Torchy's Tacos: Mike Rypka

Summary

Summary of "Torchy's Tacos: Mike Rypka" – How I Built This with Guy Raz

Podcast Information:

• Title: How I Built This with Guy Raz
• Host: Guy Raz | Wondery
• Episode: Torchy's Tacos: Mike Rypka
• Release Date: July 28, 2025

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1. Introduction

In this episode of How I Built This, Guy Raz interviews Mike Rypka, the founder of Torchy's Tacos, one of America's fastest-growing taco chains. Mike's journey from a troubled youth to a successful entrepreneur is a compelling story of resilience, hard work, and innovation.

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2. Early Life and Struggles

Mike Rypka's early years were marked by significant challenges. Growing up in Northern Virginia, his parents separated when he was eight, leading to a tumultuous childhood. Surrounded by adults who struggled with substance abuse, Mike began experimenting with alcohol and drugs at a young age.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "I even at the age of five... I grabbed some friends and we went and stuck our heads under the keg and drank from it."
  (05:45)

By his mid-teens, Mike's addiction issues escalated, resulting in his mother placing him in a treatment facility in Louisiana after a severe drug test.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "In tenth grade I... had LSD, PCP, crack cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol in my system."
  (07:53)

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3. Turning Point and Entering the Culinary World

After nine months in rehab, Mike decided to turn his life around. He returned to Virginia to finish high school and began working in restaurants. The structured environment of the kitchen provided him with a sense of purpose and discipline.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "My job is to chop wood and carry water and eventually the house gets built."
  (49:42)

Mike's passion for cooking led him to pursue formal education at Johnson and Wales Culinary School in Miami, Florida, where he honed his culinary skills and developed a love for innovative cooking.

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4. Founding Torchy’s Tacos

In 2006, after years of working in various kitchens across the U.S., Mike decided to open his own taco truck in Austin, Texas. Partnering with Bill Roberts, they transformed a secondhand barbecue trailer into the first Torchy's Tacos truck.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "We were just opening a taco truck, but we definitely still wanted to have a good brand."
  (56:43)

The name "Torchy's" was inspired by a nostalgic vision Mike's partner had, symbolizing the brand's fun and edgy personality.

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5. Overcoming Early Struggles

Launching Torchy's was fraught with challenges. The initial days saw minimal traffic and financial strain, especially after a landlord abruptly cut off their electricity over an unexpected rental demand.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "We ended up for a week literally cooking out of Bill's driveway... it was totally illegal at the time."
  (34:26)

To attract customers, Mike employed grassroots marketing strategies, distributing samples and engaging directly with the community. A pivotal moment came when a local news story about a pumpkin shortage led to significant publicity and boosted sales.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "We were able to get more exposure to who we were... that could have gone wrong if that didn't happen."
  (46:19)

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6. Growth and Expansion

By 2012, Torchy's had expanded to eleven locations, primarily in Austin, with additional spots in Dallas and Houston. Despite steady growth, profitability remained elusive as the company continued to reinvest earnings into further expansion.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "We were constantly investing to the next phase... over-invested ahead of ourselves."
  (60:33)

The introduction of investors like Farrell and Rebecca provided the necessary capital to open additional trucks and brick-and-mortar locations. Their involvement brought valuable business acumen, aiding in strategic expansion.

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7. Facing Competition and Legal Battles

As Torchy's gained popularity, competitors began emulating their successful model. In 2013, the Texas Taco Company started copying Torchy's recipes and branding, leading Mike to take legal action to protect his business.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "They had stolen our recipe book... every description was exactly the same."
  (73:16)

The lawsuit concluded successfully, forcing the rival chain to shut down, thereby safeguarding Torchy's unique offerings.

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8. Investment and Leadership Changes

In 2017, General Atlantic made a significant investment in Torchy's, aiming to scale the brand nationally. This partnership led to accelerated growth, with the number of locations increasing from thirty-five to over seventy by 2020. However, with expansion came challenges in maintaining the company's original culture and quality standards.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "We needed someone to be a decision-maker... someone professional who had done this before."
  (76:50)

In 2018, under pressure from the board, Mike stepped down as CEO to allow a seasoned professional to guide the company's massive growth. Nonetheless, he remained involved as Chief Innovation Officer, focusing on maintaining the brand's core values and culinary excellence.

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9. Maintaining Company Culture

Mike emphasized the importance of upholding Torchy's original ethos—delivering "damn good tacos." He implemented rigorous training programs and fostered a culture of quality and passion among employees.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "Our winning formula is damn good food, damn good hospitality, and damn good shifts."
  (63:18)

During leadership transitions, Mike worked diligently to realign the company's operations with its foundational principles, ensuring that expansion did not compromise the brand's essence.

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10. Reflections and Future Plans

Reflecting on his journey, Mike attributes Torchy's success to relentless work ethic, strategic decision-making, and a bit of luck. He remains committed to innovation and operational excellence, aiming to expand Torchy's nationally while preserving its unique culture.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "Probably seventy-five percent work ethic and doing the right things, and twenty-five percent luck."
  (88:08)

Looking ahead, Mike envisions Torchy's as a national brand, exploring opportunities for further growth while staying true to its roots in quality and community engagement.

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11. Personal Insights

Mike shares personal anecdotes about balancing business growth with personal challenges, including his battle with alcoholism and the passing of his mother. His resilience and dedication not only propelled Torchy's forward but also underscored the importance of personal well-being in entrepreneurial success.

• Quote:
  Mike Rypka: "I stopped drinking. I haven't had a drink in thirty-three years."
  (89:18)

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Conclusion

Mike Rypka's story is a testament to overcoming adversity through passion, hard work, and unwavering commitment to quality. From a single taco truck to a thriving national brand, Torchy's Tacos exemplifies how innovative thinking and community engagement can transform a humble start into a beloved enterprise.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Mike Rypka: "I just wanted to feel better... that buzz was this feeling of calmness."
  (05:45)

• Mike Rypka: "My job is to chop wood and carry water and eventually the house gets built."
  (49:42)

• Mike Rypka: "Probably seventy-five percent work ethic and doing the right things, and twenty-five percent luck."
  (88:08)

• Mike Rypka: "We couldn't make a restaurant work without knowing the right people and doing the right things."
  (Various)

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This summary encapsulates Mike Rypka's transformative journey, highlighting the pivotal moments, strategies, and personal resilience that led to the establishment and growth of Torchy's Tacos. It provides a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the episode, offering insights into effective entrepreneurship and brand building.

Transcript

[Guy Raz]

Wondery subscribers can listen to how i built this early and ad free right now join wondery in the wondery app or on apple podcasts i recently stayed at an incredible airbnb in palm springs and i thought to myself wow i could live at this place have you ever been enjoying your stay at an airbnb when you suddenly ask yourself wait a minute could i do this too find out how much your place is worth at airbnb dot com airport host listening on audible helps your imagination soar whether you listen to stories motivation expert advice any genre you love you can be inspired to imagine new worlds new possibilities and new ways of thinking audible has an incredible selection with over one million audiobooks podcasts and audible originals all in one easy app enjoy audible anytime while doing other things household chores exercising on the road commuting you name it audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time there's more to imagine when you listen sign up for a free thirty day audible trial and your first audiobook is free visit audible dot com bilt dot com if you've started your own business you know just how many challenges there are big and small i mean look at how i built this building this show came with a lot of trials late nights very very early mornings but even though there were challenges getting started there is something that makes setting up a new business easier getting connected with at and t business it doesn't matter what your business is dealing with at and t business helps to make it much much easier and that's the point of a provider in the first place making building your dream easier wake up to the power of att business at business dot att dot com that's business dot att dot com.

