How Thompson Hospitality Built An Empire Over Three Decades In Business

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1:44And he took a strategy while he was working at Marriott. We'll dive into his journey as part of our Forbes BLK 25 Businesses to Watch list. you're in the Enterprise Zone from Reston, Virginia.

2:01Hello, everyone. It's Jabari Young, senior writer at Forbes, you're in the Enterprise Zone from Reston, Virginia. And I have a special guest, a new lister, Forbes Be OK Lister. His name is Warren Thompson, and he is the founder and CEO of Thompson Hospitality, a group that's based here in Reston, Virginia, founded in 1992, and he does it all, providing food services, janitorial services, all of it in the hospitality. Mr. Thompson, thank you so much for the time. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, we're here now in Reston, Virginia, right? And before we talk all of that business, I'm looking around your office, and I see this pretty little girl.

2:38Oh, and I'm assuming that's your daughter. It is. And so I have to ask you, how's the family off time? Family's great. Nice. Family's great. It adds a whole new meaning to life. Yeah. To have a wife and a lovely daughter who's five and a half. I'm a late bloomer, but she was well worth the wait. Yeah, yeah. I'm a girl dad, too, so I know how it feels. Mine's just turned 13, so if you want any tips, just let me know. All right. I'll just send her your way. You can hug out. But what's the most exciting thing when you're able to have a girl? You come home, and it's like work doesn't even matter. Right.

3:11You just open the door, and it's just. You know, she's the only person in the world who's ever called me daddy. Yeah.

3:16Warren Thompson: And when I hear that from her, it just puts things in perspective. No matter how challenging the day may have been, it's all worth it. I also now enjoy spending time with her talking about business and watching her grow. I said to her the other day, do you understand what it means to have stock in a company? She says, that means I own a piece of it. And that coming from a five-year-old says she's on her way. Who were you around when I was a kid? I wouldn't know that advice, you know? But is she, you know, excited? Is she, like, comprehending? Absolutely. We started watching Mad Money. Then we graduated the Shark Tank.

3:54And now she loves The Price is Right. Wow. Wow. Sounds like somebody should be taking over the business one day. Nice. We love going to our restaurants. And she does table visits. She'll go around and ask customers how they think the food is and how the experience is. And I know I'm kind of setting it up because no one's going to be mean to her. but she enjoys it and I love to watch that. I heard one interview, she says she goes around and says, my daddy owns a restaurant right. Right, right. You know, it has to make you feel good, right? It does. Knowing you were a kid at one point at a Shoney's, wanted to own a restaurant and here your daughter is walking around your restaurant, so thrilled that her dad is one of them.

4:31Absolutely. This all started when I was 12 years old, sitting in a Shoney's one night in the rural part of Virginia, Portsmouth, Virginia, segregated place at the time. And I said to my parents, I'd love to own one of these one day. And they said, you can do whatever you want if you're willing to work hard. And from that point

4:51Warren Thompson: on, that's what I did. Well, I know you're in a stock market. In fact, you had a quote on a podcast, I believe it was last year. You said, if I could do it better than a banker, why am I paying to bank you? So you're really into the stock market, man. What's going on? How do you build your portfolio? Like what's Warren Thompson like as an investor? You know, I spend time looking at where are we headed? You know, I was at an event last night and it was a technology seminar on where are we headed in terms of satellites and that technology. And then going back and looking at what companies will end up dominating that space.

5:31Warren Thompson: There's so many of them out there today, but if you can pick the one that's going to be there five years, ten years from now and dominating, it's a good stock to buy. So I try to learn as much as I can prior to the investment and then do my homework thereafter to make sure that I'm in a good position. So after the Disney Plus goes off with your daughter, are you up in the middle of the night studying 10K reports? No, no. I usually do it during the course of the day when I get a minute, you know, rather than going outside and taking a break, I try to hit the market and see what's happening, what's happening with the stocks, understanding the P-E ratios, looking at, is it a good stock today to buy?

6:10Warren Thompson: Is it reasonably priced? How does it compare to the market? And at the end of the day, I tend to invest in companies that I see as being progressive. Early on, I started investing in companies that I was doing business with, because to me, they were at the forefront. 25 years ago, companies who truly valued diversity, equity, and inclusion were good investments. I started to invest in those companies, and they paid off today. Yeah. So you said the word progressive. Are you, as Warren Thompson, a progressive investor, conservative, aggressive? I would say progressive. Progressive. Absolutely. Progressive.

6:48Warren Thompson: Absolutely. At this point in life and thinking about where my daughter will be 75 years from now, we've got a long horizon when you look at it from her perspective, not from mine necessarily. No, listen, your daughter is headed that way, right? She'll be in elementary school. She's in kindergarten now. Then you go. And so one day she's going to be in the third grade class. Dad, I want you to come in and tell my fellow classmates what you do for a living, right? You walk into this group of third graders and they say, what do you do, Mr. Thompson? What is hospitality? What do you tell these group of third graders about your job and your business?

7:24Warren Thompson: My business is basically trying to provide a place where people can have fun. That people can leave their cares and worries at the door and come in and have a great meal and a great experience and fellowship. And leave there feeling like it was worth it. Okay. Our mission is to provide that happy place, one customer, one associate, one client at a time. And when we can do that, our job is done. Our mission is accomplished. That's what I would say to the young person. I would say, I'm trying to provide a place where people can enjoy themselves, whether it's a restaurant or whether it's even in a school environment.

