Nick Kokonas - Know What You Are Selling - [Invest Like The Best, REPLAY]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, I am replaying my conversation with Nick Kokonas, one of my favorites from the show. Nick is the co-founder of 3 of the best restaurants and bars in America - Alinea, Next, and The Aviary as well as the co-founder and CEO of Tock, a comprehensive booking system for restaurants. He majored in philosophy before becoming a derivatives trader and is now one of the most well-known names in the hospitality industry. In this conversation, Nick shares his experience of bringing a business mindset to the restaurant industry. I'll remember it for why it's so important for a business to really know what it's selling and then actually sell it. Nick also pulls back the curtain on why restaurants and even book publishers can be great businesses if you do them the right way. I felt like this conversation could have gone on for hours and I hope you enjoy it. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ridgeline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the platform. ----- This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AlphaSense⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Alpha-Sense.com/Invest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (03:58) Intro to Nick Kokonas (4:36) – Why it’s so important to own something (6:09) – Make decisions that have outcomes (8:34) – His interest in the restaurant business (10:28) – Why restaurants are so tough (13:39) – How their business mindset changed their running of the restaurant (16:09) – Words they would avoid in the restaurant (17:53) – Asking the right questions in the restaurant business (22:14) – Importance in taking the right risks (23:36) – Coming up with innovative strategies for ticketing, selling meals ahead of time, and dynamic pricing (31:42) – Can dynamic pricing be extended to other businesses (32:54) – Origin of Tock (37:51) – Early days of Tock and identifying the right customers/challenges (43:07) – Importance of the first customer (45:56) – The typical restaurant business model (50:57) – Lessons from Tock and the importance of knowing what you’re selling (55:21) – Lessons from publishing (57:18) – Other aspects of business that people know but do nothing about (1:01:53) – Their response to Covid and lessons learned (1:09:17) – The real impact to the food delivery companies (1:10:58) – How businesses communicate their end processes to their customers (1:15:41) – The Kindest Thing

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here's an interesting question to think about. If your finance team suddenly had an extra week every month, what would you have them work on?
0:05.9	Most CFOs don't know because their finance teams are grinding it out on lost expense reports, invoice coding, and tracking down receipts until the last possible minute.
0:13.7	That's exactly the problem that Ramps set out to solve. Looking at the parts of finance, everyone quietly hates and asking why are humans doing any of this?
0:21.7	Turns out they don't need to. Ramp's AI handles 85% of expense reviews automatically with 99%
0:27.8	accuracy, which means your finance team stops being the department that processes stuff and starts
0:32.6	being the team that thinks about stuff. Here's the real shift. Companies using Ramp aren't just
0:37.1	saving time. They're reallocating it. While competitors spend two weeks closing their books, you're already planning next quarter. While they're cleaning up spreadsheets, you're thinking about new pricing strategy, new markets, and where the next dollar of ROI comes from. That difference compounds. Go to ramp.com slash invest to try ramp and see how much leverage your team gains when the
0:55.9	work you have to do stops getting in the way of the work that you want to do. To me, Ridgeline
0:59.6	isn't just a software provider. It's a true partner in innovation. They're redefining what's
1:03.6	possible in asset management technology, helping firms scale faster, operate smarter, and stay ahead
1:08.3	of the curve. I want to share a real-world example of how
1:10.8	they're making a difference. Let me introduce you to Brian. Brian, please introduce yourself and tell
1:17.1	us a bit about your role. My name is Brian Strang. I'm the technical operations lead,
1:22.1	and I work at Congress Asset Management. How would you describe your experience working with
1:26.0	Ridgeline? Ridgeline is a technology partner, not a software vendor, and the people really care.
1:30.3	I get sales, calls all the time, and I ignore them. Ridgeline sold me very quickly.
1:35.3	We went from $7 billion to $23 billion, and the goal is $50 billion.
1:39.3	Ridgeline was the clear frontrunner to help us scale.
1:42.3	In your view, what most distinguishes Ridgeline?
1:45.6	They reimagined how this industry should work.
1:48.1	It's obviously they were operating on another level.
1:52.2	It's worth reaching out to Ridgeline to see what the unlock can be for your firm.
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