The Road to the Dallas 100™ – Free Range Concepts

Yeah. There's two in Houston, and then there's one here in Dallas, and then we're, under construction here in Scottsdale, Denver, and and K. San Diego. Yeah. We are. We're out on the water. It's cool. Any questions for me? Nope. Before we jump in? Nope. Not at all. Cool. Ready to do this. Y'all y'all know your favorite interviews, so he's more the I don't wanna hook him up shirt. I think you're good. But when he's when I'm not, then I just hit him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't be alright. It's actually worked out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You only really froze. The once. Once. And it was our It's actually on that video that they, opening of Houston Oh, yeah. Where we're doing a television spot there. I thought I heard Oh, yeah. No. I was talking about ours. You buckled in because we're about to hit the road, and we're ready to go zero to one hundred. What's going on y'all? Happy Tuesday. I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b, and welcome to another episode of the road to the Dallas one hundred. Episode one of season two, the biggest show in Dallas since Dallas. We're keeping the same fun intros to keep you on your toes, folks. Brought to you in collaboration between Market Scale and SMU's Cox School of Business. We're so excited to be back with another episode, another season of the road to the Dallas one hundred. If this is your first time joining us, welcome. The road to the Dallas one hundred is a precursor to the SMU Cox Dallas one hundred Awards, where we showcase the stories behind the fastest growing privately held companies in the Dallas area and beyond, celebrating the company's founders, their achievements, their stories and business journeys and challenges so that you can learn from Dallas' best. You can take the keys and get behind the wheel to pave your own road to the Dallas one hundred. Alright, folks. Let's hit the gas. We've got a great conversation today. Who are we showcasing on episode one of season two of the show? Well, you know how they say don't room with your best friends and don't start a business with your best friends? Imagine doing both and going from college roomies to two of the most successful restaurant and hospitality entrepreneurs in DFW. Well, today's guests are the cofounders of Free Range Concepts, a family of restaurants and hospitality brands with a mission to create remarkable stories and memories for every stakeholder, whether it's guest, team member, vendor partner, you name it. They bring decades of experience to the industry. They boast successful multimillion dollar concepts from the rustic to bowl and barrel, mutts, and more, and we're here to tell their story. So I'm pleased to welcome our two guests here for the day. Welcome to the two of you. We're joined by mister Kyle Noonan and Josh Sepkowitz, cofounders of Free Range Concepts. Kyle, Josh, welcome to the show. How y'all doing today? Thanks for having us. Although you kinda freaked me out. You said decades of experience, and that made me realize how how old I am. Oh, right? Then we have to add us together. That's right. Yeah. Right. Combined. I'm sorry. I should have added the combined asterisk. No. But, I mean, you know, what's incredible is that even though y'all have, you know, now been in the game for several years, y'all's journey to success is so invigorating. The kind of success y'all found early were then able to learn from and capitalize on is something that, you know, I don't think a lot of restaurant brands can, you know, hang their hat on. And so I'm really excited to tell y'all story and learn from y'all's camaraderie, because as I found in my career, there's nothing better than getting to work with a partner and executing on something powerful. You know? It's fun to do it alone, but it's more fun to do it with someone you trust. Indeed. And I'm I'm glad we, we don't listen to sound advice. Yeah. Sure. Don't do business with your friend. Right. And don't get into the restaurant business as well. Oh, no. Yeah. Right. And we just dove head first into both. And dive into huge big big restaurant. That's right. Bad advice squared. Means to success apparently. I love it. I guess so. I love it. Alright, guys. Let's jump in and tell your story. So per usual with our show, we like to, paint a bit of a a timeline narrative here. Right? And capture the key moments that define our, guests, you know, journey to entrepreneurship and success. So let's start with the early days. Right? You weren't always entrepreneurs. Josh, we'll start with you. Were you always the fiery risk taker that we see today? Definitely not the fiery risk taker. I was the risk averse, investment banker of the two of us. I I started off as a finance major, went to New York, thought I'd be a company guy forever, and came back to Dallas, worked for a private equity firm, ended up getting laid off, and decided I wanted to cute you were there. I am cute there. That was, in New York at when I was working at Merrill Lynch. But, yeah. After a while, I wanted to create something of my own and and take my own life into my own hands. And, who better to do it within him? But yeah. No. I was I started off not thinking I'd ever be an entrepreneur Yeah. Frankly. Yeah. And I mean, as we see, you know, the journey to entrepreneurship is different for every single person. I know for you, Kyle, your journey to entrepreneurship started a bit earlier. Mhmm. Right? Your mom actually was a business owner herself. So you got to see a little bit of that entrepreneurship spirit and the operation even, you know, under your household as an early, you know, young strapping lad. So tell us a little bit about those early days. Right? What was it like having a family in the business? Did it inspire you? Did it plant that seed? Tell us a little bit about that. So I had two very interesting perspectives. My my my mother was an entrepreneur. My dad was a company man. K. And he he was a corporate guy. And, he's you know, there's a there's a there's a there's a approach to life and approach to a personality that that lends you to either be willing to be an entrepreneur or be a company man. Right. And there's no wrong