8:06Warren Thompson: We service people in hospitals. if you're in the hospital, the best part of your day may be a meal and a nurse or a person coming in and bringing you that meal and that interaction with someone. There are a lot of people in the hospitals who are lonely, don't have family there with them. So it's incumbent upon us to try to provide that connection that may be missing at that point in time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, I'm glad you said it and go deeper into the business again. And, you know, one of the 25 businesses that we said, hey, watch out for this business, right? Because of the legacy, you've been in business for more than 30 years, right?

8:44Continuing to expand, right? And have more than 5 ,000 people that's on your payroll. Take me aside of Thompson Hospitality. Again, for that individual who may not know what you do. Right. Because in researching you and finally finding you, understanding that, you know, the hospitality business, I believe you said in one interview, it's about 250 pathways you can go. Correct. As far as building your career, building a business with them, right? Because a lot of times we may not know everything it includes. And you're talking about it. You mentioned hospitals. Well, there's food in the hospital.

9:14How does that food get served? The janitorial services, right? You obviously own some restaurants, hotels as well. But it's part of your, you know, big ride business line. Take me aside of hospitality businesses. You sell that back in 1992.

9:27Warren Thompson: Started in 92, but the business goes back even further. I often tell the story of my great-great-grandfather, Cleve Thompson, who was born a slave, spent 30 years as a slave. When he got his freedom and became an individual that could go out and do what it was that he wanted to do, he started a blacksmith business. But he also had land that he raised vegetables and farming, and he had animals and livestock. And so he had a diverse portfolio of business. Growing up with my parents, we had the same thing. They were in education, but we raised vegetables, we had hogs, we did everything on the side to make money, to make ends meet.

10:08Warren Thompson: The same has been the case with my company. I knew that we could not or should not be in just one line of business. So we started as a restaurant company, then we got into contract food service, and subsequently into hotels. I basically followed the Marriott footprint. Marriott started with a root beer stand. It got into contract food service and airlines, and then it moved into hotels. Having that diversified portfolio has allowed us to weather the storms over time. Can you imagine just being in the restaurant business going into COVID? it, we would have been in deep trouble. But having our contract side of the business and providing food service in hospitals and on college campuses and in venues like that allowed us to continue to grow even through that.

10:58Warren Thompson: Back in 2008, when the recession hit then, same thing. If we had been in one particular line of business, we would have been in trouble. So a diverse portfolio is crucial. And it allows us to offer opportunities for our people to move from one particular division to another without having to leave our company. What are those three lines that you count as your lines of revenue rise, hospital, hospital, hospital? As you mentioned, our three lines of business, basically, one is our joint venture business with Compass. And that's about 230 accounts or clients that we serve. from corporate dining to large hospital centers to large university centers to K-12 school districts, convention centers.

11:43Warren Thompson: So just about anywhere where food service or janitorial services are needed, we will play in that niche or that arena. We'd operate those businesses jointly. Thompson will take its share of the risk, put in our share of management oversight, and we're actively involved in operating the contract. Prime example, we pride ourselves on having our retail group, which is our second group of business. We have about 70 restaurants. So in the D.C. market, for example, we recently were awarded George Mason University. So we provide food service on that campus jointly with Compass Group. But we're also allowing those students now to use their meal cards in our restaurants in and around the university.

12:29Warren Thompson: So we have six restaurants very close to the entrances of the university. Those students can go in, punch their meal card in the restaurant. That's something that's very, very unique in our industry, and I believe gives us a competitive advantage to be able to do that. Our third group is our solo business, or accounts that we run separately from Compass, primarily historical black colleges and universities. So we operate that niche. We're one of the largest players in that segment. But the same thing, I'm now putting restaurants very close to those campuses so that students can, when they need to or want to go off campus, can do that, but not have to come out of pocket with additional funding, which in most cases may not have.

13:17Warren Thompson: Our students in those schools are in many cases dependent upon financial aid. I know when I went to school, I was on financial aid. I had no money to go off campus. So if there had been a restaurant that I could have used my meal card, I would have been a lot happier with the program. So taking a page from that and understanding that, I wanted to make sure we addressed that need. Been in business for more than 30 years. Coming up on 34 years. 34 years. In October. October 2nd. And hopefully there's no blizzard that's going to interrupt things, right? We'll get to that in a minute. But, you know, I believe back in 2019, you said on the podcast that, you know, back then you guys were around the$850 million in revenue, right?

14:01And our goal was to get to a billion. Here we are in 2026. How close are you to that goal?

14:05Warren Thompson: We're very close there. We should have that as our budget for next year. No doubt about that. So it's been, you know, COVID positioned a bit of a challenge. All restaurants took a step back during COVID. But coming out of COVID, we've been able to do some acquisitions, which has propelled the growth in that segment of our business. Going into COVID, restaurants represented about 5 % of our revenue. Today, we're approaching 20 % of our revenue coming through the retail division. What do you see from the rest of our business today? I mean, listen, depending on which reports you read, some of them are struggling, some of them are not.

14:45You know, alcohol sales are down, the very thing that used to bring people together on a Friday. But, you know, you hear some of the Gen Z maybe headed back in that direction, you know, kind of bring it back. Because, you know, it was a good time when you got to work on a Friday and you was able to share some drinks with your colleagues. But in 2026, what are you seeing from the restaurant business? You know, the restaurant business is changing so quickly because the consumer is changing. As you mentioned, the taste buds are changing. affected by weight reduction drugs and things like that.

15:18Warren Thompson: So if 11 % of the population today is on some type of weight program, and that's going to move to 25 % over the next three years, restaurants have to be able to address that with smaller portion sizes, lighter entrees, healthier options. Because if not, you're fighting a lot of headwind with a reduction of the standard or the typical consumer. There is no typical consumer any longer. It's changing so much. I think the other aspect of the industry, our business has always been survival of the fittest. Those restaurants that are consistent quality and service, those restaurants that are strong in terms of their offerings, have survived.

