How the Raising Cane's founder, Todd Graves, turned a lousy college grade into a billion-dollar fast-food business

Graves is the wealthiest resident in Louisiana and the 107th richest person in the United States, Forbes reported in 2024.

He refers to himself as "CEO, Fry Cook, and Cashier of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers."

Graves and AJ Kumaran, the chain's chief operating officer, have shared the co-CEO title since 2018.

Graves, who graduated from the University of Georgia, and his friend Craig Silvey, an LSU student, submitted a business plan to Silvey's business professor. It was based on Graves' idea of opening a fast-food restaurant that only sold fried chicken fingers.

The professor said the niche food concept wouldn't work.

Graves and Silvey also tried to secure bank loans to finance the small business idea, but the financial institutions also turned them down.

Graves didn't give up on his dream, however.

Graves said he saw the flavor potential of opening a restaurant that exclusively served fried boneless tenderloin meat.

"It's the filet mignon of the chicken," he told the Orange County Register in 2016.

Determined to launch the business, he moved to Los Angeles in 1994 to work as a boilermaker at an oil refinery in Southern California, according to Raising Cane's website. He worked 90-hour weeks to raise the seed money to open his first Raising Cane's.

Graves moved to Alaska in 1995. He camped on the tundra for a month before landing a job as a fisherman. He worked 20-hour days fishing for sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska.

After securing a SBA loan, he finally had enough funding to launch his business.

Graves originally planned to call the restaurant "Sockeye's," a nod to his time in Alaska. Upon a friend's advice, he decided to name the restaurant after his beloved yellow Labrador retriever, Cane. The dog was a frequent visitor to the construction site where he worked.

Graves and Silvey opened the first Raising Cane's restaurant on August 28, 1996, inside a renovated building at the entrance of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. However, due to issues with the cash registers, the restaurant didn't officially open for business until after 9 p.m.

Graves took to the streets to wave in customers, and the restaurant stayed open until 3:30 a.m.

Silvey left the company in 1999, CNBC reported.

When Graves was growing his business, he borrowed money from private investors at a high interest rate of 15%, he told the "How I Built This" podcast in 2022, per CNBC.

Graves said he used the money he'd borrowed from private investors to try to secure more funding from local banks. The banks considered the borrowed money as if it were his own, which allowed him to get even bigger loans to fund the expansion of Raising Cane's.

But this strategy was risky.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and forced 21 of his 28 stores in the Baton Rouge area to close. After the hurricane, the company recovered quickly and did not default on its loans. Still, Graves said he wouldn't recommend taking on so much risk.

"I tell entrepreneurs, 'Don't do that,' because my dream almost just went away," Graves told the "Trading Secrets" podcast in May 2024. "It was stupid."

The menu at Raising Cane's is simple: fried chicken tenders, Texas Toast, coleslaw, crinkle-cut fries, sodas, fresh-squeezed lemonade, and fresh-brewed iced tea.

The chain's Cane's Sauce is considered legendary. The chain said on X in 2015 that the recipe is only known by store general managers, though recipes online suggest it's made from ingredients including mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

The chain's never-frozen chicken tenders are cooked to order.

Raising Cane's turned 28 years old this year and is one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the US, opening more than 50 restaurants a year since 2018, when it had 400 locations.

In May, USA Today reported that the chain planned to open more than 90 new locations in 2024, bringing the total number of Raising Cane's restaurants to nearly 900 by the end of the year.

Restaurant Business reported that Raising Cane's average unit volume reached $6.2 million in 2024, which is more than double the quick-service industry average, citing data from S&P Global Ratings.

Graves and co-CEO Kumaran gave up their salaries when many dining rooms were shut down during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

While other restaurant chains had to lay off workers, Raising Cane's was able to keep all 25,000 employees employed.

In the 10-episode series, Graves helped struggling independent restaurant owners get back on their feet after dining rooms reopened during the pandemic.

"The pandemic has been devastating to the restaurant industry as a whole, but thankfully, due to our drive-thrus at Raising Cane's, we were fortunate to maintain our business," Graves said in a statement.

"As a result, it became so important to me to pay it forward to those in need by offering financial and professional support," he continued. "Our hope is that by providing a platform to highlight and amplify their awareness, these restaurants will be able to bounce back stronger than before."

The company said the stores will open over the next three years in Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs. The first restaurant opened in Times Square in late June 2023.

"There's a lot of clout that comes with a flagship in Times Square," Graves told Business Insider at the Raising Cane's flagship store's opening. "People who don't even know the concept might say, 'Those chicken fingers look pretty good.' There's something special about it."