How Port of Subs Is Turning Veteran Ownership Into a Growth Strategy

Veteran regional developers pair military experience with local knowledge to build new markets.

Opening a restaurant in a new market means building more than a customer base. Someone has to navigate unfamiliar real estate, assemble a team, establish local relationships, and turn a brand’s operating system into a business that works in that community. Expanding across a region multiplies those responsibilities.

Port of Subs is approaching that challenge through veteran recruitment—and regional developers whose ambitions extend beyond their own restaurants. A 50 percent franchise fee discount helps lower the cost of entry for veterans, but the larger opportunity lies in pairing their leadership experience and market knowledge with the brand’s product, systems, and development support.

For regional developers working in Coastal Virginia, Dallas and Denver, the Washington metropolitan area, and Arizona, military service provides a foundation. Building a restaurant business still requires learning an entirely different industry.

Veteran recruitment strategy

Their experiences show how veteran recruitment can become part of a market-entry strategy—not because military credentials guarantee success, but because the right candidates bring skills that can help move development forward.

For Kunal Suri, regional developer for Dallas and Denver, the appeal began with the sandwich itself. Meat and cheese sliced fresh in front of the customer gave Port of Subs a recognizable point of difference. Open territory gave him a reason to consider the business beyond a single location.

“I did not want to buy into something where every good territory was already taken,” Suri says. “With Port of Subs, I saw an established brand with a long history, but also an opportunity to help build the brand in markets like Dallas and Denver.”

Suri served in the Army Reserve from 2016 through 2026 as a cargo specialist while also building a corporate career. Ownership offered a more direct connection between his decisions, his team, and the customer experience.

Dan Hudson, regional developer for Coastal Virginia, arrived through a different connection. He attended high school near Reno, where Port of Subs was founded, and continued visiting the brand when he returned home. But familiarity did not replace financial scrutiny.

“Port of Subs was not a brand I discovered in a franchise directory,” Hudson says. “It was part of growing up for me. That gave the opportunity an emotional connection, but both sides still had to earn the decision through due diligence.”

Regional developer experiences

Hudson is developing his first Coastal Virginia restaurant while helping recruit and support prospective franchise owners across the region. Veterans, transitioning service members, and their families will be a focus of that recruitment.

The 50 percent franchise fee discount matters when expenses accumulate before the first sandwich is sold. For these developers, it also communicates something about the relationship they are entering.

“I love that Port of Subs is actively interested in veterans,” Hudson says. “The franchise fee discount is meaningful, but the bigger signal is that the brand recognizes the value veterans can bring in leadership, accountability, adaptability, and team-building.”

Bryan Denson, regional developer for Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, saw that commitment as evidence that veteran recruitment went beyond messaging. His interest also grew through conversations with Dave Liniger, whose business background and Air Force service prompted him to investigate the opportunity.

Still, an incentive cannot substitute for confidence in the concept. Arizona regional developer Lee Kroll places product quality ahead of the discount. His positive experiences eating at Port of Subs gave him confidence in the core offering.

Together, those perspectives establish an important distinction: the incentive can help a qualified candidate get started, but the product, economics, and people must earn the investment.

Hudson began as an enlisted Marine before serving as a Navy Submarine Warfare Officer and Navy Diver. His subsequent career spanned engineering, data science, and technology leadership. What carries into development is not a particular technical specialty.

“What has translated most directly from the military is not a specific technical skill,” Hudson says. “It is learning how to make important decisions with imperfect information, build strong teams, stay calm when plans change, and keep moving.”

For Suri, logistics provides a practical connection. Staffing, inventory, deliveries, preparation, and equipment form an interdependent operation. A problem in one area affects the others.

His leadership approach emphasizes clear expectations, repetition, and accountability—but also adapting communication to employees with different experience levels.

“You cannot hold someone accountable for something if you never clearly explained what good looks like,” Suri says.

Kroll similarly emphasizes prioritization and taking responsibility for the entire business. Those habits matter in a restaurant, where ownership means answering for everything from team performance to the finished order.

Denson spent 23½ years in the Air Force, retiring as an intelligence officer, and previously managed a busy Burger King. Even with that background, he recognizes the learning required in leases, construction, permitting, financing, and franchise operations.

Expansion and growth plans

His Laurel, Maryland, restaurant is approaching opening—not an established operating success. He sees it as a potential proof of concept for a broader ambition: more than 70 locations across his region over 10 years.

Proximity to Fort Meade, government activity, and defense employers informs that strategy. Denson sees catering opportunities in meetings, training events, ceremonies, and working lunches, alongside customers from schools, hospitals, universities, and local businesses.

That connection to military communities also extends to the brand’s expansion onto bases. Port of Subs recently opened a restaurant at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, specifically to serve the servicemen and women stationed there. Another location is planned for a food court in Oceana, Virginia, with several additional locations under development around the country. Alongside veteran recruitment, these openings give the brand another path into new markets while bringing its offering directly to military customers.

“What I’m really trying to do is take what Port of Subs already knows how to do well and combine that with what I know about this market,” Denson says. “I think that’s where the real opportunity is.”

Support helps bridge the gap between transferable skills and restaurant-specific knowledge. Suri points to assistance with site development, training, and ongoing operations, especially access to people who have encountered a problem before.

The next challenge is building leadership capacity alongside restaurants. Denson wants employees to see a path from team member to management and potentially ownership, with veterans and military families participating throughout the organization.

That is where the growth strategy becomes larger than recruitment. Experienced leaders can help develop new owners, build teams, and connect an expanding brand with local communities. The work remains ahead, but the ambition is clear.

“For most of my adult life, somebody else gave me the mission,” Denson says. “This time, I get to choose it.”