EP 10: Breaking the Turnover Cycle That Kills Restaurant Expansion

Etkin Tekin left his corporate strategy position at AB InBev's innovation arm to co-found one of the Northeast's fastest-growing restaurant concepts. While most operators struggle with an expensive recruiting cycle—hire, train, lose people, repeat—Haven Hot Chicken broke this pattern. In this episode, Etkin reveals how they built an internal pipeline that promotes 40% of store leadership from within while maintaining just 10% turnover. This approach has slashed hiring costs, ensured brand consistency, and created the team stability necessary for sustainable rapid expansion.

Key Takeaways:

• Why hiring for culture fit beats skills every time (and how to spot it)
• Specific tactics that reduced hourly worker turnover to just 10%
• When to hire specialists vs. generalists during rapid growth
• How to build community impact directly into your business model
• The framework for making tech investments that actually improve your bottom line
• How to manage shared leadership with multiple co-founders without chaos

Perfect for: Multi-unit restaurant operators, franchise executives, anyone struggling with high turnover, and leaders building teams during rapid growth.

About Etkin Tekin: Co-founder and CEO of Haven Hot Chicken, former innovation strategist at ZX Ventures (AB InBev), helping scale Nashville-style hot chicken across the Northeast while building a company culture with industry-leading retention rates.

Time Stamp Chapters

• 00:00 Intro: Meet Etkin and Haven Hot Chicken
• 02:04 Origins: Nashville inspiration to pandemic pivots
• 06:50 Career Switch: From AB InBev to hot chicken
• 09:28 Corporate Lessons: Scaling in innovation
• 12:13 Authenticity vs. Scale: Big brands' innovation struggles
• 17:15 Leading Through Ambiguity: When to provide clarity
• 21:06 Low Turnover: How Haven keeps staff
• 24:28 Internal Promotion: Finding leaders without traditional experience
• 27:30 Hiring Evolution: Generalists vs. specialists during growth
• 32:51 Multiple Founders: Division of responsibilities
• 37:26 Beyond Growth: Haven's true mission
• 41:13 Hiring Instincts: Finding the right people
• 43:58 Lightning Round: Career insights and communication basics

About Us
Opus is the hospitality training platform purpose-built for the frontline. Train 100% of your team in 101 languages on the job to quickly get them up the productivity curve. With full visibility across your workforce, you get the frontline business intelligence needed to drive your business.

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