---
title: "He's Building a Dave's Hot Chicken Empire (25+ Stores)"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/e25edb86-23cc-4f98-bb39-7349ada99461
source: "Empires Weekly"
original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/hes-building-a-daves-hot-chicken-611
author: "Patrick Buckley"
category: "Chicken"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Chicken"
published: 2025-09-12T12:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T14:57:32.346Z
image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!U0MP!,w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F094db6e7-f368-40ac-ba6d-08772cf05a1a_971x971.png
---

# He's Building a Dave's Hot Chicken Empire (25+ Stores)

**TL;DR:** Kal, a former Wall Street professional, has built a franchise empire with over 100 locations across multiple brands, including Dave's Hot Chicken, after walking away from his career to pursue entrepreneurship. He has successfully picked five winning brands, adopting a private-equity style approach to scaling his businesses.

*By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2025-09-12. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/hes-building-a-daves-hot-chicken-611).*

## Story

Interested in buying a franchise?

For multi-unit franchisees looking to sell their locations:

Kal walked away from a Wall Street career to chase his dream of entrepreneurship — and went 5-for-5 picking winning brands. From butcher shops and pizzerias to Orangetheory, European Wax Center, Marco’s Pizza, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Popup Bagels, he’s scaled to over 100 locations with a private-equity style approach. We dig into how he evaluates franchise opportunities, why diversification matters, how he handles scale and capital raises, and what it really takes to build brands that print cash.

If you want to learn how the best operators think about brand selection, growth, and exits — this is the playbook.

Follow Kal:

Personal LinkedIn:

MPZ Holdings:

Timestamps (YouTube/Spotify Chapters):

0:00 – From Wall Street to entrepreneurship

3:00 – Buying butcher shops & early lessons

7:30 – The bet on Orangetheory

13:00 – Scaling European Wax Center to 50+ locations

19:00 – Surviving COVID & raising capital

24:00 – Why Marco’s Pizza became the anchor brand

31:00 – Entering Dave’s Hot Chicken at the perfect time

38:00 – Site selection, unit economics & the secret to growth

44:00 – The rise of Popup Bagels and reinventing a category

50:00 – Diversification vs. going deep in one brand

52:00 – Kal’s daily routine & what’s next

## Entities

- QSR (sector)
- franchise expansion (topic)
- private equity (topic)
- multi-unit franchisees (topic)
- Marco's Pizza (company)
- Dave's Hot Chicken (company)
- Orangetheory (company)
- European Wax Center (company)
- Empires Weekly (publication)
- Patrick Buckley (person)
- PopUp Bagels (company)
- brand selection (topic)

---
Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/hes-building-a-daves-hot-chicken-611). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/e25edb86-23cc-4f98-bb39-7349ada99461).