Andrew Maxwell is Operating Partner at Imbiba, with a track record of building and exiting businesses across leisure and hospitality. He previously scaled Boojum into Ireland’s largest Mexican QSR before moving into investment, where he now supports high-growth brands across Europe.
Conor Sheridan is the founder and CEO of Nory, an AI-powered restaurant management system alongside being the co-founder of Mad Egg. Conor blends hands-on restaurant experience with a passion for tech-driven efficiency and profitability in hospitality.
Enjoyed the episode? Read our blog for more stories and insights from hospitality leaders.
Curious about how Nory helps brands run smarter, more profitable operations?
Speak to our team to learn more.
We created a culture where we promoted within and that sends a really positive signal to your team that, look, you know, their support, you're creating opportunity for them. How can we leverage technology to give us that competitive advantage? So first thing we did was thinking about, look, how do we make the lives of our team easier? How do we make the lives of our customers easier? And that's a starting point.
I'm Conor Sheridan, founder and CEO of nori and welcome to what's Cooking. My guest today is someone who's seen scale from both sides of the table. Andrew Maxwell built boojum into Ireland's largest QSO or Mexican chain before completely shifting gears into the investment space. Now, as an operating partner at MBiBA, who back brands such as Farmer J, House of Gods and Opener, he's guiding ambitious founders through the realities of growth. From operational chaos to capital efficiency and strategy. This episode will dig into the inflection points that can stall a scale up the biggest red flags that tell Andrew that a business is not ready for investment and why technology, if used well or badly, is often the deciding factor.
We also talk about the messy middle when founders tried to balance brand identity and top line growth with operational and capital efficiency, and how investor involvement shifts. As a business moves from 5 to 10 to 50 sites. So let's get into it. Andrew, welcome to what's Cooking. Great to have you here.
Thank you, Conor. Great to be here.
We've had a lot of different operators on the podcasts ranging from CFO, CTO, CEOs. We've had people on the flip side who've looked at investments. We've not had anybody who's seen both sides of the spectre. So he's run a business, scaled it, exited it successfully, and is now an investor into hospitality amongst other industries.
If we start with your background as an operator first. So took on Boojium on the early days and scale that to the largest Mexican qsr, a Mexican concept in Ireland and then subsequently exited. It was an incredible success story for Irish hospitality that's now launched in the uk. Could you talk us a bit about what that experience was like to build up that business and then subsequently exit it and what were the key inflection points to be able to get to that outcome?
Yeah, I suppose maybe take a step back and see how we ended up at bosom? I mean, I started my hospitality career out in the States pretty much like every Irish person in the Irish pub business. Had some pubs in Florida and then Arizona. And while I was there, I pretty much lived on Chipotle, which I'm sure we're all familiar with, which is a similar Mexican style concept. We sold that business in 2014 and moved back home. And coming out of full service restaurants and 3 o' clock in the morning finishes and 9 o' clock starts, I thought to myself, there must be an easier way to do this.
When I came back home, my friend at the time, he had just taken a job with a corporate finance company and he phoned me up one day and he's like, this guy has, you know, I had him on the lookout for different opportunities. Said there's this guy, he started this small brand, he know he's thinking about moving back to the United States. Would you be interested in having a look at it? So of course went and looked at it and it was exactly like, you know, a carbon, effectively a carbon copy of what Chipotle style of service. So we managed to do a deal with him and that was really the start of the whole bosom journey. I suppose like any sort of business in the early days it was quite scrappy.
So I think when we took over the business it was about thinking about, look, how do we set this business up for scale? And it wasn't just about the next two to three units. It was about thinking about looking at the Ireland as a whole and thinking about the size of the opportunity. So for first thing we really did was really get into the business and understand supply chain and obviously to control quality we decided to shift to a production kitchen model which was probably the first sort of inflection point to us, was really thinking about how can we execute consistently at scale, not just within Belfast or Dublin. We had to think about how can we reach Cork, how can we reach Galway.
So I would say that was really the first sort of inflection point, was really nailing down the supply chain and consistency and quality and then really thinking about our technology stack. Really what systems do we need to be really let us, you know, work at the pace we needed to and obviously also get access to the right amount of data.
