.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And so that's what we've dedicated ourselves to do. Now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
All of our restaurants aren't in you know, areas that
are being gentrified right now, but we are still very
focused on those areas and committed to serving them.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, I want you to. I want to spend some
more time because I think this is important because I
was thinking about like the belt line in Atlanta when
I was thinking about this questions because you talk about uproars,
like when they are a whole around around that belt
line is you know, property values are skyrocketing there, for
property taxes are skyrocketing. Therefore people are getting pushed out
and then you see, you know, new cultures come in,
(10:37):
And I wonder from your perspective, what role does small
business play? What role do entrepreneurs like yourself play and
protecting that heritage and creating opportunities. So if you can
go in there, I think I.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Think the role for entrepreneurs especially you know, I'm gonna
just single out, you know, I want to I don't
want a general realize it. What role for for Black
African American entrepreneurs, UH, to maintain that culture is is
at the highest level, you know what I mean, Like
we have to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's our responsibility to do to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
As well as take part in the in the economic uh,
you know, advantages and benefits of being a part of
an area such as you know in the line where
the belt line is, right, it's it's our responsibility when
it comes to owning property. But if you can't do that,
put your business in these areas to allow the culture
(11:39):
to continue to be there, continue to thrive because as
just to be honest, when you when you have a
black owned business, nine times out of ten, your employees
are gonna look like you, you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that allows that allows you to number one, uh,
maintain the culture by the people that work there. Maintain
the culture by giving your employees on the opportunity and
economic opportunity, Uh so they can go out and replicate,
you know, what you've done in your business. And then
also ownership, just ownership of the street, ownership of the business.
(12:12):
I mean, I think it's for us, it's detrimental in
our community that we start and not start because we
had a mentality, but continue to advance the mentality of
ownership in our communities and not just allowed to be
not just be allowed to be pushed out, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Like and you and and you know it's his thing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Like you know, we talked about a little bit about
the family and in La you know that sold.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The beach bag right to the city.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But you know we can say, well they should have
went with a developer, they should have diddas, they should
have did that. But man, lord knows how much the
taxes were was right? You know what I'm saying, Lord
knows how much you know, how much infighting or maybe
disagreements it was with the family, they just had to say,
you know what, we just got give it up, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But so so I'm saying that to say it's like.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
At times, you know, we can talk about being not
being pushed out, we're giving up Grandmama's house and all
that type of stuff. That's not necessarily true all the time,
you know what I mean. We literally can be pushed
out by how much it costs just to maintain to
live in that neighborhood, you know what I mean. So
we have to like form these groups, just like you know,
some of these other cultures that help each other out.
(13:28):
And it doesn't have to always be a monetary help,
you know what I'm saying. It could be, Hey I
gotta account, They can show you how to save some
money this way. You know what I'm saying, Hey, I
got a we got an opportunity. We can do this
on the street together. Like, we have to maintain these
working relationships in order to stay in these neighborhoods that
are being gentrified because it is unaffordable. You know what,
(13:51):
I'm saying, so it's to ask your question, man, we
have a true responsibility as black entrepreneurs to maintain and
to hold on to a little bit of peace of
what we have because as you know, you know, we'll
like these property values.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know they go up. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So right, So if you got a restaurant, a busy like, man,
I need some help with just with just the property itself.
Get you a partner, get you somebody that had it up.
Don't necessarily want to be in the operation side. But
hold on to the property because it's going up, that's
absolutely if that's if that's the case, but don't sell
(14:37):
it to the to the lowest to the lowest bitter.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
And one thing you said was so important is because
it's so it's important to know about the economic advantages
to be in in these areas. Is because when I
bought my three commercial real estate properties right in the
same neighborhood, lower economic disadvantaged area, but it's on the rise.
And if I was, if I was not aware of
(15:00):
and things like opportunity zones and things like we have.