16:05That today is not, it's no longer just that.

16:08Warren Thompson: It's size, its ability to purchase, its ability to become more efficient in areas to offset costs that are increasing beyond one's control. So, for example, right now we're all experiencing the impact of tariffs. We're experiencing the impact of rising fuel costs, the delivery cost of the product coming in the back door. If you're a mom-and-pop or a one-unit operator, it's often awfully difficult to fight those pressures, those things that are happening. Without passing the cost onto the customer. Right. But if you have size and scale, you have a better chance of offsetting some of that in a negotiation with vendors and suppliers and so forth.

16:55Warren Thompson: You're able to capitalize on being self-insured to a certain point to offset some of the cost of rising insurance. We look at maintenance now because of our concentration of restaurants now. We're able to have our own in-house maintenance team as opposed to outsourcing that as we were three years ago. So we're doing all of those kind of things to try to offset and mitigate some of the cost pressures coming through the business. How have you been able to maintain your employee base without any layoffs? I think we track turnover daily. To me, turnover is a greater threat to the business than food waste.

17:38Warren Thompson: And let me explain that. Yes, we want to control food costs. It's very important. But when I lose an associate, it has more impact on me than if someone throws too much away at night from product overproduction. So we assign a cost every time we lose a person, whether it's a manager or an hourly associate. And we charge the P &L that cost so that the managers out there understand that when we lose an associate, there is a cost to the business, the impact of that. And it's put that in a different perspective and has become a part of our culture. So when we look at our P &L, we often look at cost of labor, the cost of food, insurance, paper, electric, all of those things.

18:29But I also want them to say, I didn't take care of that associate, and it cost me$5 ,000 this month to replace that person.

18:38Warren Thompson: I think it's just the right way to look at that because typically in our business, people are very financial driven. Our managers, they're in this business, they like running a P &L. Well, if running a P &L means you also have to pay close attention to taking care of your associate, and when you don't, there's a cost associated with that. Have you found this help as far as not having managers clean people off? We compare ourselves to the industry in every single category, and we by far are doing better than the industry standard, whether it's in our contract side of the business or our retail restaurant side of the business.

19:18Warren Thompson: I can tell you today I've lost 31 managers in our restaurant division. That's one a week. That's too many, in my opinion. But that's down from the same time last year of 55 managers. So we're showing improvement. I'll never be happy until it's zero, and that probably won't ever happen. Yeah. Well, you think of a good point because when you lose associate, you lose a manager, So you're also losing that brain. That brain drain is happening. People that are familiar with your operation, now you've got to go replace that training. And if the person is not picking it up, then you've got to leave that person and then go get another person.

19:54And those associates have ties to our customers. And when we lose that associate, we lose customers.

20:00Warren Thompson: When we lose customer, we lose revenue. We lose revenue, we lose profit. Would you start a restaurant today like from scratch? Or would you go out and maybe try to hit the copy and paste formula within getting a franchise? We're growing our business both organically and through acquisition. So organically creating restaurants, creating brands. And with AI today, we can create a restaurant a lot faster than what we used to be able to. We created a brand and we launched within two weeks from soup to nuts. And everything from the menu to the design of the logo to the decor of the restaurant to the layout, to the uniform, all of those hundred and some odd variables that it takes to create a brand or create a restaurant using AI, that can get done pretty quickly today.

20:48Warren Thompson: So we are creating restaurants and creating brands. We are working on a chicken brand right now, a quick casual chicken brand. We haven't been able to acquire one, so we have to develop it. But just last week, we closed on a very high-end French restaurant that we acquired, and it's become now part of our family. It is one of the top 100 restaurants in the country. It's considered one of the most romantic restaurants in the country, so hopefully I'll get some points at home with that. In the D.C. area? In the D.C. area. What's the name of it? It's called Chez Francois. Oh, wow. It's about five minutes from my home, so I'll be a regular customer there.

21:27Warren Thompson: But it brings such a halo effect to our company. It is the premier restaurant in terms of consistent quality and service. It's been in business 72 years. Chef Jacques, who is the owner, inherited from his father, so it's a generational restaurant. They're now joining our team. He spoke with all of our managers yesterday at a retreat that we had here, and it was just an amazing thing to see someone with his experience and knowledge talk to our younger managers in that setting about quality and how do you create something different in the industry and how do you how do you create a restaurant that can last for 72 years and thrive what's it like being a ceo of a hospitality company you know being a ceo is a is a lonely job in most cases you have no one to talk to about the boss you can't go to the coffee machine and talk about the boss because you're that person.

22:26I said yesterday in our session with all of our managers, I said, if there's anyone who's been in the same job for the last 33, 34 years and not gotten a promotion, raise your hand. There were only two people in the room, Chef Jock who owns Chef Francois and me. I said, Jock, we aren't doing so well. We've been stuck in the same job. But But no, in all seriousness, being a CEO of a hospitality company is a lot of fun.

22:53Warren Thompson: I love what I do every day. I can't wait to get out of bed. I look at my numbers most mornings before I even roll out of bed to see what the restaurants and what the business did yesterday. But once I put that and digest that information, then I get here in the office. It's all about the people. So I look at the numbers at home because when I get to the office, I want to be able to look the people in the eye and talk to them and understand what it is that they need to be successful. Then I can go out into the restaurants at night. Sometimes I'll go out and, you know, just randomly pick one of our restaurants to go to dinner or visit.

