Gregg Majewski

CEO/Founder Craveworthy Brands • 21 brands 300+ locations, $400M+ • Former CEO Jimmy John's • Creating 100,000 restaurant success stories • 🎙️ Room for Seconds

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Private equity is killing the restaurant industry I love.

I've watched it happen for 20 years. Great brands. Great teams. Destroyed.

Not by competition. Not by changing consumer tastes.

By financial engineering disguised as "optimization."

Here's what's really happening: 🧵

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Stavros Zamfotis just signed Gregorys Coffee’s first franchise agreement.

He didn’t walk in with a check and a pitch deck. He walked in with almost a decade behind the counter. Barista. Shift lead. District manager. Helped scale operations across NY and NJ. Now he owns the next chapter in Bergen County.

The industry celebrates the people who built it. Then hands the franchise to whoever has the biggest fund behind them.

We don’t run that play.

100,000 Restaurant Success Stories by 2035 isn’t a slogan. It’s a name. Tonight that name is Stavros.

Want to own one? DM me. Link in bio. 🔥

#Franchising #Craveworthy #GregorysCoffee

https://t.co/Ft7DUUiDFR

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Today is not about business.

We get to chase our dreams because someone else gave up theirs.

To everyone who served, and to every family carrying a loss today, thank you.

We remember them.

🇺🇸

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

There are two ways to build a restaurant company.

The first way is the way private equity teaches it.

Buy the brand. Strip the cost. Cut the people. Squeeze the operator until the margin shows up. Fire the GM who misses budget two months in a row. Sell in five years to the next firm and call it a return.

Short term win. Long term loss!

The second way is harder. Slower. Less defensible on a spreadsheet. And the only way I know how to build.

Buy the brand! Build the brand! Invest in the brand!Save the operator who is fighting for it! Promote the GM who is two months from the breakthrough! Hold for the long build! Stack the wins quarter by quarter, year by year, decade by decade!

Short term cost. Long term compounding.

Here is what most people miss.

The operator who gets stripped does not just lose their store. They lose their belief that anyone in this industry is actually trying to build something with them. That belief takes years to earn back. Sometimes it never comes back. And when it doesn’t, the whole concept slowly dies from the inside.

I have walked into too many stores where you can feel the moment the operator stopped believing. The shelves are stocked. The doors are open. But the soul left a long time ago. That is what stripping does. It works on the spreadsheet right up until the second the brand quietly disappears.

We don’t walk away until we have tried everything. And we try everything.

Not on the operator. Not on the brand. Not on the team that gets handed something broken and asked to make it work.

Finding capital that believes the way we do is hard. I will not pretend otherwise. The default mode of this industry is buy, strip, sell. That is the playbook most firms know.

But we keep finding them. The investors who are willing to bet on the long build. The ones who understand that compounding only happens when you stop running people through the door and start running people through the system. The ones who see what we are building and want to build with us, not on top of us.

They exist. We are proof. And every quarter the bench gets deeper.

That is the bet I am making with Craveworthy. Great brands and hundreds of locations into it, the math is starting to prove the philosophy.

Build something worth holding! Hold it for the build!

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Culture is the only moat that doesn’t get copied.

Everybody copies the menu. Everybody copies the buildout.

Nobody copies how your team treats each other when the doors are closed.
🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

My birthday is tomorrow!

I started this week with a promise to take real inventory of 50 years. I made it through seven posts. I thanked my dad. I thanked Juan. I thanked Kristin and the team. I thanked the Rat Pack. I told you I owe more and that I am just getting started.

Here's what an operator does on the day before a milestone.

Tonight I shut it down and spend the night with my family. My boys. The only scoreboard that matters. The reason any of this is worth it.

Tomorrow I turn 50. And the second the candles are out, I'm driving down to McCormick Place for the NRA Show. Back in the field. Back with operators. Back with the people building this industry alongside us.

That's the job. The work doesn't pause for the birthday. The mission doesn't pause for the cake. 100,000 Restaurant Success Stories doesn't pause for anything.

If you are at the NRA Show, come find me. I want to meet you. Whether you're an operator, a franchisee, an investor, or somebody trying to figure out what's next, the door is open.

See you in Chicago. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Two days until I turn 50.

Seven days ago I told you I wanted to use this week to look at my life to this point and ask one honest question. What more can I do.

Here’s where I land.

