This is a post by Jesse Pujji. Jessi a serial entrepreneur that lives in the US. He has:
- Bootstrapped to an 8-figure exist with his previous startup, Ampush
- Is currently building GatewayX, a venture studio that he plans to bootstrap to $1B+
- Executive Chairman & Founder of GrowthAssistant.com
- ex-McKinsey Consultant
Guest Author: Jesse Pujji
A short-order cook and an insurance salesman turned a $700 loan to into an $800,000,000+ empire.
The crazy part?
They invented fast food in the process.
This is the wild story 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
1/ Walt Anderson was a small-time cook with a few restaurants in Kansas back in 1915.
He had one item that didn’t exist anywhere else:
Thin ground beef patties and a special bread baked to be round and soft.
Sales were booming, so he searched for a partner to expand…
2/ He found Billy Ingram.
The salesman loved how Walt’s innovative bun was made to order.
But it needed a great name: The Slider.
Billy was obsessed with ideas to streamline and scale…
3/ They served tiny burgers in paper boxes to avoid dishes.
The size lets them charge just a nickel per burger.
4/ Competitors started coming in and chipping away at their burger biz.
But Billy had a game-changing idea:
5/ Sell the burgers in a sack “to go”.
Everyone thought it was a terrible idea. People want to see their food, they will get cold, how will people even eat them?
Billy forged ahead. Sales went through the roof and “buy ‘em by the sack” became the company slogan for decades.
6/ When the depression hit the low-cost brand was able to keep growing.
7/ By 1933, Walt became obsessed with planes and tired of burgers.
Billy bought out Walt so he could pursue his love full-time instead of just flying the company plane to check on stores.
The same year, they tried coupons: 5 Burgers for $.10.
Stores sold out daily until WW2…
8/ From 1943-1945, however, beef costs skyrocketed and burger prices doubled.
WC lost 85% of their staff and was forced to close 33% of stores.
Nationwide shortages forced them to innovate, but their French Fries and new onions remained after the war…
9/ In 1954, they became key to cooking in bulk, when an employee invented their distinctive onion-steamed and 5-hole punch techniques.
The combo allows them to cook without being flipped!
10/ WC became the first to pass the billion burger mark in 1961 while competitors like Mcdonald’s and Wendy’s were just beginning their expansion.
By 1962, WC added their first big menu update since the French Fry: the cheeseburger.
11/ In 2004, they were ready to make yet another splash with the perfect opportunity…
12/ Harold and Kumar almost went to Krispy Kreme, but the doughnut shop backed out last minute.
WC happily agreed to free advertising, and the movie’s premiere boosted sales by over 15% during the opening month!
13/ Now 100 years old, WC is considered the first and oldest fast-food chain.
4 generations of Ingrams have run the company. They’ve never franchised in the US and own 100%.
14/ This story is a reminder that:
1) Innovation is only the beginning
2) Brands matter
3) Everything changes in the long term
4) You have to change with the times
5) Someone had to do everything we take for granted
And that anyone can do it…
15/ If you enjoyed this thread, follow me for a post like this every week!