I'm blanking on the name right now, but it's a
program you can lock in your property value tax for
ten years off to fifteen, up to fifteen depending on
how many improvements you made, and et cetera, because they
want you to invest in these areas. But you can
buy the property and not know these things are available
(15:21):
and end up getting your taxes raised. But you got
to understand how to play with governments, and so have
you ever had to, you know, engage with politicians to
make these things work at the scale that you're at.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, we you know, unfortunately where we're from Nashville, there
hasn't been as many advantages to engage the politics, especially
when it comes to reinvesting in our own communities.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
At one point, there was the opportunity zones that they
were you know, trying to push, and there was I
think there was a blight and property grant where if
you if you spent one hundred thousand, uh, you know,
on on your property exteriors and can get to the.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Tem percent back how many how many how many you
know startups got one hundred thousand just to burn to
get temperacent.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
But then but then I have a friend and uh,
you know in d c. Uh, you know, she's a
restaurant tour as well. Uh that was telling me about
you know, a program there that uh, you know, if
you want to open up a concept and you have
you know, history of being a business in business, then uh,
you know you can get a grant for eighty thousand
(16:41):
you know in certain neighborhoods to be able to open
up you know, your your business, uh, to improve the
economy there. And so I think a lot of it
depends on, you know, what the city is looking for
and what they were going to do and what their
leadership already looks like.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
We gotta yeah, yeah, we got a grant from Memphis. Uh,
you know it's in the exterior. It was black like
almost like a bland and property grant. But but you
didn't have to you didn't have to have a spin.
It was automatic. If you if you open a business
in this area, you know we're gonna give you sixty
eighty eighty grand uh, you know for your exterior for
(17:18):
your facade.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That went. That went a long wait for us, Yeah
you know what I'm saying. And then you go vice versa.
You know here in town.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know we've had and there's articles about it where
uh you know they bring in an economic development person
within the like mayoral's office, and that person came out
publicly it was basically like, man, I don't have any power.
I'm here to be a to be a face, uh,
you know for an administration. And you know, so that
(17:46):
takes a lot out of you when you think about
going and you know, fighting because at the same time,
we have responsibility to make sure we're seeing to open
up uh businesses and run them.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You know, well that right, Yeah, So I think it depends.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
On the place a lot of times versus you know,
the person that wanted to fight the battle.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, and it did come to me it was what
I was talking about. It's called a community reinvestment area CRA,
and a lot of geographies across the country have them.
So if you're looking into buying commercial real estate, it
is something to look into, whether it be calling your
mayor's office or the city administration economic development offices looking
to community reinvestment areas. They are often in the lower
(18:28):
income zip codes and they because they need them to
turn around, So we need that investment. Clinton, you had
said something a couple of times about investing in these areas,
particularly historically black areas. You said it's needed, and it's
one thing for it to be needed, it's another thing
for it to actually make money in that area. Because
you could have something that's needed and you can't get
(18:50):
two nickels out of it. How do you balance what's
needed in a particular geography, whether it's be your pizza
shop or whether it be one of your other businesses
and having the need to turn a profit.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I mean, well, I got a piece of damn.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's it's It is a it's a tough balance, man,
because on one end, you want to do what's right
for the people in the neighborhood. You want to do
what's right just for your people, right, but you know
you gotta you gotta make a profit. And I think
that for us, we found a good formula uh two
(19:33):
to be able to do both. And that is it's funny,
but it's true when we talk about these these gentrified areas. Right,
so when we go find a spot, the spot in
Atlanta on Metropolitan, this one on but Cannon, Man, we'd
be like, man.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
If you see, uh, if you.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
See some little black kids running around and you see
a white a white woman walking the dog or running
on the street, you found it right, because it's it's
the perfect mix when you know, you know, you know
that the affluent they moving in. You know what I'm
saying that number two, they don't fear the people in
the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
They feel safe enough to run with you know what
I'm saying, take a run early in the morning.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
But you see these black kids and they still here,
you feel what I'm saying. So so we we we
that formula has worked for us. It's getting a little
bit more tricky because you know, gentrification is on the rise,
and it's and it's a fast rise, so a lot
of that is going away, you know what I'm saying.
