How I Turned $50,000 Into $20 Billion

What this episode is about

The interview features Todd Graves, the billionaire founder of Raising Canes, who turned a $50,000 investment into a net worth exceeding $20 billion through his fast-food chicken business. The discussion explores Todd's entrepreneurial journey, revealing his insights and key principles for success in the competitive restaurant industry.

Key takeaways

• From chicken fingers to billions: sometimes simplicity breeds success in a complex world.
• Rejection isn't a roadblock; it's the fuel for the entrepreneurial fire—use it wisely!
• In a world of menu diversifiers, one man thrived by keeping it distinctly single-minded.
• Doubters can be the best motivators; their skepticism often ignites unstoppable determination.
• Who knew serving just chicken could yield over 900 stores and a $20 billion net worth?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Todd Graves (Guest) · 10 min speaking
• Unknown Host (Host) · 7 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Todd Graves, business, Baton Rouge, chicken fingers
2. 3:00 – 6:00: business, SBA, chicken fingers
3. 6:00 – 9:00: business, community, Todd Graves, networking
4. 9:00 – 12:00: business, chicken fingers, community, competition
5. 12:00 – 15:00: business, chicken fingers
6. 15:00 – 16:33: business, Todd Graves, community

Notable quotes from "How I Turned $50,000 Into $20 Billion"

• In Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is where it all started, you guys. Started here, now has over 900 locations. So, we're going to be interviewing him at the OG.

  about Baton Rouge · at 1:44

• Todd Graves, founder of Raising Canes.

  about Todd Graves · at 2:29

• Yeah, once I raised a lot of my own personal equity, about $50,000. I was able to go in and get a small SBA loan for $50,000 and I was able to get this old place here…

  about SBA · at 4:59

• 4,000 entrepreneurs inside the community. So when you join, you literally get access to a network of 4,000 entrepreneurs. Some of these people have already built seven and…

  about community · at 7:27

• Services. They lose focus of what they're really good at. Focus on the one thing you do great. Mine is cravable chicken finger meals. Yours might be something else. But stick to it, execute great, and then grow it.

  about chicken fingers · at 9:06

• Now, there's a lot of chicken finger restaurants. Have you ever been afraid of competition?

  about competition · at 10:04

• So if you were to teach a master class, give me a lesson about business right here that is not taught in school. So you have to have a great product or service to be good in business to make.

  about business · at 12:59

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Todd Graves — Person · Main guest · 7 mentions · first at 0:10
  He explains how he founded and scaled Raising Cane's from a single Baton Rouge store into a global chain, sharing lessons on financing, focus, leadership, and resilience.

Concepts & topics

• business — Concept · Core topic · 22 mentions · first at 0:07
  The episode repeatedly generalizes from Raising Cane's to broader business principles: product quality, margins, scaling, and long-term decision-making.
• chicken fingers — Concept · Core product concept · 4 mentions · first at 2:33
  Chicken fingers are positioned as the single-minded product focus that differentiated Raising Cane's and enabled scalable execution and brand clarity.
• community — Concept · Supporting topic · 5 mentions · first at 6:46
  Community is discussed as both an entrepreneurial network (School of Mentors) and as a philanthropic purpose for giving back through business success.
• SBA — Concept · Key financing mechanism · 2 mentions · first at 4:37
  SBA lending is cited as a practical tool that enabled early financing by reducing bank risk via government guarantees.
• competition — Concept · Supporting topic · 1 mention · first at 10:06
  Todd Graves frames competition as motivating rather than threatening, tying it to work ethic and operational excellence.
• networking — Concept · Supporting topic (host emphasis) · 2 mentions · first at 6:23
  The host claims building an elite network enabled rapid business success and uses it to justify the School of Mentors offering.
  4,000 entrepreneurs inside the community. So when you join, you literally get access to a network of 4,000 entrepreneurs. Some of these people have already built seven and…

