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Clover time trials

By on 2 April, 2013 in Customers, Financing, Operations, Team

USA Today screen shot

Bethy is an employee on the MIT truck. She’s studying Gastronomy at BU. A while back Ayr told Bethy that I held the company record for fastest chickpea fritter sandwich. There’s a Youtube video of me that David, a customer shot, making a 19-second chickpea fritter. Chris (restaurants) told me I look like a vulture feeding on a dead animal, but I don’t mind.

Bethy immediately told Ayr, “I will beat Lucia’s record.” Over thousands and thousands of sandwiches, she’s been inching closer and closer to that 19-second record. And so I’ve been a little scared to work alongside her. She even claims that not only can she make a chickpea faster than me, but that she’ll also be happy to write my name in tahini on top.

This morning Clover was featured in the Money Section of USA Today. They picked 5 small businesses in the US who are on the verge of becoming big. I’m pretty sure we were the only restaurant, and the only Boston-area business. A big focus of the article was our emphasis on speed. And they got Bethy making a chickpea fritter. If you watch the video you might be able to time it, but do me a favor, don’t let me know, OK?

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Former job post

By on 28 April, 2012 in Financing, Team

John (FIN) here. This is my first post. The picture is midtown Manhattan, circa December 2004. I spent the first few years of my career as an investment banking analyst in the office building behind the the trees.

My team provided financing for large investment firms to buy companies. I happened to be working during some of the boom years for merger and acquisition activity, so we all kept really busy. Everyone was using Blackberries and wearing pink dress shirts. I spent my time building financial models and drafting Powerpoint presentations. I really enjoyed the camaraderie, and I learned a ton. But it wasn’t all roses Continue Reading →

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HUB: Clouds

By on 25 October, 2011 in Brand, Construction, Design, Financing, Team

I still haven’t figured out whether this is a good idea or not. The build is being taken care of by Delta. The furniture by Fabrizio. But the lights, nobody wanted them. Fabrizio only works with wood. I got a quote from the guy in Brooklyn who built them last time for HSQ. But I didn’t love the job last time.

So we ended up with a quote from the Brooklyn folks for $25,000. Too much. I got a quote from our electrician on the job, $24,000. Uhgg. So I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much. That meant making these myself, with some help from friends.

Here you can see Brett (GOV), Megan (HR), John Lee (FIN), Ashton (resupply). We had a good time. Thought we got the job done in one night. Then I found out we had the wrong number made, so we had another late night building session. Then we found the anchors in the ceiling weren’t in the right place. So now, I’ve found myself spending several days, spread out, getting these lights together.

I’m still not sure if it was a good idea, but I love looking at them and knowing I built those. I think they’re coming together really well. And perhaps most important, we have about $12,000 left over to spend on active walls, something I’m really excited about developing at the restaurant.

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John Lee’s knee

By on 1 February, 2011 in Financing, Operations, Team

This is John Lee’s knee. I’m sure Ayr will write a real introduction to John soon (with an actual picture). He came on board this fall to help out with our finances. We’re running him through all of Clover’s day-to-day operations.

Last week he was working resupply. We’re talking packing up the resupply van, driving it out to the trucks during one of the coldest weeks we’ve had yet, working the lunch rush, driving it back, etc. John is an awesome help in figuring out how we can run this stuff more efficiently.

Too bad he wore the wrong shoes. He slipped climbing into the back of the resupply van and banged his shin up really bad. Sorry, John, your knee looks pretty awful. At least now you know to wear shoes with better traction.

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F@#$ Bank of America

By on 19 October, 2010 in Financing, Operations

OK, I try to keep this a family program, but the best I can do here is the symbols.

We’re closing all of our Bank of America accounts immediately. I’m just at the end of my patience. And the barriers are huge, it’s going to take me 2 days to move everything. But it’s worth it, because they’re driving me crazy. Recent issues:

(1) Took 4 months, 5 phone calls, 8 emails, and 2 visits to get checks and deposit slips for new accounts
(2) They made me open new accounts for new tax ID number (OK so far), then told me to keep the old accounts open for 6 months, then continued to charge me for all services on the old account (including payroll we were no longer using) and will not reverse the charges 6 months later when I finally noticed they were stealing from me
(3) They put any check I write from Cambridge Trust on an arbitrary 10 day hold, despite the fact that the money clears in less than 24 hours!

There’s more, but this stuff gets boring quickly, doesn’t it?

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Largest check I’ve ever signed

By on 4 October, 2010 in Construction, Financing

Wow. That’s a big number. Lot of construction going on right now. Means there are some big checks I have to write. Yikes. Look at that! Uhgg.

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Pipe enclosure

By on 3 October, 2010 in Construction, Design, Environmental, Financing

So you know those pipes I keep posting about? A portion of those pipes, along the wall, are about to disappear. That’s the studding all ready to receive the sheetrock.

This whole area led to a bit of friction between me and the landlord. you can barely see it in this picture, but after the mezzanine was cut there were about 6 inches of concrete left protruding from the wall. I had no warning of this, and was rudely surprised when I stopped at the site one day.

Originally we were going to leave these pipes exposed along this wall. We didn’t mind that at all, the whole transparency thing. But the concrete coming out of the wall was difficult and expensive to cut back flush, so we had to do something. Easiest option was to encase all of the pipes.

We ended up with a rebate from the landlord that covers some, butnot all of the cost of covering these. At least we get to move forward, and the restaurant isn’t going to be compromised.

(another photo after the break)

Continue Reading →

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City of Boston + Clover

By on 22 April, 2010 in Financing

I’ve been sneaking a few Truck #2 posts in here lately. Soon that truck will have its own Blog. For now they will show up here.

I met this week with the folks over at the City of Boston business development office. They are doing a ton to help us with the new truck. Not least of which is providing us with a loan. That’s right, the City of Boston is loaning us money to grow, $25,000. Of course we’re excited to pay it back with interest, but just as excited to report new jobs we’ll be creating, and most importantly, the number of Bostonians we’ll be feeding.

We suspect a few Boston residents have snuck over Cambridge side to eat with us, but soon Clover will be in Boston proper. We can’t wait. There’s still a ton to get ready (truck, staff, site location), but we’re working hard on it and things are moving forward.

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Small business loans

By on 2 February, 2010 in Financing

IMG_2498

Those stories on the radio and in the papers have new meaning. I have some news from the front lines of small businesses looking for loans.

Bank of America told me flatly absolutely no lending to any business less than 2 years old. Of course this seems ridiculous. I mean, any new company, any entrepreneur trying to hire folks and build out of this mess we’re in is going to be running a company less than 2 years old. To be clear, this is regardless of the loan type, amount, credit history of applicant, level of collateral. It just doesn’t matter, they will not consider you for any type of loan. I’m not up to date on the latest, but I think I recall Bank of America took more than a few dollars out of my pocket with that whole bail-out thing. And if I recall I think we’re offering them near zero Fed rates right now…

Cambridge Trust on the other hand is an entirely different story. First and most important they are eager to see us succeed and grow and very happy to sit down and talk about how our relationship might develop. Second, Cambridge Trust is actually willing to lend us money. We’re going to use it to help outfit the new store. It’s going to be a modest loan assuming we can work out all of the details, we’ll offer collateral, etc. But they actually want to help. Night and day.

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Clover the restaurant

By on 1 October, 2009 in Construction, Financing, History, Operations, Training

Some of you may have seen me wandering around Davis, Harvard, Kenmore, Coolidge in recent weeks. We’ve been scoping real estate for our restaurant. We’re funded now (raised money the other week), and one of the next steps involves prototyping Clover in a restaurant setting. We’re really excited and are looking to building new Clover communities.

We made an offer on a spot in Coolidge Corner two weeks ago, the spot that was Qdoba. The owners want to go with a chain (even though I think our offer was better). Oh well. Working on a few other possible locations right now.

Don’t worry, the truck isn’t going anywhere.

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