Full Course is a restaurant development and investment firm that incubates and accelerates emerging fast casual restaurant brands, focusing on restaurants less than five years old with 1-10 locations. Full Course has a special focus on businesses run by women, minorities and immigrants.
Cleanliness and creating an appealing dining environment is important. Restaurant owners need to make scheduled cleanings – including annual deep cleanings – a priority.
Full Course works with designers to help restaurants improve their appearance and atmosphere. They create dining environments that speak to the brand’s story, purpose and mission while avoiding some of the unnecessary costs associated with creating custom materials.
Full Course realizes that one of the benefits of fast casual dining is that it’s fairly recession proof. Consumers may cut corners on higher end dining during a recession, but fast casual dining is usually always within a consumer’s budget.
Each Full Course client goes through an initial assessment that analyzes the restaurant’s finances, staff and leadership, marketing strategies and points of differentiation to find opportunities for Full Course to add value.
Quotes
“One of my favorite restaurant hacks is when you walk in and you just watch. You watch what the managers do. We all know how to do it by the book, but really great managers are proactive at putting systems in place where there may be a gap.” (Lauren)
“The best ideas come from doing, especially in the world of restaurants.” (Lauren)
“You can tell how well a place is managed if you just look up at the vents. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked up at the vents and said, ‘Guys, that’s so gross.’” (Joseph)
“We eat with our eyes first and when you walk into a restaurant and it looks like it’s in disrepair, that matters. Those details matter. It shows a letter of care and concern about the environment and a way that you’re creating an experience for customers.” (Lauren)
“We’re very attuned to efficient spending when we’re building out these units. We spend a lot of time and energy designing these restaurants so that they communicate the values of the brand but in an efficient and effective manner.” (Lauren)
“People will cut spending in a lot of places, but food isn’t one of them. We all need that moment of community. We need that moment to go out and get a break from being at home.” (Lauren)
“Our staples in the American diet are delicious, but we don’t need another burrito. We don’t need another hamburger. What we need is something fresh and something that is bringing something different to the market.” (Joseph)
Transcript
00:00.00
vigorbranding
Everyone today I’m joined by my friend Lauren Fernandez she is the Ceo and founder of full course which we are going to unfurl fully in this episode Lauren wont we start by you saying hello and giving a little bit of backstory.
00:11.92
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah hi I’m Lauren ah former attorney turned restaurant owner turned restaurant investor and developer and I started full course a little over two years ago it’s been about a 10 year dream of mine to work with. Earlyage restaurant brands and they’re really in their emerging years. Um, when they’re anywhere between one and five years old and somewhere between 1 and 5 units and that is exactly what full course does so we are a fullservice solution for early stage. Fast casual restaurant concepts you can be anywhere from one to None units. We’d love to talk to you. We have a private equity fund that we use to back our investment in these brands. But we’re a little bit different in our approach. We take a minority investment stake. We leave our restaurant partners in charge of operations and in control of the business while we focus on deploying the capital to our growth plan that we develop with you with our development team. So we invest in folks for about 5 years and it’s a pretty different and unique approach. But we felt it was necessary to meet the needs in the marketplace to help these independent restaurants achieve a level of growth that really has significant financial return attached to it. We also have a very special focus. On businesses that are started and run by women minorities and immigrants we believe at full course that there’s plenty of room at the table for all faces and flavors that more I think accurately reflect the true culture and diversity in our country.
01:53.50
vigorbranding
I love that? Yeah, so there’s there’s a lot to unpack there and I think we’re going to have fun diving into it. Um, but let’s start with you. You started your career as an attorney you forayed into the restaurant industry None as a council but then a multi-unit franchisee.
01:56.42
Lauren Fernandez
I said it. Um, dead.
02:09.50
vigorbranding
How how was that transition and and what made it rewarding what made it challenging.
02:12.60
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah, so I did I am I’m an emory jdmba I’ve been in Atlanta for 20 years now which is kind of crazy to think about and my journey as council started primarily in product development commercialization. So I was an intellectual property attorney for many years. And that path landed me at focus brands where I was recruited to assist in the development of their licensing program leveraging their existing brands onto a number of different b two b and b to c licensed products.
02:32.67
vigorbranding
Are.
02:44.91
Lauren Fernandez
So that would be things like cinnabon on airwik or vodka but also on the breakfast menu at Taco Bell or burger King um, and that time there was fantastic I also ran their legal department and franchise administration and I am a very entrepreneurial and business minded.
02:50.71
vigorbranding
I Love that.
03:01.67
Lauren Fernandez
Person not just as counsel but just as a human being and one of the things that I saw regularly that fascinated me was seeing the unit level economics at play in mass with multi-unit ownership and seeing how.