[Mike Ripka]

We were on a little spot on fifth street and the landlord there he never gave us a contract for what he wanted for rent we had kept coming to him and asking him like hey we need to figure something out we don't want to stay here for free we got to pay you something like help us out and he gave us some crazy like ten or fifteen thousand dollars bill that we had no clue that was even coming and he's like well you got two days to pay it or you're out of here wow we didn't have the ten or fifteen grand to pay him and he literally just cut off our electricity in the middle.

[Guy Raz]

Of lunch he just came and what do you mean he like pulled the.

[Mike Ripka]

Plug no he came with one of his guys and used bolt cutters and literally cut off the power.

[Guy Raz]

Welcome to how i built this a show about innovators entrepreneurs idealists and the stories behind the movements they built i'm guy raz and on the show today how mike ripka went from dropping out of high school and dodging drug dealers to building one of the biggest baddest taco chains in america torchy's if you met mike ripka when he was a teenager you'd conclude pretty quickly that he was going nowhere mike as you will hear was a total mess and yet he would go on to build one of the fastest growing taco chains in america with over one hundred thirty locations and a business that now does over three hundred million dollars in sales a year so you might call this a redemption story now i know that can sound a little cliched and predictable but the truth is to get from where he was to where he is didn't happen because of miracles it happened because mike ripka made a decision he decided he didn't want to be a screw up he didn't want to be a victim and the path from rock bottom to where he is now didn't happen overnight mike would spend decades grinding it out in kitchens across the us and in those kitchens he didn't just learn how to cook for lots of people he learned how to manage inventory and staff and customers but by the time mike hit his thirties he was out of work broke and trying to figure out how to make money the answer came in a secondhand barbecue trailer that he bought and turned into a single taco truck in austin one truck one man and years of early mornings and late nights turned into a massive success story called torchy's tacos and it happened in spite of or maybe because of mike's serious struggles as a teenager struggles that landed him in a military academy and then eventually in rehab mike ripka spent most of his childhood in northern virginia by the time he was eight his parents had split and his dad had moved out of the country his mom worked long hours as a journalist plus weekend shifts in retail to make ends meet from a young age mike was around grownups who smoked and drank heavily and it wasn't long until he started experimenting.

[Mike Ripka]

Himself i just i wanted to feel better you know and i didn't really have an outlet or someone to go to to help me feel better and so i saw people drinking and doing other things and smiles on their face and i want some of that you know i can remember even at the age of five being at a party and there was a keg off to the side and i grabbed some friends and we went and ran over and stuck head under the keg and drank from it i used to sneak drinks from my parents glasses of wine and beer when they'd go wash the dishes i didn't love the taste of alcohol i think most people don't especially when you're young but i think the thing i loved was that that feeling of when the buzz was coming on and that was sort of just this feeling of calmness hey everything's going to be okay and when you're a kid and you're in a lot of pain like anything that's going to help soothe that you're going to go after more you.

[Guy Raz]

Were i mean it's it's sort of this strange kind of dichotomy because on the one hand you were a very good athlete you played i think you played baseball and you played football you were a pitcher you were a starter on the football team so you were going to practice and playing yep you were also like using drugs like like crack cocaine i mean at one point i read about a drug dealer who had basically pulled a gun on you because you owed him money yes and you had to find a way to pay him you found some old savings bonds that were saved up for you and you grabbed those and like threw them at him to basically save your.

[Mike Ripka]

Life yeah i still don't know today how i was able to cash him being under eighteen but somehow i did and i would go to this bank and i think i went through forty thousand dollars worth of savings bonds and you know probably six months and crack and drugs and everything else i guess.

[Guy Raz]

The tipping point for your mom was she found out that you hadn't you hadn't gone to school for like forty five straight days and and basically made you get drug tested and you came back just just on fire like all light lit up positive for like several different drugs yeah and put you into your first treatment facility yeah i was.

[Mike Ripka]

In tenth grade i was fifteen i think i had lsd pcp crack cocaine marijuana and alcohol in my system so my mom obviously freaked out and then they obviously knew i needed more help and that's how i ended up in louisian so i went to a place called opportunities down there you would stay.

[Guy Raz]

There for a few months i think.

[Mike Ripka]

I was there for about nine months.

[Guy Raz]

Oh wow yeah yeah and so this is your sophomore into your junior year and miraculously you kicked it you were able to come out of there totally.

[Mike Ripka]

Sober yeah i struggled some in the beginning i'd run away from there twice and i'd used quite a few times when i was in there and something just changed and you know i found some help and decided to actually start listening to what they were saying and really kind of realized like oh crap i really do have a problem with this stuff like i can't control it and my mother was coming down in the next two weeks with the sheriff to basically go take me to jail because she wasn't going to allow me to go back on the streets and i had a bunch of charges that were still holding over my head these.

[Guy Raz]

Are charges for for illegal drug possession.

[Mike Ripka]

And yeah drugs and car theft and things like that and so i don't know i something changed and i started showing up and doing all the stuff that they were telling me to and not because i felt i had to because i wanted to and within that two weeks i said hey let's give this guy a second chance i think he really wants it now and so i got to stay at the treatment center instead of go to jail you.

[Guy Raz]

Get back to the dc area to virginia and finish out high school you did manage to and during i guess the time when you came back you started working in restaurants first as a dishwasher and then you got a chance to be a line cook i mean were you already by the time you were a senior in high school thinking about a career in food or was it just a job to do a.

[Mike Ripka]

Little bit of both i loved working in restaurants what i loved about it was i didn't have to think yeah and anyone who struggles with alcohol and drugs like thinking's kind of your worst.

[Guy Raz]

Enemy your mind doesn't wander right because you've got a purpose you know you've got to either wash the dishes or if you're a line cook you've got to you know do the prep or you've got to do work on your station right it's it's like almost like this automatic kind of it's like being.

[Mike Ripka]

In a factory yeah yeah you don't you don't have time to think and you're just you know on to the next thing on to the next thing and there's a rush from it you know there's there's nothing better when you're a chef a cook of like going through a really hard saturday or sunday and getting your butt kicked and like actually succeeding on the other side of.

[Guy Raz]

It so how did you i mean your senior year of high school or you know how did you start to get jobs cooking i mean you weren't trained you got i think you eventually got a job at a golf club in springfield virginia where you were like cooking for as a you know eighteen year old how did that who showed you what to do so i had.

[Mike Ripka]

A mentor his name was brian he was the executive chef there he kind of took me under his wing but i don't know i just i fell in love with it and you know i almost got fired because my knife scales were just horrible and i was kind of just anxious in the kitchen so i was always dropping stuff and kind of not getting it together and he finally had one last stern talk with me and i i turned it around and and he started really working with me and showing me things and i can remember him giving me a lot of advice around just hey if you want to do a career in this like you know your first five ten years like don't stay anywhere more than two years like learn as much as you can like get your butt out there working everywhere can and you know learn learn learn and so it was really really helpful all right so.

[Guy Raz]

Here you are just starting out in life you're sober you've got it together and you're getting obviously some experience in the kitchen but then i guess that you actually started attending some college classes right like what were you thinking that you would do at that point so.

[Mike Ripka]

I almost went to well i did i went to a community college to start to become a counselor and i thought maybe i'll be a substance abuse counselor because i like i love helping people but two months into my semester i literally woke up in the middle of the night and i was like i had this thought of like what the hell are you doing like you need to be a chef you need to be in restaurants don't worry about it you're going to be fine and so i trusted that and i woke i woke up that morning and ran downstairs and i was all excited and told my mother and i said i'm dropping out of school and she said the hell you're not and so she made me finish my semester but we went and toured a bunch of culinary schools that next couple months and i ended up at johnson and wales down.

[Guy Raz]

In miami this is nineteen ninety four i think around ninety four you started johnson and wales it was a two year program right in culinary arts and so you get your degree at johnson wales and then i think right after you you went and got a bachelor's degree in hospitality management so were you thinking i mean do you remember at that around that time what you thought you might want to do did you think i want to run restaurants or i want to run kitchens i want to cook all of that did you have a sense of what you thought.

