Workstream

We’re proud to announce that Workstream is now an official preferred vendor for Scooter's Coffee ☕, supporting their 900+ locations nationwide! Why Workstream? Scooter’s was looking for one end-to-end solution to simplify hiring, onboarding, scheduling, payroll, and compliance. Workstream was chosen for our: 📲 Mobile-first, AI-powered tools built for hourly teams 🏆 World class support 7 days/week, maintaining a 96.9% CSAT score 💡 Proven results — 46 of the top 50 food & beverage brands already trust Workstream For franchisees, this means less time juggling systems and more time growing teams and serving guests. We’re excited to partner with Scooter’s Coffee as they continue their incredible growth story — and we can’t wait to fuel the future together. #Workstream #ScootersCoffee #FranchiseGrowth #HourlyHiring #Payroll

Starbucks built an empire on coffee. HTeaO is doing it with sweet tea. This Texas chain is turning sweet tea into a national obsession, and the numbers prove it. Born in Amarillo in 2009, the brand started with a simple bet: sweet tea could be treated with the same craft and care as specialty coffee. They didn't just serve tea. They engineered it. How? Here's the breakdown: 🫖 Proprietary reverse osmosis water system at every location 🫖 26 natural flavors (Sweet Mango Fresco, Coconut, Peach Ginger) 🫖 Infused tea leaves, not syrups 🫖 Pure cane sugar + natural fruit only 🫖 Drive-thru focused for speed and convenience Their growth metrics are absolutely staggering: → 63 to 128 stores in 18 months → 150+ locations across 14 states → Forecasted 500 stores by 2026 → 54% sales growth, 47% unit growth While every food entrepreneur chased the next coffee or the next smoothie fad, HTeaO looked at what was already there and asked, "what if we did this better?" The lesson? You don't need to invent a category. Sometimes you just need to perfect one. Sweet tea was always there. HTeaO just made it matter.

A company on a mission to provide hourly business owners with powerful HR solutions + the most trusted cloud infrastructure in the world = a match made in heaven. We’re proud to be an official Restaurant Partner with Amazon Web Services (AWS)! See how we’re helping operators hire faster, onboard easier, and scale smarter in this video from AWS. 🚀

A salad company just hit unicorn status. $200 million raised. Nearly $1 billion valuation. 100+ locations. If you haven't heard about this fast-casual that's changing the game for healthy dining, here's your quick breakdown: Just Salad was launched in NYC in 2006, when founder Nick Kenner had a simple idea: what if healthy food could be fast, sustainable, and convenient - all without compromising on quality? Now, nearly 19 years later, Kenner’s vision is redefining the healthy dining experience. Here's how Just Salad is rewriting the rules: 🥗 From-scratch dressings, daily-prepped produce 🥗 Reusable bowl program that customers actually use 🥗 AI-powered customization for their Build-Your-Own-Bowls 🥗 Carbon labeling so you know your impact 🥗 Drive-thru locations (first in Livingston, NJ) With locations in 7 states and an expansion strategy that’s both rapid and intentional, Just Salad is growing faster than most. Recently, Wellington Management led their $200M raise, fueling their next phase of growth. And it isn't just the food. Customers aren't just buying healthy meals. They're buying into a purpose: sustainability over convenience, health over habit. In an industry obsessed with who can sell at the lowest price, Just Salad took a different route: premium ingredients, sustainable practices, and tech innovation. They're proving that purpose isn't just good PR. It's a profitable strategy.

A few weeks ago, Crumbl announced they’re expanding into beverages, starting with a new line of cookies & cream milk, chocolate milk, and whole milk, available in select stores. It’s a bold move from a brand known for reinventing the cookie experience. Now, they’re thinking beyond the cookie and meeting guests where the demand is growing. In the QSR space, we’re seeing more and more operators expand their offerings to meet new guest expectations. Whether it’s adding beverages, rethinking digital ordering, or improving scheduling and staffing, this industry keeps moving forward. Excited to watch this evolve.