03:03.52
vigorbranding
Um, the.
03:17.34
Lauren Fernandez
Profitable those rails of franchising can be for an entrepreneur who’s new to restaurants or is looking to grow and scale their own enterprise and so when I left focus brands I had an interesting choice to make I knew that I wanted to stay in restaurants and franchising. But I was pretty sure I needed to leave my role as council and it had been something I’d been planning on doing for a long time anyway and segueing into entrepreneurship and I was sitting at a lunch one day with my mentor a friend and former Ceo Russ Unfinhauer and he said to me why aren’t you just putting your money where your mouth is. Buy a restaurant franchise here are a couple I think might be good for you and I was like oh my gosh obviously right? like Yeah yeah, if you’re going to really believe in franchising. Maybe you should do it yourself. So um, off I went.
03:53.72
vigorbranding
Um, ten sense.
04:04.60
vigorbranding
Um, right.
04:08.83
Lauren Fernandez
And the short version is investigated a number of brands eventually ended up with a partner purchasing the development rights to a very large territory for chicken salad chick in the atlanta greater atlanta dma it already had 3 units in it so we took those over. Um, it also included Athens and Augusta so pretty much overnight. Um rolled that law law degree up in a tube put it in the closet bought a pair of non-slip clogs got a name tag that said Lauren and I went to work and that was what the next three years looked like for me. I turned around 3 restaurants I built None more in a twenty month span so we had a total of 11 I had 3 more under construction and then we developed a catering program the delivery program which we’re both new to the brand. And I had 3 nontraditional units that we had put in America’s Mart here in Atlanta so we had quite a busy practice. You know, busy business going we were we were um, churning and burning and really enjoying it and we were um. Approach to exit the business at the end of none and ended up selling our units back to the parent company and that was a really successful transaction for both me and my partners and I had an opportunity to pause and really have a deep thought about ways we could help the industry be better and that was really when.
05:19.42
vigorbranding
Um.
05:34.99
Lauren Fernandez
This idea of putting equity behind the initiatives at full course really became cemented for me so I incubated it up here and with dialogue with friends and trusted advisors for about a year um and we launched it officially in 2020
05:52.19
vigorbranding
That’s amazing. So a lot of times. Um, what what? I’ve seen personally is I’ve seen people move from corporate varying levels from mid mid-level management the hallway up to absolute rock stars there. Theres always seem to be this allure with restaurants. Um.
05:56.82
Lauren Fernandez
Who.
06:09.54
vigorbranding
Almost like sirens calling to the ah ship to come to the island and um and what I’ve seen is there’s a lot of times. There’s a lot of money dumped. There’s a lot of money invested. There’s a lot of money lost. There’s a lot of heartbreak and it doesn’t last very long and I think a lot of ways. Um.
06:10.73
Lauren Fernandez
Um.
06:18.82
Lauren Fernandez
Wrong.
06:27.86
vigorbranding
Not a lot of folks realize just how much work it really is however for you becoming a franchisee was not that step backward in. In fact, you actually thrived there like you said so you created a development group to grow that footprint. Um, amongst all those other accolades. What were some of the key takeaways and learnings from that experience that.
06:35.78
Lauren Fernandez
Um, um.
06:47.41
vigorbranding
Maybe you would tell ah a corporate executive either in or ancillary to the restaurant industry who may be thinking about taking that leap.
06:53.17
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah, what a great question. Okay I’d say first and foremost you have to let go of the ego that is tied to the answer to the question that you get at a cocktail party or networking event which is what do you do. And I think a lot of us, especially if we have professional degrees where we spent time and money really developing that level of Expertise especially true for me as an attorney.
07:12.52
vigorbranding
Or.
07:25.00
Lauren Fernandez
It’s just so much easier to say oh I’m an attorney or I’m a food and beverage Attorney Oh I’m a franchise attorney right? It just answers the question and you’re done and you know I think there’s as a point of pride that was a really big deal for me I came from.
07:28.72
vigorbranding
He.
07:39.75
Lauren Fernandez
Come from an immigrant family where education is very highly prized and valued so it was a very difficult thing for me to tell my dad and my family that I was going to go buy and run restaurants. My dad was like what are you talking about and I had to explain to him why it was an enterprise why I was building.
07:40.91
vigorbranding
I.
07:51.74
vigorbranding
A.
07:58.96
Lauren Fernandez
My own business and how that that it was going to play out and he was like oh. And I worst that can happen I can always go back to the law and so I think for someone who’s willing to jump from that w 2 to an entrepreneurial venture. The None thing I’ll say is let go of all of the constructs of the title.
08:09.19
vigorbranding
This right.
