Ron Shaich

And they wanted to buy it.

And though I was never selling it,

It wasn't my intention.

You know, when somebody falls in love, who is it for me to deny them what they wanted if they were willing to pay for it?

And they paid for it.

And what at that time was the largest or second largest U.S.

restaurant deal ever done, $7.8 billion at among the highest multiples.

And, you know, again, it seemed like an opportunity to harvest something

everything that we had worked on for a lot of people that had believed in us.

And we took that opportunity.

You know, so I left Panera.

I had always had interest in a number of other little businesses.

And I was doing, after I left, I was doing a lot of speaking on the pervasive short-termism in the U.S.

capital markets.

and how not just our body politic, but our capital markets, and how that was essentially making us less competitive.

It was not helping our GDP growth.

If we're not thinking long-term, we're not going to have innovation.

If all we want is to pop the stock, it's short-term cost-cutting that drives it.

One of my associates, a guy named Keith Paschal,

Oh, Ben worked with me at Panera Soup.