But if we can find that, then then that's that's
(20:38):
then we know we got some balance. We can provide jobs,
but we also got these affluent people here that can
afford our product. They feel safe and they want to
be a part of the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
They just don't really know how. So we we Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
And then on the you know, on the young investment side, right, well,
we found is you know, it's hard, you know, it's
a young African American to go out and you know
areas that already thrive and purchase property. But what we
can do is find areas like moj just suggested where
(21:15):
you know it's still affordable, right, and you can find
some commercial real estate that's affordable, uh, you know, fits
your budget, and you open up a business in it,
then you can play the prop co OpCo game.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
So like for us, for example, we own about fifty
percent of our properties. Well, we come in, we purchased
a property, let's take Atlanta, a there park close to
the story West End for example. I think we you know,
we purchased that property for what about three hundred and
thirty thousand. Where can you find, you know, buy an
entire corner in a huge metropolitan city for three hundred
(21:51):
and thirty thousand, right, But we found that in West Atlanta,
So uh, you know, we reinvested, got some financial with
the bank to build a brand new restaurant on.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Top of it. We come out of there.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
You know, the building's worth over two million dollars at
this point, right, But that's an extreme amount to be
able to have the mortgage. But when you have a
business that can come in as a tenant initially and
do business, now you're paying your mortgage at the same
time you're paying your rent.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
So we own two companies on that block.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
We on the real estate side of it, and we
own the operational side of it. And the operational side
is paying the bills. And so playing that game in
the right areas with the right deal can be very advantageous.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And you know, look at that area that I was
just describing.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Now, when we first went there, there was nothing on
the street that we invested. Now there's a multi use,
a huge project being built across the street. So that
two million dollar evaluation is going to probably go up
to about you know, hopefully three or four, you know,
in the next six months with that, once that's complete.
And that's all about just taking uh an opportunity on
(23:01):
reinvesting in the hood. And so I think it's very
important to learn that game if you own a business
and you're looking to you know, by property. Uh you know,
prop co op co game was taught to us by
our mentors we were coming up, and.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It really works.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Too often entrepreneurs, especially black entrepreneurs, are asked about what
makes them so passionate about an idea that they need
to start a business around it. However, it is an
idea called opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
That we don't perceive as possible for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Mo.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Clinton E. J.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Didn't grow thinking about starting a moving company or a
pizza restaurant. They saw an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's it. Most speaks on it as as black folks.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Man, we don't always have the opportunity to be opportunistic,
right because once we graduate college, man, we thinking about
these loans that we got to pay back.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
We got to go get this job. We you know,
we got to do.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
All the things that our counterparts don't have to worry about.
You know what I'm saying. We got to go back
and get mama some money. We got to help MoMA
on the bills. So we take on jobs even though
we had these grand ideas. But we take these jobs
just based off responsibility, you know what I'm saying, and
what we don't have. So we don't have the opportunity
(24:31):
to be don't have, yeah, a chance of the opportunity
to just be opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Whereas if I had a nest egg and.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
My family set me up, you know what I mean,
I can go out there and make a hundred thousand,
two hundred thousand dollars mistake, you know what I'm saying.
So but for us, I mean, I think that we
were young enough, didn't have as many responsibility as we
have now to take advantage of of opportunities that came
(24:59):
our way, and and we didn't go in looking at
when we started a moving company. We were twenty five
when we started our first company, and we started that
company with three thousand dollars, right, So we were naive.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Enough to think that this would work.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You feel what I'm saying, And it did, you know
what I mean? But it's how can I say it?
