Imagine opening a chicken restaurant in Georgia in 1990.
In Georgia. The home state of the most dominant chicken chain in American history. A company with a cult following, absurd per store sales, and a reputation people defend at Thanksgiving dinner.
That is either brave or foolish.
Two college friends did it anyway. And instead of trying to out sandwich the giant, they did something much smarter.
They went to the places the giant had not bothered with yet. College towns. Small cities. Highway exits in the middle of the Southeast.
And they built a menu that answered a different question entirely.
Today that company has hundreds of locations across the South.
This is a story about how you compete with somebody you cannot beat head on. It applies to a lot more than chicken.