Co-Founder & CEO of TILIT, Co-Host of Opening Soon Podcast

If you're struggling in the industry, reach out to your network. Don't keep things inside. I always say I get financially naked with my business owner friends and my entrepreneur friends. I play all my cards on the table, and I'm just super honest, and when I need help, I ask for help. It usually comes back to you in that same way, so don't be afraid to share and to ask for help and to ask for feedback when you need it.

When you're looking for money, ask for advice. When you want advice, ask for money.

I worked at Commander's Palace the entire time I was an undergrad at Tulane. I learned how hospitality transforms people’s lives, experiences, the happy moments, and how you can really transform somebody's day, just from watching the amazing hospitality the Brennans deliver there.

We also started a restaurant during that time in Brooklyn called Goods. We like to say we were the fastest restaurateurs because we opened and closed in six months. It was a fun, very expensive learning experience. We learned that we had not fully baked a real business plan, and we didn't have enough capital. That led us to want to do our podcast, The Build.

During this time when I was finding my way back to hospitality with opening the restaurant and Alex [McCrery] was still working as a chef, we realized that there was a need in the marketplace for better chef workwear. Alex was at the top of his career as this private chef for a celebrity family, cooking in front of very high-profile folks and never really felt cool and proud in his uniform. At the same time, we noticed in restaurants that chefs were no longer at the back of house. The kitchens are open now, the chefs are really part of the dining experience. Instagram has made people forward-facing. But nobody had really up-leveled the uniform that met what's happening in the craft. So that's when we started designing our own, and that in 2012.

We talk about the sunk cost fallacy, like, “But I've already put this much money into it.” But if it's broken, putting more money in might not fix it. Realizing that and being okay to walk away from these sunk costs and move forward is a really important lesson.

Even as we scale, I think the mission that we always come back to is that we care about our core who we are, who we talk to, our chefs and restaurant people, and we will not diverge from that.