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X'Sweetgreen is Not a Tech Company': The Company's CEO on How He's Adapting to the Pandemic
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.

Jonathan Neman, the 35-year-old co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, wants to make one thing clear.
"Sweetgreen is not a tech company," he says. "If you want to make that the headline, you can."
With a lofty $1.6 billion valuation, a sleek headquarters in Culver City down the street from Apple and Amazon, and talk with Kara Swisher about becoming a "food platform," one could be forgiven for thinking Neman has aspirations that go way beyond serving salads, bowls and now plates in 108 stores. These days everyone wants to be a tech company, even if they are just renting office space or selling stationary bikes. Neman certainly has lofty goals – wanting to expand to what he says is "well over" 1,000 locations. But he says he is trying to grow Sweetgreen in the mold of Starbucks, not Snapchat.
"We see ourselves as building the Starbucks of real food," Neman said. "We're actually not even valued like a tech company. If you look at the valuation it's much more like a high-growth food company. We leverage technology to build a better experience and make smarter decisions. And I think it is an accelerant to how we can grow and scale and build our model. However, at the core of what we do, we are a consumer brand."
Sweetgreen's origin story is decidedly techie. Neman hatched the concept with classmates Nicholas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru in a dorm room during their senior year at Georgetown University. Three months after graduation, they opened their first location in Washington D.C. in 2007. In 2016, they relocated to Los Angeles after opening their 39th location.
Last year, Sweetgreen reported $300 million in revenue and $3 million per store, well above Chipotle or Starbucks, which generated $2.2 and $945,270 per location, respectively.
The company would not disclose its numbers for this year but in an April blog post Neman and his co-founders described revenue being "dramatically affected" by the coronavirus. That month, Sweetgreen laid off about 10% of workers at its headquarters and furloughed nearly 2,000 store employees after deciding to return a $10 million PPP loan.
"As soon as we found out that they had run out of money, we decided to give it back, which we think was the right thing to do," Neman said.
Now 75% of the furloughed workers have been brought back and Sweetgreen has reopened all but 11 of locations. All dining rooms in California remain closed though some locations with outdoor seating can accommodate diners. Headquarters is officially open, though it is mostly empty as the company is not requiring anyone to come in for the foreseeable future. Despite some permitting delays because of COVID, Sweetgreen is planning to open 20 new locations this year and considerably more next year. And in late April, it introduced its first new major menu category since adding bowls four years ago – nine different plates, ranging from Hot Honey Chicken to Shroomy Asada, designed to increase dinnertime sales. On Wednesday, Sweetgreen will hold its first-ever $5 Greens Day where it will offer select bowls and salads for well under half the normal price.
Sweetgreen introduced its first new major menu category since adding bowls four years ago – nine different plates, ranging from Hot Honey Chicken to Shroomy Asada.
dot.LA spoke to Neman about how the company is adapting to the COVID era, why he ended an exclusive partnership with UberEats, and when Sweetgreen might IPO.
A lot of your business has been centered around offices. How are you adjusting since people aren't coming into offices?
To your point, we have a very high penetration in some urban areas and those are the ones that have been more severely impacted. Our restaurants that are more suburban-based are actually doing really well. Many of them have fully recovered to pre-COVID levels through just delivery and pickup. So really the impacts we're seeing are primarily only from the true demographic shifts rather than from changing consumer behaviors.
Jonathan Neman hatched the concept of with classmates Nicholas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru in a dorm room during their senior year at Georgetown University.
Does COVID change where you anticipate opening stores in the next few years?
Yeah, a little bit. We were already on a path of expanding beyond our current markets. This year, we have already opened in Denver and Miami and we're opening in Austin. And so we already penetrated a lot of the larger cities, and we're on our way to going into other markets that are more suburban. If you look at the makeup of the United States it's much more suburban than urban. So there was a lot more suburban growth coming, but I think this has accelerated a lot of that as our suburban model has done better. But we have not given up on the cities. We're going to continue to open in New York. We are very confident people will come back to work, although it may be different and we'll be well positioned for it.
Now that we're in a recession do you worry that people will see your menus and think of it as an indulgence to spend $14 on a salad?
Our prices are different by market. Definitely very top of mind for us is affordability. We like to balance all stakeholders when we think about price. So you have to think about how we pay our team members and our farmers.