way to do to do either. Right. Both are very viable paths, but I found myself being much more intrigued by what my mother was doing than what my father was doing. Yeah. And what was it that sparked your curiosity or got you fiery? I think the the the creative side of it, the the the ability to say, okay. I wanna do this for my business, and I have this idea for for for a for a path forward, versus these are the rules you follow the company and you you show up at this time and you do this and and there's not a lot of thinking, there's just a lot of doing. Yeah. I thought the creative side was a lot more compelling. So basically, work on your own schedule, make your own make your own time. That's right. I love it. That's right. And again, being a company man, there's nothing wrong with that. For sure. Yeah. That's you know, but you just You're also a very creative guy. I am. Yes. I was an art major in college. So I I'm certainly right brained. He's left brained. That's one of the reasons why we're such a great partnership with Printrep. Well, speaking of, you know, y'all meet in college. And before you were business partners, you were roommates. I'm curious if you could, you know, reminisce a little bit on those early days. What did you start to learn about each other as you became friends? How you started to live together? You know, around cooperation, coexistence as more than just buds, but, like, you know, partners, I guess, really, at that point once you're taking care of the kitchen together. Right? Well, I can say that we learned very quickly that we both, could stay up very late in college. Oh, yeah. Have a good time. We were we were honestly we were financially yeah. Not not so much anymore. Well, that's true. I don't know. The swag is still here. So Oh, we appreciate it. Something carried over. Yeah. But now we just we hit it off from day one. Yeah. You know, we talk all the time about how our personalities are very different. Yeah. And our skill sets are very different, but our our our values are the same and aligned. And so that just from day one made a lot of sense for our relationship, and and it has been carried over into our business relationship too. But I didn't make our room the coolest room on me. No. No. No. No. You made our room the coolest room on campus by Yes. I I, I I got a bright idea that I wanted we wanted our room to be the party room, so we decorated it and I painted it deep deep red and, it was cool. For the vibes. Yeah. And it was known as the red room. The red room. On on campus. Ominous? That's right. Yeah. I remember when we when we then had to paint it back when they got when they got irritated, when the school got irritated. It was fun. It was a good time. I I love that. I love it's both the coolest room on campus, and also we can't have that. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I love that. So, okay. You're roommates. Right? You you both, start to develop a a friendship that's very natural, very collaborative. And, from what it sounds like, that really got to take on a new form when you both stepped into leadership at Fiji. Right? At your fraternity there at SMU. So you step into the organization at a time where it's in a rough spot. Right? To say the least. And it's kind of a time where you both are presented with an opportunity for leadership. It's thrust upon you, and you have to make the most with what you've got. Right? Tell us a little bit about that era and the challenges that you faced, you know, having to collaborate as leadership and make the most of a difficult situation. Yeah. I mean, for me, I I would say, that that really probably started our skill set and our knowledge base of how to lead people. Yeah. We were brand new just coming out of pledgeship, kids, eighteen years old. Eighteen years old. And the senior leadership at the at the time was, they they were having trouble. Yeah. To say the least. Yeah. And so we just kinda looked at each other and we're like, well, I mean, we're members of the fraternity, so somebody's gotta do it and it might as well be us. And, getting getting a united front and getting everybody to kinda pull together in the same direction is something we I've always been good at. Yeah. And it started there. And I guess that desire, we've been leaders in different organizations even out, whether that be, Fiji, our own companies, or other organizations. The rest you know, Dallas Restaurant Association for you and some others for me. But, that's something that we've always gravitated towards ever since we were young. What did y'all notice about you know, once you were in that position where you had to, you know, not just collaborate as friends, but collaborate with the weight of an organization on your backs. Right? What were some ways that y'all found that you collaborated well? Complimentary skills that y'all saw in each other that made you both better leaders. Sure. Well, I will tell you, we're we're fondly or effectively known as in our company as I'm I'm the gas and he's the brakes. Yeah. You need both. Yeah. You need both. And it and it and it's so true. So that that's part of it. Again, our our our skill sets, and our just kind of our personalities, really yin yang complement each other. And I don't know what else would you say. Well, you know, like, I I can I can go back to meetings with either administrators at school, and Kyle would go in and just try to hammer it? And I'm like, well, maybe we, you know, let's just take a little bit, listen to what they have to say. And, you know, so we've we've we've, had that kind of relationship. You're saying I'm a hard, a hothead? Which is pretty good. You are a very good negotiator, but you are you just have a different style than I do. So, Fierce leadership, diplomacy combined That's right. Sounds like That's right. A strong court. Maybe good pack. Good cop, bad cop. Sometimes sometimes it's, it's it's it's not staged, but it's, it's it's it's important to have. Yeah. Definitely. Well, cool. I mean, obviously, y'all's success is is spoken for to some degree, but we're going to get into the nitty gritty of, launching the business here in a second. Before that though, you all spent some time not in entrepreneurship. Right? Obviously, you both