{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Challenger Chats","title":"Challenger Chats Episode #11 with Bobby Hashemi","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3902,"description":"Bobby Hashemi: Coffee Republic, Pizza Union, and the case for going slow\n\nChallenger Chats is back with a vengeance🔥! Trust us when we say, this one is a cracker (or more like a spicy diavolo)... as we sit down with Bobby Hashemi, founder of Pizza Union, one of London's most-loved pizza brands 🍕 and co-founder of Coffee Republic ☕, the brand that helped kickstart the UK's coffee shop revolution in the 90s..\nFrom leaving Lehman Brothers to co-founding and subsequently floating Coffee Republic, then crossing over to private equity, Bobby has been there, done that, and has got the t-shirt. Now, twelve years into building Pizza Union, his philosophy has shifted - he's convinced that slowness, not speed, is the real founder superpower.\nBobby shares his journey - the highs, the hard-won lessons, and why doing it in a more considered way the second time round means doing it better.\nGuest: Bobby Hashemi, Founder, Pizza Union \nHost: Adam Spencer, Tamweel Capital\n🔑 Key takeaways\n🐢 Slow is a superpower. Bobby's single biggest lesson from doing this twice: the ability to say no, and to grow only as fast as the business needs to, beats chasing scale for its own sake.\n🍕 Simplicity is the moat. Pizza Union sells 15 pizzas and three salads — full stop. That focus is what lets it undercut the market on price without cutting quality.\n🧑‍💼 Founders aren't always managers. Bobby's candid on this: the skills that build a business aren't the same skills that run one, and that's fine.\n📍 Site selection is the real risk. Not financing, not marketing — it's picking the right four walls. Bobby's rule of thumb: could the site plausibly do 10x its annual rent in sales?\n🤖 AI is a thought partner, not (yet) an operator. Useful for a lean, founder-led business like his; he's happy to let bigger players test kiosks and AI ordering first.\n❤️ Success looks different at 55 than at 35. Financial milestones gave way to a simpler measure: health, honesty, and doing work he loves.\n⏱️ Chapter...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/-S1IxKWiF-B9ciPlN0CQZzpbKIC6mF0rBytqlCaVk9k/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE0NzMxLzE2MDEw/MzE1MzYtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}