The Real Reason Most Restaurants Fail (He Beat the Odds Twice) | Michael Chernow🍽️EP129
The Money Mondays
Dan Fleyshman
4.3 • 483 Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why do most restaurants fail—and how did Michael Chernow beat the odds twice? In this episode, he shares how he built two hit restaurant brands, scaled a wellness company, and turned personal adversity into entrepreneurial success. Real talk on risk, brand, grit, and building something that lasts.---Entrepreneur, restaurateur, and founder of Creatures of Habit, Michael Chernow built The Meatball Shop and Seymour’s into NYC staples before turning his passion for wellness into a fast-growing CPG brand.---Like this episode? Watch more like it 👇How These Founders Built Wealth Through Sales & Real Estate | Moe Falah & Brad Sumrok: https://youtu.be/YroDVkqMd0gHow to Build Wealth & Influence Fast w/ Rudy Mawer & Christopher Kai: https://youtu.be/5Bk0XutrLzEWhy Most Influencers Fail (And How Kellan Ness Blew Up Instead): https://youtu.be/KTBu_A9Cl0MFrom Rock Bottom to $60M in One Year w/ Andrew Bachman: https://youtu.be/xd4DRx78o_QWatch ALL Full Episodes Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k---The Money Mondays is a business podcast here to teach you how to make money, invest money, and donate money by showcasing some of the world's most successful people and how they do the same. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company in history, this money podcast gives you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the wealthiest celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes and influencers make, invest and donate money.If you want to learn more business and investing while you work to improve your financial life, you're in the right place! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneymondays?sub_confirmation=1Dan Fleyshman,The Money MondaysLearn more here: https://themoneymondays.comWatch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6kLet’s Connect...Website: https://themoneymondays.comPodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondaysLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondaysFB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money Monday's podcast. |
| 0:09.8 | As you guys know for the last two years, 99% of these episodes are inside of an RV |
| 0:14.1 | motorhome. |
| 0:14.9 | But our special guest happens to be in town from New York City. |
| 0:18.1 | He came to L.A. |
| 0:19.2 | I'm in L.A., but a big, butter boom. |
| 0:22.2 | We end up here on this couch at the W Hotel in Hollywood inside New York City. He came to L.A. I'm in L.A., butta-bun-boom. We ended up here on this couch at the W. Hotel in Hollywood inside of the podcast studio brought to you by the content CEO. |
| 0:27.3 | Now, Mr. Michael Chernobyl. As you guys know, we cover three core topics. How to make money, |
| 0:33.8 | how to invest money, how to give away to charity. This gentleman has already exited |
| 0:37.4 | multiple restaurants. He's building a business that I'm an investor in because I'm passionate about, one, founders have already built up companies. Two, founders that are passionate about their product. Three, someone that can actually build something that people care about. And four, someone that can actually scale it. So we're going to dive into all those core topics. |
| 0:55.7 | But first, Mr. Michael Chernow, can you give a quick two-minute bio so we can get straight to the money? |
| 1:00.0 | Sure. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:01.2 | Of course. |
| 1:02.3 | My name is Michael Chernow. I am an entrepreneur. |
| 1:06.1 | Started my career about 15 years ago opening up a restaurant called the meatball shop in New York City had no |
| 1:12.7 | idea what I was doing but knew that I wanted to do something and I was in the restaurant business so I said |
| 1:17.0 | fuck it I'm going to do it opened up the meatball shop it took off like crazy scaled it to seven stores |
| 1:22.8 | exited that kept a little piece launched a second restaurant concept called Seymours, |
| 1:29.4 | did the exact same thing, scaled it to seven restaurants, and exited that, kept a little piece |
| 1:35.1 | and I own a significant piece of both businesses, but I sit on the board. And in 2019, |
| 1:41.5 | early 2020, I knew that I was going to open up another restaurant. The pandemic hit, |
| 1:46.5 | and as entrepreneurs, you know what we do. We pivot when we have to. And I knew that I wasn't |
... |
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