08:23.60
Lauren Fernandez
And the ah kind of like corporate accolades that come with those structured environments and lean into the humility. It takes to learn as if you know nothing and I will tell you in the first meeting I had. With our general managers after we bought the business and I introduced them to myself I walked in in the clothing I wore to clothing so I was in almost like picture me in like corporate Barbie Gear you know like full-on suit and ready to go and I walked into the restaurant and they must have been like oh my god who is this check.
08:51.29
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
08:59.14
Lauren Fernandez
And I sat down with them and I said look I’m going to tell you something I’m going to learn more from you guys than you’re going to learn from me at None and I’m going to ask a lot of questions and you’re going to tell me all the things I don’t know and I’m going to be like a sponge and I’m going to say this to you but I’m going to show it to you and that’s how we’re going to do and eventually. We will learn from each other. But at first I need you to teach me everything you know about this business and indeed over that 3 year period I learned so much about restaurants about development about what to do how to motivate managers how to manage recruitment and retention and employees from being in the trenches and I think that’s. Such an informative and ah formative experience to treat that kind of on The- Job training as important as it was for me to get my graduate degrees. Do you do you know? what? I mean like it was just and that all starts kind of with a humility. So.
09:47.15
vigorbranding
Um, yep.
09:53.53
Lauren Fernandez
That is kind of my biggest piece of advice I think you know the other thing too is be financially prepared. It’s a very different animal to switch to None and running your own business and. You know you need to make sure you don’t carry that stress of your family’s financial stability with you. So if you can figure out kind of how to make sure that that stays Afloat while you’re focused on the business. I Think that that’s really important so some really good financial planning for your leap into entrepreneurship is a really good idea if you can.
10:25.71
vigorbranding
I Love that? yeah that that H word is a big one humility. Um, for all the reasons that you just said but even deeper I find like the the solve or at least the beginning of a solve to a lot of problems operationally marketing. Whatever department you’re in starts with humility. It starts with.
10:37.81
Lauren Fernandez
Or. Um, the.
10:45.70
vigorbranding
And and a good example of that is we’ve all had that job I think when we were younger, um probably at a restaurant where you know you walk in and it’s your first day or your first week or maybe first month and you’re learning underneath that that person that’s been there for a minute and the the scenario goes something like this where the person’s like.
10:54.32
Lauren Fernandez
Move that.
11:03.89
vigorbranding
Okay, so here’s how we do this thing. This is the way you’re supposed to do it. But here’s how I really do it. You know and what I find is like there’s a lot of training people out there and operations people that cringe I’m sure when they hear that but I would I would venture to guess that a lot of times that this is how I do it manifested because it was more effective. It was easier.
11:09.55
Lauren Fernandez
E.
11:16.24
Lauren Fernandez
O o.
11:23.32
vigorbranding
And it was a shortcut not that it removed quality. It just made it better faster and easier to replicate if you have humility to listen. You can actually alter systems while simultaneously ah showing that these folks are hurt even though they may so be seen as lower on the tone pole as it were.
11:27.49
Lauren Fernandez
Oh yeah.
11:39.66
Lauren Fernandez
Or.
11:42.16
vigorbranding
Actually heard and they actually had a great solution and given the accolades and that could probably lead to some better retention numbers. Ah.
11:45.43
Lauren Fernandez
Oh my god one of my favorite restaurant hacks is you walk in and you just watch just watch what the managers do like we all know how to do it by the book. But I love looking around really great managers are proactive at putting systems in place that there may be a gap or maybe you didn’t explain it as well as you thought you did and so I would always look around the restaurant and you know you know, almost a dozen units. They’re all run a little differently even if there’s a playbook. And I would look for the little notes on post-its or with a sharpie or you know, whatever that the manager would put up for their team and almost ninety percent of the time. It was a good idea that needed to be documented and incorporated to our processes. And put into a really nice, beautiful graphically illustrated poster in None languages that we could push out to all of our units and we had this happen one time where we had ah you know a manual and it had.
12:43.88
vigorbranding
Is.
12:51.70
Lauren Fernandez
Oh here are all your weekly cleanings and in week one you clean air events and in week two you clean the ice machine and you know it became a list and when you’re a manager and you’re super busy. It just gets thrown to the side right? You’re just trying to tread water and keep your head above.
13:06.40
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
13:08.41
Lauren Fernandez
So one of our managers had this really great idea of putting it into a monthly calendar so there was just a chore and cleaning calendar. So before the end of night shift could clock out if you had time to lean you had time to clean. You would go over to the calendar and someone would check off a small task.
13:25.60
vigorbranding
So.
13:27.96
Lauren Fernandez
Every day of the month on a thirty day calendar and that was just such a novel and great idea and what a simple way to illustrate how to keep up with the cleanliness of the restaurant and we took that sucker and we made it beautiful and we put it out as a poster in all of our units and I think that’s just you know. The best ideas come from doing especially in the world of restaurants and so to me it will always be a hallmark of our investment strategy that we provide not only education coaching and leadership development to our clients and to our investment targets. Um. But that that comes from a very informed place where our team is all former operators as well as industry experts and executives like we really have walked both paths.
14:14.85
vigorbranding
I love that? Yeah I think the the time to lean time to clean thing is ah one of my favorites but 1 Ah so let’s just talk about a pet peeve real quick. 1 of my biggest pet peeves is and you could tell how well the location is managed if you just look up at the vent.
14:24.18
Lauren Fernandez
I will.
14:31.21
Lauren Fernandez
Oo.
14:33.42
vigorbranding
Um, and I don’t know how many times I’ve looked up at the vent and I actually I’m like guys that’s so gross like that stuff is entering into the air. It’s getting in the food. It’s getting in people’s lungs and it’s really not that difficult at the end of the shift just get up there and use a vacuum cleaner and just.
14:37.60
Lauren Fernandez
O.
14:44.89
Lauren Fernandez
Green.
14:51.96
Lauren Fernandez
Right? Or just I’m standing and regular maintenance and just schedule it whether that’s done internally by the team or externally by a vendor and you know quite frankly I think a lot of restaurants need an annual deep clean as well.
14:52.26
vigorbranding
Get all of the dust off of it. Um, yeah.
15:10.49
Lauren Fernandez
Which are not cheap. They can run anywhere from a thousand to two thousand dollars. But I think it’s definitely worth it and then as soon as that deep clean is done come in and do a cosmetic kind of touchup on everything paint and trim and just making sure it looks nice Because. We eat with our eyes None and so when you walk in a restaurant and it looks like it’s in disrepair Even if it’s just as simple as someone pushing a mop on the floor constantly is bumping the handle up against the wall and it creates a scratch.
15:27.10
vigorbranding
Um.
15:40.75
Lauren Fernandez
That matters those details matter they show a level of care and concern about the environment and the way that you are creating that experience for a customer. So I really believe in spending the money and the time on making sure that the environment is pristine. As pristine as possible I think the other thing to understand is restaurants do especially in our fast casual segment a tremendous amount of volume hundreds of tickets a day thousands of dollars and that just creates a lot of wear and tear on things and so you have to be willing.
16:12.74
vigorbranding
Um, it’s right.
16:17.33
Lauren Fernandez
As an owner to constantly be repairing and replacing and I mean I can’t tell you how many phones we would burn through because they would be cordless and they’d hit the floor. Someone would be like this ah talking on the phone. Well they were trying to do something else and it would hit the floor.
16:22.55
vigorbranding
Um, yep.
16:32.90
Lauren Fernandez
And we were constantly kind of in search of these like better phones that we couldn’t break all the time and you know it’s just kind of just 1 example, right? You just kind of like right like build me a better restaurant. You know I think in some environments you can use headsets and things but in in a fast.
16:38.30
vigorbranding
Um, if the people from otter box are listening We we are yeah.
16:48.85
Lauren Fernandez
Casual environment. That’s not really, it’s that’s more of a qsr quick service thing. So but.
16:51.96
vigorbranding
Yeah, and so I don’t know if you’re ah, fully prepared to answer this. It’s kind of a a ringer but it’s just it makes a lot of sense I think when we start to look at like restaurant design as we’re talking about the disrepair. There’s a lot of things that can be done and should be done early on with that and and in in mind.
17:00.67
Lauren Fernandez
You for.
17:10.63
vigorbranding
But I fear that a lot of architects and tear designers leaders. They they just get so hung up on the aesthetic that they don’t really think about that. A good example is um, a friend of mine Chris Smith from ah Zunzi’s was kind of to share this anecdote. Um, when he was a 5 guys franchisee.
17:13.43
Lauren Fernandez
Wou. Yeah.
17:27.71
vigorbranding
He’s like he started measuring the amount of time it took at the end of almost every shift to have a little touchup bottle and repaint all of the nicks on the red chairs that were the original Spec Um, and it actually adds up and it and it’s pretty bad but counter to that because that was probably a decision made.
17:29.77
Lauren Fernandez
Ah, oh.
17:39.10
Lauren Fernandez
Death. Oh.
17:47.36
Lauren Fernandez
Who.
17:47.47
vigorbranding
Maybe economically but also aesthetically there’s also the cheap route so we worked with a ah team and in the the gentleman who’s now retired dead set on vinyl Everything It’s like just get it vinyl vinyl print it throw it on the wall that was his solution and it’s like cheap it fades.
17:56.99
Lauren Fernandez
Ah.
