CAVA’s co-founder says impatience inspired its fast casual concept

In January of 2011, the first-of-its-kind Mediterranean fast casual concept restaurant opened in Bethesda, Maryland.

That one restaurant, CAVA, grew from one to over 400 around the United States over a decade later.

In an interview on the latest episode of Founding DC , Brett Schulman, the co-founder and CEO of CAVA, told host Dan Simons, those 400 locations employ 12,000 people.

“You think back just three years, we were 200 restaurants, roughly $450 million in revenue,” Schulman said. “Now, three years forward, we’re … trailing a 12-month basis, and over a billion (dollars) in revenue.”

But he didn’t always plan to be the face of a hugely successful (and delicious) restaurant chain. He started out in investment banking.

Schulman admitted that his pathway to becoming an entrepreneur