Nic Jammet
Founder and Co-CEO of Sweetgreen
“Our success at Sweetgreen is not just opening restaurants and continuing to serve more people food. It's about elevating the conversation around food and making sure that everyone feels connected to why we're doing this—it really comes back to our purpose.”
Summary
In this episode of Leadership Matters, host Alan Fleischmann sits down with Nick Jamet to talk about his role in creating Sweetgreen and what makes the business successful. They touch on leadership’s responsibility to build a meaningful culture both for customers and team members and communicating effectively. They also explore people’s relationship with food.
As a successful leader, Jamet shares how pushing boundaries requires perseverance and adaptability when you don’t have all the answers and when there is no roadmap. He talks about how to “fail forward” as you push yourself to experiment, even if it means getting things wrong sometimes, as long as you quickly observe and learn.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
Guest Bio
Nicolas Jammet is a founder and Co-CEO of Sweetgreen, the much-loved, organic, farm-to-table salad shops originating in Washington, DC. As Co-CEO, Nicolas oversees the strategy, growth and operations for Sweetgreen’s 25 locations.
Born and raised in New York City, Nicolas grew up in a family of restaurateurs. He graduated from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in 2007, where he met his business partners, Jonathan Neman and Nathaniel Ru. The three entrepreneurs founded Sweetgreen during their senior year, opening their first location in Georgetown in August 2007, just three months out of college.
The idea was born from their belief that the community would benefit from a healthy, delicious, and eco-friendly dining option. They passionately believed it was possible to create “food that fits”—fits your values, your budget, your tastes, your imagination, and your community.
Since then, Jammet has lead Sweetgreen to become the market leader in local, organic, healthy fast food, with over 600 employees and 25 stores throughout Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Virginia, and Maryland, with more planned for the future.
Nicolas and his partners have been selected as Forbes magazine’s “30 under 30.