We just wanted to solve a problem.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
You know what I mean. We saw a need.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
It's it's not like we were passionate about moving furniture,
you know what I'm saying, But we had we but
we had a passion of being entrepreneurs and we had
a passion for solving problems and filling voids and the need,
and that trickled down to a great business. So that
you know what I'm saying, for seven figures something that
we started with three thousand dollars into what we're doing
(25:48):
now with slim and huskies. And again we see avoid
We see avoided in our community socially, but we see
avoid economically because we have the these all these restaurants
we have, you know, Chinese restaurants, Messtern restaurants, all these
cultures have their identity within the restaurants, and we needed ours.
(26:10):
So we feel the void a need there and then
also an economic or opportunity void by providing our people
to look like.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Us with jobs, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
So I think our thing is man We see an
opportunity to solve a problem and we and we jump
on it.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And sometimes you know, when you you just know a
market and you go after an opportunity, do you feel
the need to go deep into.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Like market studies.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
It's like when I started my social club here, like
I didn't do a whole market study. I knew the community,
so I guess from that perspective it was a market study.
But how do you when you say there's Chinese restaurants,
there's other types of restaurants, How did you know pizza
was the one to lean on that you could actually.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Add value to?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And so what I think about is you started the business,
there's this you know phrase tech, like you got to
lean into the thing that you have a unique value proposition,
Like what do you what makes you the person to
solve this problem, right, And how do you think about
from your perspective starting in Nashville, what made pizza the
thing that you're going to tackle versus the other opportunities
(27:18):
that could have been in front of you? And that
word for you?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm sure, Yeah, I think there's several reasons.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
The first reason was, you know, we grew up those
TGIF kids, you know, watching you know, our favorite shows
on Friday night, watching wrestling, you know, with a sleepovers,
you know, with our friends, and always eating pizza, you know,
and like pizza was just one of those things that
we love. So that kind of falls into you know,
(27:46):
we were talking about being authentic. I think pizza is
just one of those things that you know, if you
don't like pizza, man, I get a trust you. So
we already had a love for pizza. Other thing, you know,
growing up in the South, you know, and a lot
of our neighborhoods, you know, a lot of our black
owned restaurants and concepts offer a lot of similar things.
So you know, you got your wing spots, you got
(28:08):
your soul food spots.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
We wanted to come.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
At something in Nashville home with hot Chicken, you know,
we got tons of hot chicken spots, and you know,
we loved those places, but we wanted to come, you know,
with something different, something that we knew everybody would love,
and something that we could just really put our culture
behind that wasn't done before. And also something that's not
too expensive. So you know, knowing that we wanted to
(28:34):
serve our people, we wanted something that was affordable, they
could be created in a healthy way, fulfilling and you know,
just just offer who we are and our best way possible.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And we and we did as far as like the
research part about.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
It, man, we we knew, we did research on what
do Americans eat, you know what I mean, what are
the popular foods? And that was Hamburger's, hot dogs, piece
of tacos. You know what I'm saying. It was we
didn't want to new Hamburgers. It was it was it
was during the time where craft Burger spots was popping
up all over the place in.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The city, you know what I'm saying. And then and
then hot dogs.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Man, we you know, we we didn't feel like we
could jazz that up enough.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
To where you know, it would feel good to us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know what I'm saying, we already in our community,
you eating the glizzy.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Saying, already behind the eight ball, right, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You can't be then you know what I'm saying, So
you know what I mean. So it was like we're
gonna leave it. We're gonna leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And then uh, you know, and then you know the
tacos man. You know, we didn't feel like we could
do we we could do anything, but we didn't want to.
We wanted to leave that to where where where it
was already working. So it was like pizza, man, We
Americans eat pizza, eating the bondics of pizza.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It has high growth, high growth raised as far.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
As an industry or food industry, and and we understood
the costs, and you know, it's it's not so like
it's not segregated into like, you know, like a demographic
of people that will won't eat pizza.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Everybody's eating pizza, you know what I'm saying. And so
it's like, man, we can dive into that and make
that cool. It fits us. We grew up on pizza.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
We grew up on pizza parties, Ninja turtles, all that
type of stuff like, we could do that, you know
what I'm saying, and it worked out for us, you know,
And so it was a little bit of research, a
lot of bit.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Of chance, and we knew that we didn't just want.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
To depend on pizza to be the selling point of
to bring people in the doors. It was the music,
it was the art, it was the community aspect of it.