Super interesting. Not many operators that I know who go in at two or three venues think about what does 20 look like in terms of like system design? Usually you're trying to figure out how to get to the next few doors. What gave you the confidence to think that like that far ahead or to be able to think that macro straight out the gate?
04:10
Andrew Maxwell
Well, I mean, I think it was driven by the fact that were backed by private equity as well. Bernatus and private equity model works on a growth story. So we have to hit a certain level. But I mean I think were ultimately focused on was were quite, you know, forward thinking in terms of operators in the states already. We always thought about look, how can we leverage technology to give us that competitive advantage. So first thing we did was thinking about look, how do we make, you know, the lives of our team easier? How do we make the lives of our customers easier? And that's a starting point.
04:36
Andrew Maxwell
So look, you know, we just backed ourselves and we saw that like you know, the success of the business in Belfast and how that city could take maybe two to three sites and then you're just making you know, broad assumptions around Dublin Cor Limerick and you land on a, you know, a 20 store plan and at that point it's about trying to build the infrastructure to support that. Sounds easy when you say it right?
04:55
Andrew Maxwell
It does sound easy, but definitely not easy.
04:57
Conor Sheridan
Yeah, for sure, I know as an operator who set up a restaurant a little bit after you guys used to look up boom as like how do you emulate what you done. But like from a growth point of view, a brand point of view, it became a cult, had a cult following in Ireland. And execution wise, anytime you go into the stores you can see the speed of service, the sequence of service, the logistics is set up for like a great experience, a consistent experience. I think looking on our research we saw that 70% of all the GMs in the business came from the floor up or from different parts of the business.
05:33
Conor Sheridan
When you thought around, okay, supply chain system design was that real and a real like intentional decision to go, okay, if we're going to scale to 20 stores we need to have a leadership team that can just come up straight into to run new venues. And how did you manage to execute against that? Because so many people say they want to do it but this just doesn't happen.
05:52
Andrew Maxwell
I think any growing business is going to have problems with food quality, consistent systems, right? I mean you're going to have to solve those and I think that's a continual problem. You have to solve and stay ahead of and innovate. For us we worked out really early on that what was really driving the business was people and culture. And for us if we there was a clear differential between how the culture in say for Belfast where the business started and maybe like the first Cork store. Because you know, when you're a founder or you know you're in the stores every day, you're Effectively setting new standards, you're driving that culture and it's relatively easy. So. But once you start to put those layers of management in, it sort of dilutes that culture a bit.
06:29
Andrew Maxwell
So we had to really pause and rethink about, look, how do we systemize culture and not just think about the operational side of the business? I mean, it was simple as it sounds simple. But getting the right, you know, head of people, the person, you know, getting the right person in the stores, being able touch the stores every day. And then, you know, you did speak about the sort of the GM piece. You know, we, we created a culture where we promoted within and that sends a really positive signal to your team that, look, you know, their support, you're creating opportunity for them and, you know, they can see that in front of them. The minute that, you know, you stop creating opportunity for your team, you know, they're just going to look elsewhere.
07:03
Andrew Maxwell
Particularly in hospitality, where there's a, you know, it maybe has a bad rep for high turnover and. And stuff and obviously it works incredibly well. Right. When you look at the outcome for the business. So you've since moved, you're in a new career, a new chapter, a new posture, as they say.
07:18
Conor Sheridan
You're now working with Imbiba as a Partner there and you're investing out of one of their funds. You invest in hospitality, but you invest in other verticals, which we'll get to. I suppose sticking with hospitality first, you had a really successful career as an operator and an entrepreneur. Anything that you believed really intentionally as an operator, that was super important to be successful. That now on the other side of the table, as an investor, you have a different point of view or how's your POV and what it takes to be successful changed now that you've flipped over to the other side?
07:49
Andrew Maxwell
I think if we discuss private equity in general, I think most businesses now that are scaling either has an investor or has a private equity firm in behind them. I had this perception of private equity that they were unapproachable, that every decision was made on a spreadsheet. You know, when the business wobbled, the answer was always cut, cut. You know, speaking now, sitting on both sides of the fence. And maybe I'm just speaking on behalf of Mbibe, which are an operative led fund where half our team are investors, half of our team are operators like myself. You know, it's not like that, you know, and if I hadn't have been supported by private equity I wouldn't be where I am now. I'd say the one thing that I understand now, that emotion doesn't scale.