This is why food is really complicated. I could charge less, and then pay my team members less and pay my farmers less and then I'd get heat for that as well. But having said that, I do think that Sweetgreen will do more over time to address different consumers and price sensitivity. Over time we will think about different menu items and formats and ways to make it more affordable. One way is when you think about our plates, $12 for lunch may be expensive but $12 for dinner is actually pretty affordable. Another way we do this is through things like Outpost [a central drop off shelf in buildings where Sweetgreen couriers drop off orders.] You're not paying the delivery service fee that you would for a lot of other places.
You had signed an exclusive deal with Uber Eats last year and then canceled it. What was the decision behind that?
We have a great relationship with Uber but I think we've realized over time that different consumers use different platforms and they're more incremental to each other than they are cannibalistic. Especially in a post-COVID world where delivery will be a bigger piece of the pie, we wanted to get in front of as many consumers as possible. We also are very focused on our native delivery which is which is by far our biggest delivery channel,
I'm curious how you think about delivery. Because for a lot of restaurants they're sacrificing huge margins...
Correct. Not only are they sacrificing huge margins, but they don't have a direct relationship with their consumers. We have a direct relationship where we can tell you when new menu items come out and we can personalize the experience to you.
So why not just have it all be native?
I think there's certain customers where the marketplace becomes a great place of discovery, it becomes, you know, almost like a customer acquisition marketing tool for us a way to amplify our message and reach more people.
Have you ever thought about doing brunch or breakfast?
We definitely have. Sweetgreen is an ethos, which is connecting people to real foods. Eventually we'd like to take that ethos and expand way beyond salad, bowls and plates, whether it be brunch or otherwise. The vision is to go much, much broader.
That's a perfect segue to my last question. What's your current thinking on a possible IPO?
There's no current thinking right now. We're just very focused on expanding the brand, delivering a great product to consumers and strengthening the business. Sure, one day, but not not anytime soon.
- sweetgreen - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen Reopens Stores and Brings Back Workers - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen Lays Off 10% of Staff at Its L.A. Headquarters - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen Files for an IPO - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen CEO Deletes Vaccine Hot Take After Backlash - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen's IPO Filing Reveals Recent Revenue Gains - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen Offers New Salad Discount Subscription - dot.LA ›
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
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Tech Is Upsetting the Table at This Year's Upfronts
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Are the upfronts turning into TV execs’ personal “Black Mirror'' episode?
The annual feeding frenzy—in which C-suite television executives auction off highly-viewed (and costly) advertising time slots— is changing as new streaming behemoths shake up the market. The event often gives viewers and industry watchers insight on what shows are poised to become cultural phenomena, but that too seems to be disrupted at this year’s proceedings.
It’s been two years since major networks and television players convened in New York for a week, and it’s clear that technology is going to change a lot about how the process works.
Streaming, a popular way to view content, doesn’t follow traditional ad slots the way broadcast does. Nonetheless, last year ad-enabled streaming services–including Peacock and Hulu–slurped up a large slice of ad dollars. But this year may prove a turning point, as services like HBOMax and Disney Plus begin tinkering with ad-laced streaming, and Netflix promises to quickly roll out an ad-supported subscription tier. Large networks like ABC and NBC will have to start competing with streaming for the favor of companies and their ad money.
Another thing changing the market: the ads themselves. With more data at their fingertips, streaming services can offer far more personalized and targeted services than their network counterparts. Netflix and Disney collect mountains of data that can gauge what ads are most relevant to their viewers. That’s a huge plus for advertisers, even if streaming services like Disney restrict what kind of ads it will show.
Legacy TV companies have already taken note. NBCUniversal took great pains at Monday’s pitch meeting to offer their Peacock streaming service as an example of a dual streaming-and-broadcast model and lambasted streaming services that once showed disdain for advertisers and ad breaks.
“At those companies, advertising could seem like an afterthought… or even worse, a new idea for a revenue stream, but not here,” NBCUniversal’s ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “At NBCUniversal, advertising has always been an asset for our business… designed to enhance your business.”
Adding to the instability, Nielsen ratings, which has been the universal standard for measuring viewership, is being challenged. The company’s ratings were once the gold standard used, in part, to determine the time slots and networks that had the most viewers (and which became the most coveted by advertisers).
Last year, Variety reported major networks complained that the company was likely undercounting viewership due to pandemic-related restrictions, like being unable to go into peoples’ homes and making sure the data-collecting technology was properly working. In its wake, software-enabled startups have popped up to better gather data remotely.
Washington-based iSpot.tv received a $325 million investment from Goldman Sachs after acquiring similar companies including El Segundo-based Ace Metrix and Temecula-based DRMetrix. Pasadena-based tvScientific raised $20 million in April to glean adtech data from smart tvs. Edward Norton’s adtech firm EDO raised $80 million in April and booked a deal with Discovery ahead of the upfronts.