So and we understood that that that was the need
to be felled in all of those areas.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You know, how do you decide because you're in multiple
states even now, and forget your cities, but how do
you decide which markets to explore for new locations?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, you know, that's a very good question because you know,
we when we initially start going places, I think our
first city we went to ventured into was Atlanta, and
so we just knew that, man, Atlanta's gonna hit. It's
six million people down there. Uh, you know, it's the
you know, arguably the new mecha of hip hop. You know,
we got a hip hop you know based brand, like,
(31:21):
it's gonna work, right. We so we started off doing
the eyebib tests, you know what I'm saying, just kind
of filling it out, and then also using social media
and seeing you know, what kind of traction were we're
getting from different places outside of you know, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Atlanta was that city where everybody's like, non, y'all got
to come here.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Y'all gotta come here, right, So we listened to the
consumers through social channels and engaging it that way. But
I think you know now that we you know, got
to you know, about ten units and looking to grow
even more. Now we're starting to dive in because it's
it's gonna become a lot of you know, a lot
more about dollars and cents now than ever before. As
we you know, grow the more locations and so you know,
(32:02):
now we're taking you know, advantage of the studies that
are out there, you know, getting with real real estate
and community you know professionals to say, can you guys
give me the data that we need to ensure that
this location is going to be a hit, because you know,
we've had some locations where we went where you know,
we honestly, you know, thought that our brand and our
(32:23):
stories and marketing has been done on us would carry us.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But we started off a little slower than what we expected.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And so that was a learning curve and business to say,
you know what, like you know, we're starting to get
up there with the big dogs.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
We got to do what the big dogs do.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, and so so you know, data is key for
us now.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And it was one thing to open up a shop remotely.
It's another there to manage it, you know from a distance.
And how do you do that because you got to
scale at this point.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, and we got a great team. So first the
way the skill is processes. Man, you know what I'm saying,
So sps right, So no matter where you are, what city,
what time zone. You know, at nine o'clock in Atlanta, uh,
they're doing the same thing. Uh you know when it's
(33:15):
nine o'clock in Nashville, when it's nine o'clock at nine o'clock,
don't matter. We should be at a call at their
time zone and look on the camera and they're doing
exactly all the same things, you know what I'm saying
at the specific time. So so process is important, document
those and training those is the most important thing we
(33:36):
thinking about scaling, right, and I think as a community
we missed that.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Like we go into it with the mom and pop attitude.
