How a Sushi Photography Hobby Became a Business

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Most founders start their restaurants in the red. Guy Allen did the opposite, turning a 12-seat sushi bar into a $3M business with lines out the door and plans for a $50M exit. He’s the founder proving restaurants can scale – if you treat them like startups.

Here’s what we talk about:

• Leaving real estate tech after a decade to start over in food
• Turning a sushi photography hobby into a six-figure uni import business
• Why importing sea urchin taught him everything about supply chains
• How Sendo became one of NYC’s busiest sushi spots – with zero marketing spend
• The “three ingredients” behind every successful restaurant: food, location, brand
• Why most chefs fail at business, and why one restaurant alone is a bad bet
• The real margins of restaurants (and what “good” actually looks like)
• How restaurant investing and profit-sharing actually work
• The surprising scalability of sushi, and how he plans to reach 40 locations
• Building publicly in an industry famous for secrecy

Cool Links:

• Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/
• Sendo https://www.sendo.nyc/ 

Sponsors:

• Get your app built at https://zeroqode.com/?ref=moneywise
• Build web apps quickly with https://bubble.io/
• Achieve your dream body with https://www.dailybodycoach.com/moneywise
• Protect your upside and get your time back at https://www.cressetcapital.com/moneywise

Chapters:

• 00:00 - The Harsh Reality of Restaurant Ownership
• 00:43 - The Sushi Business Model and Guy’s Background
• 01:35 - Guy’s Pivot from Real Estate Tech to Sushi
• 02:56 - From Sushi Hobby to Social Media Platform
• 05:44 - Importing Uni: Economics and Challenges
• 10:11 - Sushi Quality, Branding, and Market Positioning
• 13:22 - Why Premium Sushi Doesn’t Scale
• 14:47 - Transition from Importing to Restaurant Ownership
• 16:51 - Why Most Restaurants Fail: The Role of Branding
• 18:44 - Building a Restaurant Brand and Early Success
• 22:56 - Financing and Structuring Growth
• 27:27 - The Surprising Upsides of the Restaurant Business
• 29:54 - Scaling to 40 Restaurants and a $50M Exit
• 33:49 - The Need for Transparency in the Restaurant Industry
   

This podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.

Your Host: Harry Morton

• Founder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.
• Co-parents a cow named Eliza.