The idea is to run away from everything they have sold us for a long time: the famous democratization. Anything, anything. This small company, heir to a scooter business sold at the perfect time, avoids what has saved hundreds of businesses during the pandemic: the delivery. Pink´s is the new business of the brothers Juan and Andrés Casanova, the same ones who succeeded with Mygo, a shared mobility company, at the same time that they had a hot sauces through Amazon.
Pink’s idea is simple. A small place – no more than 23 square meters – in the center of the capital. Just one product, no negotiations: a cheeseburger, pickles, and little else. Drink and potatoes. It’s over the empire of monsters turned into burgers. Pink’s, which has adapted the customs of a 100% technological business –in fact, they do not accept affection–, wants to keep things simple. Although that scares.
Born in their imagination last year, during the pandemic, Pink’s became a reality this very 2022. In mid-February they entered the premises and 15 days later they opened to the public. Now they are working on an expansion model similar to what a startup from the technological world could have. The simple but successful idea has been liked by all kinds of investors who are already trying to franchise the model. There were doubts, but finally the balance decided to keep the reins of the business. The expansion would be controlled by the Casanova brothers or else it would not be.
The sale of Mygo, the germ of everything that brought Pink’s to the world
It was 2019, long before Pink’s arrived, and the world still didn’t know what was coming. Andrés Casanova was the founder and CEO of a shared mobility company, MyGo. Scooters, electric motorcycles and a kind of motorized vehicle to get around the city. Based in Madrid, the company was one of the first to take the step to what would later become a constant in the city mobility sector: the integration.
On December 24 of that year, Mygo surrendered to the charms of an American company: Wheels. For Mygo it was a way to expand its investment capacity. Wheels, with a powerful investment arm, could guarantee the growth of the brand not only in Madrid, but also outside the region in which the company was focused at that time. For the American technology company itself, it was an easy way to enter Madrid and Europe.
The sale, of which the amount was never known, was made official with one condition: Andrés Casanova had to stay in the company for a while. Before the pandemic, this was not a problem. On March 15, 2020 everything changed. With a world locked up in their homes, mobility, of any kind, experienced its most complicated moments. And the events happened. Andrés Casanova and Wheels shook hands and they ended relations by mutual agreement, point to this medium. It was too high a salary to maintain at a time when there was no activity and for Casanova it was not the ideal position. An win-win what is usually said.
Weeks later, Wheels – like so many other companies in the mobility sector – announced that it was ending operations in Spain. Two years later, and despite pointing out that he would return once the pandemic issue improves, there are no signs of his return. Mygo’s chapter ended, which would be the seed for the next Andrés Casanova. Pink’s.
A sauce that ended up hating Amazon
With an intensive confinement, Andrés Casanova got down to work in the business that he had shared with his brother for a long time. Nothing to do with the shared mobility business, but closer to what was coming for this businessman of Venezuelan origin. Juan Casanova and brother –twins, by the way; like the ones on TV about reforms, but about hotels and mobility– he had a business that succeeded almost by accident on Amazon. Espicy sold – and continues to sell – hot sauces through Amazon; a kind of local sriracha. A homemade recipe that little by little was curdling in the palates.
In a few months they achieved great sales, during the pandemic the fury broke out. With no scooters to manage, the brothers came together in this company to make it even stronger.
Almost tripling its operations and products, the confinement was a before and after for this business. On the one hand, the idyll with Amazon was beginning to disappear, explains Andrés. What at first was a springboard to become known, soon became a problem. Espicy was a producer and a seller at the same time, but Amazon did not know that. Once sales began to increase and Bezos’s technology identified success, this one wanted to skip the middleman by lowering the margins. Bad news for Amazon. Now Casanova defines the Seattle technology as a love-hate relationship. So much so that although they continue to sell through their platform, they also operate independently through their website.
On the other hand, the germ of something else began to take shape. Since they produced sauces, why not sell them in their own establishment together with the product that can accommodate the most sauces inside?
Friends, fools and family and traditional cheeseburgers
There are 6 investors, 5 if we join the Casanova brothers as one. Friends and acquaintances who had already entered other businesses of the brothers and who had nothing to lose –and at that time probably nothing to gain– from a business in the restaurant world. Coming from a pandemic that had devastated hundreds of restaurants, perhaps the adventure of opening one was not the best. The idea was to create a model similar to that of the dinners Americans but much simpler.
No tables, no waiters; also without cash, so as not to waste time with a lifelong box and then have to do the math. A place, like the fast food ones open 24 hours in the center of the capital, but with some peculiarities. On the one hand, the limitation. They say that little is usually more successful. Pink’s only sells 200 hamburgers a day. 100 at noon and another 100 at night shift.
If they finish before the established time? The closure is thrown. They are blunt in this factor herando a similar model that recently became fashionable in France and that begins to take shape outside the Gallic country. It is a way to keep the product intact, they explain. With the entire kitchen in view, what you get is what you see. 100 loaves, 100 pickles, 100 slices of cheese and 100 meat balls. Same for dinner. And it cannot be expanded because there is no room for more.
They are aware of the limitation of this model. Although the motto of efficiency is inherited from an electric scooter company that was not doing badly, but was not in a position to spend large amounts of money, it was difficult to adapt it to the kitchen. They have succeeded. This first phase was the test of the business model, now they want more. Without a franchise – that would make them become another chain in the hamburger sector – they are already planning to open a second location in Madrid. In this case with tables, but not with chairs. The idea is to keep the style of the first place. Then you will see what comes next.
One thing is clear: no delivery in sight for Pink’s
What they do have clear is that for their first business they don’t want to hear about delivery. On the one hand, because they know that the product would lose the quality they want. On the other hand, they want to avoid the image of the rioters with backpacks entering the premises. But the most important is that of the margins. Glovo, Uber Eats or Just Eat live from the commission for service. The Pink’s menu (complete) is at 8 euros. According to its founders, it is already adjusted taking into account that half of the ingredients are imported from other parts of the planet due to its peculiarity.
Surrendering to a delivery would mean losing money and a lot; Although it is true that for a large part of the hospitality industry, delivery has been a lifesaver during the pandemic, for other businesses it is a hard effort to surrender to the designs of food delivery apps. The limitation of 200 hamburgers per day does not help in this regard either. He confesses that they have received offers and calls from all the platforms of the moment, with and without exclusivity. The answer for all of them has been no. for everyone, despite the fact that they do not understand it from the different technologies. Its competition is not clear about this position either.
They do not rule it out, however, in the short term in their next openings. But under a different system. They assume that the menu of a delivery cannot be the same as the one that is consumed in a local, despite the fact that many point out that it is. They are already working on their own system that can be adapted to this demanding market. Because, as in the electric scooter business, not everything goes here.