---
title: "⛫ From Borders to Wahlburgers"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/8e0c54d9-2300-4247-9a28-7614e68bc4bd
source: "Empires Weekly"
original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-borders-to-wahlburgers
author: "Patrick Buckley"
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
published: 2026-09-02T16:41:03.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T13:15:36.146Z
image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fs9k!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff6b0d895-bd60-4afa-a132-2612fbeef285_1800x945.png
---

# ⛫ From Borders to Wahlburgers

**TL;DR:** Rick Vanzura, CEO of GrowthFactor, discusses his experience in the restaurant industry, including his tenure as CEO of Wahlburgers. CloudKitchens helps brands expand into new markets with less risk and overhead.

*By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2026-09-02. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-borders-to-wahlburgers).*

## Story

Leading QSR and fast-casual brands - including Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Goop Kitchen, and more - trust **CloudKitchens** to expand into new markets faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional real estate.

With an upfront investment of less than 10% of a brick-and-mortar location and 2.5–4.9x higher return on invested capital, **CloudKitchens** helps brands grow with less risk and overhead.

*Rick during his tenure as CEO of Wahlburgers*

Rick is currently the CEO of GrowthFactor, an AI-native site selection operating system.

Prior to that, he has had numerous executive leadership positions across a wide variety of brick and mortar brands:

- Kmart

- Borders

- Panera Bread

- Wahlburgers (CEO)

- GameStop

In our converastion, we discuss all things restaurants, and what it takes to scale successfully in brick & mortar.

There’s also some wild stories from Rick:

Rick and the CEO of Borders met with Jeff Bezos about a partnership with Borders. Jeff offered an equity stake in his fledgling start up…

> *“They wanted us to handle distribution for them, and in exchange for that, they were offering us a fee plus 5% of the company”**“Jeff every now and then just kept repeating - and these words will forever burn in my ear - ‘You and Barnes & Noble are the big guys. We just wanna get our little piece of the pie.’”*

> *“I said, ‘Wow, Mark, that’s something. I think I would get lost in that place.’”**He said, ‘You know the best part of it?’ I said, ‘What’s that, Mark?’ He said, ‘Ted paid for it all.’ He got $52 million because that movie was so successful and he got so much on the back end.”*

> *“His quote was, ‘Avoid the fast food Death Star at all costs.’ And by that he meant Panera was meant to be an elevated experience - familiar made fantastic.”**“But I think in their attempt to try and chase a little more margin, Panera got optimized to death.”*

**Q2 Winners & Losers** Coffee is in, pizza is out, and some legacy QSR chains are struggling with much-needed turnarounds.

**7Brew Beats Dutch Bros to Salad and Go Sites** The brand emerged ahead of Dutch Bros in the bankruptcy auction for the drive-thru restaurant portfolio.

**Pizza Hut Sales is Officially Complete** Yum! Brands announced the completion of the sale of Pizza Hut, excluding Mainland China, to LongRange Capital for approximately $1.5 billion.

**Mike’s Red Tacos Signs 15 Unit Deal** The San Diego Birria brand has signed a 15-unit agreement with Michael Khalil to bring its signature drip to the Great Lakes State.

**7-Eleven is Launching a New Pizza Crust** The move to enhance its pies underscores the retailer’s years-long goal to position itself as a food-focused destination.

**Shell Acquires Tri Star Energy** The oil giant will purchase 320 Tri Star c-stores and supply agreements with 552 dealer-owned locations as it significantly grows its retail footprint in the Southeast.

## Entities

- QSR (sector)
- Starbucks (company)
- Amazon (company)
- Chick-fil-A (company)
- Panera Bread (company)
- site selection (topic)
- qsr expansion (topic)
- Empires Weekly (publication)
- Patrick Buckley (person)
- CloudKitchens (company)
- Jeff Bezos (person)
- Wahlburgers (company)

---
Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-borders-to-wahlburgers). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/8e0c54d9-2300-4247-9a28-7614e68bc4bd).