had it was around a decade Mhmm. Of of a career before you came together and joined forces for free range concepts. So, Josh, you worked at a real estate focused PE firm for several years. Right? Here in Dallas. Kyle, you spent a decade, at a restaurant company. Right? You were the GM of the largest Papa Do in the country. That's right. In Chicago. Right? And the youngest GM. That's right. So Initially. And then I and then I graduated. Yeah. Well, yeah. I I, I I I eventually started, took over the Pappadeaux and Pappasito's brands for for Pappas restaurants. Right. I'm in ran both of those brands. So restaurant and hospitality, leadership experience leadership experience as well outside of the industry. Tell us a little bit about the most important professional lessons you learned in those ten years. Let's start with you. Yeah. For me and, I worked for a a gentleman, Mort Meyerson. A lot of people know him in Dallas. In the The Symphony Center. The the Meyerson Symphony Center. And he's always been a very, very values based individual Okay. And still is today. And I think him instilling, the importance of values, the importance of giving back, the importance of doing, things for others was, was formative. And, you know, as you start to you as you start your own business, you know, you you come up with a mission statement. You might come up with some values, but it isn't really until a little bit later where you really under understand the importance of those Mhmm. And honing those and making sure that you're hiring based on those. And that Right. He and I are making decisions as well as every every manager that we have are making decisions based on our values and our mission statement. And so it was something I learned early in my professional career because it was more more my son really hammered that home. But it wasn't until, I don't know, maybe five or six years ago where it really, I don't know, really hit home in terms of our own business for me. And that was that was probably the one of the core things that has translated into, I think, our business today and the success today and just being really values based and purpose based. Love that. Yeah. You know, and adding on to that, I think that that's one of the things that I I would say as an organization, we do really well. Mhmm. Everybody in our on our team, all all twelve hundred team members can tell you what our mission statement is Yeah. Immediately. We all talk about it. We all know why we're doing what we do. And, the culture piece is is really, something I'm proud of, and I know you are too. As far as me, to answer your question though, you know, being an art major, being more the creative side, what I gained from working for an organization like Pappas restaurants is is structure. And and they were able to teach me how to structure an organization to where it it it it's a healthy organization. It works well. It's compatible. Kind of not not different not that different than the military. You know, just very structured. Yeah. And everybody knows their role, and everybody understands it, and everybody has the tools that they need to perform their job. That's what I really, just I mean, you know, it it complemented what I was lacking as a as a business leader. Yeah. Well and I'm I'm sure you got to see, you know, what it takes to execute scale Yes. Like, in practice. Right? Which as we'll get into in a little bit, maybe with some of the inspiration to within the first, you know, year of your business already opening three different concepts and juggling executive leadership for that. Right? You know, what was, what was formative about that kind of environment where you played, you know, you didn't play the man wearing every hat, but rather you were executing on focused leadership in a focused environment for a team with very clear cut tasks. How did that kinda define, you know, your outlook for what it takes to run a successful business? Yeah. I mean, you you learn very quickly that you can't do every job. Right. You wanna you wanna understand every job. You know, you wanna be able to to to teach those those positions of those jobs, but you have to be able to execute the business work by working through people. And I I see that a lot with struggling smaller businesses as the owner, the proprietor wants to do everything because it's the you know, if you want it done right, you do it yourself kind of mentality. Yeah. And you're just you're gonna be you're gonna be putting yourself in a corner, certainly for growth, if you if you approach a business that way. Right. So that's that's probably Yeah. I mean, you gotta surround yourself with, you know, even if even if it's one store, you surround yourself with the best managers that you can in order to in order to be successful. Right. Because you can't do it all. Very true. But at the beginning, like most entrepreneurs, there is a sense of, well, we gotta we gotta do it all. That's right. And so that's why I think y'all found a lot of success is because you immediately noticed that to succeed, as entrepreneurs with such an ambitious concept is probably gonna take a little collaboration. And luckily, you didn't have to go it alone. Right? You had each other to make it happen. So let's get to that point in your careers where you decide to launch this business. You're ideating the business. Right? At some point or another, you both find yourselves at a point in life where maybe starting a business is that next challenge. Right? Paint that picture for us where y'all both were in your lives when that opportunity came into focus to launch. First, it was, bowl and barrel. Mhmm. But more generally free range. That's right. Well, for for me, I, I was unemployed. I was about to get, married, which I'm shocked that my wife still went through it. Tough enough. Yeah. Love her for it. But I was at a point where I wanted to figure out something, something to do that I that that was mine and that I could and that I could that I could build and and and do it with, my with my best friend. We came up with a bowling idea. At that point in time, we did I didn't have any kids. You had two kids. So we were sort of at at very different, financial places in life. So we, he had to make some really much more difficult decisions than maybe I had to do on the financial side. But, we ended up starting the business, in his, office at his house, and we were ideating there. And, actually, we were talking about more than just bowl and barrel. We were talking about nuts, and we were talking about rustic. And we were creating manuals for training and doing lots of We did it every year. We did a ton of things, that that we got done in a year that that really helped us to open that first and second and third restaurant even though they were in the first nine months of our career. Yeah. I wouldn't recommend that. Yeah. That's that's the ambitious concept. That's that fire in you. You know? It can't be tamed. So did you come to him with a a bowling concept? I guess, what were those first conversations? No. So, you know, we had always talked about doing something together. We didn't know what. K. You know, from our college days, we knew we worked well together. Sure. But, you know, I was at that same time in my career, I had a great job with Pappas. The the owners of the company, it's privately owned company, by two brothers. They they called me one day. I was living in Chicago at the time, and they said, can you come down and have dinner with us? And I said, sure. So I flew down to Houston where they're based out of. And they said they took me to dinner and said, look, Kyle. We we love you. You will always have a great place in this company as long as you want it. But we also know you're an ambitious guy, and we wanna be fair to you and tell you this is a family owned company, and your last name isn't Pappas. So we just wanna set expectations that that you're never gonna be able to own the company. And I've you know, what a story in leadership, by the way, and integrity to to be able to you know, tell tell tell somebody that. Well, yeah. They I mean, they clearly had their vision for their brand in mind. Right? But but I'm sure that was tough to hear too as well, you know. Yeah. It it was and it wasn't because at that time, you know, I I wasn't expecting anything. And I've I mean, I wasn't, you know, I I had no expectations. Right. I was I think I was about thirty, thirty one at the time. And, so I, you know, I sat on it for a year. And he called me and he goes, hey, you wanna go bowling? And I was like, sure. Let's go bowling. Where where do we go bowling? And we realized there wasn't a bowling alley close to our house that or in a good neighborhood that we wanted to be in. And so he he was like, well, maybe this is our maybe this is our launching point. And so he went and hired a consultant, a bowling consultant because we didn't know anything about about the business. Yeah. And it turns out where we where we lived in Dallas needed a bowling alley, and so that was you know, I gave my notice the next day. Wow. And, you know, I bet it was also to some degree inspiring that, you know, to be told, hey. Unfortunately, you don't have the family name, so you can't be leadership. It's kinda like No. No. You well well or or or like you can't own the company. Right? It's kinda like, oh, was there a chance maybe I could own the company? You know what I mean? Like, it's not to to some degree, it's like, you know, there's one thing getting in the way, but in every other sense, you're an incredibly valued member of this team. Right? And you can lead a scaled operation in this, industry. So taking the reins of your own operation while risk was something I'm assuming felt kinda like, okay. I'm playing a sport I'm familiar with. Right? Sure. Yeah. So as you start to get into the weeds, right, and you start to launch this concept. Okay. So you choose a bowling alley. Right? It's a need, in the, you know, general ecosystem of Dallas. People need some fun. What lessons did you learn immediately about starting a restaurant and hospitality concept in DFW? Right? What were some challenges maybe you weren't expecting that presented themselves rather quickly? Real estate? Yeah. Real estate's probably the biggest challenge, just because our our our concepts are so large. Right. I mean, we're not a, you know, two thousand square foot little cafe that can go anywhere. We're we're unique spaces, big spaces, and there's just not that many out there, that that that can accommodate us. So that was probably the biggest challenge. I I would say for me, though, it wasn't there wasn't because I had opened so many restaurants in my career at that point. Right. That was the easy part. You know, I was able to spend the ten the ten plus years, kinda honing my craft, building my knowledge base. The the the restaurant side came fairly easy. It was the it was the the other stuff, like Yeah. Real estate. And since I had worked for a real estate focused private equity firm, I was pretty, well versed in most things, whether those be leases, partnership agreements. Those sorts of this was a legal stuff kinda fell to me. Nice. But we learned a lot about it, and I learned a lot about the restaurant side of things. But you can if if you have a a piece of real estate, you can change the brand if you need to someday. But you you can't ever change the the length that you've got. So you you you better be smart on, what is it, location, location, location. That really is true for restaurants. I I will say that probably now that I'm reflecting on it, the going from eight thousand employees to him and I Yeah. You realize that you don't have the infrastructure. You might have the ideas, and you might have the plan, and you might have the the manuals and all that stuff, but you just don't have the the money and the manpower to to do stuff. So there you you you have to get scrappy in the early days. Yeah. And we did. So what was your approach to that? Was it try to build a team early that would help you execute? Or was it, you know, set more achievable initial goals, hit those, and and then build off of those to reach the size of your goal. Nothing, reasonable or achievable in our goals initially. In fact, a a friend of mine in the business who very successful restaurant tour, when I was showing him what we were doing, he his only words were, wow. That's really ambitious. Well, and and and the reality is there's also no money to hire a team. That's yeah. Right? I mean, so it is, it it's us at the beginning. I mean It's a dam with a hundred holes in it, and you've only got we've only got ten fingers, so you're just kinda running around trying to plug the holes until until you can maybe bring one person on and add ten more finger, you know. Right. So it is that balancing act. But that's I think that's the case whether you're a start up, whether you're going all the different evolutions in the business when you're going from, you know, a small business to a a medium sized business to a to maybe a a company to maybe a big company. There's all these jumps, and it typically you don't have the resources whether whether the human is it human capital or the or the actual capital to do that jump before you meet, you know. Yeah. You have to overhire. And by that, I don't mean the number of people. But at some point, you have to make the decision. Okay. We're going to, this was just individually. We're going to make less money Yeah. To hire somebody that maybe we don't need today, but we need in a year. Mhmm. And if you don't do that, if you don't make that over hire and you have to do it in a number of different areas as you as you, mature as a company, you'll fail. Yeah. Well, that takes a considerable amount of foresight, and the ability to gauge where the incoming challenges in scale are going to be for your business. How'd you fine tune that sixth sense, over the years? Have we? I I think so. We've made some we in in the last, twelve to eight twelve to twenty four months, I think that we have made some of our, key hires and will take us, for the next, five, six, seven years. Wow. And so I I think we've learned. Yeah. But, you know, early on, we learned it kinda too late. But in having three concepts and doing almost twenty million dollars in revenue within nine months, we were just kinda hanging on. Like and I don't mean hanging on financially. We're just, like, hanging on to this Yeah. We had the tiger by the tail. Bonking bull. Yeah. Tiger by the tail. And then once we had a time to reflect briefly, we started to look Yeah. At bringing some people on. Yeah. Yeah. It it became I mean, and our president, the president of our company, knew when we were hiring him that we did not need him for today's job. We needed him four or five years from now. Right. And he knew that, but he also believed in our vision and our growth plan. And and, fortunately for us, it's actually exceeded what he what he thought in in the time frame that we've done it. So, Well, just the ability to the ability to build your team out with that future in mind is powerful because the last thing you want is to be suddenly met with scale that you're not capable of meeting, you know, or or, you know, executing on. Mhmm. And what's pretty cool about y'all story is that you kinda have that learning lesson immediately, like, day one launching a successful business that was almost too popular, which Yeah. It was successful in in revenue. It was not successful in execution. We we got, hit by a runaway freight train. Oh, we were bad. It was fifteen hundred people came to our grand opening, at Bowland Barrel. Which is huge. And then nine months later, twenty eight hundred people came to our grand opening at the Rustic. Wow. And we like we just talked about, we didn't have the infrastructure and the team, the depth. Right. You know? And we'll we'll get into that specific sort of, story. I'd love to hear more about that. But I do I oh, sorry. Oh, no. Please don't. Think the success at Bowl and Barrel then just made us ready to go. Yeah. Ready to rock ready to rock and roll and go hit the other ones. You know, I I don't know and, what it's like to open a restaurant and have nobody come, but that would be Yeah. I mean Oh my god. That's a good nightmare you've never had to That's a good nightmare that we've never had. Kyle's come up with amazing concepts, and and it's it's it's really been, we've been very, what's the word? Last. Last. Yeah. Well, and you said it yourself. Right? The concepts are strong. And I think that's evident in the interest before you ever have any customers. People are eager to be the first ones in the door. And I think that rings true for all free range concept concepts. Right? The rustic, bowl and barrel, general public, mutts. Right? I'm just curious what that formula looks like for you. Right? Because you could have opened any kind of bowling alley when you noticed that there was one that had to serve the market. It was your opportunity. But when coming up with that first concept, what was your strategy for success? And, you know, where did you lean on your own intuition? Where did you seek a little bit of consultation and direction and inspiration? Yeah. That's a good question. So I would say, you know, we we probably started with two things in every concept we create. It's let's figure out in this industry let's take bowling, for example. In this industry, what is the most difficult thing to execute? And let's be the best at that because we'll beat we'll beat competition. Nice. And so, for example, in the bowling industry, you typically think about going into a bowling alley, and it's sticky floors and bad nacho cheese and stale beer and fluorescent tube lighting and, you know, just not a very, elevated experience. Right? And so we were like, let's go in and let's not be a bowling alley that serves food. Let's be a a restaurant that has bowling. Nice. And that formula has has worked and was played out over again. Same with the Rustic. It's a it's a restaurant and bar with live music as opposed to a concert venue Right. That just sells bad hot dog concession food style stuff. Right. And so I think that's one of the, approaches that we've taken is let's take the the most difficult piece of the operation, and let's be the best in class at that. Mhmm. And then the other thing is just, you know, where where do we wanna go? What type of environment would we wanna be? What kind of food would we wanna be are eating and, you know, and and really knowing who our audience is that we're catering to. And it's very easy to know your audience that you're catering to because it's you. Yeah. Right. You know? And and and go really hard at at