[Mike Ripka]

You wanted to do not horribly i didn't know sort of exactly what direction i was going to take but i knew i wanted to be in kitchens i loved cooking i loved being a chef and i also knew that like at some point i'd love to start my own thing and i knew even at that age like i never wanted to do something that was like super fine dining i wanted to do something that was more kind of for the masses affordable you know sort of street food type something so i had that early on inkling that you know at some point if i could i'd love to start my own place all right.

[Guy Raz]

So you graduate from florida international and i think one of the first jobs you get is actually at a five star restaurant mark's place in fort lauderdale and five star this is tricky because there's michelin and there's this and there's five diamonds and what does five star mean somebody gave five stars but it was a fine dining restaurant basically and you were not the head chef you were you were in charge of saute and sauces making appetizers so and this is like the mid nineties when kitchens were not gentle places i mean today everything's everything's on tiktok and instagram so chefs have to be on there on guard but what was the kitchen like.

[Mike Ripka]

There it was rough actually while i was still in school when i worked at mark's place it was before i graduated super rough i can remember dodging many a saute pans flying at my head and hot spatulas of pasta water getting thrown at you too yeah it was it was rough lots of yelling lots of screaming there was a lot of you know getting your ass handed to you if you will in the kitchen and just super intense but it was a great learning experience like our menu changed every single day and we were using ingredients from all over latin america and the world and i can just you know remember like holy cow like i didn't know you could do this stuff with truffles or salsify root or real hearts of palm or just different things we did so it was pretty pretty impressive menu we had there.

[Guy Raz]

Yeah well you you would end up staying in south florida for a couple years after you graduated doing different jobs but eventually i think in ninety nine you go back to your sort of hometown area you get a job at the world bank and what did you do i mean you're what twenty four.

[Mike Ripka]

Twenty five years old twenty two at.

[Guy Raz]

The time twenty two wow what was.

[Mike Ripka]

Your job so i started as an assistant manager and my mom's now ex boyfriend at the time helped me get the job he got me an introduction to someone at marriott who ran all the food service there so i got hired and i showed up every day in a suit and a tie and kind of learning the learning the ropes and we fed three to four thousand people a day from seven am to three pm so that's a lot of bodies moving through in that time frame it was a huge cafe set up kind of like a food court there was about twelve or thirteen stations in each station represented a different area of the world i mean anything you can think of we had it on our menu and two months into me being there the chef left and they came to little old me at twenty two and said hey do you want to be the executive chef here and i choked a little bit and i said hell yeah i'll do it and it was not easy in the beginning i mean i literally would get laughed at when i'd walk in the kitchen just because you know they're like who's this young kid what the hell does he.

[Guy Raz]

Know right because you were in charge of like seventy five people and i read that like they would call you boss but sort of like as a disparagement like to not out of respect but to be like you know because you were a kid yeah and there were there were these adults working in the kitchen but you were essentially their boss and they were they really didn't.

[Mike Ripka]

They didn't respect you no no not in those first three four months for sure i can remember them you know setting up things to like for stuff to fall and you know making messes and just they'd sabotage you yeah they'd sabotage me so and so i learned i was like okay this is hard i need to figure this out and so the one advice i got was like really work beside your folks and so i'd go in i'd be there earlier than everyone and i'd leave later than everyone so i had that going for me and i would come in and i would set people's stations up for them so that when they got to work like their cutting board was there their knives were there their aprons were there their towels were there and over time just built this real sort of confidence like hey mike's really got our back and he actually does what he says he's going to do and if i'm in the weeds like he jumps in and really helps us and so i started to really gain their respect and then we really focused on how do we have fun in the kitchen and start laughing and having a.

[Guy Raz]

Good time you would last there about a year before you decide to move to los angeles in two thousand yep yep so you you're in la for i think for about a year doing some work cooking at mtv and and then disney for for some time and then you get a job in houston in two thousand one for a really i'm assuming it was a really well paying job you go out to work for a very successful energy company called enron two thousand one you moved to houston to become the head chef for enron yes and again am i right it was like a well paying great.

[Mike Ripka]

Opportunity great job so they yeah i mean enron was the cat's meow back then rolling in dough rolling and dough the stock price was through the roof jobs getting created left and right and i got hired to open this new like state of the art cafe that was going to have a full bake shop homemade pasta sushi station cook to order food in front of everybody and so they were kind of using my expertise and skills from what i had already gained and all the different places i'd worked to be able to kind of create this very innovative fun menu to life in houston texas for their folks and so i got there i started hiring people and then i guess it was about a month and a half two months after that that's when all the news broke about enron you're.

[Guy Raz]

Talking obvious about the enron scandal in two thousand one where they're basically cooking the books right they were lying about clearly lying about their business and it was a scam and it all unraveled and i think in a few months it had gone from being one of the most valuable companies in the country to a totally bankrupt company yeah that.

[Mike Ripka]

Was a super challenging time i'd only been in houston like four months at that point i'd moved everything and moved to texas and you know i'm watching this company just crumble by the day basically like they had their stock ticker on the escalator to the elevators and every day the the price would just drop and drop and drop and news cameras start showing up and like it was it was a madhouse i guess.

[Guy Raz]

The writing was on the wall and you knew that your job was also winding down by the end of that year you end up outside of austin working for dell running their food catering program and now you're in austin and you're working at dell and tell me about dell i mean it seems like it was a pretty stable place to.

[Mike Ripka]

Be yeah for sure i mean you gotta remember late nineties early two thousands dell was hot rocking and rolling i ran all the food service over both campuses and there was about twelve different cafes and different buildings and we also had a huge catering department that did tons of catering so it was a big big job and a lot of responsibility i mean i was in charge of about you know ten to fifteen million dollars a year in food business so a lot especially at at you know twenty five years old wow and then after i'd been there about two two and a half years they really started making a lot of changes and taking a lot of the liberties away and they really wanted things to be a lot more sort of the same across the board and that's where sort of the taste of like hey why did i get in this business in the first place it's because i love food i love being creat and so that's when i started getting back to thinking about maybe different restaurant concepts or something that i could do that could be really fun and kind of create something different out there yeah i mean.

[Guy Raz]

It'S usually those moments right where you start to get itchy feet that are gift right where you start to get frustrated that actually it's like a sign from god or the gods or whatever you believe in which is maybe it's time to make a change and you did i mean you were at delta for almost three years but then you i guess out of frustration left and and helped start a new restaurant called lucy's boatyard you were brought on to kind of help but that closes and this is now get takes us to about two thousand six you're now like thirty thirty one and trying to figure out the next step and i guess you have a you had a friend in austin a guy named bill roberts who who had a like a trailer that like a barbecue trailer that he he had owned and he said hey do you want to take this off my hands and like open up a taco truck or something what's the story.

[Mike Ripka]

About that so he had this old barbecue trailer he'd gotten it from his grandfather and he couldn't he was trying.

[Guy Raz]

To sell it it was just a what was it a smoker or a.

[Mike Ripka]

No it was like a food trailer you know kind of what you see at lunch like you know carnivals or now what you see out there you.

[Guy Raz]

Know out you can go inside there's a door there's a little kitchen in.

[Mike Ripka]

There yeah there's a kitchen the whole nine yards and so you know he couldn't sell it and at that point there wasn't really a food truck sl food trailer culture that you see nowadays in different cities and definitely not in austin and i had you know had gone to some banks before that for trying to do a breakfast concept and they all pretty much laughed at me you know wrote big business plans and yeah i didn't have any money i didn't know people with money and that's really kind of almost how you have to start a restaurant you know bank's not going to just take a bet on you and give you six hundred grand to go open a brick and mortar restaurant and so he had this trailer and he's like hey what do you think about opening a taco stand i thought he was nuts at first because you know there's tacos on every corner just about in austin and so i sort of did this taco tour all around texas and around the border towns and what i realized was like man there's some great tacos but they're all kind of the same they're all these sort of streets street style tacos all great but they're very similar and i was like well i don't want to go replicate that right like these are history old recipes that these folks have been doing that have been handed down by grandma and and cousins and aunts and everyone else like let's not try and compete with them let's go do our own thing like take this you know vessel called the tortilla and let's go have fun with it right.

