Ron Shaich

Why don't you take your own money and put your money where your mouth is?

And I ultimately took roughly $200 million of my own money, no LPs, no external folks, just my own money and a bit of money from some of my partners, some of the people that chose to join us and took some of the people I had worked with.

and decided to go do it.

And essentially, I created an investment vehicle because it's not a firm.

It's called Act III.

You can figure out where that comes from, Obonpan, Panera, and now Act III Holdings.

And within eight weeks of leaving Panera, I had gotten involved in our first real deal, which was Kava.

I had been an investor in Kava when it was two restaurants, just a little something.

And after I left Panera, they asked me if I joined their board.

Another company called Zoe's had asked me if I joined their board.

They were a public company, you know, and it was very clear to me.

Again, I could see and taste that opportunity.

Mediterranean had power.

It was the number one diet in America.

It was bold flavors.

It was different but accessible.

And you could tell this was a powerful channel with lots of winds at its back, the channel.

And I began to say, who has the potential to dominate?

Is it Zoe's or Kava?

And again, these folks at Zoe's were five times the size of Kava.