27: How to Raise Money for Restaurant Growth | Akash Mirchandani, Kitchen Fund

Akash Mirchandani is a Partner at Kitchen Fund, a leading investment firm focused on the emerging restaurant space. Kitchen Fund aims to fuel the brands that are changing how we eat, including investments in some popular restaurants you may have heard of such as sweetgreen, CAVA, and Curry Up Now.

Prior to Kitchen Fund Akash worked in Blackstone’s Private Equity Group, graduated from Harvard where he was captain of the golf team, and deepened his passion for the food industry through a brief stage working in the kitchen at Alinea, the three Michelin star restaurant in Chicago. 

In this interview, Akash and I discuss the ever elusive topic of how to raise money for a growing restaurant brand. We talk about funding options, when to raise, what investors look for, and how valuations are determined.

Specifically, restaurant owners will learn:

- How many units a brand typically needs before institutional investors become interested

- The most important metric investors look for, along with a “best in class” benchmark

- When a growing restaurant brand should look for outside capital

- How restaurant valuations are determined

- How investors keep restaurant founders motivated after a raise

- The Kitchen Fund investments Akash is most excited about

and more.

If you own a restaurant brand with eyes toward growth, this is definitely an episode you’ll want to bookmark and come back to at regular intervals as you hit key growth milestones in your business.

Please enjoy my conversation with Akash Mirchandani of Kitchen Fund.

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Where to find Kitchen Fund:

• Website: https://kitchenfund.com/ 
• Twitter: @KitchenFund
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kitchen-fund/about/ 

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Where to find Akash:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-mirchandani/ 

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Where to find Bryan:

• Website: https://www.myfirstrestaurant.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-tublin-03548910/
• Twitter: @btublin 

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Where to find Kitava:

• Website: https://www.kitava.com/
• Instagram: @kitavakitchen

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Referenced:

• CAVA
• Sweetgreen
• INDAY
• Restaurant Business Online

In this episode, we cover:

• (01:17) Intro to Akash and Kitchen Fund
• (04:05) The options available for funding a restaurant
• (08:17) When private equity and growth investors become interested in making a restaurant investment
• (09:57) Metrics investors look for when making an investment
• (10:37) Deep diver into cash on cash returns
• (15:55) When should a growing restaurant brand start looking for outside capital?
• (19:24) How does Kitchen Fund value a restaurant concept?
• (23:57) Thoughts on aggressive vs. tempered growth
• (25:08) Intangible factors investors look for in a businesses
• (28:17) How investors keep founders motivated post-investment
• (31:42) Which investments is Akash proud of at Kitchen Fund
• (36:19) Has Kitchen Fund’s approach changed since 2020?
• (38:39) On The Fly Segment