[Guy Raz]

Because like in la where i grew up like you know a taco traditional taco would be or you know be like al pastor or maybe like a little bit of you know carne asada with some some onions and cilantro and that's it yep yep like that is it right or you know pork tacos with bits of pineapple and some pickled onions yeah yeah and that it and.

[Mike Ripka]

There'S nothing wrong with that like that's awesome like and i i think you know that's that was like the opposite of what i wanted to do like i wanted to take tacos and and put fried chicken in them and fried shrimp and blackened salmon and brisket and you know all these different flavors that like let's go have some fun and that's sort of the idea behind torches and where it was born is just these gourmet street tacos all right let's.

[Guy Raz]

Taco so so two thousand six you decide all right i'm gonna do a taco truck yeah and first of all you call it torchies what's what's torchies what does that mean so that actually.

[Mike Ripka]

Came from bill we were struggling with the name and he woke up one morning called me super excited he's like dude i got the name like we gotta meet let's go get coffee and he had remembered something that happened in the nineties where he probably had a little too much to drink one night and was at a late night taco place that was here in austin called rosie's el pastor they were famous for their el pastor tacos and he sort of had this vision of this old airstream trailer with neon torches with flames coming out of the yeah and he hadn't remembered that memory until literally that night or that morning when he came and he said i've got the name and when he said it we both looked at each other and like that's it that's the name that should be torchies torches just felt like very right very inspired and like no this is.

[Guy Raz]

It like fight like torch fired meats or but it could be a guy it could be like the cook's name's.

[Mike Ripka]

Torches yeah yeah exactly so and it wasn't and that was the other thing like i never wanted a place that like had my name on it because i i always felt like the place needed to be bigger than than me.

[Guy Raz]

And mike's taco is just nah mike's taco doesn't do much for me yeah i'm curious so all right he has this trailer and he suggests that you and you guys have agreed to do a taco truck so how does it work are you going to be partners i mean did you need a whole lot of money i can't imagine you needed that much money to start this thing but i imagine he would he was a co owner with you yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

He was a co owner so i ended up taking a loan on my house and using that to help kind of get the trailer painted and get our logo on there and buy some of the equipment and then he used some of his money to kind of help set up our first spot and you know do some of the landscaping and things like that and where did.

[Guy Raz]

You i mean where did you sit you set up on a corner in austin and what just like how does that work do you have to get a permit from the city like can you just set it up anywhere yes.

[Mike Ripka]

You definitely need a permit they did have mobile vending permits but back then and we needed to have a commissary kitchen so we figured that out and i got a buddy who i knew owned a restaurant to help us use their kitchen to start and so yeah we opened on south first just south of downtown in this undeveloped lot there was a guy that was selling snow cones there before that went out of business who i had asked originally and he didn't want to share the spot with me and then i came back a month later and the poor guy was packing his stuff up and he gave me the landlord's number and i called him and you know came to find out that whole spot was in a floodplain so you can't build on it and so having a food truck there is actually like the perfect use.

[Guy Raz]

For it so all right let's just talk about food trucks for a moment because two thousand six food trucks were not not yet cool right it was like it was like it was construction sites they were you know trucks that would go to feed construction workers or maybe you'd like to go to a carnival like one of these carnivals and there'd be like a food truck but it wasn't this was not something that a trained chef from johnson and wales would be doing at that time yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

Yeah my my i remember my friends going what the hell are you doing opening a food truck dude like how is that even going to work and you know i don't know what i just and i guess i think when you know folks that are entrepreneurs or that have passion about a business like you just won't hear no and i can remember people sort of challenging me and i just like look this is what i can afford and this is what i'm going to do and i'm.

[Guy Raz]

Going to figure it out and the owner of the land where you were set up basically i i i i think he was letting you kind of squat there for free if i'm not mistaken but then he was like okay now you gotta pay yeah yeah yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

So we we talk about south first because that was really kind of where we found our home so before that we were on a little spot on fifth street and the landlord there he never gave us a contract for what he wanted for rent like we had kept coming to him and asking him like hey we need to figure something out we don't want to we got to pay you something like help us out and he gave us some crazy like ten or fifteen thousand dollars bill that we had no clue that was even coming and he's like well you got two days to pay it or you're out of here and so wow we didn't have the ten or fifteen grand to pay him and he literally just cut off our electricity in the.

[Guy Raz]

Middle of lunch he just came and what do you mean he like pulled.

[Mike Ripka]

The plug no he came with one of his guys and used bolt cutters and literally cut off the power he.

[Guy Raz]

Cut the power line in the middle.

[Mike Ripka]

Of lunch yes he cut the wait.

[Guy Raz]

What did you do did you run out and go what the hell are.

[Mike Ripka]

You doing man i did not want to get in a fight with him and so i had to kind of like close up shop that day and we ended up for a week literally cooking out of bill's driveway we took the trailer and we hooked up the power to the trailer at his house which was totally illegal at the time but you know we were trying to stay in business and you know keep some cash coming let me come back.

[Guy Raz]

In just a moment how partners publicity and fifteen thousand dollars worth of pumpkins helped torchy's grow into one of the most popular taco ch chains in america stay with us i'm guy raz and you're listening to how i built this i just got back from a trip to germany and i stayed at an awesome apartment right in the heart of munich right on the marienplatz and it was like one of the coolest places i had ever stayed at where i could cook and enjoy the city and hear it and and feel it and just walk right out into the main square right there was a beautiful place and to be honest i really didn't want to leave the next time you're away from your own home consider hosting your space on airbnb hosting on airbnb provides you with an extra income stream plus your earnings could even help offset the cost of your next trip your home might be worth more than you think find out how much at airbnb dot com host if you're running a small business you know there's nothing small about it running a new business is all consuming every day there are new decisions new problems to solve and new challenges to face but knowing you have the right tools can give you a ton of comfort and that's why i really like shopify shopify's point of sale system is a unified command center for your retail business it brings together in store and online operations across up to one thousand locations get all the big stuff for your small business right with shopify sign up for your dollar one per month trial and start selling today at shopify dot com built go to shopify dot com built shopify dot com bilt and now a quick vital break a little more from our sponsor vital proteins have you heard of vital proteins collagen peptides vital proteins help you look good and feel good because it supports healthy hair skin nails bones and joints all in one collagen powder vital proteins ingredients are backed by science and shown to be effective but consistency is key take a serving of collagen peptides every day to help look feel and move your best plus it's unflavored so it's super easy to mix into my favorite smoothies get twenty percent off by going to www dot vitalproteins dot com and entering promo code built at checkout these statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration this product is not intended to diagnose treat cure or prevent any disease hey welcome back to how i built this i'm guy raz so it's two thousand six and torchy's tacos is just a single food truck parked off south first street in austin texas meanwhile founder mike ripka has gone from managing huge kitchens at the world bank and dell to toiling away in a trailer pretty much doing everything himself.

[Mike Ripka]

Yourself yeah so seven days a week five am to midnight every day i'd start i'd open everything up i get the prep going i get the gas grills going i'd welcome the employees the one one or two employees i had at that point you know pretty much every day you had to go shop and so because it just wasn't enough space and we weren't doing a lot of volume either and i didn't have some big runway budget of like you know hey here's half a million dollars in the bank for your first six months of operating costs like i basically took a loan on my house and maxed out my credit cards and got the doors open and so like every dollar that came in the register mattered.