The first 50 years built the foundation. The lessons from my dad. The values that came from watching him bet on himself. The team I’ve built with people like Kristin and the operators rising up like Juan. The Rat Pack who picks up at midnight. The mission we set at Craveworthy. 22 brands. Hundreds of locations. The path to a billion in systemwide sales.

All of that is the foundation. None of it is the finish line.

The next 50 years has one job. Take everything the first 50 built and turn it into more lives changed than any restaurant company in history has ever touched. 100,000 Restaurant Success Stories isn’t a number on a wall. It’s the only scoreboard I’m playing on for the rest of my life.

I owe more. I said it yesterday and I meant it. The next chapter has to be different from the first. The first 50 was about building enough so I had something to give. The next 50 is about actually giving it.

So here’s what I’m telling you with two days left on the clock.

If you’re an operator stuck somewhere getting ground down by a chain that doesn’t see you, come build with us. We promote from within. We give equity to the people who carry the mission. We don’t walk away when it gets hard. The seat we put Juan in is the same seat we will put you in if you’re ready. Look at the people sitting next to me. That’s the proof!

If you’re a franchisee tired of being treated like a number, come build with us. Bigger territories. Real protection. Stores that get to be home runs. We don’t cannibalize our own operators to chase royalties. We back the people who bet on us.

If you’re an investor watching from the outside trying to figure out whether this is real, come build with us. Look at how I structured my senior team’s stake. Look at the operators we put in business. Look at the brands we’re growing. Look at the team behind every one of them. This isn’t a PE play dressed up as a restaurant company. This is operators building something that lasts.

I am going to spend the next 50 years trying to answer the question I opened this week with. What more can I do. The answer is going to come in lives changed, operators promoted, franchisees set up to win, kids walking into one of our kitchens and walking out with a career.

To everyone who has been with me this week. Thank you for reading. Thank you for the messages. Thank you for the calls. Thank you to my dad. Thank you to my boys. Thank you to the team. Thank you to the Rat Pack. Thank you to every operator and franchisee who has bet on Craveworthy.

I’m just getting started. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Three days until I turn 50.

I'm going to be honest about something.

I'm losing sleep.

Not over the company. Not over the next deal. Not over the next brand or the next opening. The thing keeping me up at 2 a.m. is a question I don't know how to answer yet.

Have I given back enough!

A few months ago I wrote about a milestone birthday. About a mentor who asked me before he passed what I was going to do to give back to this industry. I was 21 then. I didn't have an answer. I was young and focused on my own path. I didn't get it yet.

Now I get it. And here's the part I'm sitting with this week.

I'm not sure I've done enough!

I think about the things I do. The meals I buy. The cars I've given to people who needed a break. The people I mentor. The phone calls I take at 6 a.m. and midnight because if someone I care about is calling, I figure I owe them an answer. The equity I gave out of my personal stake to my senior team because they bet on me when this was an idea on a napkin.

Some of it matters. I know that. I've watched lives change!

But every time I step back, I feel the same thing. It's not enough. The mission we have at Craveworthy is 100,000 success stories. Real people whose lives changed because they crossed paths with us. We are nowhere near 100,000. And the math of where I sit at 50 means I have less time in front of me than behind me to get there.

That's the part that wakes me up!

I don't have a foundation to announce today. I don't have a scholarship in my dad's name to launch. I don't have a perfectly packaged program with a logo and a press release. I have a question I haven't fully answered yet and I'm telling you about it because pretending I have it figured out would be a lie!

Here's what I do know.

I am not done. The next 50 years has to be different from the first 50. The first 50 was about building enough so that I had something to give.

The next 50 has to be about actually giving it. The company is the vehicle. The people we put in business are the proof. The mission is real. But I owe more than I have given so far and I am not pretending otherwise.

So I'm making a public commitment right now.

Before I turn 50 ends, I will figure out what comes next. A bigger structure for how we lift operators into ownership. Something specific. Something funded. Something I will be measured against. I will share it when it is real. I will not put a fake announcement out so my birthday post looks good.

Until then, I keep doing what I can. The phone calls. The mentoring. The equity. The bets on people nobody else will bet on. The 100,000 number isn't a slogan. It's a debt I owe this industry for what it gave a 21 year old kid with no experience and no connections.

If you are an operator out there grinding right now and you don't know if anyone sees you, you should know somebody does. Reach out. I take the calls.

That's the least I can do.

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Four days until I turn 50!

