The team almost had a premature answer to this question earlier this year as they took an unexpected pause to their business. They shut down for several weeks to re-evaluate, make changes and overall streamline the business.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a story you don\u2019t often hear in the restaurant industry. How do you recognize and learn from your missteps?<\/p>\n The path to becoming restaurateurs has not been a linear one. Goodwin and Kovach have been friends since middle school and have had several business ventures prior to starting a restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought that we were going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong>. We dropped out of college to move out west to develop an app,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cBut we ended up accidentally spending all the money and had to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n In their second stint in college, the two friends connected with Raabe who shared their entrepreneurial spirit. The trio continued to work on a variety of projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sold Ezekiel Elliott crop tops on campus,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cWe also started a grocery delivery service that no one wanted<\/strong>. And we\u2019ve written movies together.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the team\u2019s movie project was an adaptation of the classic video game \u201cThe Oregon Trail.\u201d But none of these projects really found an audience.<\/p>\n But about a year and a half ago, the guys watched the documentary \u201cCowspiracy<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> that talked about the environmental impact of meat versus a more plant-based diet. This served as a rallying point and inspiration for their next project: Eden Burger.<\/p>\n Launching a foodservice business takes a little bit of bravado even if you have some experience in the industry. To start a foodservice business with no experience at all might be considered downright foolhardy. Yet that is exactly what Goodwin, Kovach and Raabe did.<\/p>\n They began hosting pop up events out of their home<\/strong>. These events invited diners to sample versions of what would ultimately become the Eden Burger, a plant-based alternative to the traditional hamburger.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were inspired by the pop up model that would allow us to get in the game without the brick-and-mortar investment,\u201d says Goodwin.<\/p>\n These pop up events were marketed via Facebook and were critical in helping the team develop its product<\/strong>. Sensing that they were on to something, they approached several area bars about partnering with them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [bar owner] liked the burger and gave us a shot. He gave us his slowest night,\u201d recalls Goodwin.<\/p>\n The team went into marketing overdrive and a crowd showed up to sample the newly crowned Eden Burger. But this was also the team\u2019s first real lesson on the operational side of the food business.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s inexperience in running a food prep line made for a rocky start.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSixteen people was the most people we had ever served before this event,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cThere were like 150 people there at kickoff.\u201d<\/p>\n Customers were waiting up to 2 hours to get their orders. Understandably, the bar owner was less than pleased.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried our best, but didn\u2019t do a very good job that night,\u201d adds Raabe.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had never even seen a ticket print in the kitchen before,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cAnd even though we had one burger and regular fries and sweet potato fries, the tickets looked like Chinese to us.\u201d<\/p>\n The guys even had their parents jumping in to help in the kitchen but the team struggled to prepare and serve their food in a timely manner.<\/p>\n But the original burger was getting good reviews<\/strong>. The guys believed they were on to something. And additional pop up events followed.<\/p>\n They still struggled with operational issues, but things definitely improved.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever tried to find vegetarian or vegan options when you eat out, then you are probably aware of how difficult it can be to find a variety of options. And when it comes to burgers, your options become even more limited.<\/p>\n The go-to vegetarian burger recipe seems to center around black bean burgers or veggie-patties made from soy and other ingredients. But the Eden Burger is different and you can tell right from the first ingredient:<\/p>\n Pumpkin seeds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was sort of that [veggie] burger movement with Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat,\u201d says Kovach, the team\u2019s lead food experimenter. \u201cAttacking America\u2019s favorite meal and making it vegan.\u201d<\/p>\n Kovach wanted to avoid things like thickeners or ingredients that would be out of reach for the typical consumer. The team focused on ingredients found in grocery stores. They used retail grocery stores as their primary supply chain; a decision that gave them a lot of flexibility, but also presented challenges as they tried to control costs.<\/p>\n The Eden burger itself has been through several iterations<\/strong>. The team began with a pretty basic vegan burger recipe that they found online.