[Guy Raz]

I imagined you were not you were going to be making a lot less money than you made at dell yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

I mean no money at least in the beginning i didn't get a paych think for the first two years i.

[Guy Raz]

Was in business and what and and your menu was pretty limited right i mean you did just a few things initially it wasn't it wasn't like i don't even think it was just tacos right it was like fajitas what what what were you making yeah so we.

[Mike Ripka]

We started with a kind of a build your own breakfast taco like chorizo and egg yeah chorizo egg bacon so breakfast tacos are real big in austin so so i wanted to have that and then we started with kind of the basics we had a barbacoa a green chili pork and then we had a chicken and steak fajita and then you could make a burrito or get a fajita plate and our first taco of the month was called the trailer park which is our number one selling taco today all these years later fried chicken green chilies lettuce pico there's some shredded jack and cheddar cheese and it comes with a creamy poblano ranch and if you want it trashy you can take off the lettuce and put queso.

[Guy Raz]

On there and so when you i mean when you launched it right in the first couple weeks or months from what i've seen i've looked at a map of this place i mean maybe it's a little different now but but two thousand six it doesn't it was there was nothing around there like who went there what did you have customers who had were there just hours that would go by with nobody coming up.

[Mike Ripka]

And ordering any food yeah it was very tough you know again so there's this stigma of like at that point like roach coach right like is it even safe to eat in a trailer you know what i mean like is it safe in there is it inspected.

[Guy Raz]

By the food you know whatever is.

[Mike Ripka]

It safe right yeah now the one thing i had going for me was we were on the right side of south first so all the morning traffic going to downtown was passing right by our trailer and so we were perfect for breakfast tacos the question was how do you get them to turn in there in the first place and so i learned real quick like how to do grassroots marketing so i had a red vespa and i would make chips and salsa because it was cheap and print out a ton of menus and i would go hit every tom dick and harry dentist office office office you know tire shop lube place salon wherever they'd let me in and i'd go hand out samples of chips and salsa give them my menu and we started delivering very early on and when you.

[Guy Raz]

Say we it was you and who.

[Mike Ripka]

Else so it's me and i had a cook named juan and i had a delivery driver we took the orders by phone there was no door dash or uber eats at this point and we'd go deliver them on the vespa so i had a setup on the back you know we'd put all the food in there and go hand deliver.

[Guy Raz]

It to folks you know today if you were to start this right you'd have like a branding agency that would say okay you want to call this like chef driven menu right like you weren't just some dude who was just making tacos like you really came from the culinary world did you advertise that in any way did people know that or you just i mean how did you differentiate in the minds of consumers there's a lot of taco options even in austin in two thousand six there were a ton of taco options so yeah why why would like what made your how did you convey that your.

[Mike Ripka]

Place was different you know i don't know that there was some big communication plan around it it was really about just getting my food in people's mouths so we did lots of events we did lots of giveaways i would go donate food to a school show up at their carnival at the school and serve tacos and give some of the proceeds back to the school so we just really got involved and inundated with the community was really how we got the word out and how we got people to know who and what we.

[Guy Raz]

Are so i guess by the end of that summer you start to get some traction what was your lifestyle like i mean here you are you're in your early thirties you had just come off pretty steady jobs where i'm assuming you had pretty steady hours and decent life balance now it's you and juan and i'm imagining you're working at least fifty sixty more hours a week oh.

[Mike Ripka]

One hundred hours a week literally five am to midnight night seven days a.

[Guy Raz]

Week wow yeah how did how did you cope with that did you did you like it did it get you down did it i don't know it.

[Mike Ripka]

Was stressful but i had my eye on the prize right like i what was the prize well the prize was to really get this business off of ground so it could sustain itself it.

[Guy Raz]

Wasn'T about you were not profitable yet.

[Mike Ripka]

No not even close and the hard thing for us was just the sales and early on at that south first spot my partner bill comes to me with this bright idea and lets me know that we've got an eighteen wheeler truck of pumpkins coming i told him he was nuts but it was around halloween time and unbeknownst to me he puts you know i think it was around fifteen thousand dollars worth of pumpkins on our business amex card and you know his thought was like hey let's do a pumpkin patch and help drive some business to the trailer and so we opened this pumpkin patch and i can remember just you know on the premises on right next to the trailer.

[Guy Raz]

Yep and the idea of the pumpkin patch was to presumably to attract people to the taco truck yeah sell some.

[Mike Ripka]

Pumpkins and get them to try something tacos while they're there and so we open this pumpkin patch and we're doing fine we're selling some pumpkins but you know here it is it's about october fifteenth and like i still have like i don't know if you know how many pumpkins come into eighteen wheeler but it's forty four pallets of pumpkins like.

[Guy Raz]

It'S a lot of pumpkins thousands of.

[Mike Ripka]

Pumpkins thousands of pumpkins yeah and i'm like counting the day like once halloween hits and so one day it was like a tuesday or wednesday this news van shows up and like hey we'd love to interview you and do a story and we're like what are you talking about he's like you guys are one of the only people that have pumpkins left in austin and we want to do a story about it there's a pumpkin shortage this year i was like really i was so busy i wasn't paying attention to the pumpkin shortage out there i was just trying to make tacos and make a living and so he does this interview and like within two weeks we end up selling all the pumpkins that we had bought and got some new customers not tons but definitely got more exposure to who we were i can remember just thinking like holy cow that was a bet that like really could have gone wrong if that didn't happen yeah so i'm.

[Guy Raz]

Curious about overall sort of financial situation i mean you know on the one hand you're grinding you're trying to get to sustainability but what about and it was just the two of you who were who were financing or funding this thing you and bill i mean were there do you remember any specific moments where you weren't sure you were going.

[Mike Ripka]

To make payroll i mean damn near every week it felt like there were definitely weeks where i was like holy cow it's wednesday and i need like three thousand bucks to make payroll and we've got a thousand in there like how's this even going to happen and we'd get these little breaks right i'd get a call and i'd have a catering for like a thursday night to go cater fajitas for a riverboat or you know there may not quite be enough in the bank but i knew it was going to be a great sunny weekend and i'd cut the checks hoping they didn't bounce and you know we'd get enough sales over the weekend to cover the float and not get in trouble but it was real real dicey at that point point how did.

[Guy Raz]

You manage the stress of doing all of these things all the time every day without a single day off it.

[Mike Ripka]

Was a lot lots of coffee lots of red bull in terms of keeping awake you know i think the thing that i leaned on the most is you know i had this recovery background that like really kind of helped me i'd been through rough times in my life right like i'd seen what darkness looked like and i knew that if i did the right things for the right reasons whether the business succeeded or not like i was going to be okay and that would give me enough strength and enough grit to like do it one more day put one more foot in front of the other and just have some faith to like just just keep doing what you're doing mike.

[Guy Raz]

It'S almost like like staying so busy that you couldn't stop and let your mind wander was like well you just sort of an extension of your ongoing.

[Mike Ripka]

Recovery yeah yeah it was about doing you know i like to say my job is to chop wood and carry water and eventually the house gets built right like if i don't chop the wood and don't carry the water the house isn't going to get built.

[Guy Raz]

So all right so you are on south first street and two thousand seven you get some locals in austin who want to make an investment and suggest or i guess help you get a second truck and this is just sort of the beginning of the process of a group of local people who want to invest in the business i guess bill your original partner decides to step away he gets bought out and there's a couple that invest a little bit of money farrell and rebecca locals in austin and when they came to invest did you have a plan how did that.

[Mike Ripka]

Come about so at this point we were finally having some success so before that happened we got a big write up in the austin chronic and that really helped change things so we were definitely on our way to like we were having lines twenty thirty people long every friday saturday and sunday lunches were starting to pick up during the week dinners were getting better and so we knew we like had something and we figured that like we probably couldn't get enough money to open a restaurant yet but maybe we could at least open a second trailer and kind of extend the brand a little bit and so.