Today's lesson is about thePack.

Five guys. Geoff Alexander. Michael 'schatzy' Schatzberg. Jimmy Frischling. André Vener. Josh Halpern. We came together as a group around 2022 and have not stopped since.

Everyone in this industry knows who we are and they know we are tight. Real tight. Each of us has our seat at the table! Each of us building at the same time.

Here's what most people don't understand about being a CEO.

It's lonely. You have a team you lead. You have a board you report to. You have operators counting on you. But there are very few people on this planet who actually know what your day feels like. The pressure. The weight. The phone calls you take at 11 p.m. The decisions that keep you up at 2 a.m.

This Pack are those people for me.

When I have a question, they pick up. When I need to vent, they pick up. When something is breaking and I need somebody who has been there, they pick up. And I do the same for them. No matter the time. No matter what's going on in their week. We answer for each other.

Dinners. Conferences. Golf outings. Random Tuesday calls. Group texts at midnight. Showing up at each other's openings. Helping each other through the hardest moments in our lives, not just the easy wins. That's what this group is.

I will not pretend I built Craveworthy alone. I didn't. Some of the biggest decisions I have made over the last few years got pressure-tested in conversations with these guys before they ever went public. Some of the hardest weeks of my life got carried by texts and calls from this group. I am a better operator, a better partner, and a better man because of them.

Here's the part I want every person reading this to understand.

The restaurant industry is a hard industry. It chews people up. It makes leaders feel isolated even when they are running big companies. Most of the people at the top are surrounded by yes-people, lawyers, and bankers. They don't have a Rat Pack. They have an org chart. And there's a difference.

If you are an operator climbing right now, build your pack. Find the people who will tell you the truth. Find the people who will pick up at midnight. Find the people you would drop everything for.

That is the difference between burning out and going the distance.

I am still standing because these five guys make sure I am still standing. And I do the same for them.

Geoff. Schatzy. Jimmy. André. Josh. Thank you for picking up. Thank you for the calls, the texts, the dinners, the golf, and the brutal honesty. Thank you for showing up for me on the hardest days and letting me show up for you on yours. The next 50 years gets easier knowing you are in it with me.

Tomorrow I write about giving back. And the debt I keep. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Four days until I turn 50.

Today’s lesson is about Kristin Albert. SVP of Operations. The most important seat in this company. And the person I owe more than I could ever say.

Kristin came to me through Nick Waeltz, a guy I worked with back at Jimmy John’s. She was coming off a job where she got screwed. The kind of thing that makes most people play it safe the next time around.

She did the opposite.

We met at a Jimmy John’s in Dallas and sat there for hours. I laid out everything. What I was building. How nothing was guaranteed. She didn’t get up and walk out. She listened. And I could see it on her face. She got it!

She joined as an Area Manager. Today she runs Operations for the entire company. Every brand. Every store. Every operator. The whole engine.
By the way, Nick is on our team now too. The guy who recommended Kristin came to build with us himself. That’s how this works. People who know me come work with me.

Here’s what most people don’t see when they look at Kristin.

She is a mom raising three girls. And she is on the road almost as much as I am. I have been on calls with her where I can hear one of her daughters crying on the other end because she misses her mom. I have heard Kristin tell her girls she loves them and she’ll be home soon while she’s standing in the back of a store fixing a problem most people will never know existed.

It breaks my heart every time!

She leads her team with heart. She stands up for her people. We are cut from the same cloth. We believe you take care of your people. You don’t ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.

Kristin is one of the reasons I gave equity out of my personal stake to my senior team. Not from a pool the board approved. From me. If she’s giving up bedtime stories, soccer games and cheer, to build this with me, she should own a piece of what she’s building.

Kristin is one story. She is not the only one. Cassie Miller, CHT, Josh Halpern, Alexis Gillette, Samuel Stanovich, Kirk Hillabrand, MBA, Nicole Dore, Christopher Gumprecht , and Jax Sperling each carry a piece of this company every day. Every one of them said yes when this was still being built!

Every one of them owns a piece of it now or will!

If you are a senior operator getting ground down by a chain that treats you like a line item, look at this team. They own pieces of what they’re helping build. That’s what’s possible here.

Thank you, Kristin. For betting on me. For carrying what you carry.

Cassie, Josh, Alexis, Sam, Kirk, Nicole, Christopher, Jax. None of this happens without any of you! With out any of our thousands of team members this could not happen with out you!

