This alignment coincided recently with a cult-like gathering at chef Dan Barber’s four-star Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Perhaps no other fast-casual brand on the market is so well-aligned with its consumers. Its marketing language uses phrases like “real food should be convenient and accessible to everyone,” “food from scratch, using fresh ingredients and produce delivered that morning.” Its stated mission is to “build healthier communities by connecting people to real food.” Lofty, but not flimsy, it’s real enough to appeal to Sweetgreen’s core audience: young professionals with disposable income who are likely to ask a lot of questions about where their food comes from, and why. The company has long projected an image of health, wellness, and sustainable farm and labor practices. really created this pattern of looking at food as art or food as an image versus just food as nourishment.”Ī large part of Sweetgreen’s image is about selling the idea of nourishment. These companies have amazing branding and marketing.” The key element is consistency, and Chon-Baker notes that Sweetgreen’s social media presence has been “a huge driver… People are always looking for visual cues. “A lot of great concepts have really great stories behind them. “Sweetgreen understands the power of great storytelling: the story of how they started, the story of each menu item,” Chon-Baker says. By contrast, the internationally reaching Shake Shack has over 500,000 fans on Instagram while competitors like Chopt ( 44k) and Just Salad ( 21k) don’t have nearly the same level of engagement. A sign of its influence? Sweetgreen has over 170,000 followers on Instagram. In between its annual festivals, the group collected over $100 million in venture capitalist funding, expanded to the West Coast and Chicago, partnered with high-profile chefs for seasonal menu items, solidified its partnerships with independent farmers, and launched an order-ahead app. ( Sweetlife ended its marquee run in 2016, but continues to host smaller shows.) Phoenix, Lana Del Rey, and the Weeknd hit the fest in subsequent years, generating an enormous amount of attention - on social media and in real life - for what was otherwise just another farm-to-table concept in an ocean of farm-to-table concepts. Four years into its run, with only a handful of locations open on the East Coast, the brand launched a music festival: Sweetlife kicked off in 2011 with the Strokes, Girl Talk, and Lupe Fiasco headlining.
Sweet green how to#
Sweetgreen wasn’t the first concept to offer a customizable salad menu, but it was the first to understand how to cultivate loyalty - by reaching its target audience outside of the restaurant. Sweetgreen’s $1 billion valuation comes after Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset management companies, poured another $200 million into the chain’s bank account. “The business is very healthy economically,” Jammet told Eater in early October, before the most recent raise. The salad chain’s finances are not public, but it is turning a profit. To date, Sweetgreen has collected $325 million from investors including Revolution Growth and Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer. founded by three recent Georgetown University graduates, Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, and Jonathan Neman.
Sweetgreen started life 11 years ago as a small restaurant in D.C. “They’ve built almost more of a social, political, cultural brand versus a fast-food occasion.” But how did Sweetgreen, a relatively small chain known for serving vegetables in oddly shaped bowls, become the first real restaurant unicorn? With investors chasing the next Shake Shack, companies like Sweetgreen (which has 90 locations) and Joe & the Juice (with nearly 300 locations and plans for a $1.5 billion IPO in 2019) seem to be rushing into high valuations just to drum up buzz. It reminds me of what happened with the dot com bust in 2001.” “These unicorn valuations are happening so often, everyone just shakes their head at it. “I mean, it’s insane,” says restaurant investor Elaine Chon-Baker of Mokja Ventures of the brand’s “unicorn” status - a distinction given to privately held start-up companies that reach a $1 billion market value. With the average Sweetgreen salad bowl clocking in between $9 and $14, that’s a lot of, er, green. The rumors started a few weeks back: Sweetgreen, the chain that dishes out kale caesar salads and quinoa-filled bowls to sad desk lunch crowds, was worth $1 billion.