that that that demographic. Did y'all get out and do some, you know, field exploration of other concepts in the area or even in other, metros, right, that kinda helped show you what to do or maybe what not to do. Right? Yeah. My waistline would be a lot different if I wasn't in this business because there's a lot of r and d. There's a lot of eating out and a lot of trying competition. Gotta be a foodie. You know? That's right. Yeah. There there wasn't a lot of competition on nuts. No? That was that was that was a brand that we were first to market in the United States or the world. No one had really ever done a restaurant and bar that had a, a dog park component. Yeah. So there was really nowhere to look at for that. For bowl and barrel, we we saw some places that we liked, some places that we didn't like. And then there's really, not a lot of places that focus on food and beverage as hard as we do that also have live music, around the country. You have some bars that have live music, but they're usually their food is not very good. But I I would say one of the other things that we try to focus on is things that people are passionate about. People are passionate about music. People are passionate about their dogs. People are passionate about spending time with one another Yeah. Bowling. So I think when you when you focus on things that whether we're passionate about it, because we are passionate about those things, and then we find others. People are passionate about Tex Mex in Texas. And people are They are, baby. People are passionate about Tex Mex. So, passion plays a lot into into what we've created. And I like this idea that all your concepts seek to solve, like, a a community issue or challenge. Right? I wanna go have a good time with my friends, but I also want it to be somewhere friendly for my dog. But also, it not be like a, you know, three square meter pen in the back where I just shut it for two seconds. Yeah. Okay. I wanna go bowling, but I don't wanna go to the laser tag giant warehouse. Right? That looks like it hasn't been serviced in ten years. I want something elevated with my friends, or maybe, you know, let's mix it up. Let's not hit the golf course with our business buddies. Let's do let's do something different this time. What's available to us? That pulse on what people really want out of their community experience, I think is what's made you all so successful. But I'm curious how you then connect that with the profit side of it. Right? As you as you are looking at building a successful concept, what were some of the strategies you deployed to make sure that they weren't just cool? They didn't just spark interest, but actually, you know, created revenue and turned a profit. Yeah. I I would say we really don't focus very, very much on the bottom line. It just kinda it just happens with the economy. Like if you're if you are are a compelling brand Yeah. That gets people in the door, you the profits follow. So it's really we really focus on that guest experience and the staff experience. Both of those things are equally as important to us because, you know, if if the staff is not having a good experience being there, then the guest will never have a good experience. But, and so that's really where our focus is, strong brands and then the people component, and then the rest of it just kinda takes care of itself. Yeah. You know, you could argue we could be a little bit tighter here to, you know, I'm not sure. But, you know, if once you start focusing too much on that, you start losing what's really important about the brand, and that's the that's that's the experience that the guest is having. Definitely. Yeah. And I mean, especially in a an industry with a lot of turnover. Yeah. Right? Solving for the people puzzle, in your workforce is sort of a profit forward strategy because it's, you know, it's in the long run cutting down on your training costs, cutting down on your rehiring costs. The benefit that comes from the word-of-mouth of trusted employees referring other trusted employees. Right? How have you all seen that sort of investment in the heart of your concepts actually lead to some really, powerful business outcomes? Like what you know, the the domino effect. You you take that. I'm hitting you with a tough one. Yeah. No. No. No. No. He he oversees most of the, on the operation side. So Gotcha. Gotcha. It's Yeah. I guess, going back a a second to your point about about the the the rehiring and all that, you know, that is a tremendous cost. In fact, the the restaurant business or the restaurant industry is this country's second largest employ private employer behind only health care industry. And so it's a very people driven industry. Yeah. And, and the ratio of people to revenue revenue is very is very high Yeah. Versus, like, a tech company can be a billion dollar tech company and have ten employees. Right. Right. Or the inverse of that. So it has to be about the people, and that's where we focus on. And we talk all all the time about, a, our mission statement, and then ultimately, we're just we're people taking care of people. And that's that is what our passion is, and that's what we hire for. That's what we preach. That's what we talk about. And and that hospitality component, that desire to take care of others is really the only thing we look at. And I think I think, as you look at whether you've you've become a GM or you've become a director, making sure that those people continue to grow and that you continue to invest in them. You're not you're not just like, oh, okay. You've made it to this level where you know everything. Yeah. You have to continually invest in whether that's, especially when you get to your your senior level management, if that's, executive coaches, things things like that. Everyone needs. We need. Yeah. I mean, it's What do you mean? You're a learn if you're not a learned leader and you're not continuing to try to learn things, you're not gonna be doing it the right way, and you're not gonna be treating your employees the right way either. Yeah. I mean, I I find the best leaders are the ones that, consider themselves lifelong students. Students. Yep. That's how I try to live my life. You know? And, I I think y'all are spot