Tomorrow I write about the mentors and the believers. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Five days until I turn 50.

Today's lesson is about what happens when you bet on the right person.

I want to tell you about Juan Becerril.

When I bought the company, Juan was already a GM at Flat Top. He had been with the brand for over 20 years. Two decades of showing up, holding the line, running his team, doing the work nobody applauds because it isn't supposed to need applause.

And he had been passed over for promotion. Again and again. For reasons that had nothing to do with his ability.

I walked the floors. I watched the people. Juan stood out before anyone introduced him to me. The way he worked. The way he carried himself. The way his team looked at him. He was already leading. He just didn't have the title.

So I gave him his first shot at Area Manager.

He ran with it. Then we promoted him to Regional. He ran with that too. Juan has not stopped growing since. Every chance he has been given, he has earned twice over.

Here's what I want you to understand. Juan didn't change between the people who passed him over and the day I met him. The same man was sitting there the whole time. The only thing that changed was someone willing to actually look at him.

That's the whole job!

Most of this industry walks past the Juans of the world every single day. They see a GM and they cap it. They look at people the way they look at line items, not like the future of the company. They pass on talent for reasons that have nothing to do with talent.

I don't operate that way. Never have!!

The next great regional, the next great franchisee, the next great operating partner is already inside our buildings right now. Most of them are not waiting on a degree or a title. They are waiting on someone willing to bet on them before the resume catches up to who they really are.

That's what Craveworthy Brands is built to do. We find the people who are already leading and we put them in position to lead bigger. We don't gatekeep. We don't slow-play talent. We don't make people wait their turn while we hire from outside.

Juan is the proof. And he is one of many.

If you have been carrying the team without the title, if you have been overlooked for reasons that have nothing to do with the work you put in, you should know we are building a company that is actively looking for you.

Thank you, Juan. Watching you rise has been one of the great honors of my career. You earned every step of it. Twice.

Tomorrow I write about the team I get to build with every day. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Six days until I turn 50.

Today's lesson goes back to the man who installed every value I have. My dad. Russ Majewski.

Dad is an entrepreneur. He bet on himself and built Krisdee. A manufacturing company that makes parts to a tolerance of .0001 of an inch. He's been holding that standard for nearly 60 years. Longer than I've been alive.

The part that built me wasn't the precision. It was the gamble.
He could have stayed safe. Collected a check. Instead he bet on himself. I watched him struggle. I watched him succeed. I watched him fail. Every single time, he came back stronger.
That's what installed in me. Bet on yourself. Failure isn't the end. It's the tuition you pay to come back better.

He worked long hours. But Friday pizza night, he was home. Every time. I do it with my boys today because of him.
Here's the part I'll be honest about. Dad was hard on me. Really hard. There were years I questioned why. Why the bar kept moving. Why nothing was ever quite enough.

Now I see it. He wasn't pushing me to be hard on me. He was pushing me to be the best version of me. He saw what I could become before I did. The push was the gift. I just couldn't see it at the time.

Craveworthy exists because of him. The 22 brands. The 100,000 Restaurant Success Stories. None of it without him.
I built Craveworthy the way I did because I watched my dad bet on himself, and because I know what it feels like to be pushed by someone who refuses to let you settle. We back operators ready to make that same bet on themselves. We don't walk away when it gets hard because my dad never walked away when it got hard.

Thank you, Dad. I love you. None of this happens without you.

Tomorrow I write about the operators betting on themselves right now. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

#Lessons #Gratitude #Entrepreneur #Craveworthy #Restaurants #Franchise #BetOnYourself

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

I wanted to use this week to do something I don’t normally take time to do. Look at my life to this point. Pull the lessons forward. And ask one honest question.

What more can I do.

The wins are real. The scars are real. The mistakes taught me more than the wins ever did. But 50 earns a pause. Take real inventory before you stack the next 50 on top of it.

Here’s what I know going in. My two boys are my greatest success. Everything else is a footnote. If I built 5,000 restaurants and lost them, I lost. If I built nothing and they grew up knowing what a good man looks like, I won. That’s the only scoreboard.

That’s why Craveworthy exists. 22 brands. Hundreds of locations. 100,000 Restaurant Success Stories by 2035. So an operator in Toledo, a franchisee in Tampa, a kid washing dishes in one of our kitchens has a real shot at a life they’re proud of.

