20A – Growing Your Social Capital

My goal is to open a vegan fast food restaurant that provides relatively cheap, yet high quality food.
Here are the results of my networking.


1) DOMAIN EXPERT IN INDUSTRY
I spoke to the manager of a restaurant called Grill Fresh on 17th Street. They provide rather quick bowls of food by giving the customer one of a few size options and allowing them to choose what they want to go into their bowl. The manager's name was Jason Milliken. He had been with the Grill Fresh company for about 10 years, and also doubles as a business consultant specializing in starting restaurants. He is very much an expert on how this runs and, although the restaurant does not exclusively serve vegan food, he has made the choice to actively accommodate vegans as well.
I walked in and spoke to him. He was rather friendly when I told him what I was doing, and didn't actually want anything in return. He explained to me that I would be in a very good position to try to create a restaurant like this because of the current "trend toward healthy eating". He explained that within the past couple of years, demand for healthier (and often more plant-based) food options has skyrocketed. Keeping Jason in my network will give me access to someone who has a lot more experience than I do with the restaurant business, and it also gives me the opportunity to bring him in as a consultant possibly.

2) MARKET EXPERT
I spoke to a gentleman who works as a server and cashier at a vegan ice cream and dessert shop called Karma Cream. His name is Alec Carver and he has been working there for a year. He is also attempting to start his own small vegan eatery. For this contact, I also simply just walked in and approached him. He was willing to help, and talked to me as we bought desserts (which I would imagine would constitute his return favor). He thought that creating a sort of vegan restaurant that could mirror something like McDonald's or Wendy's for vegans would be a fantastic idea. He told me that the menu and location would be very important factors in the success of the business. He told me that, at Karma Cream, they often have non-vegan being brought in by vegans to give the vegan ice cream a try. He felt that the secret to having this be successful in a restaurant would be to have a menu that looks friendly and familiar to even someone who isn't vegan. Almost everybody likes a burger and some fries! Keeping him in my network means that I get to have someone who gets to see and analyze the way vegans and non-vegans interact with a vegan-dominated eatery.

3)SUPPLIER
I spoke to a lady who works as a sales assistant at a food supplying company called J&J Family of Farms. Her name was Marisella Russell and she has worked with them for a few years now. I found this contact through Grill Fresh. Grill Fresh has a list of their suppliers listed in the restaurant, in an attempt to keep a sort of transparency about where their food comes from. I found her contact information on the website and called her. There was really no favor expected in return. I just asked her for her thoughts and she gave them to me. She felt that it was a very strong idea and she has also observed the shift in demand from meat to produce happen rather quickly over the past couple of years. Keeping her in my network means that I get to have the experience of someone who deals with supplying companies directly in my corner, and she may even be able to give me help/insight when I am trying to handle my own supplying for this restaurant. 



REFLECT
This experience taught me how difficult it is as an entrepreneur to go out and acquire these resources from different companies and people. It was a very good experience though. It showed me the importance of actually getting out there and trying to establish relationships in the business world.