23:30You play undercover balls sometimes? Well, usually they recognize me, but it's fun sometimes when they don't. Yeah. Yeah. So the larger we become, the more difficult it is, or the easier it is sometimes to get in unnoticed. But I rarely ever call a restaurant and make a reservation. I try to just show up and see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Any big positive surprise of being CEO? I mean, something you didn't expect. I've been in this position so long now. I think that when I dreamed of doing this and took a page from my great-great-grandfather's book,

24:07Warren Thompson: I don't think I ever could have imagined the company being the size that it is today. I felt we would be successful. I felt that we would be a multi-restaurant company. But I didn't realize at that time, at 12 or even at 32, that we'd have so many dimensions and so many facets. When people say to me, where will the company be three years from now, five years from now? My answer is, I don't know. But I do know it'll be bigger and more complex. And if you're interested in joining a complex organization that's growing at a rapid rate, that wants to be the dominant player in the market, then this is the company for you.

24:51Warren Thompson: Any big negative surprise? Maybe something that, again, you hate still today as CEO. You know, I think that as CEO, sometimes you have to make the tough calls. You have to, if a piece of business isn't working, you have to get out of it. That's the toughest part of my job. If I have to close a restaurant or move on, it's the thing that keeps me up at night when I have to, when I make that call and then have to execute on it. But if you're not willing to make those hard calls, then you shouldn't sit in this position because making those hard calls will continue the organization to be able to thrive.

25:32What do you like as a leader? I talk to some leaders. They say, I'm hands-on. Some leaders are hands-off. But what is Warren Thompson like as a leader? I think I am hands-on. I'm a very – get involved in the details. I see. You wake up every night and look at the numbers. Sometimes I'm called Rain Man. Because I was born with not a photographic memory, I don't think, but I do remember numbers. When I see a piece, a number on a page, like if I look at the 70 restaurants from yesterday,

26:02Warren Thompson: I can tell you today what their sales were yesterday, what their labor cost was for most of the restaurants. So if I'm in a group with 30 managers and I can say, hey, Johnny, you ran an 18.2 % labor yesterday versus last year of 18.4. Great job. They look at me like, but I do get very involved in the details. Well, I see all of these books around your office, right? Is there one particular one that's really helped you evolve as a leader? I don't see good to great. That's my favorite business book. That is one of my favorites. Yeah, what's the one that's helped you maybe in this one as a leader?

26:42You know, I think it was Reginald Lewis who wrote, Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? That was a good book. And Reginald was an inspiration to me. You said no to him. Don't tell the story yet. And he and I share the commonality of Virginia State University.

27:00Warren Thompson: He was an alum of Virginia State. Both my parents were alums of Virginia State. He gave them the first million dollar gift. And we've been able to subsequently give two million dollars as gifts back to Virginia State. So there's that connection. But I used, and I never met him face to face. Talked on the phone, but I used to follow him. And I was in awe of his ability to maneuver through a very difficult time as an African-American business person. John Johnson, the same thing. I sat in a conference once that he spoke, and he called us all jailbirds. It was the Black MBA Association. and he said, look at you out there with your blue pinstripe suits on, sitting there, get out and do your own thing.

27:51Warren Thompson: And it was from that conference that I said, it's now time for me to do this. And we stepped out, I stepped out and we got it done. Yeah. Am I mistaken? After that conference, you took a piece of napkin and put the blue pins of Tarnton Hospitality on it. Right. Yeah. Right. I love that. I love it. Well, listen, it all started from somewhere, right? You know, you grew up in the Windsor, Virginia area. Yes. Your parents were educated. What was it like growing up in Windsor, Virginia? Growing up in the 60s in the segregated South, schools had integrated, but it was called freedom of choice. So the schools were still very much segregated.

28:26Warren Thompson: The good news is both my parents, my brother and I would all get in the same car every morning and go to school together. I was in first grade, my brother in third. Both my parents were teaching in the same school. We'd come home together at night. We would go to church together every Sunday. So the quality of family time was just amazing. My father was a math teacher, my mother was home economics. Some days after school I would go to my mother's class where she was teaching people how to cook or I'd go to my father's class and he would be teaching algebra, tutoring algebra. So I learned math at a pretty early age from my father and a love for food and appreciation for hospitality kind of for my mother.

29:11Warren Thompson: Windsor, Virginia was just a very, very small town. We had one traffic light. We had a Dairy Queen, and that was it. That was the fine dining restaurant. But I go back there now, and it hasn't changed a whole lot. But I'm really excited now because we're starting to put restaurants closer to my hometown. We had a family reunion last weekend, and a bus of people came up from the town, and they were like, when are you putting a restaurant in the town of Windsor? I said, well, I'm putting one in Suffolk. It's 12 miles away. You guys will go there. Suffolk people won't come to Windsor. But I can't wait to get that restaurant open.

29:52You know, we have one in Hampton now, a couple in Virginia Beach. So people from my hometown do go to those restaurants in support. But there's a sense of pride. They'll tell the manager, Warren's from Windsor. We're from Windsor. We came to support him. And that means, when I get those messages, it means a lot.

30:11Warren Thompson: Just yesterday, the governor sent me a text. She had gone to one of our restaurants in Virginia Beach with the state senator and took a picture and sent it to me. And I shared it with our management team. It was a very nice note complimenting. But it meant so much to me that I was able to do that. And the governor recognizes us as a Virginia-based business and, you know, felt the need to say she had a great experience there. Yeah. Flashback to your childhood. One of the things you said in previous interviews was that you felt even that freedom of choice, that segregation in the skies in a way helped you.

30:52Absolutely. Because it kept black Americans in your life, from your parents to your teachers to people at your church. And you felt that sense of the community, that village community. you know, that helped.