Next 7 days I share the lessons that shaped me, thank the people who built me, and tell you what I’m putting the next 50 years into.

Tomorrow I write about my dad. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

#CraveworthyBrands #EOYMW #EOYUS #Entrepreneur #RestaurantIndustry #Franchise #Leadership #BigChicken #TaffersTavern #GregorysCoffee #100KSuccessStories #ProveTheDoubtersWrong #ChipOnMyShoulder #BuildingInPublic

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Named a 2026 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Midwest Finalist.

Last year I was a finalist too. I didn't win.

I put that loss on my shoulder and carried it into every day of 2025. But that chip wasn't new.

I almost flunked out of school. I wasn't the smartest kid, the polished kid, the kid anyone bet on. Effort was the only thing I could outwork anyone on. So I did.

Then I got handed a seat at Jimmy John's at an age where I had no business being in that chair. Everyone in the room was waiting for me to fail. I went to work instead. We scaled from 24 locations to over 300 and sold 700 more. I left not because anything was wrong, but because I had something I needed to build on my own.

I started Craveworthy from nothing. No PE parent. No playbook. Just a conviction that the industry was broken for operators and franchisees, and somebody needed to build the fix.

Franchisees get abandoned. Brands get stripped for parts. Operators who bet everything watch it get gutted by people who never ran a shift in their life.

We don't walk away. That's the ethos. Not a marketing line. A daily decision.

At every step, somebody has doubted me. That's the fuel. Always has been. Prove the Doubters Wrong is a core value at Craveworthy because it's how I've lived every day of my career.

So when last year's recognition came and went without a win, I did what I always do. Got back to work.

So did the team.

Big Chicken kept opening with Josh Halpern and Shaq, a celebrity-backed chicken concept breaking into markets that don't usually get first looks.

Taffer's Tavern joined the house and gave us a full-service flagship with one of the most respected names in hospitality behind it.

Gregorys Coffee added a category-leading coffee brand with a roadmap for national growth. Three partnerships that pushed Craveworthy into a different league.

Add Taim, Fresh Brothers, Wing It On!, Sigri, Genghis Grill, and everything else under the roof. Twenty-one brands. Hundreds of locations. $300M+ systemwide sales on the march to $1B.

But the number that matters is 100,000.

100,000 Restaurant Success Stories by 2035. Every franchisee who hits their AUV. Every GM who gets promoted. Every operator who buys their second store. That's what we're counting. Twenty-one brands is step one.

The plaque has my name. The work does not.

This recognition belongs to the Craveworthy Brands team. The operators running shifts. The brand leaders building culture. The franchisees who bet their futures on us. The crew that holds it all together. I get named because of what they do every day.

To the EY team and judges: thank you for the second look. To our team, partners, and franchisees: this is yours.

To anyone who's been counted out, told you weren't ready, doubted by people who don't know what you're capable of: use it. Carry the chip. Go prove them wrong. There's a seat at our table for people who build like that.

Chip's still on my shoulder. We don't stop building. 🔥

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Bet on the bite!

That’s the rule. If I’m not willing to put our food up against anyone on a single bite, it doesn’t leave the kitchen.

Most of this industry bets on promo codes and loyalty points.

We bet on the food. Every brand. Every sauce. Every bite.

New Big Chicken ranch just dropped. Reviews are off the charts. People saying they’d drink it from a faucet.

Our food is the best in the industry. That’s why we bet on the bite. Because the bite wins. 🔥

#BetOnTheBite #BigChicken

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Walked 3 new locations yesterday at Casa Blanca Resort in Mesquite.

Big Chicken. Fresh Brothers. Krafted Burgers.

One venue. One partner. Three brands printing.

Most franchise companies can’t do this. They have one brand and the venue has to manage a dozen different relationships to fill their food program. We built Craveworthy to solve that problem. 21 brands. One infrastructure. One team.

Resorts, airports, stadiums, universities. They don’t want a vendor. They want a partner who shows up, executes, and grows with them.

That’s us. And non-traditional is just getting started.

The operators who win this channel over the next five years are going to look very smart.

We intend to be the reason why. 🔥
@CraveworthyUS @BigChickenShaq @FreshBrothers

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

Back.

Brands to build. Franchisees to grow. Industry to change.

Let’s go!

[Gregg Majewski @Gregg_Majewski]

@TalkBirdie2Mee Yes it is a n amazing experience