For a food business with a successful B2B wholesale or catering model, the immediate growth path is expanding that existing channel (e.g., from 45 to 90 partners). A brick-and-mortar location is a different business with high costs that can distract from the core strength.

The success of high-end restaurant chains like Carbone in diverse markets (Vegas, Riyadh) demonstrates a growing global connoisseur culture. This allows startups with a perfected product to expand internationally with only minor local adaptations, treating their brand as a form of intellectual property.

Instead of starting in a kitchen, CPG entrepreneur Emma Hernan bought a manufacturing facility first. This generated revenue by co-packing for other brands, secured her own supply chain, and created multiple income streams from a single asset before her product even launched.

The margins of a single restaurant are too thin to justify the operational complexity and stress. Profitability and a sustainable business model emerge only when you scale to multiple locations, allowing you to amortize fixed costs and achieve operational efficiencies.

The path to a multi-million dollar local business involves three steps. First, maximize your current location's capacity and marketing channels. Once that's capped, the real scale comes from duplicating the successful model in new locations, turning a small opportunity into a large one.

Franchising is a different business model focused on systems, training, and brand protection. Before considering it, a founder must first prove their concept is replicable by successfully opening and operating a second company-owned location. This provides the necessary data and validates the model's scalability.

Instead of hiring a large national sales team common in the beverage industry, De Soi takes a capital-efficient approach to on-premise sales. They build a playbook in one key market (LA) using brand ambassadors and contract workers, allowing them to scale without the massive overhead of a traditional sales force.

Jane Wurwand advises a premium food startup to avoid large supermarkets early on. Big chains demand high volume and have long payment cycles that can crush a new business. Instead, focus on small, high-end local grocers where the brand story can shine and payment terms are more manageable.

To build a successful franchise, a business must first prove its model is profitable and repeatable. This requires operating three to five corporate-owned stores to perfect unit economics, training systems, brand voice, and operational simplicity before licensing the model to others.