18:06.18
Lauren Fernandez
Um, yeah.
18:06.96
vigorbranding
It starts to look bad and then you have to replace and it just looks cheap anyway. But um, how do you go about? Do you get into those conversations with clients of full course. Okay, how do you approach that.
18:14.16
Lauren Fernandez
Yes, yes, yeah, so first and foremost when we invest in restaurants we have our own designers that we use and they are all folks that we’ve worked with who understand my mission on this. So. Anything that we use in the restaurants has to be highly durable usually with an outdoor quality finish and we often do not order custom. Um, you can customize certain types of furniture. And fixtures but generally speaking adds an additional expense. So if you can spend a little more time and energy making sure the holistically that the design feels custom and speaks to the Brand’s story purpose Mission you’re Good. You’re golden right? You don’t need to necessarily pay an extra $300 to have. The lamps powder-coated in the exact right color of blue right? like maybe they could just be white or black and you put the blue somewhere else that you can do with paint. So I think we’re very attuned to efficient spend when we’re building out these units because None of all.
19:08.60
vigorbranding
Um, it.
19:24.47
Lauren Fernandez
When their company stores you’re looking for durability of finishing you’re testing these things right? You’re making sure that they’re they’re with accessible products that they’re not going to go out of inventory that you can get them quickly. You know I think durability is very important so you’re looking at efficient spend durability and you know is it communicating the brand purpose. Look you know at the end of the day you also have to think about you’re going to franchise this thing you need to think about. It’s a franchisee’s dollars at some point it’s nickels and pennies that they’ve scraped together to make this business a reality and you have to be mindful of that.
19:47.68
vigorbranding
Um, and then.
20:00.50
Lauren Fernandez
And I think one of the things that just makes me absolutely cringe is when you see these builds on franchise models for quick service or fast casual. Go north of a million dollars and I understand that sometimes that needs to happen. You know when it’s a dirt up build when there’s a drive-through involved and there are reasons that that happens.
20:14.42
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
20:18.94
Lauren Fernandez
But do you need granite on the countertop I don’t think so I just don’t think so I’m going to challenge that I I think you can do a really beautiful laminate countertop that gets you there you know so you know I think being very thoughtful about the furnitures the fixtures and the equipment from the very beginning are absolutely critical.
20:19.68
vigorbranding
Are.
20:36.77
Lauren Fernandez
And it’s where a lot of franchisors frankly make a mistake. Um, they’ll outsource that and sometimes they’ll even outsource it to the vendor the very vendor who’s supplying the Ff and E now you tell me is that vendor going to be selling you top of the line everything. Yeah because they’re incentivized to you.
20:45.45
vigorbranding
Are.
20:54.77
Lauren Fernandez
Or are they going to be looking for the most economical and efficient choice for your franchisees. So yes, you better believe that we spend a lot of time in energy designing these restaurants so that they communicate the values of the brand but in an efficient and effective manner.
21:08.10
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that it’s ah it’s funny sometimes the the easy path that’s taken is rarely the good 1 but counterintuitive or not Counterintuly. But in that same vein if you want to find a way to save money talk to your franchisees right? They will find a way. Yeah to find comparable finishes.
21:21.55
Lauren Fernandez
Mo Oh yeah, oh yeah, I Still yeah even when it comes to repairing certain things so we had all these booths in our restaurants At one point that started to Sag and they weren’t built with the proper Springs or foam and.
21:27.94
vigorbranding
Ah, for better or for worse.
21:41.50
Lauren Fernandez
You know when we went to go price replacements. It was like ten fifteen thousand dollars to get new booths and they were just a standard black booth. So immediately we started figuring out. Okay can we can we find a standard issue black booth somewhere else or should we repair the ones we have and we found a local vinyl guy who was like listen.
21:46.15
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
22:00.77
Lauren Fernandez
I can reengineer these and I can do x y and z and for $4000 I can redo all of these booths and you won’t call me again for 6 years and we’re like we’re in. Let’s do it. So sometimes the answer is finding something stock. Sometimes it’s like finding a solution from another franchisee and sometimes it’s going to local vendors where you’re like can you help me here’s my problem because that guy had been doing vinyl for 30 years and knew what he was doing you know and knew immediately that the original boost we had bought were not engineered for the type of.
22:25.73
vigorbranding
I Love that? yeah.
22:32.62
Lauren Fernandez
Repeated use that we were putting on them every day right? So helped us fix it and in a much more cost efficient way.
22:37.68
vigorbranding
Yeah I think the the nightmare list is is long and ever growing with the ah poor selections that have been made from the interiors as well as even from the brand the whole way down. Um, like you said like a lot of these places are bootstrapped. They started. They.