08:32
Andrew Maxwell
A lot of founders are very emotional about what they do, very passionate and they'll tell you they'll run through brick walls to effectively get what they want to be. What I understand is now what skills is systems, culture, the capital discipline. And for us even going through this journey, I mean were ultra focused on unit economics where sometimes that can get lost and it's just growth at all costs.
08:53
Conor Sheridan
I'll fast forward to something I was thinking about asking later, but you just touched on it. Right? And I think I know from my own experience as well. Early on, growth, approve the brand identity concept like the market fit unit economics or like financial rigor, operational rigor can come later. You as an investor, how do you manage that dynamic with your investments to try and maintain that focus on growth and scaling a brand with having the right amount of capital efficiency or unit economic focus in the business, it ultimately.
09:25
Andrew Maxwell
Starts with having the right data and being able to build a proper budget and having real tight controls around your cash flow. Of course, look, everyone wants to scale and everyone wants to scales quickly and everybody wants to be the biggest player in their space. But ultimately, look, if you know, the unit economics aren't stacking up, you have to really take a step back and really rethink about the whole strategy around growth and particularly, you know, what we're facing at the minute. I mean, there's so much potential disruption around. I mean, the cost of construction has gone up and that all ties into like, you know, going back to that whole, you know, economics piece and returning capital. So it's so important that you, on all of your costs and stuff that are running through the business.
10:03
Conor Sheridan
Nice. So if you look at your journey to Imbiba today, looking back then, how did you make that transition from an operator who's leading Boojum to now an investor working with Imbiba?
10:13
Andrew Maxwell
Yeah, look, it was probably off the back of the, you know, the Azzuiri exit. A couple years ago I got a call from Imbiba, their managing partner, Daryl Co. Managing partners Daryl and Lizzie and I went and met them. They said they could be interested in having a chat. We're considering raising a new fund in Ireland and replicating a similar structure, but obviously just focused solely on the island of Ireland. So I came across to London about two and a half years ago and I had lunch with them and you know, while the Irish opportunity was interesting, they asked me would it be interested in working with one of the portfolio companies on a short term basis.
10:46
Andrew Maxwell
So they sent me up to Scotland on a bit of a hotel project and two and a half years later and I am one of the partners in Fundu, which is an amazing journey and loving life.
10:56
Conor Sherian
Really nice. What makes a good investment for MBiBA? Not just in hospitality, you work across leisure, you work across hotels as you mentioned and a few other verticals. But how do you identify what makes a good investment?
11:08
Andrew Maxwell
Yeah, yeah. So look, we are a specialist investor and we invest in sort of leisure, education, healthcare businesses. What for us is, you know, we really focused on like who is best in class and some of the brands that you may be familiar with. We spoke about them prior to our jumping on here. One Rebel Farmer J. We've got House of God's Hotel so we've had some really good success. Pizza Pilgrims, which you just exited recently. I think, you know, going back to really what makes a good investment is thinking about, you know, the subsector that's in, is it in structural growth or decline? You know, it's very hard to back a, even a best in class business whenever you know the subsector is in decline. So for us it's really, you know, targeting who does it best.
11:47
Andrew Maxwell
And then you know, at that point then you're into thinking about looking at, you know, the model, looking at the opportunity, looking at, you know, can they scale regionally. There's so many different factors that go into that but ultimately what generally falls back to is the quality of the founder. Is the founder backable? I think, you know, as you, as you're well aware there's some amazing business out there but unfortunately some people just aren't as backable or for us, you know, that we feel that we could support in the way we need to.
12:14
Conor Sheridan
Okay, cool. So which verticals are you looking at today as a, as a investment business?