You know what I mean. You know, mom and pop
gonna go open the doors, turn.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
The lights on, and operate the business right and we
never scale, you know what I'm saying. With great ideas,
never scale. So for us, we knew that we didn't
want to be in a building all the time. We
knew that we wanted to go take advantage of of.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
What we have and grow it.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
So we start these processes so the way you cook,
the temperature of the oven is the same, where you
get the product is the same.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
All those things allow you to scale.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And we did that with the moving company, even though
we stayed in Nashville. We started building these SOPs at
the ten age of twenty five twenty six, man, and
we understood.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
That we wanted to scale.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
One day we read a book called Built a Seal,
which helped us out a whole lot. And uh So,
but anyways, man, that's how you scale, and that's how
you manage UH in these other locations.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
As well as having a good team, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So you got a good team with general manager, you
got a good good director operations and UH and UH
and chief Operations, and those two guys make sure that
what we what we implemented what we built is happening
all across all across our stores in these different states
and time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Zone, and then it's all it's so important to know.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Like when we had the moving company, as most said,
we were building those SOPs, but as guys were coming in,
we're training and we're giving them paper package like you
take that home, you know, read you know, read the handbook,
look at this training module.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But now with the restaurant, we've been able to take
advantage of technology because you know, we know that you know,
papers are things in the past, but you know, we
work out checklist that you know, as he said, every
store is doing the same thing at the same time,
and we can put up on our cell phones and
log into the app and see which GM at this
store didn't do what, or you know, who's at one
(35:33):
hundred percent completion rate? You know, so it You know,
technology is so important to a doc when you're starting
to talk about scale nowadays, especially within hospitality, because it
saves us so much time.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And money.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
And for the people who are listening, who are thinking
about anything in the near the vertical. You guys, I
want you guys to leave them with some words about
partnership because obviously.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
You guys, three of you guys you know.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
With EJ, and talk about how because you mentioned, you know,
you went in the scale a little bit, and how
we get stuck in the mom and pop, you know,
here in MO and so part of why partnerships get
broken up is because we don't understand our responsibilities. You know,
Clint's doing what most should be doing, Mos doing what
EJ should be doing, and.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
How do you guys designate who does what so you
don't feel like you're stepping on each other's toes. In
order to continue to build a great partnership with the
three of you guys, we define roles early on, you know,
and we.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Understand each other's strength and weaknesses. Right.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
So, uh so Clint Clinton, out of all of us,
he is he's a lot more social, you know what
I mean, Not a lot because me and Clinton by
here and there. But but but I mean, he's but
I understand and I have the mind for logistics and
operations more because I was an air traffic controller, you.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
At one point in time in my life, I worked
in sales. At one point in time in my life,
I had all these jobs that I got fired from
at what point of time in my life that prepared
me for what I am what I can do now,
you know what I mean, construction.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Jobs, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
So so you know, we define roles really early on
and don't step in.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And made it made it a goal to not step
on each other's toes.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Now, sometimes these roles intertwined where I need to pull
on Clan or I need to pull on EJ for something.
But but we we define these roles and we trust
each other to do these roles the right way, you
know what I'm saying, as well as you know, forming
the form of these operating agreements before we open the door,
you know what I mean. So so uh so we
(37:53):
make sure the legal paperwork is right and that that
that alleviates, you know, so there's one worry that we have.
You know, we go into it as partners making sure
that that's right. You know, we can that freeze us
up to think thing forward and start thinking about new
ideas and stuff like that. And you know, we just
(38:14):
like I said, understand each other strength and weaknesses, man,
and define these.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Roles, and that allows us to work.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Not it's not always great together, because I mean we're
human beings, but that allows us to grow and scale
and and when and when things get go straight, we're
able to fix it a lot faster than if we
were intertwining all these roles and I was doing Clint
job and I was doing EJ job.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Like, so yeah, yeah, that's how we That's how we
pretty much work the partnership. Man. And what would you
leave the audience with.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Things that they should do if they're interested in getting
hospitality anywhere? Hospitality, food service? What kind of things were
the things that you wish you would have known in closing?
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Uh? I wish I wish I would have under understood. Uh.
