"Chronic Tacos is unique, customized, fast-casual Mexican food," is how Michael Mohammed, the CEO of Chronic Tacos describes his food to KFI's Jane Wells. Mohammad says that he and his brothers were looking for a good investment and when they discovered the taco shop in Vancouver, they felt like they saw a good opportunity.
"Randy, who is one of the founders, called me up, and said, 'Hey, I want to meet with you, I want to talk about you guys getting involved, and about five months later, we owned the company," said Mohammed.
The first thing Mohammed wanted to do with the brand is refocus and hone in on the authenticity that people found so endearing about the restaurant.
"We had to put our money with our mouth was," Mohammed says. "We stopped selling franchises right away, for three years. I truly believe we needed to set the foundation. We needed to build the model, we needed to build corporate restaurants. We needed to, not completely rebrand, but hone in on the brand, because it was a little bit all over the place. So we wanted to hone in on what really was important to us, which was the authenticity of the brand, which we call the 'taco life.'
"I think it took time to prove ourselves, that we are, we do what we say," said Mohammed. "I think people have to get used to you."
And people did. The company based out of Orange County, California now has more than 60 locations across the U.S.
"You can get stuck in challenges, like, hearing an unsatisfied customer, and you take that personally," Mohammad says, "But, when you're at the gym and somebody's like 'Oh Chronic Tacos, I love your food!' It's like, 'ohhh' this is great.'"
Mohammed says the best business advice he got was from his father who told him that you always have to believe in yourself and believe in what your gut is telling you. "Never in my life have I worked hard, believed in what I was doing, and not work out, so we try and live like that."