Stephan Kim
“I worked in finance during the week, and in the kitchen on the weekends. Then I co-founded Sopo, a Korean fast casual restaurant in NYC.”
Best for food and beverage operators launching or scaling a new concept, especially in fast casual.
What I've Built
Sopo
Korean Fast Casual
Venture-backed Korean fast casual concept in Midtown Manhattan. Built the operating foundation from the ground up — systems, hiring, vendor relationships, and tech stack.
About
I spent four years in private equity at BlackRock — and on weekends, was attending culinary school and cooking the line at The Modern. After my MBA at Wharton, I co-founded Sopo, a venture-backed Korean fast casual concept in New York. We opened our first location in Midtown Manhattan and I've spent the last two years building the operating foundation from the ground up — and learning a lot about what it actually takes to get a concept off the ground. Building systems for a brand new concept means there's no blueprint to follow — everything has to be designed to fit your specific product, customer, and team. It's forced me to be scrappy, iterate quickly, and get comfortable making decisions with incomplete information. If you're starting or scaling a concept and want to talk through hiring and building your team, navigating supplier and vendor relationships, or figuring out your tech and operations platforms — those are the areas I've spent the most time in and I'd love to help.
Examples of decisions Stephan can help you work through
New concept launch
- Building systems for a brand-new concept
- Making decisions with incomplete information
- Choosing your tech and operations stack
Hiring and team
- Hiring and building your first team
- Structuring roles for a small operation
- Training and management systems
Vendor and supplier relationships
- Evaluating and managing suppliers
- Negotiating vendor agreements
- Building reliable supply chains
Tell us what you're working through and we'll confirm Stephan is the right fit.
Work with Stephan
Decision Session
$15060 minutes
A focused 60-minute conversation around one decision, question, or operating situation.
Tell us what you're working through and we'll confirm availability.
Decision Sprint
$750Three sessions over 4 to 6 weeks
Stephan reviews your materials between sessions, sends a written recap after each, and closes with a decision memo.
Most owners book this after a first session.
If your first session is not useful, we refund the entire sprint.
Booked a session in the last 7 days? It counts as session one and its full price is credited.
Sessions are advisory. Implementation or ongoing support is scoped separately.
Project or Fractional
For hands-on work beyond the session, recurring guidance, or an ongoing operating role.
Additional sessions can be booked as needed.