HUNGRY. Espresso: Henry Dimbleby - The Big Mistakes I Made Building LEON
4 snips
Sep 25, 2025 Henry Dimbleby, a British food entrepreneur and co-founder of LEON, shares key insights from his journey in the restaurant business. He details how early experiments in visual branding and food photography shaped sales. Queue management techniques bolstered by a strategic till addition led to a remarkable sales increase. Henry discusses the invisible risks to team trust and the importance of pulse surveys for maintaining morale. He stresses that the economy should respect nature's boundaries to avoid systemic collapse, intertwining business success with environmental health.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Photos Boosted Sales Overnight
- Henry tried using professional food photographs at Leon after starting with word-only menu boards and saw an immediate sales jump.
- The photo experiment was simple but had huge upside and could have been tested earlier.
Small Menu And Till Tweaks Mattered
- Leon removed slaw from a core box and found customers reacted badly, so they restored it quickly.
- Adding a fifth till at Carnaby Street raised sales 25% overnight by changing perceived queue length.
Run Weekly Pulse Surveys
- Measure team sentiment regularly with simple pulse questions like "Would you recommend your job?" every week.
- Use that leading indicator to spot falling goodwill before managers or staff leave and sales decline.