You think about taxes.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Man, you know the you know businesses and in the
movie industry, we didn't have.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Nearly as many taxes as we have now.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
You know, liquor tax, food tax, you know, franchise and
excise tax, all these taxes.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I wish I would have understood that early on, you know. Uh,
as well as uh doing more market research, site selection research. Uh,
those type of things you know as a restaurant are
very important.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
And sometimes man, like like you can go back to
the opportunities thing like, sometimes we just have an idea
and we just need to.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Bust it open and try it right and learn as
we go.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
So I never want to say know everything or know
all these things before you start, because then you start
to talk yourself out of it. But but but definitely
do your research, have a have a have a good
working idea, not just an idea, but the go working
idea of what you're.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Getting yourself into.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
And then I mean, just go for it, man, and
you know, to try and to feel man, you know,
you gotta do it.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
So, yeah, a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
First thing, if you're looking to go into a partnership,
kind of stemming off the last question, don't think that
you know everyone in your friends is gonna be a
great partner, right, Like, I think what makes us great
is that, you know, we all bring something different to
the table.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
We all have a certain level of responsibility.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Of you know, and you know we we know that
you know, we're working with good guys on the other side,
right Like, we we trust each other and so you know,
we all got friends that you know, have a lot
of fun with, but they ain't gonna make a great
business partner, So you gotta know how to you know,
cipher through that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
On the hospitality side, man, I think one thing that
anybody can do.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
That's interested in, whether it's you know.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Food service or you know, opening up their own spot
or lounge or whatever the case is, go working one.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
You know, go working one.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Take take the opportunity to like see what it's like
on the inside out of operating a business.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
When it comes to hospitality, that's the best way you
can learn. You know.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
If somebody would work for us for you know, for
five years, they could easily leave here, you know, with
enough tools to go open up, you know, a restaurant,
just based off of general knowledge, you know. And the
last thing I would say is, uh, you know, we
we haven't put a business plan together in a while.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, I think we just got a knack now we
want to open up a business. We know what needs
to be done.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
But the very first one that we did, you know,
it took us a while to put it together because
we were doing so much research on everybody around us,
and we did we did market research on pizza restaurants
from the East Coast to West coast from you know,
all of Carson, United States to right here locally, we
broke everything down. We got you know, I never forget
(41:57):
we were creating our sauces. We went around, got about
ten different pizza sauags from places, did blind taste tests,
figured out which one we liked the best, you know,
measure that out to who was doing, you know, getting
the most sales.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
And you know, we.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Were just doing different things man to figure out exactly
who we wanted to be as a business and exactly
what you know, the potential competition.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Would look like in the marketplace. And so a lot
of people don't realize that when we opened.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
Our first business, I'm sorry, our first restaurant, we had
been working on it for two years. If you look
at any one of our original locations, we got a
seal on the front. This is established twenty fifteen, but
we didn't sell our first pizza open our doors until
March twenty seventeen. But that established what represents us in
the lab, figuring this thing out, testing pizzas, passing them
(42:47):
out to the community at different events, getting the word
out of you know, figuring out our training program, working
on our floor plans, and going back and forth with
the architects man.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
At that point we felt like this is when it
got started. And I think that, you.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Know, entrepreneurs in any field need to know that, like
sometimes it takes a little time to build success before
you actually jump into it.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, and then I would leave you.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
One other thing is, man, I tell people all the time,
you got to fall in love with the sacrifice, right,
so like like if you don't love h if damn
love what you do, you gotta love the sacrifice. You
gotta fall in love with it because it's gonna be
so many times, so many hours, uh uh, in days
where your friends are able to go kick it, you
(43:34):
know in Jamaica or the Bahamas, or or take trips
to Italy and you want to be a part of
it's so bad. Or you got the homie that that
just popped up and pulled up in the new and
the new whatever, you know what I'm saying, or this
type of stuff, right, you know. But but but but
for what you're doing and what you're what you can't do, now,
that's the sacrifice, you know what I'm saying. Because you
(43:57):
setting yourself up for longevity.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I mean years and years and generations of wealth, you
know what I mean. Not saying that your homies just
taking the trips. They're not doing the same thing, but
it just ain't your time, you know what I'm saying.
So you gotta follow in love with the sacrifice or
you'll you'll just be living in a moment and all
the work that you put in is just be no
all the void.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in iHeart Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
additional production support by Sarah Ragan and Rose Mick Lucas.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Special thank you to Michael Davis.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
If that's a surroundo, remember by Mike cast the Other
Tech Disruptors an Innovator's afro tech dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
The video version of this episode will.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week,
So tap in enjoying Black Tech Green Money Shad with
Somebody Go get your money, Peace and love.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
H
Host
Will Lucas
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