If founders, chefs and other creators are the beating heart of the restaurant industry, then franchisees are the veins that deliver their ideas to all corners of the globe. Franchising is critical to the industry’s success, allowing brands to quickly scale their big ideas using other people’s capital. And whether it’s a restaurant owner with one or two franchised restaurants or a seasoned veteran whose influence in the industry is well-known, franchisees – with all their individual attributes, styles and personalities – have a huge impact on the success of a business.

In this week’s edition of the Franchisee Spotlight, we spoke with Lelin Kandel, who immigrated to the United States from Nepal. He initially started his hospitality career as the first General Manager of Pokeworks and gradually rose through the ranks. Kandel is now becoming a multi-unit franchisee in partnership with current franchisee Rong Cong as well as entrepreneurs Nijjwol Lamsal and Roshan Gauchan.

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We spoke with Kandel about his entrepreneurial journey, why he wanted to become a franchisee, and his long-term goals.

Climbing the ladder

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I am originally from Nepal. I moved to the United States in 2008 for school. I graduated in 2015 and knew that being in the restaurant industry was something I always wanted to do. So when this opportunity came up in 2015 (to work for Pokeworks), I moved from Boston to New York, started management training and worked there until 2020. I worked my way up from GM to manager regional, to regional franchise manager, up. to senior operations manager, where I worked with the founders to open restaurants, train franchisees, and then oversee both franchised and corporate-owned stores to ensure they were up to standard and profitable.

Finding Pokeworks

The founders were some of the first people I met when I came to the United States. In 2008, during the holidays, we met through mutual friends. I knew they were opening a new restaurant in New York, which is not too far from Boston. So I thought I’d give it a try.

Putting in the hard work

It was a lot of hard work initially, especially when a Food Insider video went viral (of Pokeworks) and suddenly there were a lot of inquiries for new restaurants. Being able to adapt to long hours and making the transition from a corporate store to franchise stores and building that system, I definitely put in the hours with the founders. A restaurant is 24/7, it’s not Monday through Friday. Even after the store is closed, you have to be there if needed. It’s a combination of putting in the hours, being creative, listening to your customers and staff as well as the founders and all stakeholders. You just have to be able to adapt to all these needs.

Why become a franchisee?

I’ve always been in love with the concept. I’m a fan of healthy food with a more premium feel. It is also not a corporate style of work environment; it’s more like a family. We are very close. Plus, the market trend I’m seeing for poke, of people trying to eat healthy and slow, tells me there’s a lot of room for growth and profit margin if done right… It’s not something you just go out to you eat once or twice a month. There are so many options, you can go three or four times a week… Being with the company from the beginning, it was all about the culture and the vision they had that I was a fan of.

Meeting with his business partners

(My business partners) are also from Nepal, so we have known each other for many years. Rong was actually one of our first franchisees when we expanded to Boston and I trained him, so I knew he was the right partner for me. …I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant in Boston. Boston is very close to my heart. With our combined years, we have nearly 20 years of Pokeworks experience.

Franchise plans

We’re opening seven locations over the next four years in Boston. We just signed our first lease. I think we’re definitely on track to open two in 2025. There’s potential in the market to open more than seven in Boston. So we’re not going to stop, but we want to be very careful about how we want to expand our growth there. We want to make sure that store locations are chosen carefully and. before moving on to the next projects, we want to make sure that the existing stores are working as best as we want them to.

Long-term goals

The suburbs around Boston have a lot of potential for Pokeworks. We’re probably looking to grow outside of Boston as well, but ultimately we want to open 10-12 in the area. We think the people of Boston prefer healthy food, having all these universities with young people around, like Boston University, Harvard and MIT.

Contact Joanna at (email protected)