Places & events

• Baton Rouge — Place · Key setting · 4 mentions · first at 0:31
  The interview is conducted at the original Raising Cane's location in Baton Rouge, emphasizing the origin story and early scaling context.
• Hurricane Katrina — Event · Major inflection event (risk lesson) · 1 mention · first at 8:13
  It triggered a crisis where many restaurants went down while the company was overleveraged, leading to a lasting shift toward conservative debt use.
  Growing, overleveraging, taking too much debt on. I felt 10t tall and bulletproof. And then when Hurricane Katrina hit, we were in a bind. I had 21 to 28 restaurants go down. I…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I'm about to interview one of the richest men in the entire world. But how did he make his billions? I sell chicken figures. You sell chicken figures? I do. Are you a business owner? I am. I own Raisin Canes. You own Raising Canes? Yeah. Founded it back in 1996. You heard it from him. He's the founder of Raising Canes, you guys. But he's not rich. He's not even wealthy. No, no, no, no. He's got a net worth of Well, I'll let him tell you that. What is your net worth? I'm north of 20 billion. North of You said 20 billion.

0:25 $20 billion. Yeah. 20 billion, you guys. with a capital B. So, you know, I had to fly out to where it all started out here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the original raising Kane's location to get billionaire secrets from Todd Graves, one of the wealthiest men in the entire world. And I'm going to be asking him everything in this interview. Me and you die tomorrow and you had one guiding principle to lead with the younger generation. What would that be? Nothing is off the table in this interview. And I'm going to be getting the exact blueprint on what he did to become a billionaire. If you had to rebuild a billion dollar company with three moves, what would they be? This video is about to be insane from start to finish. So stay tuned until the end.

0:59 That being said, let's get this video on the way. All right, you guys. So, we're in the car head the billionaire Todd Graves right now. But I got to point something out before we do this interview. This is going to be the 25th billionaire that I've ever interviewed. And you want to know the craziest part, guys? I've interviewed billionaires across tech to real estate to law to retail, but never have I ever interviewed somebody that got billionaire rich from opening up fast food restaurants and selling chicken tenders. So, this is going to be unlike any interview that I've ever done before, and I cannot wait to figure out his secrets to becoming a billionaire.

1:39 With that being said, let's go meet Todd. All right, you guys. So, we just got to the OG Kane's location out here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is where it all started, you guys. Started here, now has over 900 locations. So, we're going to be interviewing him at the OG. We're going to be linking up with him any minute right now for you guys. Come on. How you doing, Todd? Great, man. How are you doing? Doing great. Great to meet you. Great to meet you, too. How y'all doing, man? Love your stuff, man. I love all of them. It's like it's always in my feed when you need a new one. It pops right up. I think they're great, man.

2:02 I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Oh, man. We're great. I really appreciate you coming down to Baton Rouge to do this. And you got four avid people in Austin right here. Oh, man. That's great. Well, this is the mothership, man. This where it all started right here. We love learning from successful people and we're just super happy to be here. I appreciate I like how you make it relatable. People watching, it's entertaining. They learn something. So, it's great. questions. I have one rule for the video. No holding back. You give them the secrets on what it takes to to become rich. Can we make that happen?

2:26 I can do that. Let's do that. Yeah, I'll do my best. Who am I here with today? Uh Todd Graves, founder of Raising Canes. And for those who don't know, what is your business? My business is Chicken Fingers. I serve chicken finger meals and great tea and lemonade and actually do it all over the country in parts of the world. Now, how did you get into the chicken finger business? Right. Like for those that don't know, what was that turning point getting into this business? Uh you know, I I grew up in high school and college working in restaurants. So, I really liked it. I was always entrepreneurial. I was the kid that in the neighborhood had the the lemonade stand and I cut grass for dollars. So just natural thing for me was go into my own business and then I knew restaurants.