Nielsen also lost its accreditation with the Media Ratings Council, and without a standard ratings guide for the industry, navigating the upfronts will be a far more uncertain and nebulous process for both networks and advertisers.
With tens of billions of dollars on the line, advertisers are demanding more than just well-produced shows networks and streaming services alike—sophisticated ad placements is the name of the game.
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- As the Streaming Wars Heat Up, Why Are Consumers Losing Out ... ›
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Atlas Obscura, L.A. Tourism Dept. Partner on Explorer’s Guide to LA
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
The Los Angeles Tourism Department partnered with curiosities and travel website Atlas Obscura for a first of its kind digital interactive map of L.A. County’s top attractions, just in time for the summer influx of tourists.
Visitors to L.A. – or locals looking for a fun reason to leave their apartments – can scroll the interactive map on a browser or download the app.
Image courtesy of the L.A. Tourism Dept.
The “Discover Los Angeles” map can be broken down by neighborhood or by a series of “guides,” which all feature as part of the larger promotional campaign roll-out known as the Explorer’s Guide to L.A
Atlas Obscura and the Tourism Department also published a hardcover edition of the Explorer’s Guide, along with several other speciality breakout guides, including the Meeting Planners Guide, artistic Visitor’s Map and, for those with more expensive tastes, the L.A. Luxury Guide to the city’s pricier pursuits. The paper versions of the guides have QR codes for travelers to scan and take information with them on the go.
This year’s collaboration with Atlas Obscura gives the Tourism Department’s previous guide a much-needed update – it was previously a whopping 136-page PDF document created in 2020.
The Explorer’s Guide includes a mix of places you’d expect to see on the map, like Griffith Park and the museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. It also has some unlikely spots sourced from Atlas Obscura’s network of local explorers who recommended their favorite places to visit: the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Venice Canals or the Watts Towers, a stunning, monumental public art exhibit of mosaic steel towers that was built by one Italian immigrant over a 34-year period.
30 neighborhoods are discussed in the guide, from classic tourist destinations like Hollywood and beach cities like Santa Monica and Venice to lesser-known but still exciting enclaves like Leimert Park, Frogtown and Little Ethiopia. There’s also several maps for specific interests – taqueria lovers will find new spots to nosh with the taco map, and there’s also a map of the Downtown Arts District, spots to stargaze and sports venues.
“For myself and the writers and editors on this project, many of them L.A. natives, getting to write and curate the official visitors guide to the city of L.A. was an absolute dream,” Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras said in a statement. “We hope that these guides will inspire all the curious travelers arriving in L.A., to try new things, as well as providing new adventures for longtime L.A. residents. There is really no limit to what L.A. has to offer.”
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Tech Groups Push Back Against Texas’ Controversial New Social Media Law
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Two groups representing social media giants are trying to block a Texas law protecting users’ political social media content.
NetChoice—whose members include the Culver City-based video-sharing app TikTok—and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, the Washington Post reported Friday. HB 20, which went into effect Wednesday, allows residents who believe they were unfairly censored to sue social media companies with over 50 million U.S. users. Tech companies would also have to integrate a system for users to oppose potential content removal.
The law, which was initially signed by Governor Greg Abbott in September, was previously barred by a federal district judge but was lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. NetChoice and CCIA claim the law violates the First Amendment and seek to vacate it by filing the application with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
“[The law] strips private online businesses of their speech rights, forbids them from making constitutionally protected editorial decisions, and forces them to publish and promote objectionable content,” NetChoice counsel Chris Marchese said in a statement.
The two lobbying groups also represent Facebook, Google and Twitter. The latter is undergoing its own censorship conundrum, as Elon Musk has made it a central talking point in his planned takeover.
Tech companies and policymakers have long clashed on social media censorship—a similar law was blocked in Florida last year, though Governor Ron DeSantis still hopes it will help in his fight against Disney. In the wake of the 2021 insurrection in the capital, Democratic lawmakers urged social media companies to change their platforms to prevent fringe political beliefs from gaining traction.
Conservative social media accounts like Libs of TikTok have still managed to gain large followings, and a number of right-wing platforms have grown from the belief that such sentiments lead to censorship.
Having citizens enforce new laws seems to be Texas’ latest political strategy. A 2021 state law allows anyone to sue clinics and doctors who help people get an abortion, allowing the state to restrict behavior while dodging responsibility.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.