Todd Graves went fishing to start his Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant locations. No, he wasn’t lounging on a lake—he and co-founder Greg Silvey, now 31, were working 20-hour days on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska to raise money to open their first Baton Rouge, Louisiana, restaurant. It was lucrative, though dangerous, work. “It was insane,” recalls Graves. “But it was incredible because we were up there for our dream.”
That dream was to build a quick-service restaurant near Louisiana State University that would specialize in chicken fingers with a signature sauce and sides. A college student at the time, Graves knew how popular chicken fingers were in other restaurants, and he saw a niche to bring chicken fingers off the appetizer menu and into the main course.
Today, Raising Cane’s grosses nearly $20 million in annual sales, but in 1994, Graves and Silvey, now the company’s vice president of IT, listened to a business professor dismiss the idea. “He said, ‘This is South Louisiana. We’re known all the world over for our quality food: Creole, Cajun, seafood. Just chicken fingers will never work here,’” recalls Graves.
Their first stabs at getting start-up capital elicited the same responses from investors—and that’s when Graves and Silvey went to Alaska to earn some start-up cash. Their summer earnings weren’t enough to open the first restaurant, “but [it was] enough to get some private investors interested,” says Graves. “They said, ‘If these guys are this passionate about doing this chicken finger restaurant, we might as well take a chance on them.’”
Taking a chance paid off. Graves opened the first Raising Cane’s restaurant in 1996 and has since opened 14 more, all in Louisiana. With role models like McDonald’s founder Ray Croc and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, it’s no surprise Graves envisions turning Raising Cane’s into an international franchise giant. Indeed, when people ask him about his long-term goal, Graves doesn’t hesitate: “It’s to grow something truly great.” —N.L.T.
Success Secrets
Entrepreneur: You opened the doors, did you still deal with skepticism from the public?
Todd Graves: Everybody that came in was like, “Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers? You’ve got to be kidding me. What else do you have?” And I said, “Just try it.” And at Cane’s to this day, [whenever] we go into a new market, it is, “Just try it!”Once you opened the doors, did you still deal with skepticism from the public? Everybody that came in was like, “Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers? You’ve got to be kidding me. What else do you have?” And I said, “Just try it.” And at Cane’s to this day, [whenever] we go into a new market, it is, “Just try it!”
Entrepreneur: What has been your biggest reward in starting Raising Cane’s?
Graves: I can tell you this so quickly because I think about it so much. My biggest reward is I’m living my dream every day. And my dream, [which] I say has turned into passion, is to grow this. People ask me, “Why do you want to grow? What is your end game?” I say, “I don’t have an end game.” Ray Croc didn’t have an end game. Do you know how much stock he died with? Dave Thomas didn’t have an end game. It’s to grow something that’s truly great. It’s recognizing your potential and your potential in the organization to do something and do it for the right reasons, because it’s special.
Company description: Restaurant chain
Founder: Todd Graves, 31
Year started: 1996
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
2002 sales: Nearly $20 million
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