<\/p>\n \u201cOur first attempt was the mushiest burger you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cWe had people show up to our first house pop up and they bit into the burger and it was just blah.\u201d<\/p>\n The original recipe used walnuts as a source of fat and protein which is essential in creating a burger experience. But walnuts are expensive and a major allergen for many people. So the team leaned on Kovach to research alternatives to problem ingredients<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cSebastian found pumpkin seeds to replace walnuts because they have a lot of protein, more than steak in fact and still provide the fat content you need,\u201d says Goodwin.<\/p>\n The final piece of the puzzle came in the creation of the Eden sauce<\/strong>, another Kovach creation. The team tinkered with the recipes until they hit on the right combination that was getting great reviews at the pop events the guys were continuing to host.<\/p>\n It was at one of their pop up events that they met the man who would become their future landlord. The team was ready to make the leap to a real restaurant location.<\/p>\n The location they selected was the former home of a hot dog restaurant<\/strong> and was positioned next to a bar. Since the location had previously been a foodservice business, there were some advantages, but the team still had a lot of work to do to get the building ready.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned,\u201d says Raabe \u201cThe previous business sort of just cut and ran so the place was a bit of a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n But the team dug in and started working. At first, they were serving food through a window into the bar next door. This experience mirrored their pop up days and allowed the team to keep evolving their practices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d be serving food through the window on the weekends and Alex would be building the tables out front,\u201d recalls Goodwin.<\/p>\n Then came the fateful decision to actually open the restaurant to the public.<\/p>\n The team was running low on funds so it was time to make the move.<\/p>\n But even as they planned their grand opening, they made another fateful decision that would have consequences later.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we were about two weeks away from opening, I said to Sebastian \u2018Hey! You wanna add 10 more burgers to the menu?\u2019<\/strong> And he was like \u2018Yeah! Let\u2019s do it!\u201d recalls Goodwin.<\/p>\n This decision turned out to be a major contributor to the issues that caused the team to take a pause and overhaul their business processes.<\/strong><\/p>\n The new burgers required additional ingredients which then led to additional prep time. Add in the team\u2019s inexperience in preparing the new menu items and they saw wait time swell again. And although the food was getting good reviews, the service and processes still left a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n The Eden Burger team had added complexity to their business model before they had mastered the basics<\/strong>. Fortunately, they recognized this and several other issues that were keeping the business from reaching its true potential.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our pop up days, we really tried to adhere to the MVP principle: Minimally Viable Product. Just get the basics of the idea down and scale off that,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cThen we went and added all this complexity, new menu items and whatnot, and undid all the simplicity that we were striving for.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though the team had accomplished their goal of opening a restaurant, things still weren\u2019t going well. They jokingly refer to this period as the \u201cDark Times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t hitting our key performance metrics.<\/strong> We definitely wanted to save up enough money to open another location. We wanted to our ticket times and pricing to be in line with fast food,\u201d says Kovach. \u201cWe thought that would open it up to a broader demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely have a more grandiose vision of what the Eden Burger locations of the future will look like,\u201d adds Goodwin.<\/p>\n At this point, the issues piled up to the point that the team had to have some serious conversations among themselves.<\/strong> Could they make the changes they felt they needed to make and continue to operate? Ultimately, the guys felt like the best move was to take a pause and close the business temporarily. Not an easy choice, to be sure.<\/p>\n The guys agreed that the best move was to get back to basics: Burger, Fries, Shake<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This was the combo that they based the business upon and they drew inspiration from concepts like Five Guys<\/a> and In-N-Out Burger<\/a> who were following a similar trajectory in meat-based burger joints.<\/p>\n But simplifying the menu wasn\u2019t the only change.<\/strong> The team learned about the design and layout of their kitchen space from their experience. They re-laid the kitchen to make it more efficient for themselves.<\/p>\n They purchased a shake machine to speed up that process to reduce wait times.<\/p>\n The dining area and order line was redesigned to make better use of the public space. The original design had one thin aisle up the middle that didn\u2019t allow for optimal flow. By moving the line to one side and rearranging the seating, the flow of the seating area has been opened up.