How I Built This with Guy Raz

Wingstop: Antonio Swad. A Brilliant Idea — And a Nail-Biting ExitA lot of founders spend their lives chasing one big idea. Antonio Swad had two. The first? Migrating chicken wings from the Happy Hour buffet to the center of the plate. The second? Building a pizza business that catered to a very specific demographic: Latinos. That first idea became Wingstop, a deep-fried wing concept that grew to 3,000 stores. The second became Pizza Patron, a franchise that rewarded customers for ordering in Spanish, and let them pay in pesos. This is the story of how Antonio got there. He was a kid from Columbus, Ohio, working at a steakhouse straight out of high school…who eventually saw two big opportunities where no one else did. Wingstop was the breakout idea, but just as it was exploding, Antonio made a surprising decision. He sold the company. A $22 million deal. Only…the money did not materialize. What follows is one of the most surprising—and cautionary—tales we’ve told on this show: a single word buried in a contract that cost millions…and the moment Antonio realized he might never see the money he’d been promised. This episode is about instinct, risk, conviction—and why sometimes…your biggest success can lead to your biggest mistake. What you’ll learn: • Why simplicity can beat variety • in building scalable restaurants • The power—and peril—of franchising as a growth engine • How identifying an underserved customer segment • can unlock explosive growth • Why your hero product isn’t always what you think it is • (hint: it’s not the chicken) • How one word in a contract can cost millions Timestamps: • 00:09:11 – Fired from bartending for being “too intense” • 00:14:26 – Starting a pizza shop in Dallas with $11,000 • 00:18:41 – Discovering an underserved customer base, and the power of word-of-mouth • 00:23:07 – Why franchising can be the ultimate scaling strategy • 00:24:09 – How Antonio realized wings could be a massive business • 00:36:37 – A bend in the road: Why the first Wingstop struggled • 00:50:29 – A bizarre vision at a football game: What if this stadium were full of chickens? • 01:07:09 – The $22M purchase… the missing $12M, and suing to get his money • 01:20:09 – Living in the moment post Pizza Patron and Wingstop This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Olivia Rockman. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley. Follow How I Built This: Instagram → @howibuiltthis X → @HowIBuiltThis Facebook → How I Built This Follow Guy Raz: Instagram → @guy.raz Youtube → guy_raz X → @guyraz Substack → guyraz.substack.com Website → guyraz.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

829|1T 18M

Vital Farms: Matt O’Hayer. How a serial entrepreneur re-branded the eggFor decades, a dozen eggs was just… a dozen eggs. No story. No real branding. No reason to care who produced them. Then Matt O’Hayer came along and asked a question almost nobody in America was asking: what if store-bought eggs could be different? What if they tasted better, looked better, and came from hens raised in a much more humane way? The business he launched– with 20 hens and some used trailers– is now the number-one pasture-raised egg producer in the US, with a network of 600 farms, and a projected revenue of nearly $1B this year. When he started Vital Farms, Matt was in his 50s, living in an RV on the farm, and trying to convince people to pay premium prices for eggs. Before that, his passion for business drove him to pursue an astonishing range of ideas: carpet-cleaning, a barter-exchange franchise, a stint as a charter-boat captain and broker. One of his businesses left him nearly broke after 9-11, and there were many other hard lessons along the way. This is a story about metabolizing failure into success, and turning one of the most overlooked shelves in the grocery store… into a billion dollar opportunity. What you’ll learn: • The hard lessons Matt learned from 3 (+) decades of founding businesses • How 9/11 changed his life • What 4 years as a boat captain taught him about leading–and serving • How “conscious capitalism” became the blueprint for Vital Farms • Why pasture-raised eggs were a branding opportunity hiding in plain sight • How Whole Foods became an early and critical partner • Why great products grow faster when customers do your work for you Timestamps: • 07:48 – “I didn’t have 300 dollars.” Matt starts a carpet-cleaning company with no real plan • 11:31 – The barter business that taught Matt how to scale complex ideas • 17:58 – Building a travel company, taking it public, and growing it to roughly $50 million in sales • 22:57 – The morning of 9/11: Matt watches his business collapse in real time • 25:59 – Starting over, Matt becomes a charter boat captain –plus chef, teacher, and toilet-fixer • 31:16 – The blog essay that transformed how Matt thought about business • 34:19 – The lightbulb conversation: pasture-raised eggs could become a real company • 41:03 – Starting the farm in Austin: “I bought a thousand baby chicks.” • 43:58 – The first eggs taste great, but nobody wants to pay for them • 49:53 – Finally: The first Whole Foods pallet • 50:52 – A label mistake gets Vital Farms pulled from shelves • 1:03:09 – How the egg carton became one of Vital Farms’ most powerful branding tools • 1:08:24 – Why humane eggs cost more—and why Matt believes they should This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Casey Herman. —----------------- Follow How I Built This: Instagram → @howibuiltthis X → @HowIBuiltThis Facebook → How I Built This Follow Guy Raz: Instagram → @guy.raz Youtube → guy_raz X → @guyraz Substack → guyraz.substack.com Website → guyraz.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

825|1T 8M

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