12:19
Andrew Maxwell
Well, I mean leisure is quite broad. You know we could look at everything within, you know, we talked about hospitality, we've, we have looked at some exper. Concepts within our portfolio. We've got F1 Arcade, which is a partnership with Liberty Media, which is an amazing business. They've now just opened up, I think their third or fourth location now in the States in education. We're probably one of the largest investors in children's daycare nurseries. We've just made two recently two amazing, best in class small two to three site nurseries where we believe get massive potential to scale. And then healthcare again healthcare health is a very broad spectrum. We look at everything from sort of gyms and now were met with a really interesting company last week in sports technology.
13:06
Andrew Maxwell
So anything that's sort of connected to health and within that vertical probably what I will say is, I mean what we really target is sectors that we believe that we can add value. Being an operator LED fund, this isn't just about deploying capital, it's about being able to support the businesses post investment. And for us that's where we think we've appointed difference versus other maybe funds who don't operate like us.
13:29
Conor Sheridan
Nice. Yeah. I think like often there's investors can be passive capital which can be useful. I think one of the hidden value adds that people don't take as much advantage of is the pattern recognition. If you've seen success and what great looks like, many times you've seen what's taken businesses down. Like as a founder, as an operator, it's naive not to lean into that to really take someone's expertise like yourself or the rest of the operating partners. How hands on are you post investment?
13:57
Andrew Maxwell
Again, it really depends. I mean I think most investment starts with a hundred, 100 day plan. It would be, you know, wrong to basically, you know, hand over a large sum of money and let the founder go and do his thing. I think the first hundred days is all about really getting inside the business. There's only so much DD will tell you but when you really get in and start working with the founders, really understand the systems and the teams really the first hundred days about trying to make sure the foundations, the infrastructure is in place to allow them to scale. And again then we have to think about looking at where are the gaps. You know, a lot of the time again it goes back to what we spoke about. It's about people, right.
14:32
Andrew Maxwell
And but it's about putting the right team around people. Whether that's somebody who can sit in the advisory board, whether it's a key hire in terms of a cfo, whether it's CEO, just whatever we believe this person needs to effectively scale, you know, correctly and obviously at the right speed.
14:48
Speaker 3
Yeah, that's incredibly valuable. I know myself like the most value we've gotten from our investors has been that. Right. It's like how do you're moving so quickly and things can feel hectic. It's like having a really solid view on the next Inflection point, a milestone and what you need to do to get there and where are the gaps in the business? Like if you can find the right role to support somebody who has the, maybe the vision for it, the likelihood of success so much higher, which is super easy to talk about again. But actually seeing it happen in practice is not that common. You'd be surprised.
15:17
Andrew Maxwell
I think it goes back to like we've generally made all the mistakes. I mean our role is to stop founders making the same mistakes that we've made or else some of the people that we put around our portfolio companies that they've made as well.
15:29
Conor Sheridan
Yeah, things don't always go right in business. It's not a straight linearly, unfortunately. Businesses usually can kind of hit an inflection point or a ceiling and you need to break through like that. Has there been any scenarios without naming the businesses where you've seen that happen in your investments and like any examples of how you've worked with them to break through that plateau or a growth ceiling?
15:51
Andrew Maxwell
I think it really depends on the stage of investment. I mean, I think, you know, from sort of, you know, three to maybe 10 units, I think it's all about improving sort of like individual unit economics and thinking about, you know, operating the operating model at that level. I think as a business scales it becomes slightly more complex. When you get to 10 to 20, it's thinking about like how do you scale reasonably a bit. Going back to the whole bosom thing like, and if you look at Farmer J for example, I mean they're probably facing a similar problem is how do they execute, continue to execute consistently at scale.
16:18
Andrew Maxwell
And that requires a different mindset and thinking round, you know, trying to operate two to three stores which are in a cluster because they're trying to reach different areas and it becomes very difficult. Boys with Farmer J, they brought in one of the top guys from prep very early on. It was a very successful business. But the guy who's probably, you know, tasked or you could be given the credit for basically getting pretty where it is today came in and really refined the operating model and the guy still believe Farmer J is probably one of the best businesses and is around. I mean there's not many businesses that can do what they can do at scale. But also they have they can trade over three day parts which is really a credit to the whole operating model.
16:55
Andrew Maxwell
I mean you think about the number of transitions that they have to make from, you know, early morning prep and the breakfast into lunch and the dinner and then you're trying to lay in the whole delivery side of it and catering now. So it's a really complex model. But maybe people don't realize what goes on in the back of house. But I would say that was one thing putting the right people into place who've seen that understand, you know, what needs to happen to the model to allow you to do that is I'd say where in B have had a lot of value. I can see that right as a guest or as a patron. So I think I mentioned that I'm in there maybe twice a day some days and every odd day. And it's completely different demo, right. All shapes and sizes of people, age and backgrounds, eating from as you mentioned, 9am to 8pm or 7:30pm to when it closes. That's like the Shangri La of a hospitality business. How do you get all the segments or demos and all the day parts seven days a week? So yeah, incredible execution. So shout out to those guys. So you touched on some green flags. So like founding team, quality of the team, scalability of the concepts, structure of the segment in terms of is it growing or is it in decline?
17:58
Conor Sheridan
What are red flags that you've seen in an investment process that would spook you from backing a team?
18:03
Andrew Maxwell
I would say accuracy of numbers. I mean sometimes what you're presented is not what's actually true and a lot of it will wash out in dd. But we've gone through, you know, a number of process to find they just fall over at the last hurdle because something is not truth. Now I think at the stage we invested there's always going to be an element of that because maybe founders have sacrificed sort of back of house controls for growth and that's really our job as being an operator LED fund is to come in and really sort that out and try and fix that and position it. So I would say that's one thing that we would see quite a lot, but it's not a deal breaker. In some cases it could be extreme, but we do expect to see some sort of delta.
18:43
Andrew Maxwell
And then I would say maybe founder dependency is another one. I mean just some businesses, the founder is so much control, you know, they won't let go. I think when we believe the founder, the business overland, the founder, for us it's just such a red flag because as you know, in any business at some point you have to let go. And maybe I, you know, I reached that point at one point in our Business in Belgium. I can remember going into one of the stores in Cork and nobody knew who it was. And it was like the worst day in my life because it was like I've lost control of this business. But ultimately, at some point you have to, you know, put the trust and faith into your team to do what you believe they can do.
19:18
Andrew Maxwell
You hired them for one reason and you have got to let them go. Yeah, it's like this book called Work and Worth and like it talks a bit on that when your personal identity is wrapped up in the business and being like the main person and then it's actually a sign of success that it can run without you, but you feel a bit of bit lost. Yeah, it definitely resonates. Super interesting. Obviously a technology business in Ori and it's broadly a technology podcast, somewhat obviously intertwined with hospitality. When you look at investments, how important is like the sophistication of the tech stack or the quality of the systems or technology systems in particular in use? Is that like a key decision criteria or no. Or is that something that you look at, maybe later.
20:01
Andrew Maxwell
Good technology will give you access to the right data and if operators are thinking it that way, I mean they generally have good controls or good thinking around the controls that need to happen in the background. You know, again, it's not a deal breaker on day one. But for us, I mean, ultimately, you know, we want these systems in place. For us it's not about, you know, getting data to control, it's about pattern recognition. I mean, if we have access to some of their systems and maybe we can spot something ahead of time. I mean, hospitality has got a bad rep for, you know, you get your quarterly management accounts and you realize you've had a problem, you know, two months ago, which is just, which just doesn't work.
20:35
Andrew Maxwell
I mean the systems we have today, we have access to real time data which allows you to make real time decisions, which I think it's key. And no matter what subsector we are working in or targeting, it's all the same. So I'm a big believer that look, if the business doesn't have the system today, it's about really sitting down in that 100 day plan and thinking about how can we create efficiency and efficiency at scale with getting the right systems in place.
21:00
Conor Sheridan
Obviously real time data is important. P and L controls, levers like around prime costs, things around guest sentiments, like how you're pacing. Have you ever seen, on the flip side, brands that over invest Spend too much time on the systems and less time on the OP model or the culture.
21:15
Andrew Maxwell
Yeah, I mean, I suppose I'll give you a personal view on that. I mean going back maybe 10, 12 years ago, whenever went into bosom, we took over the business. It was very scrappy and had this great idea that were going to roll out an enterprise system to every store at the. I mean this was in the very early days of digitalization and this system was the all singing, all dancing. It was going to solve every single problem from labor to the cost of goods, the procurement to anything to do hr. It literally shifted us from a paper based system, Excel spreadsheets to paperless overnight. Probably the biggest mistake I made in my whole journey. Because you took the team out of their comfort zone.