<\/strong><\/p>\n They also began to put some organizational structure into place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe called that time period the \u2018Lord of the Flies\u2019 because that\u2019s how we ran things,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cBut we started to define roles and responsibilities and processes.\u201d<\/p>\n By defining the operating scope of each worker along with the processes they were to follow, they could increase efficiencies and simplify processes.<\/p>\n They also attacked their supply chain issues. When they began, they were sourcing over 100 ingredients from 9 different distributors. By refactoring their recipe, they were able to reduce the number of ingredients in the main burger from eighteen down to nine.<\/strong><\/p>\n And they went even further by simplifying the prep of the ingredients to make the recipe simpler to prepare even before it hit the grill. By using less ingredients that needed to be pre-cooked, they could reduce the time and labor needed to prepare the products.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the decision to shut down temporarily was to create a clean break.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had tried to make changes before like taking things off the menu or changing the hours, but it just seemed to confuse people and cause problems,\u201d says Kovach.<\/p>\n By making all the changes at once, the team felt that this was the best way to roll things out to their customers.<\/strong> They even went back to doing some soft launch events to work out the kinks of the changes with their staff.<\/p>\n And We\u2019re Back!<\/p>\n The team pulled almost every aspect of their business apart and put it back together with a new focus on simplicity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were focused on our \u2018World Saver Combo\u2019 \u2013 a burger, fries and shake<\/strong>. And scale everything off that,\u201d says Goodwin.<\/p>\n Even though it has been a tough path, the Eden Burger crew have remained friends. It hasn\u2019t always been easy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to learn how to have tough conversations,\u201d<\/strong> says Goodwin.<\/p>\n The crew credits a lot of their solidarity to having clear expectations and defined roles and responsibilities. And they have advice for other entrepreneurs looking to get their ideas to market.<\/p>\n \u201cStart small,\u201d<\/strong> says Raabe. \u201cThat\u2019s my best advice. Just keep it small and try something.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that they have improved their processes, the team has slowly begun to add back items from the original menu that were popular with their customers. But they have done this in a controlled manner rather than the all-out blitz that occurred during their first opening.<\/p>\n They are now open 5-10pm Monday through Thursday and noon-10pm Friday through Sunday.<\/p>\n The team still has big goals, but they understand that the key to achieving these goals is carefully mastering the small steps.<\/strong><\/p>\n It takes a special type of intestinal fortitude to take such a hard look at your business and make the challenging changes that are needed. Many entrepreneurs fail because they desperately cling to their original vision. The Eden Burger crew made the tough choice and has come out the other side with a stronger business.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what is going to allow them to continue saving the world. Godspeed!<\/p>\n When someone talks about saving the world, the image of a hamburger probably isn\u2019t the first tool that springs to mind. But for a trio of budding entrepreneurs, this is exactly their weapon of choice. Chad Goodwin, Sebastian Kovach and Alex Raabe started Eden Burger after being inspired to do their part to make the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[139,284,290,287,288,286,285],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-columbus","tag-eden-burger","tag-ohio","tag-restaurant-business","tag-startup","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-1-300x196.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn the Beginning<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-8-300x200.jpg\")
Getting Started In Foodservice<\/h2>\n
\u201cWe were inspired by the pop up model that would allow us to get in the game without the brick-and-mortar investment,\u201d says Goodwin.<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Genesis of the Eden Burger<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-9-300x200.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-4g.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLead-up to Catastrophe<\/h2>\n
\u201cWe went and added all this complexity, new menu items and whatnot, and undid all the simplicity that we were striving for.\u201d<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-4e.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRefactoring the Restart<\/h2>\n
“Lord of the Flies”<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-4c.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRe-Launch<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-4a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nStill Saving the World<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-7-300x200.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/interview-eden-burger-5-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"