Advice Line with Jonathan Neman of Sweetgreen

Intro

Jonathan Neman joins Guy Raz on the Advice Line to help three early-stage founders navigate growth, scaling, and product decisions. Sweetgreen's co-founder shares lessons from building a $3 billion restaurant chain while trying to preserve the human touch, then fields questions from callers wrestling with their own expansion dilemmas.

Caller 1: Dini McCullough Amozurrutia & Dini's Divine Pies

Dini McCullough Amozurrutia launched Dini's Divine Pies from her home in Maryland during the pandemic, turning a lime pie for a yoga instructor into a thriving small-batch bakery. Three years later she is fielding interest from a major national chain and wondering whether to stay small or embrace scale. Neman's advice is pointed: bigger is not always better. He reminds her that Sweetgreen could have remained a small, high-margin business owned entirely by its founders, but the founders chose to build for mass market. He challenges her to ask what will actually make her happy—whether that is a regional presence or a reputation as the best pie in the country.

Caller 2: Matt Pinstein & Underground Mushroom Co.

Matt Pinstein runs Underground Mushroom Co. out of a converted lobster-pound basement in Gloucester, selling out everything he grows. Neman praises his focus on quality and refusal to chase volume at the expense of his brand. He suggests building the farmer-as-personality story through TikTok and chef partnerships, and urges Pinstein to treat scaling as a series of deliberate choices rather than an automatic next step.

Caller 3: Joey Cornell & Dak Dak Korean Wings

Joey Cornell built Dak Dak Korean Wings on a DoorDash savings fund and a small SBA loan. He now debates whether to add menu items or stay focused on wings and fries. Neman counsels patience, pointing out that Wingstop added chicken sandwiches only after supply-chain economics made it necessary. He urges Cornell to test limited-time offerings and let direct customer conversations drive every new-item decision.

Final Thought

Neman also previews Sweetgreen's Infinite Kitchen, an automated assembly line that can build 500 bowls an hour while reducing store-level labor by 30 to 50 percent. The machine represents the tension at the heart of every growing business: using technology to improve consistency without killing the soul of the experience. By the end, the message is clear—scale changes everything, but only if you let it.