21:55
Andrew Maxwell
I was driving this change and I just didn't really understand the complexity of like, you know, of techno tech development. And I spent months and months working with the developers, you know, trying to solve these problems, you know, with them for the industry. And you know, I just, we just had to give up because it was just putting our teams under too much pressure. We lost control, I mean and you know, we shifted back to a very basic system but it worked. And then, I mean the key learning there for us was really, you know, go slow, focus on what really moves the needle initially. And where you guys are focused on now is for me is where everyone should be focused on.
22:29
Andrew Maxwell
I mean if you think about every pound or dollar or euro of revenue if 60, potentially 70% of revenue is now allocated to cost of goods and labor, I mean for me that is 100% where operators need to be focusing right now and not get caught up in the whole shiny world of AI tools and promises that systems can do X, Y and Z. It's about thinking about the control system. You know, that work can do, you know, control that 60, 70%.
22:54
Conor Sheridan
Nice just to say that wasn't Nory. That's that system.
22:58
Andrew Maxwell
Absolutely.
22:58
Conor Sheridan
I'm only joking, but not for sure. I do see in anything hospitality, if such a, in any business, such a finite amount of capacity and focus to do things, to do anything that's outside of service or from a frontline point of view that if you try to introduce too many projects, it's like that spinning plates analogy is spinning slowly at the top and then everything spins rapidly at the bottom. Seen so many companies start something like that and then just can it, right? Because you can't put the risk of the team focus or the guest experience at Risk honing in hospitality specifically, what are you bullish about or what segments are you bullish about in the industry? And then separately what's your point of view on like the challenges in the industry or any concerns you'd have around looking at what your investor.
23:42
Andrew Maxwell
Had on, you know, hospitality again has had a, you know, it's had a bit of a tough time but I mean, you know, you got to remember, look, it's short term pain. I mean hospitality is not going anywhere. It's just going through a massive period. I think the industry's continuing the segment. I think at the bottom end there's a lot, it's very transactional now. It's effectively food for fuel. I mean, you know, you give over, you know, ten pounds and you get your food and you have an expectation and they meet their expectation, you come back tomorrow. I think at the top end the more experience led stuff, I mean again I think that will always be there because it's all driven by occasion.
24:14
Andrew Maxwell
And you know, generally what we see is, look, it's very chef led, probably not scalable because it's very focused on just standards. I think where the industry is really struggling and probably where I would be most concerned is really sort of the casual dining, the middle sector. I mean how are they going to innovate? You know, you think about how that model's really scaled over the last sort of 15 to 20 years. It's been very cookie cutter. I mean you think about now, you know, customer consumer behavior. I mean it's all about like, I mean if you, I believe now, if you're not omnichannel, it's very hard to, to win. You know, like if even for myself with a, you know, a young family, I'm not going out on a Tuesday night and spending X amount of pounds in these casual dining places.
24:55
Andrew Maxwell
I'm not but like, so like how do they innovate around this? You know, how can they optimize for delivery? How can they get more creative about driving more people into their venues? You know, how can they get in the, the catering? There's, there's so many things that they need to rethink to effectively still stay relevant in that whole vertical.
25:13
Conor Sheridan
Yeah, 100%. We can even see in our data points like the share of the wallet from off premise is growing and growing, particularly in casual QSR and people want it when they want it, where they want it, doesn't always mean it's going to be in your Building, unfortunately for people with big leases and big occupancy costs. So last one before we move to Quick Turn, which is like rapid fire question set would be, you've had like an incredible career, obviously the really successful operator in the US then probably the most successful indigenous brand outside of Supermacs in Ireland. We have to give them a shout out. But definitely, for sure, incredible growth story. And now as an investor in one of the most reputable funds in the uk, in the space, you look back on kind of your operator journey.
25:55
Conor Sheridan
Is there any advice that you give yourself today for when you're starting out or any mistakes that you try to shine a light on to make sure you'd avoid them? From what you know today?
