20VC: Sweetgreen Founder Jonathan Neman on Leadership Lessons from Managing Through COVID, The Importance of Failing Fast and Iterating & How the Best Leaders Bring Together Brand, Capital Allocation and Strategy

Jonathan Neman is Co-Founder & CEO of Sweetgreen, the mission-driven restaurant brand that serves healthy food at scale. Alongside his co-founders, Jon has scaled Sweetgreen from one small restaurant to one of the US’ leading food brands with over 5,000 employees, over 140 locations and $300M+ in revenue. If that was not enough, Jon is also an active board member of MeUndies.

In Today’s Episode with Jonathan Neman You Will Learn:

1.) How Jon took the decision to leave his “dream job” as a consultant at Bain to start Sweetgreen? What did his Bain boss tell him that persuaded Jon it was the right decision to leave? How does Jon think about and advise people when it comes to choosing the safe vs the risky path?

2.) How Sweetgreen was not an Overnight Success:

• At what moment did Jon really not think that Sweetgreen would make it? Why?

• How did he deal with those moments of intense stress and pressure?

• How does Jon test for true grit and resilience both in hires and in founders today?

3.) Brand + Capital + Business Strategy:

• How does Jon think deeply about what brand means today?

• What did Sweetgreen do right when it comes to their brand building? How did they marry art and science in the right way?

• What do the unit economics look like on a per store basis? What is the payback period on a per store basis? How has this changed over time?

• How does the store design impact the profit per store? How has store design changed over time?

• What have been some of the biggest lessons in terms of when, where and how to open new stores?

4.) Leading Through COVID:

• What were some of Jon’s biggest lessons from leading a consumer brand through COVID

• What were some of the toughest elements for Jon? How did he overcome them?

• How can founders bring people along with their thought process and inspire?

• Who is Jon’s biggest mentor? What has he learned from them?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Jonathan Neman

Jon’s Favourite Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman