Transcriber: Jenny Lam-Chowdhury Reviewer: Capa Girl
Imagine this young kid who grew up in a blue collar family.
Mom stays at home to raise the kids.
Dad works two jobs to make sure that the kids
have a better chance in life than he had.
He's the first one to go to college. Then he gets a scholarship,
and he's able to go to Europe to study and do a PhD.
Gets a good job in the corporate world, and after a few years,
he goes back to the family and tells them
that he's tired with it and wants to do something different.
He's gonna go back to Europe, but he will open a hot dog cart.
If you go to Belgium you won't find hot dog carts, you'll find waffle stands --
I came to the USA to do a PhD in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
I have 3 master degrees.
I bake waffles. (Laughter)
Moved to Cincinnati about 12 years ago.
I spent the first 5 years working
for a market research company building statistical applications.
Then I got my green card.
I started working with a friend of mine
building a hot food vending machine.
We built the first prototype.
We got the money from investors,
and they were satisfied with the first results.
The economy tanked. Our investors bailed out
and at the time, I had the choice
of either going back to corporate America,
or try to do something on the side,
and make some money, so that I could keep the project alive.
On my way back to Belgium to visit my family,
I stopped at a Vending Industry Trade Show in Brussels,
and I recognized the smell --
a smell that brought me back to my childhood.
And, there was an old man who was baking waffles there --
I spent the next two hours talking with him, and a few hours later,
I left with a 120 lbs cast iron waffle maker. (Laughter)
I'd never baked waffles in my life. (Laughter)
So, I came back to my family all excited to tell them about the project,
and my dad looked at me and said,
"You have 3 masters degrees and you're going to do, what? -- (Laughter)
bake waffles?" (Laughter)
I have to give credit to my dad for the beginning of the presentation,
as he is the one who came out with the hot dog cart parallel.
I'd had a grand vision for waffles, so I needed to start with a grand event.
So, I started baking waffles at the Coachella Music Festival in California,
where you have about 80,000 people camping in the desert for about 3 days,
in a 110 degrees weather -- not exactly waffle-eating weather --
I failed to realize it would be getting that hot in April in California.
So, I decided to come back to Cincinnati and start a little smaller and a little smarter.
And I started baking waffles at the back of a produce store at Findlay Market.
After a few weeks the owner of the store came to me and told me,
"We need to find you a new home"
-- the store was getting too congested on Saturdays with waffle-eating people.
(Laughter)
After a few months, I opened our first location at Findlay Market
and if you fast forward a few years, I now have 3 locations, including a full service restaurant.
I think Churchill is the one who said,
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Laughter)
And it's pretty much how things went for a long time. (Laughter)
Every time I would go to do a festival or a big event,
a lot of times it would turn out to be a total flop.
I've now closed more locations than I currently have open,
but each failure came with a new learning.
Although it's true that I do not need 3 master degrees to flip waffles,
it's also true that a lot of the classes I've taken
in Economics, Game Theory, Contract Law, Computer Science --
have, in one way or another, helped me to run my business.
In a previous life I was surrounded with a lot of disillusioned and bitter people --
Food makes people happy! Come see me in a bad mood,
I'll feed you a waffle and you'll leave smiling. (Laughter)
Economists rely on two fundamental assumptions:
resources are scarce, and so is my time,
and consumers make choices to maximize their utility.
Well, I'm happy to report that my utility is maximized
and that the allocation of my time is optimal.
My current occupation generates more positive externalities on societies
than publishing a few papers in obscure economic journals,
or developing a few more statistical applications
that would cut costs and a few jobs.
I currently employ over 60 people.
Everybody is better off with me baking waffles.
Last week, I had the honor to go with the Mayor of the city
and a delegation of Cincinnati business leaders and civic leaders.
We met with a senior administration of [unclear] --
I could have given the economic briefing --
It was bittersweet for a moment.
But I love what I do and I wouldn't change it for any job.
So, next time someone comes to you
and tells you that he wants to open a hot dog cart,
think twice before you tell him it's a stupid idea.
(Applause)