2:57 Take me back to college. You had a class where you proposed chicken tenders as a business idea and you got the lowest grade in the class. I did. I did. Look, I I presented the like the Bible on chicken fingers. I worked in the business so I knew exactly what I needed to do. But the professor gave it the worst grade in the class because he said the plan was good but the concept will never work. Serving just chicken fingers while other restaurants at the time were adding menu items variety. They're adding healthy items. said it would never work, but you didn't listen to other people.

3:20 You didn't listen to people that doubted you. Oh, you know what? I If you're an entrepreneur, you use that as fuel. When someone tells you you can't do it, you get a chip on your shoulder and you're like, I will show you I'll do it. So, let's talk to people right now that are either doubting themselves. They're facing a lot of rejection. Rejection is inevitable. When we started this channel, I'd go up to people off the street and I'd get 20, 30 rejections in a row. How did you deal with rejection early on before you had the credibility, before you proved the model? How did you kind of deal with it and built that mental framework as an entrepreneur?

3:43 I use rejection as fuel. Every time told me, somebody told me, "Hey, this will never work." work. I was like, you know what? I'll prove it to you that I will make it. And every time that I started doubting myself, I thought, you know what, you believe in yourself and you have this dream and you know it'll work. So, believe in yourself. Work hard and make it happen. Tell me the story about how you got the money to start that first business cuz the restaurant business, it's capital intensive. In today's world, banks aren't really lending money to restaurants. Maybe they once used to.

4:06 How did you get the money to start your first location? I got turned on by every banker in town. So, I knew I had to raise my own money. So, literally, I caught a plane to Anchorage, Alaska. Caught a float plane to King Salmon, Alaska. Hitchhiked to Knack Neck, Alaska. I spent a month on the tundra in a tent before I got a job commercial fishing in Alaska. Look, so when you don't have, you can't get money. It's very, very hard to get money. You got to make money yourself. And there's tons of jobs that you're willing to work hard. I don't know if I'd recommend now someone doing the dangerous jobs I did like Alaskan fishing. But you can earn money to get in business. And so once you earn enough money yourself, there's also great programs. The SBA lending is outstanding. The government backs the bank up to like 90%, right? so they can be more lenient with the loans they do to get entrepreneurs like me getting

4:47 started. Other great government agencies like Small Business Development Center that'll help you with advice. Service Corp retire executives. I used all these resources and really learned a lot to help me start my business. Did you borrow money from a bank to start your business? Yeah, once I raised a lot of my own personal equity, about $50,000. I was able to go in and uh get a small SBA loan for $50,000 and I was able to get this old place here, dilapidated old restaurant space and do the work myself and to be opened up in 1996.

5:13 What did you learn about negotiating with banks? If you know your numbers, you have to know your numbers inside and out. You have to believe in them. Low, mediums, and highs. And the low you put on, which is break even, that the business will work on the low end. The medium projections are I think I'll do this and we're going to make good money. And then there's a high projections. Look, if this thing really kicks off, we're going to have a lot of good money and we're going to be able to pay you back your loan quicker.

5:34 So, as somebody who sold billions of dollars throughout your career, what is your best sales and negotiation advice for anybody in business? Best negotiation advice I can give anybody is believe in what you're doing and know your numbers inside and out. And don't let people talk you down on your numbers. If they work, they work because if they don't like them, then go to somebody else. Somebody else eventually will. If they don't, somebody's able to get the deal. Absolutely. And I'm I'm living proof of that. What was the most amount of money that you made a single year?

