Stranger danger: own customer identities

Today, I am replaying my conversation with Nick Kokonas, one of my favorites from the show.

Nick is the co-founder of 3 of the best restaurants and bars in America - Alinea, Next, and The Aviary as well as the co-founder and CEO of Tock, a comprehensive booking system for restaurants. He majored in philosophy before becoming a derivatives trader and is now one of the most well-known names in the hospitality industry.

In this conversation, Nick shares his experience of bringing a business mindset to the restaurant industry. I'll remember it for why it's so important for a business to really know what it's selling and then actually sell it.

Nick also pulls back the curtain on why restaurants and even book publishers can be great businesses if you do them the right way. I felt like this conversation could have gone on for hours and I hope you enjoy it.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠).

Timestamps:

(00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best

(03:58) Intro to Nick Kokonas

(4:36) – Why it’s so important to own something

(6:09) – Make decisions that have outcomes

(8:34) – His interest in the restaurant business

(10:28) – Why restaurants are so tough

(13:39) – How their business mindset changed their running of the restaurant

(16:09) – Words they would avoid in the restaurant

(17:53) – Asking the right questions in the restaurant business

(22:14) – Importance in taking the right risks

(23:36) – Coming up with innovative strategies for ticketing, selling meals ahead of time, and dynamic pricing

(31:42) – Can dynamic pricing be extended to other businesses

(32:54) – Origin of Tock

(37:51) – Early days of Tock and identifying the right customers/challenges

(43:07) – Importance of the first customer

(45:56) – The typical restaurant business model

(50:57) – Lessons from Tock and the importance of knowing what you’re selling

(55:21) – Lessons from publishing

(57:18) – Other aspects of business that people know but do nothing about

(1:01:53) – Their response to Covid and lessons learned

(1:09:17) – The real impact to the food delivery companies

(1:10:58) – How businesses communicate their end processes to their customers

(1:15:41) – The Kindest Thing