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They argue like brothers, crack jokes like late-night hosts and occur to run one of the vital operator-focused funding platforms in hospitality.
Generally known as “The Restaurant Man” and “The Finance Man,” Michael “Schatzy” Schatzberg and Jimmy Frischling, the 2 founders of Branded Hospitality, are equal components technique and schtick.
Assume capital meets comedy.
Whether or not they’re riffing on failed restaurant ideas or buying and selling wisecracks about free drinks and investor reductions, their podcast Hospitality Hangout is proof that chemistry and readability can coexist. However beneath the banter is an actual mission: serving to restaurant operators succeed with higher tech, smarter capital and a stronger network.
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“It takes a village,” Frischling says. And he means it. The phrase, which his late mom utilized in a marriage toast, has change into the ethos of Branded Hospitality—a guideline behind their investments and relationships alike.
As a result of when you’ve ever constructed something on this trade, one factor: You do not do it alone. That was very true in 2020, when the pandemic delivered what Frischling calls “a punch within the face.”
Like most restaurant operators, their plans went sideways. However as an alternative of freezing up, they hit file. What began as a pandemic-era podcast developed right into a media platform that now helps their investing and B2B progress technique. The podcast helped them keep seen, construct belief and create alternatives for themselves and the businesses they assist.
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Why they guess on individuals
In the case of investing, Schatzberg and Frischling do not conceal behind spreadsheets. Their high criterion is the founder.
“Investing on the early stage is betting,” Frischling says. “You are betting on the CEO and their group.” That mindset led them to spend money on firms like Ovation, the visitor suggestions platform led by Zack Oates. For Branded, the conviction got here not simply from the product but additionally from Oates’ story, expertise and management.
It is a sample they’ve repeated throughout their portfolio of 55-plus firms, the bulk in B2B SaaS. Their thesis is straightforward: If an answer actually helps operators and the group behind it lives and breathes the enterprise, it is value backing.
And once more, all of it circles again to that village.
Whether or not it is newsletter subscribers, tech founders, media companions or restaurant operators, Schatzberg and Frischling consider in constructing with others. Their podcast is not simply content material. It is a connection level, a trust-builder and a entrance door to a a lot larger ecosystem that thrives on collaboration.
As a result of in hospitality, as in life, the strongest manufacturers aren’t in-built isolation. They’re constructed with individuals — loud, good, humorous, flawed individuals who share a imaginative and prescient and are not afraid to guess on one another.
Simply ask the blokes sporting all of the hats.
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About Restaurant Influencers
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