07: Creating the Domino’s of Chinese Takeout | Hanson Li, Salt Partners

My First Restaurant

Feb 7 2023 • 1 hr 1 min

Hanson Li is the founder and managing partner of Salt Partners, a San Francisco based restaurant group with a current portfolio around the 4 major food groups: ice cream, Chinese take-out, bars, and bakery. This episode provides a super detailed perspective on running and growing restaurants, including what makes it so difficult, the tech stack Hanson uses for his growing fast casual concept Lazy Susan, and how he’s testing his way to scaling the business.

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Where to find Lazy Susan:

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Where to find Hanson:

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Where to find Bryan:

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Where to find Kitava:

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Referenced:

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In this episode, we cover:

  • (1:00) Hanson’s first foray into the food & beverage business
  • (04:00) The idea that became Salt Partners
  • (08:05) Surprises learned when starting his restaurant group
  • (10:30) Why stay in the restaurant business? “Food makes people happy”
  • (12:20) The work Salt Partners does with its restaurants
  • (17:00) The thesis behind Lazy Susan - The Domino’s of Chinese food
  • (22:00) What does success look like for Lazy Susan?
  • (23:06) How Hanson is testing the concept before replicating it at scale, and what he’s learned so far
  • (28:38) What Lazy Susan is doing to solve production bottleneck issues from takeout orders
  • (31:20) How starting without 3rd party delivery apps is benefiting Lazy Susan today
  • (34:10) Lazy Susan’s tech stack for online ordering, loyalty, and email marketing (Toast, Bikky, Tattle)
  • (40:25) Team structure, and Hanson’s role
  • (41:40) Testing licensing as a growth channel for Lazy Susan
  • (46:15) Why he wouldn’t haven’t started Lazy Susan in SF if he could do it over
  • (48:20) What Hanson needs to validate in the next 6 months to continue growing the business