5:57 400 million. $400 million. Yeah. So, what is your net worth? I'm north of 20 billion. North of You said 20 billion. $20 billion. Yeah. As a billionaire, what's the best financial advice you've ever received? Guys, listen very carefully. I built the craziest network in the entire world by the age of 23 years old. And it's the reason why I built a multi-million dollar business before most people graduate college. And I'm not kidding. My businesses make over 400 to $600,000 every single month. And the reason why is because I've connected with more multi-millionaires and more billionaires than anyone in the entire world. I mean, I'm literally interviewing Todd Graves, the founder of Raising Canes, who's worth over $20 billion. And I have these conversations every single week with multi-millionaire and billionaire entrepreneurs. But here's the thing, guys. I realized about a year ago that it shouldn't just be me having these

6:43 conversations. So, I built something insane that has never been built before. And I built it just for you. I built a private community for entrepreneurs and people wanting to better themselves where I give you guys direct access to the same multi-millionaires and billionaires that I interview on this channel every single week. And I called it the school of mentors. And inside the school of mentors, you're not just watching videos. You're literally hopping on live calls, live Zoom calls with eight figure entrepreneurs, nine figure entrepreneurs, billionaires, people that built billion-dollar companies where you ask them your questions directly and get mentored from these business owners, the people that I interview. They mentor you every single week and they give you guys step-by-step playbooks and the blueprints on sales, on marketing, on investing. You're even able to book one-on-one calls with real

7:25 mentors. And we've already helped over 4,000 entrepreneurs inside the community. So when you join, you literally get access to a network of 4,000 entrepreneurs. Some of these people have already built seven and eight figure businesses. And you can come learn from and connect with these members. And now, if you're watching this, you can join the community, the number one community for business owners in the entire world for less than a dollar a day. Guys, just $29 a month is going to get you access to the millionaires and billionaires that I interview. So all you have to do to join now is go down and click the link in the description of this video to join the School of Mentors. is the number one community, the most powerful community for entrepreneurs in the entire world.

8:00 So, I can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, let's get back to the interview. What's the best financial advice you've ever received? I almost broke our business. I overlevered it. You know, I was young and I was growing, overleveraging, taking too much debt on. I felt 10t tall and bulletproof. And then when Hurricane Katrina hit, we were in a bind. I had 21 to 28 restaurants go down. I had to pay the banks. I was in a bad bind. We reopened quickly, thank goodness, and go. But since that day, I've never overleveraged our business. I don't take on too much debt. I grow with more equity. That's a smart thing to do. And how many locations do you have now?

8:30 We have over 900 locations in the US and the Middle East. Over 900 locations. Over 900. Yeah. This is the original location right here. You went from 1 to 10 to 100 to 900 locations. What is your secret to scaling a business? Do one thing and do it better than anybody else. Focus on that. Know what you're good at and execute on a daily basis. Then scale. What was that one thing that you did better than anybody else? That's chicken finger meals, man. You know, you have to have an amazing product and service. And in restaurants, you have to have something that's cravable. Absolutely cravable that people think about, they want it often.

8:59 If you have a mediocre product, you'll never make it. And also, too, is where these young entrepreneurs, they'll start businesses, and then they'll start branching out in different products and services. They lose focus of what they're really good at. Focus on the one thing you do great. Mine is cravable chicken finger meals. Yours might be something else. But stick to it, execute great, and then grow it. You've had a lot of people telling you that, "Oh, you got to expand the menu. You got to diversify." But you know that if you focus on that one thing and do it better than anybody else, it will take care of itself.

9:23 Yeah, absolutely. If you try to be all things to all people, you don't satisfy anybody. Do what people love and do it exceptionally well day in day out. You own over 90% of cades. I do. How what percentage of cases do you own? 91 92% something like that. So, how important is it to maintain ownership and equity in the business? If you take on owners in your business, investors that are sophisticated, they might have different intentions than you do, right? All I have to listen to is my crew and my customers. And so since I own the business, I get to make the right decisions based on the long-term success of the business. So for example, if it's a bad year, let's say sales aren't as high as they should be. Let's say food costs goes up, I don't have to make short-term decisions to do short-term gains. I don't have to lower wages. I don't have to raise prices. I can do the right decisions, stick to

10:03 what I'm doing for long-term success. Now, there's a lot of chicken finger restaurants. Have you ever been afraid of competition? You know what? I I love competition, man. It like it fuels you up, you know? So, I love it. I love it when competition goes out there. This is the United States, man. And I mean, more people that come up and try to do what I'm doing, go for it. But you better be ready cuz no one's going to outwork me. No one's going to care about their crew more. And you know what? Keep going because I get fired up when I hear of another competitor coming up and grazing up cuz I'm going to do our job that much better.