22:46.99
Lauren Fernandez
Boom The column.
22:52.93
Lauren Fernandez
Well.
22:53.64
vigorbranding
They found a spark they then grow but they haven’t really considered these things. Um, but you mentioned the investment in the ongoing investment I do want to hop into that. So what does restaurant investment look like.
22:57.91
Lauren Fernandez
Um, yeah.
23:06.39
vigorbranding
In this current economic environment at the time of this recording. We just found out. We’re a 9.1% inflation we’re probably in the throes of recession already. How does this look compared to ten years ago what’s better What’s worse and where are we going at this point.
23:06.40
Lauren Fernandez
From ah.
23:18.27
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah, so you know what’s really interesting is one of our strategies at full course for staying in the lane of fast casual is that it’s fairly recession-proof and what happens is Consumer behavior in an inflationary process changes a little bit Right. You don’t stop going out to eat you just trade down and maybe instead of eating at a finer dining establishment for lunch. You’ll trade down into fast casual. Um you may not order the drink at lunch or the dessert right. So There’s a lot of ways to hedge against it within the fast casual kind of lane. Um I think personally that fast casuals got a lot more flexibility in that type of Execution. You can dial back your labor by dialing back on the service level. You can bundle and kind of create value without discounting or couponing like sometimes you see in quick Service. So I I don’t see a ton of change with our investor pool and our prospective investors with respect to their interest in investing in the category.
24:15.38
vigorbranding
Is it.
24:28.84
Lauren Fernandez
I think most sophisticated investors understand that food is here to stay. The population is growing year over year and indeed if you look back to the period of 2006 to 2009 and everything that was going on in that time. Fast casual.
24:37.76
vigorbranding
And.
24:46.91
Lauren Fernandez
Was quote flat and it’s year over year growth even at 3 So it’s growing as a segment um, just because of the sheer growth of our population and the fact that people don’t stop eating out even during the pandemic. We didn’t we were ordering in like crazy right.
25:04.16
vigorbranding
And here.
25:06.78
Lauren Fernandez
So you know that’s an important thing to remember you know I think secondly um, people will cut spending in a lot of places Joseph but food isn’t one of them because we all need that moment of community. We need that moment to go out and get a break from being at home. Especially if you’re working at home like we do um and you need those opportunities to connect not just you know to other people but culturally with the opportunities to try food from all over the place. It’s a way to kind of travel without traveling sometimes.
25:26.40
vigorbranding
That’s right.
25:39.58
Lauren Fernandez
And I think that that’s here to stay so you know honestly if anything it’s slightly improved our ability to raise capital in this environment I know that that sounds crazy but it’s because what we’re doing has such enormous upside. Not just for.
25:39.60
vigorbranding
Oh.
25:56.84
Lauren Fernandez
The clients that we invest in and develop. But for our investors as well.
26:00.22
vigorbranding
I Love that? Yeah um, yeah I’m seeing the the good and the bad happen right now as the effects of cost of goods therefore affect pricing behavioral changes How how much people are eating out full service restaurants versus quickserve.
26:06.30
Lauren Fernandez
Oh.
26:19.20
Lauren Fernandez
Boo.
26:19.48
vigorbranding
Um, what are some of the components that you’re looking for in a restaurant concept before you invest before full course takes action.
26:24.65
Lauren Fernandez
Right? Great question so we run all of our clients or prospective clients through an initial assessment and we evaluate some pretty quantitative measures for the business that run from financial to the folks they have on their team. Their people organization. Their marketing strategies their points of differentiation Cetera right? We’re really looking for operational viability and we’re looking for opportunities where we can add value by improving on their best practices making some recommendations on profitability and efficiency etc. But really all’ll.
26:46.57
vigorbranding
Yeah.
27:02.95
Lauren Fernandez
Submit to you that the most important thing are the qualitative things that we look for and our model is so dependent on that collaboration between full course and the development team and the investors and our owner operators who run the business on a daily basis that you know.
27:06.78
vigorbranding
And.
27:22.77
Lauren Fernandez
Working with an owner operator who’s willing to grow and genuinely wants to stretch the brand in those directions is sort of number one I think we’re looking for people who have the current or the future potential to be a strong brand leader. And that we can foster and nurture that through our education our coaching our mentorship and our leadership development program and I think we’re looking for that humility Again. We’ve all been there and we understand we have a high level of empathy for all of our clients.
27:49.75
vigorbranding
Um, in here.
27:58.30
Lauren Fernandez
But we’re also looking for that humility where they’re willing to take our advice. They’re willing to be collaborative and they’re willing to learn and to stretch themselves and I would I would say this you could have the best numbers on the planet. And you would not be selected as a target for investment in full course unless you have those things. Oh.
