Question

Nom Nom is a food truck that sells banh mi, Vietnamese sandwiches, in the Los Angeles area. Prior to the actual launch of the business, Nom Nom’s owners created a website and other electronic links to the venture, creating buzz with photos and descriptions of their as-yet non-existent products. Response for Nom Nom was so great that the truck sold out completely within 30 minutes of its first day of operation. Nom Nom has never looked back. It has become a key player in the cultural lives of many local Angelenos, with movie companies, reality shows, TV and newspaper reporters all clamoring to jump on the Nom Nom bandwagon. Currently Nom Nom owners plan to expand to “brick and mortar” restaurants, and are looking into franchising their business. The film is done mainly in interview form, with co-owners David Stankulas and Jennifer Green talking about their venture.

a.   Do the special advantages of having a restaurant on a truck outweigh the disadvantages for the owners of Nom Nom? Explain.

b.   What was the strategy of Stankunas and the other owners of Nom Nom when they began the venture? How has this strategy changed or evolved?

c.   How does owner David Stankunas feel about planning a business? What advice does he give for would-be entrepreneurs?

Answer 1

A. I do believe special advantages of having a restaurant on a truck outweigh the disadvantages for the owners of Nom Nom because the truck is a novelty, it has mobility, and it is a good look for the business. The restaurant is a success so far, the only disadvantages that could get in the way are tight conditions and small storage space.

B. The owners never planned on being limited to a single truck. Their plan was to begin with one truck and build their brand. Once the brand was established, the owners thought they would move on to obtaining additional trucks, establish “brick and mortar” restaurants, then finally franchise their business. Those plans have recently changed, as the phenomenal success of Nom Nom has made it seem likely that they will acquire “brick and mortar” restaurants far ahead of schedule. Franchising the operation may not be too far beyond that.

C. Stankunas is not a believer in over planning, spending a lot of time creating formal business plans, or calculating such things as theoretical cost estimates. Instead, Stankunas advocates a position of “just do it” and “build it, and they will come.” He thinks it is more important to make steady progress on one’s entrepreneurial plans than to spend too much time trying to anticipate possible problems, since there is no way to predict the future. Stankunas cites his own experience in creating a company website before there was an actual company as evidence of the success of his approach. That preliminary work not only created “buzz” for the venture, it also helped solidify ideas in Stankunas’s own mind about what Nom Nom was and what it wasn’t. So when the venture finally got launched, the owners had a clear view of what they were actually creating.