31:02Warren Thompson: I didn't feel the racism that existed because we were insulated. We were insulated by family, insulated by the church. I was encouraged speaking in church. I was encouraged that I could do anything that anyone else could do. And there was no one there telling me I couldn't. Now, when integration took place, there were teachers who then started to say, you know, you really aren't that smart. And I'm saying, okay, I'm number two in the class. What does that say about everybody? But, you know, that's what happened when integration took place. And I used it as a challenge. In fact, my mother would see that lady, that teacher in the supermarket long after I left there and started the company.

32:00And she once told my mother, I'm so happy I had a part in Warren's life. And my mother, of course, let her have it and said, if it had been up to you, he would have been bopping floors today.

32:11Warren Thompson: And, you know, so that's kind of the ramifications of growing up in a small town in the South in the 60s. I think I was fortunate enough that I got a really firm foundation and roots developed with the community, my parents, family, and the community. Then experienced racism in the 70s and in college. When I moved, went off to college, a lot of racism, but had enough smarts and so forth to figure out how to maneuver through that. My undergrad school had an unwritten policy. Only two African-Americans could graduate, probably over the course of 15 years, if you look at the roles there. Six entered in my class, two of us graduated.

33:03Warren Thompson: It was a very racist environment. But we, as black students, figured out how to manage through that, how to utilize that to our own advantage. Well, some of those same things that I learned doing that then played well as I moved into corporate America. The first day on the job, second day on the job in corporate America, I was called in and told that my career would not be the same as my white counterparts. And I said, why? And they didn't say white. I said, they said, because you're black. We just want you to know that not to expect the same type of progression as the two guys ahead of the day.

33:44Did that fuel you more? Absolutely. And my response was, my grandfather would not have had this opportunity. I'm going to make the best of it.

33:52Warren Thompson: Because I knew I would only be there. I told him I would give them seven years. I gave them nine. And Marriott was a great company overall. This was the society as it was at large at that time, going into the early 80s. If I say look at if I had been at IBM or some others I would have experienced the same things. I will say when I left Marriott and I got a 13 and a half million dollar loan from them to start the company that was a quite different Marriott nine years later from the Marriott when I started. They evolved as society evolved and I think they were ahead of society in many respects. I often say, who else would have given me$13.5 million?

34:42Maybe they just were so happy to get rid of me. It was a payoff to get out of there. You mentioned Marriott. I mean, again, you went to UVA, had to argue away into business, coming out of undergrad. And then you enter that fast-track program in Marriott, right? You said it's been seven years, which committed to seven, end up spending nine years there. But then afterwards, when they decided that they would not want to be a, you know, restaurant company anymore. They were going fully into hotels. They started the offload of their restaurants. You came in and bought about 40, converted them into Shoney's as well as Bob's Big Boys.

35:17Right. And, you know, suffered a little bit of turmoil, you know, there. But before that, before the Marriott experience, take me back to that 12-year-old warning in the restaurant. Right. Why Shoney's? Like, what was the deal about Shoney's? Was it the bacon that you were eating? What was it about Shoney's? You know, Shoney's was the one restaurant that at that time, in that part, it was considered a good experience. This was in the 60s. African-Americans in the South weren't welcome in just any restaurant. There were only a few restaurants that we could visit and get served. Shalini's was one of those.

35:54And sitting there, you know, where I grew up, people either became a minister, a teacher, worked in a meatpacking plant or the shipyard. And I knew I wasn't qualified to be a preacher, teacher. My parents were teachers. They weren't making the salaries that they should have been making.

36:13Warren Thompson: I think they were making 40 % less than their white counterparts. The African-American schools were paid, teachers were paid less. So I wasn't really happy about that and didn't see that as an opportunity. And so, you know, sitting there in Oshone's and watching customers coming in and having a good experience and going to the counter and paying their money. I said, this is a great way to make a living. You're providing fun for people. You're providing entertainment for people, a great atmosphere, and you're getting paid to do that. And so that just really is how this business got into my blood.

36:51Warren Thompson: Yeah. Right. And then again, go off to Marriott after you finish business school. What's the one thing you learned at Marriott that may have helped you turn into the businessman as you are today? You know, when I went to Marriott, I wanted to learn the business. So I started as an assistant manager learning the business. Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers. But more importantly, I wanted to learn how to manage and how to operate a family business. So I watched Bill Marriott and Dick Marriott as the two brothers running the company. Understood the roles that each played and as they brought other family members into the company.

37:30Warren Thompson: So that was important to me as a learning experience. I also learned the importance of a diversified portfolio of business. There was a time when Marriott had a significant cash issue going on. And if they had not had a diverse portfolio of business, the hotels weren't making money at the time. The restaurants were. the restaurants carry the business through that difficult time. And so I learned from that that you can't have all of your eggs in one basket. You have to have a diversified portfolio. You have to be able to depend. And that has bode well for us for the last 30, 34 years. Having different cash flows.

38:16Warren Thompson: Absolutely. Supporting one another. Absolutely. Yeah. COVID, if we had strictly been a restaurant company, we could have gotten wiped out by COVID. Absolutely. Yeah. Many did. Do you still call Mariana and say, thank you for securing a 13.5 million, right? I know they were only on the hook of exposure about five. Johnny's got in and financed a lot of it. But do you still, because that wasn't a bankable transaction and you wanted to buy something they were getting out of. You had to pay full price, but they lent you that money and secured the debt for you. Dick Marriott and I actually connected two and a half months ago after all these years.