on there. When you're in that mindset, you're always seeking to level yourself up. Right? That's right. And that's the best kind of motivator. So to go back to the, bowl and barrel launch. Right? Y'all have an amazing first day. The buzz for your store is already so high. I'm curious what kind of early work y'all did to build interest in your brand so that opening day was a success. Right? And what kind of strategies would you give to other entrepreneurs out there to you know, if you're going for a launch, make sure that that ribbon cutting is is hype. Right. Well, you know, I will say because of our, background at SMU, our social network in Dallas is is strong. So that helps. But I think one of the things that we found out early on, and this is kind of more of a conversation I have with our PR companies, If if we do cool things, then people talk about it and therefore people show up. Right. If you do different things and compelling things, then then, your chance of creating a buzz is gonna be a lot higher than doing something that everybody else is doing. And we talk about it all the time. If we're gonna say run a happy hour, it's just an example. Yeah. My team's gonna go out and see what happy hours and, you know, everybody's doing five dollar beers or dollar beers or whatever that is. And the natural instinct is gonna be to do that. Oh, everybody's doing half price wine. We gotta do half price wine. Right. Our instinct is go the other way and do something different. Because if you're just doing what everybody's doing, then you're gonna get lumped in the crowd and and and it become white noise. Right. But if you do something worth talking about, something remarkable Pup turn. Our pup turn is a great example. Yeah. We, we did we did an initiative for months where we, we went on a hiring, was the initiative Yeah. Where we were paying a hundred dollars an hour to pet puppies. Oh, that's yeah. Sign me. You know? And and, so we hired somebody. We we hired a gal out of Fort Worth, and her job was just to come in and play with the puppies and pet pet pet the puppies. Paid her a hundred dollars an hour. That initiative went global. I was doing interviews in London, in in Tokyo. We were I mean, it went global. Yeah. Because it's interesting. Right. The media wants to talk about it. Yeah. Paying Who's paying that much to Best best job in the world. Yep. You know? Yeah. Literally. Hundred dollars an hour to pet puppies. Yeah. It doesn't get much better than that. So doing things like that, when everybody's zigging, you're zagging. I think that that that has helped us a lot, in the markets that we don't necessarily have the same or the same social network that we do in Dallas. But that's so cool. I I love that example because I think it shows what y'all are so good at, which is being unique and giving, you know, your customer base, something, you know, exciting to enjoy that's also, you know, it kinda stands on its own as, you know, breaking the walls of the confines of your industry. But it also solves a business case in that, you know, if you're paying someone to come pet the dogs of your customers, your customers aren't just having a good time, but, like, their dogs are having a good time too. Now when they come to the restaurant, they know that like it's a it's a family experience. Family being here, their friends and their dogs, you know. But that focus on the customer and what will make them have a better time, and how can we also kind of make this a fun PR spin. I think it's what's really setting y'all apart and how you continue to grab so much buzz. So pretty cool stuff. Yeah. Thank you. I love seeing that strategy in action. You know, you mentioned this to start, and we're close to the end of the interview here. So just a few more tips and strategies for our audience. You said you launched day one. You have what was like fifteen hundred people come day one. Right? So great success on that front, but execution was just blew up in your face a little bit. Tell us a little bit about what you had to do to right the ship there. What learning lessons, you know, immediately became clear upon launching a successful brand where, you know, you was almost too successful. You almost had had too much to deal with. How do you maneuver that? Sure. I think taking ownership is is, you know, a lot of you can't you can't fix a problem that you can't face. Fair. And then a lot of humble pie. A lot of humble pie. A lot of it. Yeah. You know, we we opened in the beginning of December, and we were booked all of December. Wow. So it was it was hard to make a lot of change big changes on the fly. But once January got here, we we started to Yeah. Make some, reflect and make some really fast changes. And then, and then it was earning back people's trust. I mean It was. That was it it took you it took a couple of years, if not longer, to do that. Yeah. But we ride the ship and we learned from that. Yeah. It it you know, that concept in particular, Boland Barrel, one one thing it does have going forward is somebody always has a birthday party. Somebody always has a something. Yeah. And so if you came to came in and had a bad experience during that period Right. You might not decide to go back. But if I'm having my birthday six months later and I invite you, you're gonna come because it's my birthday. And so, you know, that helped. So we were able to get repeat business, over the course of the next year, and we were able to, show that it was a great experience and there was great value. But we had to we had to It was it was tough. Take our lumps for the first ninety days. Yeah. And, you know, then within a year, you've got three full concepts opened. Right? So you were definitely willing to take on the challenge. How did you, approach that leadership juggling act of not only executing on one solid concept, but then going from, you know, this entrepreneurial team to now having to orchestrate three very distinct concepts. Right? What was your approach to that in any strategy or We did actually, hire some people to help us. Mhmm. That were at a more senior sort of GM level rather than Kyle being the GM, me running the, I was the, Bowling mechanic. I was the bowling the bowling guy. Started out as the bowling