Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Watch on Youtube
Today, we are joined by Alex Politsch, who fell in love with cooking while watching The Food Network in middle school. However, Alex always believed his path was in the finance world and became a financial advisor. He began to realize that this was not the path for him. So he decided to quit his job and purchase a food truck.
The original plan was to start a stir fry food truck in Baltimore. Before beginning, he traveled to Oktoberfest in Germany with his best friend, Steven Banks. They stumbled across döner kebab, which they ended up eating every day. On the plane ride home, Steven told Alex if he made the food truck döner kebab, he was in. This is where Döner Brös was born.
In the first 6 months, they refined the recipe and continued to sell out at every event. This allowed them to bring on investors and open their first brick and mortar location. While sales were growing exponentially, they struggled to keep up with the demand. This forced them to find a new meat supplier and get more efficient, which allowed them to reach profitability. Then they signed a lease on their second location at the end of 2019, but they did not see COVID coming.
At the time, they were located on a college campus and did not have online ordering. They were forced to shut down for 6 months. It turned out to be a silver lining because they were able to delegate responsibilities, streamline the business, begin online ordering and marketing. By the end of 2021, the eclipsed their average monthly sales from before the pandemic. They officially opened their second location at Harbor Point in Baltimore and look forward to keep growing in the future.
Check out the conversation as we dive into the following:
- How he had to rebuild the food truck he purchased to be able to cook döner kebab
- How they started a market for a type of food that really wasn’t in the US yet
- Why they wanted to move from a food truck to brick and mortar
- How COVID forced them to change the way they thought about their business
- How hard entrepreneurship can be and how “you don’t know what you don’t know”
- Why he still struggles with work life balance
Listen to Alex share his story and get inspired with his amazing advice to people thinking about following a similar path. Check out the full conversation on YouTube or Spotify by clicking the links below.
Know someone who should be on Why I Quit? We’re looking for all types of stories and people to feature at the top of the show. To nominate yourself or someone else, email dave@foundersapproach.com and tell us your name, where you’re from and what you want to talk about.
