Todd Graves’ high-risk funding strategy for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers was a bold gamble that almost cost him his dream.
Today, the co-CEO and founder of Raising Cane’s is worth an estimated $9.5 billion, according to Forbes, thanks to his over 90% ownership stake in the company. But getting there was no easy feat. He had to work 90-hour weeks in an oil refinery and fish for salmon in Alaska just to raise enough capital to open the restaurant’s first location.
When he was growing the chain, Graves said he took out loans with private investors at a 15% interest rate. He then took the borrowed cash to community banks, which treated the debt as equity, allowing him to secure even larger loans, he told the “How I Built This” podcast in 2022.
It was a risky decision that nearly ended up costing him the business. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 21 of 28 of his stores in …