[Guy Raz]

Did you did you know these people who were interested like were they friends.

[Mike Ripka]

Bill knew them he had done business with them so farrell was a builder so he built a lot of houses in austin and they had a relationship because they would work together bill would do the landscape and farrell would do the house building so they had worked together quite a bit and we knew that we were going to have to raise money to help open the second trailer because we were all tapped at that point and so we brought farrell on and showed him the finances and what we were doing had him come try the food and he was just blown away he's like man i've never had tacos like this like holy crap and his wife rebecca thought he was nuts but they were sort of serial entrepreneurs right and so they kind of knew the game so having someone on the team that like knew about business that could you know help navigate some of the things that i was still learning on the fly was really helpful to have them kind of on the team and and to be able to you know help finance the second trailer so and we took some of that money to kind of help just i hadn't had a paycheck yet right and so i took a little bit of that cash and just kind of like kept my house from getting foreclosed on and got caught up a little bit.

[Guy Raz]

On some bills all right so there now you now have some investors and so all of those people were now partners it was it was the farrell and rebecca and and a guy named bob gentry bought out bill the original partner there was another guy involved named jay and with their help not only were you able to open up a second truck but by two thousand eight you were able to get a brick and mortar location and let's just pause for a moment because this is an important turning point you have two years of of grinding away in taco trucks and now you've got a brick and mortar location doesn't mean the grind is going to end for sure it won't but at this point now having some investors involved are you guys starting to articulate a vision of what you think this could be like was it too early to talk about multiple locations or were you already talking about that possibility.

[Mike Ripka]

A little yes and a little no our first goal was we definitely at first we kind of argued about like hey do we just open a bunch of trailers because they're cheap and we move them and i was very much against that because i was like hey look this is a great way to start but it's not a good way to sustain it's very weather dependent it's a lot of heavy lifting every day of like shipping food back and forth and so i was really like hey we got to get a brick and mortar i know it's expensive but that's the way to do this and it was a little bit of defense because our trailer location we couldn't get more than a year lease and every time the lease came up our landlord wanted to double the rent you know he saw the lines and was like i can make more money off these guys and farrell being in real estate and construction you know had a real good eye for that so we kind of put him in charge of like like hey go find us the next spot that's somewhere close to here but not too close but that like we could still capture our customers and so that's how we found our south first spot.

[Guy Raz]

Okay so now you've got this the brick and mortar and then and two you opened up two in two thousand eight tell me a little bit about the look and the vibe like this is just on the cusp of austin and forgive me cause i hate to use this language but like like becoming more corporate right like south by southwest still very indie like now you go and it's still fun austin's still amazing but it was still a little bit of a kind of a sleepy cultural town right with austin city limits and south by southwest was still very kind of indie yeah so so the vibe i think right like the whole i think like the whole motto of austin was keep austin weird right yeah and so how did your like look and feel fit into that we definitely had.

[Mike Ripka]

That vibe especially early on so a lot of used restaurant equipment paint a little bit of decor not a whole lot in terms of like a super well thought out like this is how the design's gonna look we did incorporate some of our colors from our logo.

[Guy Raz]

Your logo had a little devil it was like a devil with a with a toilet plunger in its mouth oh.

[Mike Ripka]

No with a pitchfork a pitchfork okay.

[Guy Raz]

All right i got you am i the first one to say that yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

I haven't heard that one before toilet.

[Guy Raz]

Plunger okay it's a pitchfork all right i gotcha all right sorry no you're.

[Mike Ripka]

Good torchy he's sort of my alter ego when bill and i first started torchies we were even though we were just opening a taco truck we definitely still wanted to have like a good brand and we did a lot of talking about like great brands and what makes them special and a lot of the good brands out there like nike has the swoosh like if you just saw the swoosh you know that's nike starbucks has the siren and so on and so forth and so we were like well what is that for torchy and we talked about pitchforks and this and that and i had the same kind of moment that bill had when he came to me with the name i like woke up in the morning super excited and i just had this idea of like it needs to be.

[Guy Raz]

A little baby devil a baby devil.

[Mike Ripka]

In a diaper yes and that was the premise of torchies was we were a place to really come let your hair down be who you are be original take all the stress of life and just come enjoy some damn good food like the little angel on my shoulder says hey you should probably eat the kale salad it's healthy you need to go work out and torchy on the other hand is like fuck that drink a margarita have some queso and have a damn good taco and that was sort of what torchy is about.

[Guy Raz]

And as you sort of once you had the brick and mortar locations was the menu i'm assuming it was expanded i mean you had how are you coming up with different like you know for example i don't know a taco with like just the things that you would add to the taco like you know you've got a taco with carnitas teriyaki sauce bacon corn relish cotija cheese i mean a lot of different cultures and flavors blended into that thing how would you come up with those ideas.

[Mike Ripka]

Very early on me and bill agreed that like hey we wouldn't do anything unless it came from an inspired place which might sound a little hokey but sometimes that meant that like it might take you a while to like come up with something because it didn't feel very authentic and what i mean by that was it would be anything from hey i'm in the grocery store and i see an ingredient like a miso paste and it sparks an idea of like ooh i've had that with sea bass and what if i did this and then and then how would i format that in a taco and what i found is when i've allowed myself that space and time to do that that like typically the stuff that wins i nail on the first recipe there's not a lot of like back and forth and testing and this and that it's like you have that idea that inspiration you go in the kitchen and it all just kind of works and.

[Guy Raz]

Works out perfect all right even with these two restaurants from what i understand torchy's was still not profitable and one of the challenges is that when you guys are opening more locations in austin i think by the end of that year you had four locations and then twenty ten you opened the first location in dallas and i think i read that you guys couldn't still could not get lines of credit you couldn't get banks to give you lines of credit and a lot i mean this is now the financial crisis right so of course it's gonna be challenging so i'm sure it was stressful that you were just kind of treading water even now five six years into this business yeah.

[Mike Ripka]

Yeah i mean it was definitely a challenge and i think just like the thing that kept giving us hope was we were opening these locations and we were doing really good business and at that point we were really starting to capture a lot of fans and the reason we opened in dallas is because we had people begging for us to come up there and when we opened they came out in droves i mean we had lines out the door for weeks and months when we opened our dallas location so we knew we had something and part of part of growing a business isn't always that profitable right like you're constantly investing kind of to the next phase which you know typically if you do it right you kind of want to be a little over invested ahead of yourself so that you've got the team that can execute it so that you can do it at a high level enough to make it.

[Guy Raz]

Work when you opened that location in dallas and then subsequent locations how did you explain what the culture was to the team like hey everybody we're opening this torchies this is what torchies is and you guys have to personify that embody that what what what was your.

[Mike Ripka]

Explanation so we had a handbook at that point you know so some of that some of our cultures and values were were in that we did about three weeks of training with those new employees i was up there all the partners were up there we did lots of storytelling in terms of like where we started the kind of things we'd been through we get our folks super involved in lots of tasting classes and one of our big mantra if it's not damn good don't serve it and so to really ingrain that culture of like hey like you know it's okay to not have pico if your tomatoes aren't ripe like just don't serve it right like a customer will understand hey we got a bad batch of tomatoes today so we don't have pico versus hey let's serve yellow tomatoes in our pico that you know is hard and tastes like crap you know so it's really about getting that buy in from your folks being consistent with your values in terms of you know making sure that people understand what's important every day you know we have what we call our winning formula which is damn good food damn good hospitality and damn good.

[Guy Raz]

Shifts and damn good tacos is your trademarked motto yes i should say you trademarked damn good tacos yep and it.

[Mike Ripka]

Came from our customers that said damn these tacos are good what the hell are you putting in these things you know and we decided to add damn good as really a guiding light of like hey this is the level it needs to be every day every shift every time when someone comes in here it needs to be damn good and when you focus on that and when you really drive that home with your folks they're able to do that you know and you end up with with a very passionate employee team member base that like cares about the food that like holds each other accountable when something's not right and they bring a tasting spoon to the manager and make sure like hey does this diablo sauce taste right are these beans good and that kind of culture has to get cultivated and you need to do it every day kind of what without fail when.

