Insider Interviews: Craig Batiste Co-Founder and CEO of Mr. Fries Man

The wildly-popular and quickly-growing brand, Mr. Fries Man, is one of the best franchise success stories in recent years. Mr. Fries Man’s unlikely trajectory is fascinating from a growth-strategy standpoint, representing a sign-of-the-times, seismic shift in industry marketing. A husband and wife duo, selling French fries from the small kitchen of their two-bedroom home in Gardena, California, amassed a social media following sufficient to balloon their business into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The pair then managed to sign twenty-one franchisees in less than seven months (many during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic).

We had to learn the secrets behind Mr. Fries Man’s impressive success, so we sat down with Craig Batiste, Mr. Fries Man’s Co-Founder and CEO to find out.

Peter: The birth of the Mr. Fries Man concept is well-documented (including by the Los Angeles Times) and an incredible story, but we’d love to hear from your perspective, what the most important moments were for you in developing the Mr. Fries Man brand? 

Craig Batiste: Man, every day to tell you the truth, every day was important for us. You get better every day. You build the right process, you find the right products, the right food, ingredients, meats to use.

How long do you think that took you to do, or are you still learning and adjusting today?

We’re still doing it today, we’re working on a few more things!! But, about a year-and-a-half ago, we built the process to a point where Dorothy and I could step away a bit and let the business run itself. That allowed us to focus on expanding the business and franchising.

Can you tell us about some of the high-points for the Mr. Fries Man brand?

When we started franchising, that was one of the highest points, that’s when we saw that we had something good. We just started getting a lot of people asking, looking to either partner up or own their own Mr. Fries Man. We knew that if we partnered with someone, we’d be doing all the work to expand further and further, but with franchising, we’d give people the opportunity to build their own business.  

Can you tell us about some of the low-points or challenges you faced?

Honestly, we didn’t have too many low points, just learning how to do everything on our own was tough. Doing our own research on moving into the brick-and-mortar location and figuring out how to get off the ground was a lot. But as time went on we learned more and more and things got easier.

Other than that, just asking ourselves in the beginning, “is this going to work? Selling fries out the backyard. . . .” was tough.

How important was Instagram in your brand development and early stages?

It’s been very important, that’s how people know who we are! Yup, Instagram played a big part.

When did you start to focus on Instagram and why?

At that time, back in 2015 and 2016, it was like the thing to do. Everyone was selling food on Instagram in LA, that’s what they’d do. It’s free marketing!! Man, it worked great for us, it was FRYTASTIC!

Can you tell us a little about shifting from an Instagram-based model with no physical location to a brick-and-mortar store? 

Still to this day it doesn’t feel real. It’s a feeling I just can’t explain. We started selling fries in our backyard, now we’re selling franchise businesses. No loans, no investors, just our hard work we put into it, every day. Man, I can’t describe the feeling!

Was that change easy to make?

Moving to a location with commercial kitchen equipment in it made it much easier. Just more space, more room to work, compared to a two bedroom apartment kitchen. Bigger fryers, a walk in freezer, you know, just what you need. 

You’ve brought on an impressive number of franchisees over the past few months, how many locations are in the process of opening? And to what do you attribute the incredible growth?

Right now, there are twenty-four in the process of opening.

And that’s us doing what we do!! Our support system, customers, without them, without social media, we wouldn’t have any growth. Without that, no one would know who we are, or what we’re doing.

What’s in store for Mr. Fries Man for the rest of 2021? And what’s in store for Mr. Fries Man in 2022?

Same program, get bigger and get better, everyday.

If someone wants to join the system and offer some of that Lemon Garlic Shrimp & Snow Crab goodness, how can they get in touch with you?

Contact me through Intagram, and all of our info is up. there on Instagram! 

Thank you Craig.

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