Nicolas Jammet (Sweetgreen) on Pricing Strategy, Trendspotting in Food and the Future of Fast Casual

Jan 27, 2026

Nicolas Jammet, co-founder and Chief Concept Officer of Sweetgreen, who scaled a Georgetown salad shop into a national fast-casual brand. He shares origin stories and trendspotting in food. They discuss pricing and value tension in a $16-salad world. Conversation covers automation, drive-thru and the Infinite Kitchen. Also explores ingredient storytelling and how brand experiences like Sweetlife shaped growth.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Stolen Laptops Almost Closed Opening Week

Two days before Sweetgreen's first opening, the founders' computers were stolen and they rebuilt recipes and manuals overnight.
They opened on schedule after two sleepless nights, learning to prepare for unexpected crises.

ADVICE

Turn Crises Into Opportunities

Embrace adaptability and control what you can when plans derail; panic wastes energy.
Use crises as opportunities to rethink approaches and improve operations.

INSIGHT

Complementary Founders Sustain Teams

Complementary co-founders with shared vision created a durable leadership team for nearly 20 years.
Humility and prioritizing 'what's best for Sweetgreen' kept conflicts constructive.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Today Sammi sits down with Nicolas Jammet, co-founder and Chief Concept Officer of Sweetgreen—the fast-casual brand that helped take “healthy food at scale” from a niche idea to a national movement with nearly 300 stores and a $5.5B IPO. Nicolas traces Sweetgreen’s origin story from Georgetown campus chaos (including a stolen laptop that nearly derailed opening week), to a three-founder partnership that has stayed intact for almost two decades, to taking the company public at the literal peak of the market in 2021.

Then they zoom out to the bigger game: how Sweetgreen thinks about trend forecasting in food, why fast-casual is facing price-value pressure, and what it really takes to balance quality with consumer sensitivity in a $16-salad world. Nicolas explains how Sweetgreen is using feedback, loyalty, and automation to define the future of fast food—including the Infinite Kitchen, the new drive-thru format, and the viral max-protein bowl that set off a macro-counting frenzy online.

They also get into brand strategy and culture: why Sweetgreen doesn’t have a Coke or Pepsi contract, how “food as storytelling” became a competitive moat, and how the Sweetlife Festival helped turn a salad shop into a cultural brand.

Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram

Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter

Keep up with Nicolas

Keep up with Sweetgreen
Here’s what Sammi covers with Nicolas:

00:00 Nicolas Jammet’s Social Currency

01:11 Early days and Stolen Laptops

08:47 How Three Co-Founders Stayed Together for Nearly 2 Decades

12:51 Behind the Scenes of the $5.5B IPO

14:38 The Chief Concept Officer Job Description

16:34 Trend Forecasting & the Kale/Avocado Glow-Up

22:56 The Price-Value Question in Fast Casual

24:27 Getting Customer Feedback

29:32 Automation, Drive-Thrus and the Infinite Kitchen

33:47 Who the Sweetgreen Customer Actually Is

42:40 Sweetlife Festival & Brand Building Beyond Food

46:00 Social Currency Corner: Protein Maxing & Functional Food

49:00 Retaining Talent in a Burnout Industry

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices