Stephan Kim

New York, NY

🍽️ Food & BeverageFast Casual / QSR

“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.”

What I've Built

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.

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