Ditch the Storefront: Michael Russo on Going Where Customers Are, Failing with Discipline, and Building a Franchise That Scales

Ditch the Storefront: Michael Russo on Going Where Customers Are, Failing with Discipline, and Building a Franchise That Scales

From FULL COMP: The Voice of the Restaurant Industry Revolution by Josh Kopel

May 19, 2026 · 34 min · Season 15 · Episode 194

About this episode

Michael Russo discusses the advantages of mobile business models and customer engagement strategies.

What if the biggest mistake in your business model is having a fixed address? Most operators spend their careers fighting for foot traffic. Michael Russo went the other direction. As the Chief Growth Officer of Wild Bill’s, he bought a veteran-founded craft soda brand and scaled it into a 60-wagon franchise popping up at over 500 events a year nationwide. In this conversation, we get into why going where your customers already are is more scalable than trying to attract them, how to fail with discipline instead of just failing fast, and why direct customer conversations will teach you more than any analytics dashboard. If you're rethinking your revenue model or looking for a smarter path to scale, this one is worth your time. To learn more about Wild Bill’s and their franchise opportunities, visit drinkwildbills.com . _________________________________________________________ Today's episode was brought to you by Square. If you want restaurant tech that actually supports how you run your restaurant, find out how Square can help at square.com/goodstuff . Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and…

People in this episode

Host: Josh Kopel

Guest: Michael Russo

Topics covered

  • business model
  • franchise
  • customer engagement
  • scalability
  • failure management

Keywords

  • franchise
  • craft soda
  • customer conversations
  • business growth
  • restaurant marketing

Sponsors

Square

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wild Bill’s, drinkwildbills.com, restaurantbusinessschool.com

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