Fresh Thinking

Matt did.

Matt grew up in Winnipeg … and ended up graduating from university with a media relations degree despite flunking his business course.

To do what he loved, he was able to secure an internship on a TV show in New York City … and then parlayed that into a two year gig in public relations for a famous fashion designer.

One afternoon, at lunch he couldn’t find what he wanted to eat. He was tired of eating in greasy delis around Midtown Manhattan and wanted something fresh … and suddenly realized their might be hole in market … Not just for fresh food but for a franchise business aimed at millennials like him. Now Matt had never worked a single day in the restaurant business in his entire life… but he studied everything he could about how major food brands like Starbucks, McDonalds or Subway had done it … then with some seed money from his parents he opened his first store in Toronto that he called Lettuce Eatery.

Well people took to it right away so much so that the store ran out of food before the end of lunch on that very first day.

Today, over 12 years later, there are over 350 of Matt’s Lettuce Eatery outlets worldwide and the chain is growing rapidly. Never heard of Lettuce Eatery? That’s because they changed names early on … to something more media-relations friendly … Freshii

Freshii is a great idea because a fresh take on a simple problem can help you start and build something new.