28:15.82
vigorbranding
I Love that? Yeah, it’s It’s so important to be that discerning I mean we we’ve all run into restaurant chairs that know everything which is such a blessing to meet them. You know to to have that font and wealth of knowledge and be infallible. Um, so.
28:30.37
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah, well I’ll say this Joseph if you know everything you don’t need us. That’s our value ad you can go get capital somewhere else where full course differentiates itself is we take a minority position. We respect owners we leave them in control of the business. It is a collaborative effort.
28:37.18
vigorbranding
That’s right.
28:49.95
Lauren Fernandez
And so much of that is us growing together and that includes having an acceptance that that’s what life is about. We’re here every day learning something new and that’s just I think a personal and professional philosophy.
28:55.39
vigorbranding
Right.
29:03.79
Lauren Fernandez
So we need that kind of alignment for it to work and if not I’d be happy to refer you to another investment firm. Yes, there are yes there are.
29:07.88
vigorbranding
Yeah, that’s right, there’s plenty of them out there God knows I love that So this this is where I ask you to kind of look into the proverbial crystal ball. Um, what do? what do you think is on the horizon for restaurant brands and sustained growth. Um.
29:17.82
Lauren Fernandez
More.
29:27.68
vigorbranding
What what are some of the challenge. How how do we overcome some of these challenges that we just mentioned previously and ah yeah, what do you? think’s coming.
29:33.87
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah, So what? I think we will see is cementing of a lot of these lessons we learned during the pandemic being better to our people in the way that we treat them so not just how we recruit them. But how we retain them with meaningful careers. Meaningful benefits and you know, really good on the job training. Um, and that’s a reciprocal that’s a give and take so I think number one we will see more investment in people in long-term careers in the industry and I and I say that optimistically and hopefully as much as I I think we desperately need that.
30:11.10
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
30:12.61
Lauren Fernandez
Um I think number 2 um the pandemic accelerated an openness and willingness for restaurant tours especially in finer dining to explore alternative revenue streams for the restaurant and this is actually something near and dear to my heart which is when I first conceived of the idea for full course initially I thought. Well this is a no-brainer. Every restaurant should have a product line. Every restaurant should have branded goods in the marketplace. It just makes sense and you know that to me was bolt on revenue for the restaurant and now indeed the full course course approach to investment has. For separate revenue channels for every brand that we develop and that’s very important to the financial stability of the restaurant brand and its ability to bootstrap and grow out of its own revenue streams in the future not to mention just you know good business right. So you know I think that we’re going to see more of that as a lot of restau tours during the pandemic got comfortable with catering off-premise sales pop-ups um, you know, cottage industry ah product lines that they were pushing out the front door of the restaurant right? So I think we’re going to see more of that. Um. I also optimistically am going to put out there that I think we’re going to see a lot more diversity in the brands that we’re bringing forward so historically private equity investments in the restaurant industry have supported the foods that we all are used to seeing pizzas burgers tacos. More ice cream. You know more donuts et cetera and there is nothing wrong with that I love all of those food groups. Um, don’t we all? Um, but I think that if you really look at it. There’s been a recent trend in the last few years
31:48.40
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yup.
31:56.86
Lauren Fernandez
To embrace foods that come from different regions and cultures of the United States and indeed around the world. Whether that’s ramen or poke bowls or what have you and I think and I hope that we’ll see more of that. Um I saw for example, just this last year the most
32:05.46
vigorbranding
Um.
32:15.24
Lauren Fernandez
Popularly searched food on Instagram was indian food and I love that I think we’re you know all the ordering in we did over the pandemic. Maybe we got a little bored and we’re willing to embrace some concepts that have more cultural variability and represent what this country really looks like.
32:16.94
vigorbranding
And.
32:33.17
Lauren Fernandez
And frankly, that’s one of the reasons at full course we make a point to invest in those brands that truly represent that type type of cultural diversity. So I hope we see more of that I’m very optimistic but I’m also part of that change. That’s a little self-serving of a comment.
32:42.38
vigorbranding
Yeah, no I love it too. I mean I think you know the the food that we eat like you said our staples here and ah, what I’ll call the American diet. Um, they’re they’re delicious. Um, but I think you know even in the book that I wrote I’m like we don’t need another burrito.
32:52.24
Lauren Fernandez
Um, woman. Oh.
33:01.19
vigorbranding
Like I got a burrito I know where I’m going to get my burrito. You know I don’t need another hamburger place and know yours is not better. Um, you know what we need is something fresh. We need something. Ah that is I don’t want to say pioneering but that is bringing something.
33:04.63
Lauren Fernandez
Um, who this? ah.
