Todd Graves, the founder and CEO of the fried chicken fast food chain Raising Cane’s, has entered Forbes 400, a list of the 400 richest people in the US, and has become the 107th richest person. Currently worth $9.5 billion, the 52-year-old entrepreneur put in 90 hours a week and occasionally 20 hours a day to raise the money he needed to open his own restaurant. Todd also worked as a boilermaker in an oil refinery and in the dangerous trade of commercial salmon fishing. Graves opened his first restaurant Raising Cane’s because he believed that “if people tell you something can’t be done, it makes you strive so much more to do it.”
Born in 1972 in Louisiana, United States, Graves graduated from The University of Georgia. It was during his time at the Louisiana State University that the idea of the restaurant first occurred to Graves. He had pitched the idea in a startup-pitching assignment but received the lowest grade. The professor said a restaurant serving only chicken fingers in South Louisiana would never work.
“If people tell you something can’t be done, it makes you strive so much more to do it,” Graves had told students at Nicholls State University in 2009.
To raise his own capital to start his restaurant business, Graves traveled to Los Angeles and worked as a boilermaker at an oil refinery, working 90-hour weeks. When he learned that there was potential for even greater financial gain, he went to Alaska and worked in the dangerous trade of commercial salmon fishing working 20-hour days in harsh conditions.
The young entrepreneur used to present his business plan to bankers but each time, he received the same negative response. However, Graves stayed disciplined and focused on fulfilling his dream. In 1996 he launched his restaurant Raising Cane’s. He named his business after his yellow lab, Raising Cane. Todd spent between $40,000 and $50,000 of his own money, plus borrowed $100,000 from friends, and family and took a loan, to open his restaurant.
Graves had no experience managing a business when he started the first restaurant. He worked seven days a week at the restaurant, from its opening till closing. But today, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is a $3.7 billion, rapidly expanding company with 800 stores throughout more than 40 states serving chicken fingers.
Graves is married to Gwen Graves and has two children. Graves has no plans to sell his stake to private investors or take it public. He wants his kids in the business and turn this into a worldwide business. “I want my kids in the business to be able to carry our values on after their mom and I are gone,” he said. “They can turn this into a worldwide business and continue to grow,” a company spokesperson told a media channel.