10:25 But you're worth over $20 billion. Are you still motivated to keep on going, man? Like day one, you know, for me, this is a purpose- driven business. What I can do with hiring people and having a great place to work and what I can do for the money I can give back to communities. That for me just drives me. It's having purpose is what's important. And I think when you start your business, you have this dream and that dream is to have for me was to have a great place serving great chicken and people enjoying themselves, right?

10:46 Having a great place for people to work. But as you get older and mature in your business, you go, you start realizing you have a purpose. And my purpose was hiring great people in and having a great job. My purpose was being able to take money that we make and give it back to the communities. And that's what drives me every morning. So you never got complacent? Never got complacent. Never will. Why not? Well, because I have this great purpose, right? And so right now, if I'm worth $20 billion, most of that money is going to go back to help people. What if I can turn that into 40? What if I can turn that into 60? What if my kids can turn into hundreds of billions of dollars?

11:12 That can really help people out there. It's safe to say that you're not thinking a days. You're thinking a decade. You think very long term. Yeah. I'm actually thinking next generation. How do we keep this going? And how do we continue to help people? See, me and my family, we believe people aren't here to serve us. We're here to serve them. And by by scaling the business and growing and doing these things, we can do really big impact someday. To lead us to serve. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Give me your best leadership advice for anybody in business right now. Because leadership is the downfall of even some of the biggest companies in the world.

11:37 What's your best leadership advice to somebody who's the number one of their company right now? Lead by example and lead people by their hearts and minds. They see me in working in the restaurants. They know I'm working late at night. They know I'm always taking care of my crew, so they work hard for me. And that's why we have such great customer service. Believe in people. Take care of people. That's the best way to leave. Have you ever been over in business? Oh man. I mean, look, people come and go. I mean, for everything from contractors that don't do what they're supposed to do, everybody else. But you learn from that and you move on. Look, I I think you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. and we're constantly getting knocked back. There's some bad people out there that want to take advantage of you. Surround yourself by good people.

12:10 Trust, but verify. And if they screw you over, then move on. Don't do business with them anymore. I'm going to challenge you, right? Take me back to the most life-changing pivotal conversation you had. One of my mentors told me once, Todd, concentrate more on progress rather than perfection. I want to do everything so perfect. Let's say it's a new training manual. I wouldn't release it because I kept just whiting it out and trying to make it perfect. I was halting progress of the business. Think about it as progress. That one training program can be version one. You can be on version 100 a year from now. But don't halt your progress just because you want it to be perfect because it's your baby.

12:40 If you lost everything tomorrow, could you make it all back? Absolutely I could. Yeah, absolutely. If everything lost in this, I would stick to the restaurant business cuz I know it. I think it's important to stick to what you know, but I'd look for another cravable product. I look at something I could focus on and I could build a team around to focus on and then I'd scale it. You believe in God? I do believe in God. Look, I I think God made me good at chicken fingers to help people, right? And so that's my purpose.