[Guy Raz]

We come back after a quick break a critic torches the tacos a rival chain shows up with copycat recipes and mike he's out as ceo but that's not the end of the story stay with us i'm guy raz and you're listening to how i built this.

[Mike Ripka]

It'S.

[Guy Raz]

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[Mike Ripka]

Article i well first off before that i called their office and said hey i'd love to talk to allison i'm not trying to change the review but i'd like to know know because one of her big complaints was a busser kept trying to take her menu and i don't know why our busser was doing that that day i think he just was on autopilot like clean the tables clean the menus like whatever he was thinking and so i wanted to be able to coach that team member and they would not let me talk to her and that just really pissed me off it's like i'm not trying to change a review i just to want want to you know make our restaurant as good as i can i'd like to know who it is so i can coach them and so i responded and and basically called her out and said hey look you know i'm going to be there in two days from twelve to two bringing this article and i'm going to be giving away this tacos that she reamed us on and you can vote for yourself whether you agree with with her or not because i just i felt real passionate about our food and like hey you know because it was obvious that like this thing the busser was doing is what kind of killed her experience it wasn't the food it wasn't you know she was recalling her memory from eating at the trailer under an oak tree in the middle of spring when it's seventy two degrees out like that's hard to compare that memory with you know being in a brick and mortar in houston right yeah and so so my point was it's like we haven't done anything to change the food the food's just as damn good as it was in that trailer if not better and come on down and i'll prove it.

[Guy Raz]

To you you said if you print out the article and bring it we'll give you a free taco yeah we'll.

[Mike Ripka]

Give you a free taco and so and then you can then i want to hear your vote and i think out of the three hundred articles we got only two people agreed with the article so you can't please everybody but that's a pretty impressive vote there so.

[Guy Raz]

Yeah i'll take it well in her defense i read the original review and i feel like she was it was a tough love review she was saying i love torches what's going on and i and so i think in her defense you could say that it also it must have perked you your it must have perked you up a little bit and it must have made you think well what's going on at that.

[Mike Ripka]

Restaurant yeah oh yeah for sure well and that's why i called her because i wanted to know like hey like you know give me some more details so i can like fix this right.

[Guy Raz]

Yeah okay so you guys are still but i think still not profitable right i mean you're growing but still it's getting tough we're getting tough we're starting.

[Mike Ripka]

To make some money at that point we're you know i'm taking a paycheck farrell had and rebecca had starting to take in a small pay and this.

[Guy Raz]

Is six years in i should say yes so it's been a grind i mean you were on a hamster wheel yes for six years already big time.

[Mike Ripka]

Big time and so so we're starting to take a little bit of money just from a paycheck standpoint but we definitely weren't taking any kind of dividends or anything like that out mike i.

[Guy Raz]

Want to ask you a personal question here which i often ask not in every case but we didn't mention that you had gotten married around two thousand eight and i think your marriage broke apart around twenty eleven or twelve all of this is going on you're expanding you're building the restaurants and personally you're going through this crisis we didn't mention that also your mom had passed away a couple years before i don't know do you again marriage and partnership is complex relationships are complex but i imagine that you working one hundred hours a.

[Mike Ripka]

Week couldn't have helped yeah i mean i you know i by the time i met her i was working less i wasn't you know that hundred hours was really that first kind of year and a half two years and i met her in two thousand eight and that same year my mom passed away from ovarian cancer so it was just really sort of it was just a you know on one hand i had this woman that was potentially going to be my wife and you know was thinking about marriage and then you know my mom passed away so it was just it was a really kind of weird and confusing time and then also you know i'm like i've got this business that's new that's like you know i'm starting to make a little bit of money but you know it's it's it's just a lot of everything going on at once and you know yeah it was tough we got married literally the same year we got married we we had our son so it was like boom boom get married have a kid all while you know i'm also trying to like manage growing this business and there was just a lot of a lot of challenges and you know i think you know i definitely made some mistakes you know it was it was tough you know it was tough trying to manage all that together.

[Guy Raz]

So this is happening in the background in the meantime you guys are growing and expanding and then in twenty thirteen there's another taco chain another taco restaurant called the texas taco company and you start to see pictures on instagram and on social media of fans at their restaurant and it looks like from your perspective they're making the same exact things they're literally copying your playbook i should mention that recipes are not copyrighted it's not like a photograph or a book or a patented invention unfortunately recipes recipes just aren't protected in the same way but you guys decided to sue them for i guess copyright or some kind of infringement trademark infringement tell me why you.

[Mike Ripka]

Decided to do that well we knew they had stolen our recipe book so.

[Guy Raz]

They had you guys had an internal taco bible that you used in your kitchens right yep yep like a brand bible for your tacos yeah exactly with.

[Mike Ripka]

All the recipes and everything in it.

[Guy Raz]

And it was a trade center secret.

[Mike Ripka]

Yeah yeah and so we had it on video now the problem is by the time we got to court we had lost that video but we had enough other proof around you know their their menu i mean every description was exactly the same the only thing they changed were the names of the tacos.

[Guy Raz]

They were doing the same exact fried.

[Mike Ripka]

Chicken tacos same exact stuff you know across the board luckily they weren't executing it at all so that that i think saved us but definitely a moment of like holy shit we got this great brand we're doing these great things and like and they were franchising right like they opened one store and like immediately started franchising so and you guys.

[Guy Raz]

Were not franchising you were we were not franchising opening all of your own locations and you continue to do that to this day yep they were franchising and you felt like oh this is.

[Mike Ripka]

A potential threat this is a huge threat they've got our food they've got our recipes like they could completely take over and we'd just be forgotten about in the wind and this is our stuff and so yeah we definitely went to the lawyers and the thing went on for about eighteen months but we were able to get them to close everything down so thank goodness for that.

[Guy Raz]

All right twenty seventeen you guys announced that a investment firm general atlantic makes a significant investment which is i mean it's a big deal they're looking at your business and thinking okay we can really expand this and now i imagine by twenty seventeen you had ten or fifteen locations i think something like that.

[Mike Ripka]

Oh no we were at thirty five.

[Guy Raz]

At that point oh wow okay so you had a lot but with this deal i imagine there was plans now to really expand this like to turn this into a national maybe even an.

[Mike Ripka]

International business chain yeah yeah and i think you know the you know two things we thought about one was hey look we've been busting our but you know we don't even know like what we're worth or not worth as a company we didn't want to like step out but it was also be nice to like take some chips off the table like we've you know restaurant you never know right and we want to if we're going to grow like we want the best shot to like do it right and these guys have done this stuff before and so we started talking to some people about you know hey what does what's a good way to accomplish two of those goals to take some chips off the table but then also to continue to expand and work in the business and not necessarily write it off and what we came to is like hey if you find the right private equity partnership that can work out really well and so we went through a whole bidding process and really landed on general atlantic and they've been great to work with and just down to earth they get the business they get investments and they had a.

[Guy Raz]

Great track record so you now i mean now that there is there's outside investors you know professional investors i should say involved with your you and your original team there's a different set of pressures right and there's a board and it's twenty eighteen and i i gather that that year the board essentially asks you to step aside from what i understand they felt like you were not the right person to help scale the business anymore and they brought in a quote unquote professional who had been the ceo of california pizza kitchen he was an executive at texas roadhouse a guy named gj hart were you okay i mean clearly you did you stepped down and you took on a different role but were you okay with that decision were you relieved did you feel like i really don't want to do this or were you like i can't believe they don't trust me to do this.