38:53Warren Thompson: I went to his house. We sat down and talked for about a half an hour, and it was as though we had never lost connection. He remembered the summer project that I worked on. He remembered my career in the company. And I thanked him for giving me a shot, giving me a chance, providing the debt. And I said, but you remember I paid you every dime back, right? And we laughed about it. So I have a lot of respect for him. And I think he respects what I've been able to accomplish as a result of the foundation that I received there. So we have mutual respect. His family started a charity about 35 years ago to help underprivileged kids get into the industry.

39:40Warren Thompson: I'm going to get actively involved in that now and try to work with him on driving that. What was the feeling like being at Dick Marriott's house, knowing that you were the same individual that was fast-tracked? Because they only picked one person out of those programs back in the day to be in that fast-track, and you were it. And just the reflection of going to that group and saying, hey, I want to buy the D.C. area restaurant. So, the last restaurants they unloaded was our D.C. area. And here you are sitting in his house as your own, you have your own company. Right. Right? Was the feeling different?

40:16Like, could you have imagined that this would be 30-plus years later, the outcome? Could not have imagined that.

40:22Warren Thompson: It was a very good feeling, though, to sit there and look at him and understand the roads we both had traveled. Dick is in his probably mid-'80s now and still very, very sharp, very astute as to what's going on. We talked about the share price of Marriott. We talked about what's happening in Marriott structurally and so forth. We've talked about the good old days, some of the people we both worked with. And, you know, when I left there, the last position I had with Marriott was running the airport division on the East Coast. And I put the first national brands in airports, the first Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Burger King.

41:06Warren Thompson: People thought I was crazy back then. My boss at the time told me I was going to get fired. It would never work. It worked, and it really changed that industry and made Marriott the clear leader in the airport business. Airport concessions. Airport concessions. When they purchased Host, I was in the Host division then. So it was a successful partnership or relationship for Marriott and very successful for me as an individual who wanted to get my own company started. So, absolutely. You had a quote that said, get some experience in the industry first. Make mistakes on someone else's dime before you spend your last dollar on any particular venture.

41:51You're serious about that. I'm going and learning on somebody else's dime. Elaborate on that for young entrepreneurs nowadays who might be looking to start their own business. Why is it so essential that they learn it on someone else's dime first?

42:02Warren Thompson: You know, I talk to people all the time who want to jump into the restaurant business. And I say, well, what experience do you have in it? Well, I hate there. It is a very, very difficult business. The failure rate's probably 75 to 80 % over the course of time. And so when you're taking that kind of risk and moving into a business, you've got to know what you're doing. And even then, you still make mistakes. I have failed a lot along the way in this company, made mistakes on restaurants that I shouldn't have done or shouldn't have developed or shouldn't have done contracts that I shouldn't have signed.

42:41Warren Thompson: But my batting average has been better to the positive than to the negative. And the difference between that is the experience I came into this with. Okay. All things being equal, had I not had that experience to build upon, I would have made so many mistakes that I wouldn't be sitting here today, you wouldn't be interviewing me. You've been writing history. But so that's what I say, no matter what business, if you want to get into lending and investing, you know, get into, go work for that private equity firm, go work as a young person in a bank, understand the business, the industry before jumping in and doing it yourself.

43:27You know, there are very few people like a Bill Gates who can start something as a young person in the garage and turn it into Microsoft.

43:37Warren Thompson: Most successful entrepreneurs have garnered and gained experience with someone else before launching out on their own. Secret formula, almost. Yeah. You take me back to that time. Again, we mentioned how Reginald Lewis is one of your mentors. Right. And you read all his book, you know, why should all the white guys, why should, why the white guys should have all the fun? Why should all the white guys have the fun? But you also said no to him, right? Went to Reginald Lewis and wanted to, you know, get some equity from him. Right. And he says, I'll give you the money, 85 % of the company. And you said no.

44:11When you think about that experience today, I'm sure you may laugh, but it must feel good that at that point, you know, now I made the right decision. Because some people would have said, give me the money because they're trying to survive at that point. How critical of a role did that note play for you? It was, and just to clarify, it was actually before we started the company.

44:33Warren Thompson: So I was raising the initial capital to start the company. I had$100 ,000. I needed to raise$1.9 million. Marriott would then loan me the$13.5 million. So the$13.5 million wouldn't come in unless I raised$2 million of equity. And so he wanted 85 % for the$1.9 million. And I knew that was too much. And I didn't want to give up control. So someone who was in his shop who did the analysis called me up and said, hey, I can help you put this together and you don't have to give up control. He came in town. We hit it off. We put together a road show and we actually raised the money in about two weeks.

45:17Warren Thompson: And I only gave up 44 % of the company. I do believe in divine intervention. And that was an example where had I not called Reggie and Reggie made the offer that he did and gave it to one of the guys in this shop who happened to be named Thompson, who happened to be about the same age as me, and we had that connection. There were so many things that have happened like that along the way that facilitated me being here today. That was one of them. Another one, when I was getting into the contract business and trying to determine which contracts to go after, my father passed in 93, six months after I started the company.

46:03Warren Thompson: I had a dream, and in the dream, he told me to call his alma mater. I did so, got the president on the phone, which never happens. Was it being a classmate of your dad? I think it was a classmate of my father, and we ended up getting the contract. And that made a pivotal change in the company and allowed the company to diversify into that line of business. So I could go through a number of things like that that have happened over the course of time. But but I do believe that there that there is a God and God makes makes a way. You look at your career, Mr. Thompson, and you think about, you know, again, that 12 year old sitting in Shoney's restaurant and seeing the experience and all that, you know, kind of really motivated you as a kid then to starting your journey.

