Venturing Out with Arlene Dickinson and her guest Matthew Corrin

CBC Calgary presents Venturing Out with Arlene Dickinson. It’s a seven-part array of vehement conversations between Arlene and some of Canada’s tip entrepreneurs. They cover a highs a lows and all in-between when it comes to starting and using a business in Canada.

In this episode, Arlene chats with Matthew Corrin, owner and CEO of Freshii. When we consider of a disproportion “Canadian entrepreneur,” Matt could simply be a print boy. He not usually had a prophesy though also a expostulate to spin an suspicion he had when he was 23 years aged into a vital general business with locations in some-more than 15 countries today.  

This talk has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: we was meditative behind to when a initial time we and we met, during one of your restaurants, that we had non-stop adult in downtown Toronto.

A: That’s a good memory means it feels like years ago, though it wasn’t that many years ago. That was a initial plcae we ever opened. That was a store that we privately managed for about a year, when we initial started out with Freshii.

Matthew Corrin, CEO and owner of Freshii, an general grill sequence formed in Canada. (Freshii)

​Q: we know, it’s funny, as we was recollecting it, we was meditative about a review and we remember walking divided from a lunch meditative to myself, “there is a man who is going to do extraordinary things and build a illusory business.” And you’ve set about and finished accurately that. So congratulations on what you’ve done, since we know how tough it is, to work in a grill attention in particular. So, doubt for you: When we set out, did we see a success that we have now? Did we see that? Did we suppose it? 

A: Well, when we started I was 23 years old. we had this idea, after vital in New York City and operative in a conform business for Oscar de la Renta. we saw these mom cocktail delis on each dilemma on New York City that, outward of Manhattan, didn’t exist. What was so renouned in New York was a ability to build your possess meal, either it was a salad or a play or a soup. we suspicion that was interesting, and so did millions of New Yorkers. we always wondered because it didn’t exist outward of New York City.

And so that, really, was a suspicion here, creation healthy eating, a ability to control what went into your meal, make it accessible and make it affordable. Maybe a usually disproportion that we had was we felt this would be applicable for adults of a universe and not usually adults of New York City. 

Q: Did we ever consider it’s not going to be a enormous thing, a outrageous business, or did we contend “I’m usually going to try this and see what happens?”

A: The irony is, we wish we could demeanour behind on a business plan… we never wrote one. You know, we had a genuine dentist and nurse, my mom and dad. I went to them and we pronounced we have this idea, and my father, of course, was not in foster and my mom was totally all in…

Matthew Corrin founded Freshii in 2005. The healthy quick food grill sequence now has scarcely 300 locations worldwide and Corrin says he expects to have 840 by a finish of 2019.

Q:That’s common! He’s a skeptic, she’s like we can do anything honey…

A: They gave me $250,000 for my idea. So typically we start a business devise to lift money. we skipped that step. we wrote running principles. we suspicion about how we wanted to run a business, and not indispensably how many stores would we have. And what’s interesting, Arlene, is still today, we don’t set out to contend we’re going to open a thousand stores, or dual thousand stores or a hundred stores.

We unequivocally are usually driving, and are driven by a mission. And if we do a mission, that is creation healthy eating accessible and affordable for adults of a world, over time, as prolonged as we execute, there will be thousands and thousands of restaurants globally. But we unequivocally don’t have a sights set on a certain volume of stores, or a certain volume of cities or countries, that we devise to work in a future.  

Q: But let’s go back. You’re 23 years old, we have an idea, we go home and contend mom and father let me take your savings, and count on me. Dad says ugh, mom says yay, and we set out. That contingency have frightened a vital daylights out of you. That contingency of been a motivator, was it not? To compensate them back?

A: I remember fibbing in bed during night, in those days heading into a initial opening, and thought, “why would anybody line up and spend a dollar or dual dollars some-more in a food justice for a healthy salad? But a usually thing that we unequivocally fear in business is failure. And we had this suspicion that we refused to fail, we refused to let my relatives down and we indeed lift that by today.

Today we’re a open company. Every singular chairman we work along side with bland during Freshii HQ and hundreds or a authorization partners are shareholders in a company. And it’s a same mentality, that is, we usually don’t wish to fail. we wish to expostulate a business and expostulate a mission.

I consider we benefited being a 23 year old with impassioned naivety. we usually did not realize. we was ardent about health and wellness, and we was ardent about consumer branding. we was really genuine that a grill industry, specifically, had one of a top disaster rates of any sell business. So that was really naive. we consider my girl and my miss of knowledge substantially helped me burst by that barrier. we consider as we get comparison it’s harder and harder to do that.

A Freshii grill is seen in Montreal. The grill sequence offers salads, wraps, burritos, smoothies and solidified yogurt. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Q: That’s true. You pronounced a integrate of things there that we wish to round behind on. One of them is that disaster was a motivator. It’s being means to keep going. You’ve finished things that didn’t always spin out accurately as we anticipated, right? Isn’t that partial of a journey? 

A: Well it’s so true. we theory a word disaster is relative. So my clarification of disaster is when your bank comment goes to 0 and you’re out of business. That’s failure.

There is a quote that Richard Branson gave in one of his books. He said, “In a universe of business, a line between success and disaster is really thin. Those companies that are under-capitalized often find themselves on a wrong side of that line.” And for years, Arlene, we were under-capitalized. We were usually spending. We were building a good brand, batting approach outward a weight. But we were spending a $1.10 for each dollar of income we were generating.

So we were usually constantly and eternally roving that skinny line, of income or not, or success and failure. So we usually constantly had that suspicion of usually stay in a game, stay in a game. At some point, you’ll precedence your bound costs. At some point, it’s all upside and good event from there.   

• If you’re meddlesome to find out how Matt’s proclivity has developed over a years, go to cbc.ca/listen.

New episodes of Venturing Out with Arlene Dickinson will be accessible each Tuesday. Next week she will be vocalization to Diana Olsen, owner and persident of Balzac’s Coffee Roasters.

Subscribe during Apple Podcasts or on your favourite podcast app, or listen on a giveaway CBC Radio app for iOS and Android, or at cbc.ca/VenturingOut.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/venturing-out-arlene-dickinson-episode-3-matthew-corrin-1.4196220?cmp=rss