Swig is quietly becoming the Starbucks of dirty soda. Started in Utah. No dining room. No food. Just soda, customized a thousand ways, served through a window. Here's a quick background about Swig: It launched in 2010 when Nicole Tanner opened the first location in St. George, Utah. She had one idea: soda, but make it ✨extra✨. Mix-ins, flavor shots, cream, lime wedges, full-blown soda customization. It hit hard. The model is brilliantly simple: 🥤 Menu is soda-based: Dr. Pepper, Big Al, Raspberry Dream 🥤 Add-ins like coconut cream, lime, purées, and pebble ice 🥤 Mainly drive-thru only, built for speed, not sitting around Swig is estimated to make approximately $214.6 million per year. They’ve now expanded to 113+ locations across 15 states, landed franchise deals, and are backed by Savory Fund (same group behind Via 313 and R&R BBQ). And the fanbase? It’s intense. We’re talking daily visits, customized drink names, influencer-level loyalty. A soda drive-thru sounds small. But this is a category-building brand, and it’s moving fast. Watch out for this one.

If Chipotle and a Mumbai food truck had a baby, it’d be Curry Up Now. This is fast-casual Indian food, but not like you’ve seen it. If you’re curious: Curry Up Now started as a single food truck in San Francisco in 2009, launched by husband-wife duo Akash and Rana Kapoor with one bold idea: take vibrant flavors of Indian street food and repackage them in formats Americans already love: burritos, tacos, bowls, and loaded fries. And it worked. It’s not fusion for fusion’s sake, it’s reinterpretation that keeps the integrity of Indian spices while making it easy and fun for the American mainstream to enjoy. They’ve got menus like: 🌯 Tikka Masala Burritos 🫓 “Naughty Naan” (naan flatbread pizza) 🍟 Indian Poutine with masala fries + curry gravy 🥣 Deconstructed Samosas as a bowl 🍱 Thali platters next to street tacos What started as one truck is now a fast-casual franchise with around 18 locations and growing. The brand’s system-wide sales have climbed to between $28 million in 2022 and approximately $35 million as of mid‑2025. Curry Up Now is turning Indian street food into a fast-casual powerhouse, and it’s just getting started.

McDonald's broke their sacred 10:30 AM breakfast rule and unlocked massive growth For decades, breakfast ended at 10:30 AM. No exceptions. Breakfast is for mornings, period. But customers had other ideas. Social media was flooded with petitions and late-night Egg McMuffin cravings. The demand was obvious, but McDonald's stuck to their operational constraints for awhile. In 2015, they finally listened and broke their own rule: all-day breakfast. The results were immediate: - 5.7% sales surge in month one - Highest same-store growth in nearly four years - Decades of customer frustration eliminated This is how McDonald's removed a barrier that blocked customer satisfaction for years. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Sometimes your biggest growth opportunities are hiding behind your own self-imposed rules. When customer demand consistently pushes against your boundaries, it might be time to redesign the boundaries, not ignore the demand.

By 2023, Chili’s was completely off Gen Z’s radar. Most hadn’t even heard of it, and decades of declining visits were hitting hard. Instead of spending big on a new product or a new campaign like others do, Chili's went down a different path. At first, this looked like a risky move. The Triple Dipper, a 2000s-era fan favorite, hadn’t been on menus for years. Would Gen Z even care? But then the numbers started rolling in: 200M+ TikTok views, 31% sales growth in three months, 70% year-over-year growth, and nearly 20% higher in-store traffic. The reason it worked? Nostalgia + novelty. A dish people loved was reintroduced in the language of today: TikTok, shareable moments, and online buzz. For marketers, this means you don’t always have to reinvent. Sometimes the smartest play is to revive what already resonates, and let culture give it new life. You may not know it yet, but the past can be one of the most powerful levers for growth in the present.

In-N-Out pays nearly double the industry average. While most chains see labor as a cost to cut… In-N-Out treats it as an investment. The result? $6 million in revenue per store, twice what McDonald’s makes. And a line out the door, every day. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Most restaurants slash labor costs to protect margins. But that leads to: 150%+ turnover Poor service No consistency The Snyders saw it differently from day one. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: They built a radically people-first system: Starting pay: $20–23/hr Real benefits: health insurance, PTO, 401(k) Career path: Managers earn $180k+, and every one started on the line 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁? 20% annual turnover (vs 150% industry avg) A team of trained, motivated pros A culture customers can feel at every location 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Your team isn’t a cost center. It’s your advantage. Pay them like it. Grow with them. What would happen if you stopped underpaying your greatest asset?