Story
From Hooters waitress to president of Cinnabon's parent company
Shaan recaps guest Cat Cole's path: she started as a Hooters waitress in college, climbed Hooters corporate to GM of Hooters America, then became president of Cinnabon and ultimately president of its parent company Focus Brands.
“She basically started as a Hooters waitress, while she was in college and then like was, you know, good as a waitress and like got into Hooters corporate as kind of like low-level corporate and then like worked her way up Hooters corporate and became eventually like head of Hooters America, like GM of Hooters America. And then like transitioned over as president of Cinnabon”
Number
Focus Brands: $4-5B in sales across 7 food brands
Kat Cole runs Focus Brands as president and COO: $4-5 billion in global consumer product sales, nearly 7,000 units in 60 countries, across 7 brands including Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Jamba Juice, Moe's, McAllister's, and Schlotzsky's.
$4500M
Annual global consumer product sales · USD/year
“$4 to $5 billion in global consumer product sales, just under 7,000 units, 60 countries, 7 food brands that people know and love: Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Jamba Juice, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAllister's, and Schlotzsky's.”
Story
Hooters waitress to global franchise launcher by 20
Kat Cole started as a 17-year-old Hooters hostess putting herself through college, was tapped to launch franchises on different continents, and rose so fast she opened locations on most continents by age 20 — then dropped out of school and took her first corporate job in Atlanta.
“So I started out as a hostess and a waitress when I was 17, 18 years old. At Hooters restaurants, putting myself through college, first person in my family to get into college, grew up the child of a single parent alcoholic father, helped raise my sisters. And so, I just had to work to pay for school, and I was the first person to get into school, and so everybody was really excited. And then, something really crazy happened. Hooters happened to be growing around the world at the time that I was a waitress, and I was asked to be a part of the training team that would go launch the franchise on different continents.”
Fact
She earned a master's without a bachelor's degree
Kat Cole dropped out before finishing her two-year degree but later completed an MBA program nights and weekends — earning a master's without ever holding a bachelor's, which she notes is rare but possible.
“I have my master's without having a bachelor's. So, I went through an MBA program. Is that allowed? Nights and weekends. It is allowed. It is rare but possible.”
Fact
She earned a master's without a bachelor's degree
Kat Cole dropped out before finishing her two-year degree but later completed an MBA program nights and weekends — earning a master's without ever holding a bachelor's, which she notes is rare but possible.
“I have my master's without having a bachelor's. So, I went through an MBA program. Is that allowed? Nights and weekends. It is allowed. It is rare but possible.”
Take
Don't over-index on humility when the moment needs courage
Cole reframes imposter syndrome not as feeling undeserving but as over-indexing on humility and curiosity when the situation demands courage and confidence. As the VP overseeing a function, the answer to 'who am I to question them?' is: if you don't ask, no one will.
“the version that I've experienced is an over-indexing on humility and curiosity at times when I really needed to pull forward more courage and confidence. And I would ask myself in my head, because I respected the people I was now a peer of so much, who in the early days, they had been in business longer than I'd been alive. Literally, I was a 26-year-old executive and they were in their 50s and 60s.”
Steal thisWhen you hold a seat, use your voice — if you don't raise the question or idea, no one will, and you'll regret the silence.
Idea
A personal environmental-impact score app to fight greenwashing
Cole pitches an app where you log all your life choices — shampoo, transportation, food, utilities — and get a real environmental-impact score, benchmarked by region, that sees through greenwashing because so many 'eco' products aren't actually better across the full value chain.
“So an app that lets me enter all the life decisions that I want to enter and evaluate and measure my real environmental impact. So the shampoo I buy, the method of transportation I have, my food choices, and I want to score, right? It's just for me. And then if there's enough, if there are enough people participating, enough data points, it can kind of benchmark by region.”
Steal thisScore the full value chain of consumer choices, not just product labels, and benchmark users against their region to drive consciousness.
Idea
Food as pharmacy: a healthy-chain franchise built for every channel
Cole's idea is a modern restaurant chain where a doctor network diagnoses you and prescribes a menu (A, B, C, D) of delicious functional food, positioned as 'food is medicine' — built from the ground up for dine-in, delivery, pickup, meal kits, and contactless, franchised at a low-to-mid price tier.
“So first I'm thinking of starting kind of the modern food chain, the unfranchise franchise that is about healthy food, but food as pharmacy, where you go in, you get a diagnosis in some way from some network of doctors that take your blood test and do all these things and are like, these are the types of things you need to eat menu A. And then there's this chain of restaurants that has Menu A, B, C, D, something more fabulously marketed than that, but you get the point.”
Steal thisBuild the restaurant from ground zero around all routes to market at once — dine-in, delivery, pickup, meal kits — instead of patchworking channels onto an old model.
Fact
Cloud kitchens only work where density is high
Cole explains the cloud kitchen economics: delivery-only math only works in hyper-dense markets because a short delivery radius (which requires density) is the only way to keep delivery cost and time low. In non-dense markets, operators churn out once they realize delivery-only revenue can't cover the model.
“And because you need the cost of delivery to be low and you need the time of delivery to be low in order to properly batch and keep it efficient, whether you're a third party or a self-delivery person and you've got your 3 kids driving around on a scooter delivering the food, doesn't matter. The delivery time has to be fast. The radius has to be short. The only way the radius is short is if the density is there. And so cloud kitchens are crushing, crushing it. Dark kitchen, cloud kitchen, whatever you want to call it, in hyper-dense markets.”
Steal thisOnly launch delivery-only kitchens where population density keeps the delivery radius short and the per-order cost and time low.
Tactic
Co-brand growth hack: ride a sister brand's search on Uber Eats
Because Focus Brands co-locates multiple brands in one kitchen, an Uber Eats listing must have a lead brand — but searching for the secondary brand (e.g. Cinnabon) still surfaces the Auntie Anne's listing with the Cinnabon menu item, capturing both brands' search demand from one location.
“So it shows up as an Auntie Anne's location. But right when you pull up the menu, it says— that's the problem is it's got to have a lead location. But because it— because the brand shows up in the menu, it does show up in the search. So if you search Cinnabon, but Cinnabon's actually co-branded with what was first an Auntie Anteans. You search Cinnabon, it pops up, it says Anteans, but then it shows you the Cinnabon menu item.”
Steal thisCo-locate complementary brands in one kitchen so each brand's menu items capture search demand on delivery platforms from a single listing.
Number
Small retailers run on just 14-21 days of cash
Cole cites a JPMorgan-type report finding the average independent retail operator, including restaurants, holds only 14 to 21 days of cash on hand at most — which is why preserving cash was the immediate priority for franchisees during COVID.
$21
Cash on hand for average independent retailer · days
“the average independent retail operator, including restaurants, has like 14 to 21 days of cash on hand max. And that is very typical of super small business owners. And so we knew we had to preserve cash.”
Number
Small retailers run on just 14-21 days of cash
Cole cites a JPMorgan-type report finding the average independent retail operator, including restaurants, holds only 14 to 21 days of cash on hand at most — which is why preserving cash was the immediate priority for franchisees during COVID.
$21
Cash on hand for average independent retailer · days
“the average independent retail operator, including restaurants, has like 14 to 21 days of cash on hand max. And that is very typical of super small business owners. And so we knew we had to preserve cash.”