We knew it was time to open another store. We found a location in Salt Lake City, which we were able to open for the price of a car. And here’s my advice on that: Get open, get cash flow. People are so worried about everything being perfect from the get-go but start selling food as fast as you can. Be perfect later. 

At around three stores, things were humming along. We were making money, and we started to pour capital into our existing restaurants to make sure everything was consistent across the system. Life was good. We were content.

But if you don’t grow, you start losing key people. We knew our growth was just the beginning. We opened our next store in Lehi, and that first month we did $100k in sales. We were blown away.

People started noticing our success, and we got all kinds of attention. Investors tried to throw millions at us, but it never felt right. They wanted to give us a bunch of cash, make us do all the work, and then call us once a month and say, “How are we doing?” Yeah … no, thank you. 

We didn’t just need money. We needed guidance and an investment in our systems. 

That’s when we met Andrew and Shauna Smith. They are the founders of Savory Fund, which invests in emerging restaurant concepts ready to grow. They don’t just throw money at you; they throw partnership at you. Over the last six years, they’ve listened, learned and led our expansion with both smarts and heart. They’ve supported us with HR, accounting, marketing, development and strategies—all while valuing our vision for the brand and letting us have give and take, push and pull. They didn’t want us founders to get out of the way. They valued our experience and heritage and helped us leverage it so we could grow the right way. 

Since the partnership, we have started refreshing the brand and our stores. Our 2.0 design includes artwork of the islands, surfboards that have touched Hawaiian waters, and shed roofing to pay homage to the garages we used to eat in while growing up. 

We’re not here for the tourist trap. We don’t do pineapples, hula skirts or tiki torches. And by the way, we’ve never eaten “Hawaiian haystacks” in our life. Our goal has always been to give people a taste of the real Hawai’i. Everything is mo’ bettah when it’s authentic. 

Hitting 50 stores in 2023

Our six stores became 12—then 20, 37, 42. We’ll hit 50 this year, the year Mo’ Bettahs turns 15 years old. We’ve got nearly 160,000 people in our loyalty program. We have an incredible executive team led by CEO Rob Ertmann. We’ve expanded all throughout Utah and to Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. 

Within the next year, we’ll be in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. If you had told me 10 years ago that I could have a location in Kansas, I would have told you that you were nuts. And now the question is, “Where aren’t we going to go?” 

In May 2023, we announced our partnership with Tony Finau. One of the best golfers in the world is now an investor in Mo’ Bettahs and a brand ambassador for us, all because he loves our food. That was a surreal moment for us Polynesian boys. 

People ask us for advice all the time, and I always tell them not to cheat the process. Don’t try to hack it. Don’t skip steps. They think there’s a way of getting past the mom-and-pop stage without saving money, but there’s no way around it. You gotta put your heart and soul into it. It’s easy to waste someone else’s money, but when you have skin in the game, you put in the work. 

Wherever we go, it’s an honor to “spread da aloha.” Mo’ Bettahs has become so much more than a business idea on a list. It’s sharing our culture and giving customers a taste of Hawai’i as the locals know it. And the best part? We’re still the same braddahs. In fact, we still cook the same food at home as we do in the restaurant. We wear our slippahs and our shorts. I live in the same house I did 10 years ago. It’s a simple life, and it’s a good one—but I can buy a cooler Harley now.