---
title: "Dillas Founders Share Growth Story on Give an Ovation Podcast"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/de592e57-ec67-4356-aa29-b2f7579f7b31
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/dillas-quesadillas/dillas-podcast-growth-story-2731922
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
published: 2026-04-09T21:16:55.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T21:43:11.469Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/1775768906_2731922.png
---

# Dillas Founders Share Growth Story on Give an Ovation Podcast

**TL;DR:** Dillas Primo Quesadillas founders Kyle and Maggie Gordon shared their growth story on the Give an Ovation podcast, discussing their journey from a single bootstrapped location to a multi-unit concept. The couple emphasized the importance of patience and consistency in building a successful restaurant brand.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2026-04-09. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/dillas-quesadillas/dillas-podcast-growth-story-2731922).*

## Story

The founders of Dillas Primo Quesadillas, Kyle and Maggie Gordon, recently appeared on the “Give an Ovation” podcast to share how they built the brand from a single bootstrapped location into a growing multi-unit concept.

The Gordons talked about how Dillas got off the ground in 2013 and what led up to that moment. Before starting the brand, Kyle spent several years working at Raising Cane's, where he learned how a restaurant actually runs day to day. That experience stuck with him and shaped how the couple built Dillas from the start. Or as Kyle put it, “You need to see if you’ve got ketchup in your veins.”

Instead of pushing to grow as fast as possible, the Gordons spent their early years making sure the business worked. They talked about the patience that takes, especially in restaurants, where it can take a while for the numbers to catch up with the effort.

“This game is a persistence game. You have to be super patient. Restaurant economics are difficult,” Kyle said. “No matter what, you’re already up kind of against a three- to five-year uphill battle where you’re going to have lower EBITDA margins to make sure everything’s getting paid off. You’re going to win on the back half of your lease and then hopefully sign an additional five-year extension. So you've got to roll with the punches.”

The episode also got into what makes Dillas work day to day. The brand isn’t trying to compete with full-service restaurants. Instead, the focus is on doing the basics really well and making sure it’s consistent every time. That shows up in how they run their kitchens and how they listen to customers, using feedback to make small improvements across locations.

More than a decade in, Dillas continues to grow by staying disciplined in how it operates, serving great food, building strong teams and creating an experience customers can count on.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- unit expansion (topic)
- QSR (sector)
- brand growth (topic)
- restaurant operations (topic)
- Raising Cane's (company)
- Dillas Quesadillas (company)
- Kyle Gordon (person)
- Maggie Gordon (person)
- multi-unit concept (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/dillas-quesadillas/dillas-podcast-growth-story-2731922). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/de592e57-ec67-4356-aa29-b2f7579f7b31).