The Venture

Razvan Paraschiv

The stories behind the greatest companies in the world, with their founders.

Episodes

  1. 3 days ago

    How I Turned $50,000 Into a $300M Business | Oakberry Açaí Founder (Georgios Frangulis)

    Georgios Frangulis is the founder of Oakberry, the world's largest açaí chain, and a man who opened his first store the same month he came out of cancer surgery. At 26, he took $50,000 from a life insurance policy he had called to cancel and opened a 60-square-foot kiosk in a São Paulo mall two weeks before Christmas. Within three years he had hundreds of locations across Brazil. Today Oakberry has over 1,100 locations across 50 countries, opens a new store every two days, and does over $300 million a year in revenue. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:15) How Georgios discovered the OAKBERRY opportunity (00:03:53) Why the original US launch failed (00:06:14) Finding the first 60-square-foot location (00:07:41) Engineering the business for franchising (00:09:50) The meaning behind the OAKBERRY name (00:13:26) Funding the first store after cancer (00:16:14) Staying positive when failure feels inevitable (00:18:21) How to build a scalable franchise model (00:22:06) Who should become a franchisee (00:25:00) Expanding into international markets (00:26:50) The no-kitchen operating advantage (00:28:20) Why German-speaking locations perform best (00:31:20) Building a lifestyle brand before a food brand (00:33:14) From a missed meeting to the Super Bowl (00:38:08) Why Formula 1 made commercial sense (00:43:44) OAKBERRY's revenue and growth numbers (00:45:06) Choosing the right international partners (00:47:33) Expanding into consumer packaged goods (00:50:39) Vertical integration and stronger margins (00:51:59) Why OAKBERRY buys franchises back (00:54:40) Hiring leaders who are better than the founder (00:56:31) Could OAKBERRY become a public company? (00:59:52) Georgios on work-life balance (01:01:11) Racing, cars, and unfinished ambitions (01:03:27) Buying a professional football club (01:05:25) First million and biggest founder mistake (01:06:16) The advice Georgios would give his younger self The Venture by Razvan Paraschiv Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theventureshow/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theventure X: https://x.com/razvanparaschiv LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razvanpb/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033TtpChxNEQr6CMO5c1up?si=887a734ceb11408a Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-venture/id6800411217 Georgios Frangulis https://www.instagram.com/georgiosfrangulis/ https://www.oakberry.com/

    How I Turned $50,000 Into a $300M Business | Oakberry Açaí Founder (Georgios Frangulis)

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The stories behind the greatest companies in the world, with their founders.