EP 521: $5.5M Burger Business, Gets Into Monthly Subscriptions with BurgaBox CEO Chuck Sillari

Chuck Sillari: He was born and raised in Boston and is a graduate of Boston College and Law school. He's a lawyer and a real estate developer who is currently focusing full-time on the expansion of his nationally known Boston Burger Company – a new e-commerce business called BurgaBox.com. Burgabox is in the process of disrupting both the meal kit industry and full service casual dining experience.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Quench Your Own Thirst
• What CEO do you follow? – Samuel Adams

• Favorite online tool? — Hotjar
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wish I knew that I should have travelled more and...spend a lot time meeting interesting people because that's where you get inspiration from"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Chuck to the show
• 02:21 – Boston Burger Company's 2015 revenue is around $5.5M for three locations
• 02:50 – Chuck has always loved the restaurant industry
• 03:39 – Chuck jumped into the burger business after 13 years in a law firm
• 03:45 – BurgaBox opened up in 2009, and Chuck went full-time in 2013
• 04:07 – "People really loved what we're doing"
• 04:17 – BurgaBox was in different TV shows
• 04:30 – BurgaBox became a must-try destination in Boston
• 04:50 – Chuck brought on 1 investor
• • 05:13 – The investor approached Chuck for the second location
  • 05:31 – The investor knew about the Boston Burger Company because of its popularity in Boston
• 05:56 – Chuck shares how much they've spent to open up a new location
• • 06:20 – There was no full burger joint in Boston before
• 06:43 – Chuck shares why the second location costs 10x more than the first location
• 07:55 – The first location's growth was $700K in their first year
• • 08:24 – It was 450 sq. ft.
  • 08:30 – It is now doing a $1.85M
• 09:15 – The amount the investor gets in return
• 10:00 – Chuck has a good partnership with the investor
• 10:20 – A restaurant's gross margin
• • 11:49 – For every dollar you bring in, 20% should go to your pocket
• 12:09 – The second location will do around $2.5M in 2016
• 12:27 – Average profit of each restaurant
• 12:45 – Chuck's plan for the business
• 13:03 – Chuck saw how the meal kit delivery industry was booming and wanted a piece of that market
• 13:20 – The biggest percentage of the diners are tourists and students
• 13:53 – Chuck started to get into the meal kit delivery in February
• 14:00 – The meal kit delivery sold around 100 kits in the first month, 2nd month: 150 kits, 3rd month: 400 kits
• 14:35 – Burger kit's pricing
• 15:36 – There's a subscription: a monthly box or as a gift
• 16:05 – Shipping process of the burger kits
• 16:33 – Follow Chuck by checking out Boston Burger and BurgaBox
• 18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Do what you love and people will, in turn, love what you have to offer.
• Trust and believe in your business partners.
• Get your inspiration from people – learn and improve from their feedback.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip's email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Boston Burger & BurgaBox – Chuck's business website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives