Make Money with Sustainably Run Restaurants | Dan Simons

Dan Simons is the co-owner of Farmers Restaurant Group, a mission-driven hospitality company behind the award-winning Founding Farmers brand, in partnership with the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group operates eight sustainably run restaurants, a distillery, and a catering company, all with one goal: to drive profits back to American family farmers while redefining how restaurants can serve people, planet, and profit in equal measure.

On this episode we talk about:

• How Dan fell in love with teamwork and hospitality in college bar jobs

• His corporate climb from restaurant manager to VP and the turning point that pushed him into entrepreneurship

• Going broke—twice—before building a $100M restaurant business

• The three-year stretch living in his mother-in-law’s basement while starting over

• Lessons from failed ventures, debt, and the mindset shift that built a thriving farmer-owned enterprise

• Why creating a people-centric culture is not just good ethics—it’s good business

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Success is built through failure; each failure is an ingredient in your eventual success recipe.

2. Find your deeper “why.” Profit is what happens when your purpose solves real problems for people.

3. There’s never a perfect time or enough money—start smart, stay lean, and play the long game.

Notable Quotes

• “You’ll never have enough money. So stop waiting and start building.”

• “We gave customers what we thought they needed—not what they wanted. That’s how we failed our first restaurant.”

• “Failure isn’t the opposite of success—it’s part of it.”

Connect with Dan Simons:

• https://www.dansimonssays.com/

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