How a Soviet Refugee Built a $12M Restaurant Empire

Orhan Veli’s story sounds like a movie.

At age 6, he watched the Soviet Union collapse overnight: chaos, violence, and uncertainty took over.

His family fled with nothing.

Within months, his father built a small business…until the mafia burned it down and demanded payment.

They eventually escaped to the United States with just $25,000.

From there:

• Roofing jobs in Florida
  
  
• Delivering pizzas
  
  
• Living in a small apartment with no English
  
  

Fast forward 20 years…

Orhan now owns 12 restaurant locations generating over $12M in revenue.

But it didn’t come easy:

• Borrowing money from family to buy the first store
  
  
• Working 7 days a week, open to close
  
  
• Firing his entire staff two weeks into his second location
  
  
• Nearly going under during the 2008 financial crisis
  
  

In this episode, we break down:

• How he scaled from 1 to 11 locations
  
  
• Why he doubled down when others were selling
  
  
• The real economics behind fast-casual franchises
  
  
• And the mindset required to build an empire from nothing
  
  

This is one of the craziest operator stories we’ve ever recorded.

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Follow Orhan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orhan-veli-24116315/ 

 

⏱️ Chapters 

00:00 From the Soviet Collapse to Chaos
06:00 Building a Business in the Wild West of Capitalism
12:00 Escaping to America with $25K
18:00 Starting Over: Roofing, Pizza Delivery, and Survival
24:00 Learning to Hustle: First Jobs & College Years
30:00 Turning Down Wall Street for Entrepreneurship
36:00 Buying the First Restaurant (All-In with Family Money)
42:00 Early Struggles: Long Hours, Debt, and Doubt
48:00 Scaling to Multiple Locations + Near Collapse in 2008
54:00 The Saladworks Bet & Aggressive Expansion Strategy
60:00 Building an 11-Unit Empire + What Comes Next