26:05
Andrew Maxwell
From what I know today as. I mean, cultural culture drives everything. Greg Creed, who is the former CEO of Yum Brands, he wrote a response to a turnaround plan, Qantas Airlines. I think he sat in the board and I'll give you the summary of the story. But he basically, the Qantas CEO at the time, wrote this, you know, this turnaround plan. It was all based on. This is what were going to do for the customers and to really improve.
26:33
Andrew Maxwell
But Greg wrote this article and so he stuck with me. He said that they're getting this all wrong, right? They said if their team doesn't love what they do, how do you expect your customers to love, love the business too? And the way he reframed it was he said, look, your customer experience will never exceed your team experience. So for me, that is so relevant and it's always stuck with me. For us, it's about, you know, if you're involved in the business today, my starting point is, or any, all of our starting points should be, look, how do you get your team to really love what they do? So I'd say focus on culture. If you get the people piece right, you get the culture piece right. You're on the winner.
27:07
Conor Sheridan
Yeah. We had Maria, who was running the ops at Black Lock in and said, echoed that to say, like, if you focus on people, profit follows, right. The people metrics should be the key one. So I love that. Well, look, we're going to move to the quick turn, which is a rapid fire set of questions. Rapid fire can mean 10 seconds or 60 seconds. So don't feel beholden to us. What's one investment metric that you obsess over as an investor?
27:32
Andrew Maxwell
Looking at opportunities, cash on cash return. Right now, I think if you can't get your capital working for you quick enough, then you need to have a real look at the whole operating model and is it working okay?
27:45
Conor Sheridan
What's the hospitality myth that you wish we'd all stop referencing?
27:50
Andrew Maxwell
Revenue fixes problems.
27:52
Conor Sheridan
Okay, interesting.
27:53
Andrew Maxwell
Yeah, I think, you know, at that point everyone's just got this look, we'll just apply more revenue back into the venues. All you're doing at that point, the scaling problems, I'm a big believer is you've got to get the foundations right before you think about pushing more people back into your place.
28:07
Conor Sheridan
That's quite contrarian actually because a lot of people say revenue is the medicine for all symptoms. So. Nice. What's the most impressive operational setup that you've seen and why we've thoughts on it?
28:18
Andrew Maxwell
I think FarmerJay. I think just being able to execute consistently at scale across the three day parts.
28:23
Conor Sheridan
What's one thing that hospitality tech vendors should automate immediately? When you look at like operations in.
28:29
Andrew Maxwell
A restaurant setting, I think labor and the whole employee management piece. I mean, so much time is wasted onboarding, training and, you know, writing schedules, sending out schedules. I think there's some amazing technology out there that can do that for you.
28:45
Conor Sheridan
Nice. The best advice you've received, well, you've just said it as a founder from the example you've used around people, but best advice you've received as an investor.
28:55
Andrew Maxwell
I think really focus on the forget numbers. I think focus on the quality of the founder or the operator. Ultimately it's a partnership and if it doesn't feel right, it generally won't be right.
So whether an operator, an investor, people it's all about people. That's a summary of our conversations. That's a good way to finish. Look. Andrew, thanks so much for joining us on what's cooking. Thanks.
29:21
Conor Sheridan
What a banger of an episode with Andrew. He has a truly unique perspective on scaling hospitality businesses. Two exits, one huge scaling journey with Booium that was an incredible success. Founding a cult brand that went on to be one of the fastest growing indigenous concepts ever in Ireland. To exit that to the Azzurri group and then move on to working with Imbiba, one of the premier investors in hospitality. Andrew has seen all shapes and sizes of what success looks like in this industry. But he came back to one core tenant for what makes success people. No matter what he touched on from his Boojum journey, it was people and culture. Look after your people and the profit comes later. When he looks at it from an investment perspective, it's people the quality of. The founding team, the quality of the people. They're the ones that will deliver the. Cash on cash return that investors need to deploy into these businesses. Profit is secondary. People first. Really, really great insights from Andrew. And that's it for this week's episode of what's Cooking. If you took something from this story, share it with a fellow operator. And if you're not following us already, now is the time. Until next time.
.jpg)
