Give an Ovation

The episode contains several actionable insights about restaurant growth strategy, particularly around the 'tree growing' metaphor, unit economics improvement (AUVs from $1.6M to $1.9M), SKU reduction (25 SKUs), and the franchisee alignment problem. However, there is significant filler including lengthy personal backstory, softball praise of Ovation, and repeated general platitudes about culture and guest experience that dilute the substantive density.

“And so the important part is build the roots first or at least at the same pace that you're growing the rest of the business.”

“we really focused on things like driving top line growth within our stores and easy stuff, stuff that we collaborated on candidly, but even beyond that, with rolling out loyalty, rolling out an app, rolling out catering, diving in more into your platform, understanding our customer better, and we were able to take just two years, AUVs from one six to closer to one nine.”

The guest presents some genuinely fresh thinking on franchisee misalignment (royalty vs. bottom-line incentives, enterprise value ownership model) and the area director model with board rights, which is fairly novel. However, much of the core advice (slow methodical growth, culture building, data-driven decisions, customer feedback loops) recycles familiar frameworks without significant counterintuitive angles or first-principles breakdowns.

“The first one was let's take a step back from growth and really mature our unit economics, kind of what Kevin Hawkman did at Chili's”

“there's often this disconnect between franchisors and franchisees. And I believe that it is based on interests that are not always mutually aligned. We as franchisors make money off the top line, we take a royalty, and the franchisees make their money off the bottom line”

Michael Montagano is highly credible: former CEO of Kitchen United, current CEO of Dog Haus with demonstrated operational scale (50+ units), former CFO/COO roles, MA/corporate finance legal background at Catterton. He has genuine skin in the game and hands-on operational experience rather than pure thought-leadership. However, he is not a household name operator like a Chipotle or Shake Shack executive, and Dog Haus remains mid-market (not yet national scale), limiting the caliber ceiling.

“He is the CEO of Doghouse, but he is no newbie to uh the FB space. He was formerly CEO of Kitchen United. He's been a CFO, he's been a COO.”

“I did exclusively restaurant work for about five years, absolutely loved it. And that ended up being kind of the launch pad and the making a living, being in the hospitality space.”

The episode includes concrete metrics (AUVs $1.6M to $1.9M, 25 SKUs removed, build costs target $600-800K, 50 restaurants, specific states like Utah/Colorado) and named examples (Jersey Mike's, Dave's Hot Chicken, Taco Bell, Costa Vita). However, many claims lack supporting data: no specific COGS savings percentages, no franchisee unit growth numbers, no Jake Paul ROI metrics, and vague references to 'meaningful' cost reductions without hard numbers.

“we were able to take just two years, AUVs from one six to closer to one nine.”

“We took 25 SKUs out of the kitchen without touching our core ethos”

The host Zach Oates asks reasonable setup questions but rarely pushes back, challenges claims, or probes beneath surface-level answers. When Michael makes bold claims (Jake Paul generated awareness, franchisee misalignment solved), the host accepts them without skeptical follow-up. The conversation reads more like a promotional interview than rigorous inquiry. The host also explicitly praises the guest repeatedly rather than maintaining journalistic distance, and ends by praising Ovation (a sponsor) extensively without critical examination.

“And I love that it's beautiful when the actions are part of this just holistic strategy to create a better brand and create excitement.”

“Anyway, and so I'm I'm excited for what you're doing. I've been a huge fan of the brand as both a first as a customer and then as a partner”