46:50Right. And helping your parents when they were selling produce and raising hogs, you know, to making extra money to arguing your way into business school, letting them know. I know we, you know, two years work experience is needed, but I had a business and kid. Right. Argonting your way to business school to, you know, being with Dick Marriott and Marriott family as part of their program to starting your own business back in 1992 to being interrupted in 93 because a blizzard hit. Right. Forcing your restaurants. You couldn't. You were delayed opening. That whole journey to losing$25 million in a deal, converting the rest of my life over, having to leverage the real estate to get out of that.

47:26Pete, 10 years it took you to get out of that. Getting out of the rest of my business, getting back into the rest of my business. Now, again, today with Thompson Hospitality thriving and, as you said, wanting to get bigger, wanting to expand. But as we say here today, you had to describe your career in one word. What would it be? Ever-changing. Ever-changing. Ever-changing. I could never have imagined 20 years ago that we would be sitting here today with the portfolio we have.

47:55Warren Thompson: I can only imagine what this company will look like 20 years from now. Whether I'm leading it or someone else, I believe this company is positioned for tremendous growth. But that growth is going to bring with it additional complexity. We're going to launch in the next six months a major catering business. we're putting it together now we're going to put the resources behind it we're going to invest heavily in it we want to be one of the dominant catering companies in this market we're not going to get into it just to be a small fish and so with that's going to come some more complexity different kind of business we do catering today we do it on college campuses and so forth but So I say all of that to say, you know, it's going to continue to grow and become more complex.

48:51Warren Thompson: Acquiring this restaurant, Chez Francois, is going to add a whole new complexity to our business, something we've never done. Our major mission there is just not to mess it up, not to go in and start changing, and we're not. I've got buy-in from everybody in the organization that we're keeping the culture the way it is. We're keeping the product the way it is. But I do believe we can expand it. I do believe it's a brand that I can take to another market and grow it there. So that's kind of the mission, and that's where we're headed. Ever-changing. Ever-changing, ever-changing, yeah. You always have those, again, reflection points in your career.

49:29What would you say Warren Thompson's biggest failure is? What did you learn? Personally, I should have committed more attention to having a family earlier. Don't tell me you're worn out by the five-year-old already. You know, every day I say, wow, could I have imagined what this would have been like to have a five-year-old 20 years ago? And I can come up with all the reasons I didn't, we didn't, I didn't have a family, didn't. And everything happens for a reason, and I'm very, very happy with my family situation in life now. But I think I probably would have been an even better husband and father if I had started 20 years ago.

50:13So I always encourage young people, my niece and nephews, don't do it before you're ready, but be open, more open to it. And think about family as much as you do about business. and I in those early years I was so focused on business business business I wasn't thinking about I always said okay though that'll come that'll come that'll come and I looked up and wow yeah but she's here now she's here now oh absolutely are you done yes I'll get you out of here in a minute on some fun stuff but you know before I do uh you mentioned And again, great advice paying it forward to young entrepreneurs about keeping that balance in mind.

50:59And if there's an opportunity to start a family, definitely do it. But when you encounter an entrepreneur or that individual that's maybe sending you a business pitch or maybe cold calling you, what does one Thompson want to hear? What does he want to see in a business plan before you act and maybe become someone else's Marriott and helping them finance it?

51:20Warren Thompson: I want to make sure. You know, oftentimes I'll get a business plan or get a proposal from a young person trying to fund their business, trying to start a company. And it's all pie in the sky, rosy, rosy, rosy. Not enough time spent on what ifs, the what ifs, the downside. How do you recover? What are the things that you're going to do to mitigate the risk? That's usually a very, very small section of any proposal. In my opinion, that should be equal to the growth strategies section. If you're going to spend 20 pages talking about the growth and the opportunity, at least spend 15 to 20 talking about what ifs, all the things that can go wrong.

52:06And when I see that type of analysis or proposal, it tells me that person is cognizant and aware of the risk they're about to undertake. If I don't see that, I usually say, this person's smart, got a good idea, but they're not ready for prime time. Prime time players are prepared for the what ifs. And that's what I look for. Yeah. What ifs. Keep those what ifs in mind. What can go wrong. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I love it. I love it. Get y 'all to hear some fun stuff. You look ahead. And if you had to name your empire, your business empire, the Warren Thompson hospitality empire for your five-year-old, right?

52:49That's the one name you would give your business empire when it's time. You want to pass it over to your daughter. What's the one name you would give it? Coco Gauff said her business empire. She wants to be timeless, right? That's what she told me. She wants to be timeless. What does Warren Thompson want? You know, consistent. Consistent. You know, I talk to my daughter a lot when we're in the restaurant about the details. she'll go in now without me and she'll come back and tell me how many employees were on the clock, what the temperature was like, those details. And I tell her all of that wrapped up in, are we running a consistent operation?

53:28The temperature should be at the right setting, the music at the right level, the lighting at the right level, all of those things. we don't say, well, somebody's not going to come back because the lighting was just a little bit too bright. But it's all those things that go into a consistent operation, whether it's high-end fine dining or quick casual burger place. You've got to have a consistent offering so that customer

53:58Warren Thompson: is not negatively surprised. Yeah. Low consistency. Right. Consistency. If I gave you 10 grand right now was the first thing Warren Thompson invested. Warren Thompson. I'll put it in my pocket and go ahead. I love that. You know, strong invest in NVIDIA. Yeah. I've never met the CEO, but I tell you, I admire him. The guy is sharp. Yeah. And we don't understand some of the things and some of the moves he's making. but so far they have all panned out and, uh, and been just absolutely amazing. Yeah. He's buying when he bought a company last week, Huggies or Huggies. And people were like, why did he do that?