33:17.81
vigorbranding
Different to market. So yes, maybe maybe it is a hamburger maybe but maybe it’s an indian-s inspired hamburger or something just new flavors and we have ah a youthful, um the the next generations are very well traveled culinarily speaking.
33:21.85
Lauren Fernandez
Right.
33:30.11
Lauren Fernandez
Yes, and there’s a lot more acceptance and variety of culinary. Let’s say culinary exploration by nature of the fact that we have all of these Tv programs now you know when Anthony Bourdain started his many Tv series. That was kind of revolutionary I mean you know Julia Childs was revolutionary in putting food on television. So we’ve come a long way from how to cook a chicken all the way through to going around the world with an Anthony Bourdain -styled host to teach us about culinary.
33:59.53
vigorbranding
Um.
34:09.16
Lauren Fernandez
Points of view from all around the world and I think there’s so many opportunities to bridge cultures and cultural divides with food you know, um chef jj up in New York has a great restaurant called field trip and it’s kind of based on this premise is.
34:22.69
vigorbranding
And.
34:26.39
Lauren Fernandez
Every culture in the world has a rice-based bowl or some type of rice-based food and we can embrace how so many cultures have some kind of protein wrapped in a type of flatbread. There’s so much similarity and that can be a wonderful.
34:33.70
vigorbranding
Yep.
34:45.44
Lauren Fernandez
View into other cultures to help children and everyone understand that we’re not as different as you may think the flavor profiles may shift a little bit based on where you are in the world and what’s available to you for spices and seasonings and fruits and vegetables. But at its core.
34:53.30
vigorbranding
That’s right.
35:03.77
Lauren Fernandez
Our cultures are not that different when it comes to food so food can be a great bridge just a wonderful bridge.
35:08.31
vigorbranding
Well, there’s nothing nothing better than just coming together at the table I mean everyone makes fun of the Thanksgiving arguments with family but um I really do think that dining together is a way to disarm any argument. You know, just.
35:20.75
Lauren Fernandez
Is isn’t it that what was always one of my favorite Hacks So I will let you in on a little lawyer secret is whenever there was a tough negotiation even if it was you know everyone was on the same page about getting a deal done.
35:23.42
vigorbranding
If not for any other reason, but you got something in your mouth so you can’t say something stupid right.
35:39.64
Lauren Fernandez
Bumping those meetings up against lunch where there was a necessary break for food was always a win because it’s amazing. What happens when you get people around food on a table isn’t it I mean it just does something. Yeah.
35:44.87
vigorbranding
I Love that That’s right, it is. It’s beautiful. It’s something I think it’s something innately human too. It’s it’s It’s really good. Well I mean this is a great segue to the toughest question of the entire.
35:57.90
Lauren Fernandez
Are.
36:02.10
vigorbranding
Ah, interview which is if you had 1 final meal where would you eat? What would you eat and why and it could be homemade too like ah my mind’s homemade. It’s not even at a restaurant.
36:05.27
Lauren Fernandez
Oh my goodness. Okay, um, so I think one of my most life-changing experiences was the first time I ever had an authentic paia. In Spain and Northern Spain where a part of my family is from with fresh seafood and I was a teenager and I had never really eaten mussels before or shrimp with a head on it. You know or octopus and I remember.
36:35.81
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
36:41.47
Lauren Fernandez
Them coming out to the table and everyone’s used to eating it in the giant payea pans but in this particular restaurant. They actually unplayed it from the payea pan and put it into these huge heaps on the table for people to serve out almost like we do with low country boils here in the Us.
36:56.53
vigorbranding
Um I love it? Yeah yeah.
37:01.31
Lauren Fernandez
Was just so and so that experience of really connecting to my roots and having a version of paya where when I’m at home like we do chicken. It’s kid friendly. It’s easy right? like.
37:13.83
vigorbranding
Um, right.
37:16.84
Lauren Fernandez
You know it’s It’s less scary for people I do it both ways but generally we use chicken a lot right? and maybe some Sh I would definitely go back to that moment where you’re having the local infused.
37:20.16
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
37:28.41
vigorbranding
Um.
37:32.11
Lauren Fernandez
Version of a food like that that is so essential to my culture as a cuban american but also to my ah history and origin story of our cuban family is from Northern Spain and that’s I think that’s that’s that’s what I would go out on I think so.
37:47.28
vigorbranding
I Love it. That’s amazing. Well this is this has been so insightful I feel like we should probably do another episode very soon. There’s so much to talk about. Thank you so much for making the time making this happen and yeah, we’ll talk to you real soon.
37:50.17
Lauren Fernandez
Yeah.
37:55.90
Lauren Fernandez
I’m in I’m in of course of course, Thank you so much for having me. It was an absolute pleasure. Let’s do it again.