12:59 So if you were to teach a master class, give me a lesson about business right here that is not taught in school. So you have to have a great product or service to be good in business to make money, right? To sustain it. The most important thing is, are you ready to do it? You know, I tell young entrepreneurs, think how hard it is to start your business and then multiply that by infinity. And if you're still committed to it, then you can be a success. You don't have quality of life when you're starting a business. The workload is amazing. The risk tolerance has to be very high. It's very risky of just your time and the money you put into it. If other people invest in your business, it's a risk for them. There's a lot of pressure that goes with it. But if you're able to withstand it, then you will be successful. So many amazing business ideas came up that stopped because they gave up. You know, my best

13:38 advice I can give a young entrepreneur when they're getting started is never ever ever ever give up. Believe in yourself and make it happen. Do you think everybody's built for entrepreneurship? I don't think everybody's cut out to be an entrepreneur. You have to have a high risk tolerance. You have to be able to give up work life balance. You have to work just insane hours and keep yourself going. And it's okay if if you're not, but you have to be committed to that kind of crazy life if you want to actually be an entrepreneur. You know, I I had a quote that got me through actually. It's my quote. It's like nothing ever happens unless somebody pursues a vision fanatically. You have to be a fanatic. Fanaticism is what will get you through.

14:11 What do billionaires do differently from millionaires? The only difference between millionaire business owners and billionaire business owners are scale. It's just that want to grow. Growing like crazy because million-dollar businesses are great. You've done the hard part. Grow it and scale it and you'll become a billionaire. And don't give up. and never ever ever give up. How old are you now? I'm uh 53 now. Tom, me and you died tomorrow and you had one guiding principle to lead with the younger generation. What would that be?

14:32 My advice to people would be be good to people and leave this world better than you found it. You got amazing advice there. Thank you so much for your time and I appreciate it. I got to get some chicken tenders, though. Yeah, you do. This is a mother ship. You got to eat here, man. This is where it all started. So, they're about to have their first meal from the mothership with a sweet tea or lemonade. I'm a sweet tea guy. Yeah, me too. I'm a sweet tea guy, too. With extra sauce, right? Yeah. Let's check it out. Here's the box combo.

15:01 This is it right here. This is it. The same thing. This is This is quality right here. Nothing's changed on this menu for 29 years. Yep. Real good. I still eat it all the time. How'd you come up with the sauce right here? Well, let me tell you, but you know the old adage there, you have to kill you. Uh-huh. Yep. There's a secret. Just me and the dog though. Now, we make it fresh in house in all of our restaurants. So we have components you put together but like spice packs and different things that go in it. Nobody knows what that is. So people get close. Love to see it on social media like people do the recipe and I'm like h you missed a few things.

15:33 A lot of restaurant owners they struggle with like margins right in like the food business. How have you kind of overcome that? It's really tough man. So margin all volume margins for us is very tight which between 5 cents and 10 cents on a dollar if you're doing really well. And so you have to do that with sales. So for us we do large volumes because we make such small margins. So, it's push the top line, push the top line, and be smart with the bottom line, but always better quality, better service. Even it cost you more, pays off in the end. So, one of our values is sales driven, but still being profit smart, but be sales driven, right? All right, you guys. That's a wrap on today's video with the legend Todd Graves, the founder of Raising Can's Chicken. First of all, this is fire. But I need everybody to like and subscribe for amazing content we've got coming every week cuz I'm going all over

16:14 the world to bring you guys the biggest business owners just like Todd Graves. Everybody, go down and click the link in the description of this video to join the School of Mentors, the number one community for business owners in the entire world, where we give you guys direct access, the people we interview every week on live calls. So, we can't wait to see you on the inside. And with that being said, see you in the next

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "How I Turned $50,000 Into $20 Billion"?

Todd Graves (Guest), Unknown Host (Host).

What is "How I Turned $50,000 Into $20 Billion" about?

The interview features Todd Graves, the billionaire founder of Raising Canes, who turned a $50,000 investment into a net worth exceeding $20 billion through his fast-food chicken business. The discussion explores Todd's entrepreneurial journey, revealing his insights and key principles for success in the competitive restaurant industry.

What is mentioned in this School of Hard Knocks episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Todd Graves, business, chicken fingers, Baton Rouge, community, SBA. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How I Turned $50,000 Into $20 Billion"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 4,319 words in 34 timestamped sections.

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