How Sweetgreen grew its roots on city streets

When Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, and Jonathan Neman met at business school they shared a mutual disappointment at their campus food options and recognized there was a gap in the market for a new type of fast food restaurant. They wanted one that served healthy food with local produce, and as a result in 2006 Sweetgreen was born. The salad chain has since grown across the U.S. and now boasts over 221 locations across 18 states and the District of Columbia.

Scaling a restaurant business in that way in a little under two decades isn't an easy task. Doing so in a way that stays true to your brand and original mission is even harder. Founder Nathaniel Ru calls their approach intimacy at scale '“When we started out, you had two choices: food that was either fast, cheap and unhealthy, or slow, expensive and fresh. We wanted to create a place where you didn’t have to sacrifice price for flavor or convenience. For us, intimacy at scale is about proving that that we can serve healthy, real food at scale, while still making it feel like your Sweetgreen and not just a Sweetgreen”

This kind of approach is, in many ways, the opposite of what consumers are used to. For the most part, chain restaurants have historically been rolled our rapidly, designed to be the same, and become just another tentacle of a large corporate entity, something Nathaniel Ru said he was keen to avoid. “There are all of these cautionary tales about startups or restaurants that grew massively, transforming into slow-moving corporate entities where quality takes a nosedive, products become more bland, customers are no longer at the center, and employees feel less involved and inspired. We’ve been determined to avoid that.”

Sweetgreen's first location was a corner of a historic street in DC. It was here that the foundations of their approach to scaling were set - it all came down to a deep understanding of the location.

As Ru explained when Sweetgreen entered another new market Houston during its pre-pandemic expansion, each location is fundamentally different, and understanding that is key.

"We’re students first, analyzing each community before every new market launch. For example, we’ve been immersed in Houston now for over a year, meeting with the largest farmer’s market, combing through real estate options, working with local artists and architects, learning about what people who live in that area like to do and eat, and looking at historical data for everything from traffic patterns to demographics,”

Sweetgreen couples their location-first approach with a key understanding of the mindset of their target customer. “We’ve also created our own mindset model that we overlay on different ZIP Codes to gauge how well we would perform in certain regions. So in the case of Houston, our diligence has led us to apply new tactics, such as introducing heartier food plates, serving beer and wine, and adding in more seating to cater to the culture of driving.”

We’re students first, analyzing each community before every new market launch... Learning about what people who live in that area like to do and eat, and looking at historical data for everything from traffic patterns to demographics

Whilst some brands would consider 'urban commuters' to be their target audience and settle for that, due to their model Sweetgreen had to focus on the underlying truth that every city and even different areas of a particular city might have a fundamentally different audience. If you're trying to scale a business that feels like it is a natural fit in a location, then the location itself plays an important part in how you determine your target customers behaviors and needs. In Sweetgreen's case, this has led to different physical experiences, menu items and marketing.

THE TAKEAWAY

Depending on your business model your audience location may be an important part of how you define and segment them.

Location can be something businesses gloss over, but the finer details matter and can have an impact on your entire business and brand.

GO DEEPER

Read an in-depth interview with Nathaniel Ru on how they scaled Sweetgreen here.