mechanic. So I was just behind the lanes or dealing with the bowling side of things. Kyle was dealing with the entire, store as the general manager. When we did open up other, the other two locations, we brought on some people, which was key. Nice. Yeah. Nice. You know, it it it it was very important to in managing the different brands also to have brand experts in each. So there wasn't there was at least one leader in each brand and in each concept that knew that brand, that lived and breathed it. So that, there wasn't a lot of juggling between between but we were the only ones going back and forth. Right. So that helped too. We had a we had a a captain of each of each brand that we could go talk to, get a pulse on what's going on, what are what are we working on, and and then and then I would just say just twenty hour days and Yeah. And and rolling up our sleeves and getting getting in the weeds with everybody. And you you all we quickly, got to a point where we where Kyle and I had to work on the business. We also worked in the business a lot, but we had to start working on the business as well. And, hopefully, the understanding of the difference I don't know if I need to explain that. But No. But yeah. For sure. No. I I I I get what you're putting down. So then, you know, now if we look at free range concepts, y'all are a successful brand. You're not just in DFW. Right? You're across the nation. Mhmm. You have new concepts opening up, new rustics opening up. Right? That's right. You have several successful concepts, all very different, all meeting different social needs for your communities. If you had to package that up and turn it into some advice for other entrepreneurs out there who are looking to launch a hospitality brand, a restaurant brand. Right? Continue I would say don't do it. Don't do it. Run away. Sorry. Fields full, guys. No more competition. But, you know, like, when it comes to those early days of trying to build something that's gonna stand on its own two feet, where you open the door and there's there's people lining up ready to enjoy your restaurant. Right? You have a strong vision. You have a strong concept. Where would you recommend people start to make sure that they set themselves up for success, especially in this industry that has a lot of moving pieces Mhmm. And a lot of challenges? I, you know, I would I'm asked this question by a lot of people that are wanna get in the business. And I would say that the idea is about two percent of it. Interesting. Ninety eight percent is your ability to execute that idea. Yeah. And that's really the difficult part. People come all the time and say, oh, I have this idea to do this. You know, I'm gonna my my Italian grandmother makes this great pasta, and I'm gonna open an Italian restaurant. It's like, that's not that's not really how it works. Yeah. And so I think that that that's the biggest thing that I would give advice to any entrepreneur in any business is is it's about the execution side of it, not the idea. Don't don't fall in love with your idea. Fall in love with the the path and the execution and the nuts and bolts behind Right. Executing that idea. And then, just from my vantage point, it's having the capital to do it. I mean, being undercapitalized Mhmm. Is really a problem. It's a hard problem to solve when you're first getting started and you're bootstrapping it. But you've gotta make sure that you set yourself up for success, from a capital perspective. Yeah. And I guess just to, you know, get technical here, for our folks, what was y'all's approach to that? Were you raising money from angel investors? Did you, you know, do do the loan, strategy? What was y'all's approach? We actually still, have no debt. So we're debt free. We have gone and have always and and this was a strategy of I'll take ownership of the family office strategy of, utilizing, our network, well, a lot of it through SMU, to utilize Dallas and Fort or and Houston, Fort Worth and Louisiana family offices Love it. To grow our brand versus, we have done some friend friends and family, but we haven't gone either with debt or with any private equity. Nice. Congratulations. Thank you. Because not a lot of businesses can say that, especially y'all scale and success now. So whatever you're doing, it's working. And I'm excited to see y'all's growth. In a lot of ways, it feels like, you know, even though you're so successful, this next chapter of free range concepts is just getting started as you expand into new markets in the US. So I know everyone here in the DFW community is gonna be keeping an eye on y'all success. There's a lot to learn from, and we're all very proud of you. Thank you. And we're excited. Yes. And we love doing business in Dallas. Oh, yeah. And you know, I haven't been bowling barrel in a little bit, so I think I might need to get out there and Work on your game? I work on my game. Yeah. I gotta keep saying I'm like okay at bowling. Right? I gotta stay at okay. Right? That takes practice. Anyways, thank you so much to the two of you. This has been fantastic. I know our audience has learned a lot, and it's been great getting to tell the Free Range Concepts story. Again, folks, we've been chatting with Kyle Noonan and Josh Sepkowitz, cofounders at Free Range Concepts. If folks want to enjoy some of your concepts, where can we point them here in the DFW area and what's on the horizon? Well, I would say just go to free range concepts dot com and that that'll take you to all of our brands and, and follow us on social media too. Huge. I bet y'all social's popping off too. Yeah. It is good. Good. Yeah. It's like, yeah. I know it's good. That's so good. Alright, y'all. Thank you so much. This is fantastic. Real pleasure. And thank you everyone for joining us again on the road, the Dallas one hundred. Hit the road with us again next week and the rest of the summer as we showcase the stars of the DFW Metroplex leading up to the Dallas one hundred. And, of course, make sure you watch out for the winners of the d one hundred awards, the biggest celebration for successful entrepreneurs in big d. I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b. We'll catch you on the next episode of The Road to the Dallas one hundred.