Meet Lauren Fernandez, the investor supporting small businesses

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this encore episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam reshares a conversation with Lauren Fernandez, founder and CEO of the investment firm Full Course. Lauren joined Sam in person last summer to share her tips for emerging brands looking to secure capital and her thoughts on how to get more women and minorities involved in foodservice leadership. If you enjoy this conversation, you’ll have a chance to connect directly with Lauren and other investors at NRN’s Investment Summit, part of the CREATE event this October in Nashville; visit create.nrn.com for more details.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

Training in your restaurants gives you a foundation to know what the brand needs
Servant leaders don’t talk about doing the work — they just do the work
Leaders should seize the moment to invest in themselves
Most American restaurants are independents who just need resources to get to the next level
Global fast casuals are the category to bet on
You never know where the next best idea for your brand is going to come from
If you’re looking for capital, prepare by having clean books and a clear purpose

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:09.7	I am Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access pass
0:15.1	to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers.
0:18.7	This week, I'm revisiting a conversation from last summer with
0:22.0	Lauren Fernandez, the founder and CEO of the investment firm Full Course. I'm revisiting this
0:28.1	conversation partly because I'm out for a few weeks on paternity leave, but also because our
0:33.0	team at NRN is actively pulling together details for our second annual investment summit. If you
0:39.7	weren't able to participate last year, the investment summit is an incredible opportunity
0:44.1	for emerging restaurant leaders to connect face to face with investors as part of our create
0:49.5	event, which this year is in Nashville, October 8th through 11th.
0:54.6	Lauren was one of our participating investors last year, and we'll be there again this year.
0:58.9	So if you enjoy this conversation and you want to go deeper with her and her team,
1:03.6	join us for Create and the Investment Summit in Nashville this October.
1:07.7	You can get more information at create.n.com, and we'll have more details on programming
1:13.7	and participating investors in the coming weeks and months. In this conversation, you will
1:18.7	learn more about why restaurant executives should get firsthand experience in their restaurants,
1:23.6	why leaders have to seize the moment to invest in themselves, and which two things you should do before looking for an investment partner.
1:30.2	Jumping now into my interview with Full Course founder and CEO Lauren Fernandez.
1:34.7	Also, don't forget to stick around after the interview as I will share my seven takeaways from this discussion, actionable insights that you can take with you on the go.
1:43.8	Okay, I am joined by Lauren Fernandez, the founder and CEO of Full Course.
1:48.5	Lauren, thank you for joining me today.
1:50.5	Very excited to be here in person with you, which is rare for the pod these days,
	...

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