54:42And then once the analysis came out, they were like, that's amazing. He's always one step ahead of even those that are analyzing the business. So when Kramer named his dog NVIDIA, my daughter and I were watching it. That's when we started buying it. Buying it. Now you want to go get a dog and name it NVIDIA. There you go. Warren Thompson's superpower. What is it? Humble. Humble. I try to not get carried away with myself. If something good happens in this company, I try to always place the credit on someone else. when something bad happens in this company I take responsibility so as I believe that's important for any leader not to get try to get the credit and place the blame somewhere else I think you'll go a lot further as a company and as a leader if you're willing to do that people often say you know or in you you know, you don't come across like this, this, or that.

55:48My first response is, thank you. I don't want to come across like I'm this, this, and that. You know, I got a card from someone the other day and they said in there, you're so humble. Now, some might say, and some entrepreneurs and some business owners would say, that's not a compliment. But for me, it's the ultimate. It means I'm not acting like I'm something that I'm not, or I'm not acting like what one would think I should be. I'm being myself.

56:19Warren Thompson: And I haven't changed from that kid that grew up in Windsor, Virginia. Wasn't the best basketball player. I had a hip replacement. Doctor said, did you play sports? I said, yeah, I was on the basketball team. He says, yeah, well, that may have caused part of this. I said, yeah, sitting on that bench. That was a hard bit. I love it. I love it. Favorite AI app? I mean, chat. Chat GPT. Everybody uses chat GPT. Everybody uses that. Everybody uses it. You can't get away from it. No, you cannot. You cannot. I think right now, just knowledge is so available. Before I do anything now, it's just so easy to get information about anyone at your fingertips.

57:07and so you have to be prepared you know when you go into a meeting or you get on a call or what have you there's no excuse if i get on a call with somebody and they don't know some things about me a background and so forth i'm like how could you you know yeah does that let you even do their research exactly yeah exactly love it love it biggest money management advice what would you tell a young person about managing money if they were to go out yeah start these successful restaurants and the money's pouring in. How do you manage your money to make sure you have it for the long? Don't be afraid to take risk, especially when you're young.

57:43You know, when I was 32 and I started this company, the night we closed, I had to sign personal guarantees for 30 leases, 13 and a half million of debt, on and on and on. I was like, where do I sign? I was so young. I said, I have nothing to lose. When you're young, be willing to be daring. Don't wait until you're 60 to start saying, okay, now I'm going to be willing to take risks. Take the risk as you're young. Be willing to step out there, to go for broke, because you have time to recover. Like I said, be prepared for the downside. And that's what I tell young people. Be bold, Be audacious, be daring.

58:30That's how you're gonna get to where you wanna go. If you're 25 to 30 and you're afraid to take risk, then you're not meant to be an entrepreneur. There's nothing wrong with being in corporate America. We need corporate executives. 90 % or 95 % of young people will end up in that area. maybe 1 % will end up as a successful entrepreneur, you know? And so that's a very, very small percentage of the population that will end up there. That's just the way the, just the way it is, you know? Yeah. Yeah. But don't end up or don't get afraid. Right. Right. Yeah. Get you out of here on this. Again, my favorite business book, Good to Great, Jim Collins.

59:16And you probably know this better than most because you've been in this business for 30 plus years. Right. What's the difference between a good hospitality company and a great one? I go back to, once again, consistent. When I think about the restaurants in our industry that do well, they are so predictable. You know, Chick-fil-A is doing$8.5 million a unit. Is it the best chicken sandwich in the world? No. But you know exactly what it's going to taste like. you know exactly how long it's going to take you to get through that line. You know when you get the bag, whether you order it at home or in your car, it's going to have everything in there that you expect it to have.

59:59That's what made McDonald's great when it started. It came in and cornered the market on consistency. Not necessarily on quality, but on consistent. That Big Mac would taste the same no matter where you bought it in the world. So I think we as a company, Thompson, we work every day to become more consistent across our portfolio. We're trying now to put certain standards of product in. Like if we're going to have a crab cake in the company, we only need one crab cake. It needs to be an excellent product, and it needs to have the same recipe no matter what venue so that people can start to say, well, I love the crab cake in a Thompson restaurant.

1:00:49And guess what? I can get it at Milk and Honey or Maker's Union or Matchbox or Peaches or wherever that I happen to be. So we're starting to do more of that and having a consistent core group of products

1:01:02Warren Thompson: that can be go-to if you want to go to a Thompson restaurant. Work hard, you know, do anything in life, work hard, be consistent. Right. You know, don't be afraid to take risks. Right. Right. Absolutely. And that formula kind of felt like it worked for you throughout all these years. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I love it. Mr. Thompson, thank you so much for the time. Thank you. And congrats on, you know, again, being in business and continue to thrive for 30 plus years. I mean, it sounds easy when you say it, but I'm sure it was a lot of challenges. I know it was a lot of challenges. Very, very difficult.

1:01:33And you could have went bankrupt after getting 13 million from Marriott. And then the rest of our brands that you have purchased, you know, at that time going down. but you still survived. And so that's huge. I had hair when I started this business. Yeah. So did I. And every challenge took one strand away. Yeah. Yeah. So we've had our challenges, but we're here. That's how you can tell a good, successful entrepreneur if they don't have any hair. There you go. They went through it all that time. Right. Appreciate all the time so much. Thank you so much for the time here in Reston, Virginia, your headquarters.

1:02:07And congrats. Thank you. John, the Forrest BLK25 Business to Watch list. Mr. Warren Thompson here in Reston, Virginia. You're in the Enterprise Zone and you're leaving the Enterprise Zone. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.

1:02:30The Secret Society of Semi-Homemade. Listen up. Sam's Club has pre-made dishes for a Thanksgiving feast that's ready in two hours.

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