[Mike Ripka]

No that actually the way that went down was i was ready for a break and i think the five of us were kind of at this point of where we've done what we've done we've done an amazing job but like what if somebody professional came in that's done this before that's grown a company you know two three four hundred units that knows what that looks like what could they bring to the table that could add value and it was really a group decision and there wasn't really in this new phase like it was going to be hard for me or some of my other partners to you know one of us to sort of rise above of everyone else and we also knew that like hey even though i was sort of running things that like we were still very democratic in how we made decisions you know it wasn't like i was the boss of everyone and so and now you couldn't.

[Guy Raz]

Do that anymore yeah you were getting.

[Mike Ripka]

Bigger we were getting bigger we needed someone to kind of be a decision maker on stuff and so we all agreed with when they came in and they had actually asked like do one of you guys want to be the ceo and we all kind of said no and i was still in the business per se but not i didn't want any more direct reports i kind of wanted to take a step back and just take a breath all right.

[Guy Raz]

So you step down but you stay on as the like in a creative leadership capacity and the brand starts to you know the company continues to grow and hart is also leading the business during COVID which is super challenging no question very challenging but manages to kind of steer it through i mean i think by the time sort of by the time within a couple years twenty twenty it hits over seventy locations.

[Mike Ripka]

So.

[Guy Raz]

Not a bad trajectory but from what i've read you weren't happy with how it was expanding i mean i'm just looking at this objectively i think this ceo clearly did a good job i mean he got it from forty five restaurants to ninety six restaurants and did that in the midst of COVID so by any account a success but you were not happy with certain things what were you not happy about well.

[Mike Ripka]

I don't know that there was enough thought behind hey are these the exact right markets to go into and why i think it was a little more grow to grow versus here we grow in the right way in the right place and you know and then i also just saw some of our our branding changing and just you know getting a little too corporate for what i felt comfortable with and you know just they weren't bad things per se but they were just you know things that sometimes if you're not you know vocal enough about that like in store start you know start to water a business down.

[Guy Raz]

If you will yeah hart eventually just decided to retire yeah in twenty twenty one and you came back yeah as ceo did you is that something that you wanted to do you said i i think i i got to come back in i did and and and and bring us back to the core the heart of what we are yep.

[Mike Ripka]

Yep i definitely did when you say.

[Guy Raz]

Went too corporate i mean what do you mean like i mean the quality was was affected the the restaurants didn't feel like like they were welcoming what do you mean by that yeah just.

[Mike Ripka]

Some of the we'd lost some of the edge to our culture they revised the logo which i didn't really love you know so so we've kind of dialed that back you know back to more of our original logo and how it looks the restaurants started to get away from our core you know what i mean like we're a cool local taco shop right like that doesn't look like five thousand square feet that looks more like three thousand square feet like cool funky graffiti on the walls not this big kind of massive dining room.

[Guy Raz]

And everything else when you came back as ceo you you got rid of or you closed down a couple of restaurants including two in witchita kansas and you laid off sixty five employees at headquarters yeah was that did you feel like there were just too many people they'd overhired or was it more of.

[Mike Ripka]

A quality thing we were definitely over we just had way too much headcount for what we needed you know and i remember kind of looking at the you know at the business kind of going like what are all these people doing you know and just and they're just spending a lot of money that like we didn't have really to be spending even at that point even being as big as we were and it just it was time to like get back and focus on what do we do we we serve damn good food we give damn good hospitality and we run damn good shifts right like what's the core part of our business that got us to the dance so really took a step back and really focused back in on you know our operations and like now if we go open a new restaurant i always make sure there's at least one internal hire that's a manager in that restaurant versus just everyone being new from outside you guys.

[Guy Raz]

Are in sixteen states right now tell me about what the plan is i mean i remember interviewing the founder of five guys many years ago on the show and they've got thousands of locations around the world and they're in paris and my children ate there when we were in paris i'm like guys we're in paris you're going to five guys they're like we ordered it we ordered it in france what is the plan for torchies like are you looking at a future where you've got thousands of locations not only in all forty eight maybe fifty us states but abroad overseas.

[Mike Ripka]

I mean immediately i think we'd like to be a national brand in most if not all fifty states international that's probably above my pay grade at this point but definitely nationally we definitely want to expand more up and down the east and west coast for sure you.

[Guy Raz]

Stepped down from your second stint as ceo in early twenty twenty five and now you are what's your role in.

[Mike Ripka]

The company chief innovation officer so my whole thing that i'm focused on now is on a lot of innovation and kind of restaurant excellence if you will so really focusing in on new food new items the restaurant business gotten very competitive so i think to win these days you've got to be bringing out new products bringing out new stuff and also just really looking back in at our operations and our kitchens and hey can we be more efficient can we be faster what can we do to improve our operations and you know kind of really dialing that in as we kind of get ready for our next phase of growth you know mike i'm.

[Guy Raz]

Curious i mean as you as you reflect on just your story you become a very successful entrepreneur like that was not going to be your life story no like like your life story could have been strung out in jail dead yeah like any of those things it's kind of amazing actually it is it.

[Mike Ripka]

Is i think and it's funny you know i've i've been asked that before like hey do you really celebrate your success and you know i think you know one of the advantages and disadvantages of a think being successful and being an entrepreneur is you know sometimes you don't take the time to sort of celebrate your wins because you're just focused on sort of the next thing in front of you but there are moments where like i got nominated an award at my culinary school for like a legacy achievement award and i remember receiving that up in providence and just broke down in tears because i just i hadn't really given my chance myself a chance to like hey man look what you have done like this is an incredible story and you know look at all the opportunities you've created for people and what you've been able to do and what you've been able to overcome like sometimes it's hard to take a step back and sort of reflect on.

[Guy Raz]

That when you think about about about the the what happened to you where you started and where you are now you're we're roughly the same age you're just you know fifty ish yeah and i mean you did not grow up with a lot of money you've got you've made a lot of money you've built a growing business that is just going to get bigger i'm sure i see you in ten years torchy is going to be much bigger how much of of this do you attribute to the work you put in the grind and how much do you think has to do with just luck and fate.

[Mike Ripka]

You know probably seventy five percent work and ethic and doing the right things for the right reasons and twenty five percent luck i think anyone that says there isn't a little bit of luck that gets people to that level of success is lucky lying to themselves i think you know the pumpkin patch story i talked to you about right that could have put us out of business right but for some reason there was a damn pumpkin shortage that year that kind of got us to the next level that helped refill the coffers to make sure we had enough payroll to cover the next two months of business right like so there's little things i think like that that come up that help businesses a lot long but then i also think that you're not set up for that type of luck without all the hard work that goes into setting you up for that if that.

[Guy Raz]

Makes sense that's mike ripka founder of torchy's tacos by the way remember how mike says he has a hard time celebrating his wins in business well he has a pretty different attitude about his.

[Mike Ripka]

Sobriety yep i stopped still i haven't had a drink in thirty three years i just celebrated this month thanks so.

[Guy Raz]

Much for listening to the show this week please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show and if you're interested in big ideas about business and entrepreneurship sign up for my newsletter at guyraz dot com or on substack this episode was researched by kathryn seifer and particular produced by carla estevez with music composed by ramtin arablouei it was edited by kevin leahy our audio engineers were patrick murray and gilly moon our production staff also includes casey herman jc howard neva grant alex chung andrea bruce sam paulson elaine coates noor gill and kerry thompson i'm guy raz and you've been listening to how i built this if you like how i built this you can listen early and ad free right now by joining wondery plus in the wondery app or on apple podcasts prime members can listen ad free on amazon music before you go tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery dot com you set the gold standard for your business your website should do the same wix puts you at the helm so you can enjoy the creative freedom of designing your site just the way you want want someone to bounce your ideas off talk with ai to create a beautiful site together whatever your.

[Mike Ripka]

Business manage it from one place and.

[Guy Raz]

Tie it all together with a personalized domain name gear up for success with a brand that says you best you can do it yourself on wix.