Business Idea:

Create a sushi restaurant that allows customers to “build theirown sushi” by allowing them to select their own kind of wrap, rice,veggies, proteins, and toppings.

Pitch:

People who like sushi have two choices. They can go to a fancysushi restaurant and pay a fancy bill. Or they can go to a grocerystore and buy sushi that is supposedly made daily. Now there is athird option. How Do You Roll? is a fast-casual sushi restaurantthat combines the quality of a high-end restaurant with theconvenience of a grocery store.

How Do You Roll? is the brainchild of two brothers, Yuen Yungand Peter Yung. Both grew up in the restaurant industry. Theirparents had several Chinese restaurants, and at the tender age ofeight or nine they both started working in their parents’restaurants. How Do You Roll? launched with a single store inAustin, Texas. It lets the customer be the chef by allowingcustomers to pick their own ingredients. The customer approaches acounter and is led through four steps:

1. Step 1 Choose Your Wrap: Traditional (seaweed) ormodern (soy)

2. Step 2 Eat Your Veggies: Choose up to three healthyvegetables

3. Step 3 Stuff Your Roll: Choose one or more of ourfresh meats

4. Step 4 Top It Off: Indulge in one or more of ourspecialty toppings or sides

Through this process customers personalize their sushi rolls.The meal, which consists of a six-piece sushi roll and a fountaindrink, costs an average of $8 to $11. How Do You Roll’s businessmodel is also designed to make sushi accessible to people who won’ttouch raw ingredients or even fish. There is cooked chickenand beef available as substitutes. Along with sushi, eachrestaurant also sells miso soup, seaweed salad, and green tea icecream. It is an experience that is totally unique in the sushiindustry. It also provides fast-casual food patrons an alternativeto the standard fare of burgers and chicken sandwiches.

How Do You Roll? is growing via franchising. It currently haseight franchise units and two company-owned stores. It has pennedseveral development agreements, which may add up to 70 additionalfranchise units over the next 10 years. According to the company,it costs between $304,295 and $508,780 to open a How Do You Roll?restaurant. The initial franchise fee is $30,000, and the ongoingroyalty is 7 percent of gross sales.

In spring 2013, Yuen Yung and Peter Yung pitched the business onthe popular ABC show Shark Tank. Along with a $1million investment from shark Kevin O’Leary, Yung said restaurantsales jumped 30 percent. In addition, he and his brother receivedmore than 600 inquiries from potential franchisees interested inopening How Do You Roll? restaurants.

1. 8-32. Based on the material covered in this chapter, whatquestions would you ask the firm’s founders before making yourfunding decision? What answers would satisfy

2. 8-33 If you had to make a decision on just the informationprovided in the pitch and on the company's website, would you fundthis firm? Why or why not?