"Vibe Tribe" Family Legacy Leads to More Than 130 Restaurants

Name: Irfaan Lalani
Title: CEO/Co-Founder
Company: Vibe Restaurants
No. of units: 76 Little Caesars, 60 Wingstop, 3 Whataburger
Age: 43
Family: Wife Naureen and two daughters, Mila, 9, and Kaia, 2
Years in franchising: 15
Years in current position: 15

Irfaan Lalani started cleaning up after customers in his family's Dallas restaurant when he was 10 years old. Along the way, he learned the value of hard work and taking a people-centered approach to service.

As chief executive officer and co-founder of Vibe Restaurants, Lalani, along with his brother Faisal Lalani and their partner Shalin Patel, owns more than 130 restaurants under the Little Caesars, Wingstop, and Whataburger brands. Patel purchased the first Little Caesars restaurant in 2005, and the group added more units several years later when Faisal came aboard."

They were the pioneers. When I joined Vibe Restaurants in 2010, they had proof of concept in place," Lalani says. "One of the reasons it has worked so well is that, from an early stage, we identified our areas of strength and stayed in our lanes. For Shalin, it was accounting and finance. Faisal's specialty is real estate and development. I lead the operations and prioritize the relationships with our stakeholders."

After working together for nearly 15 years, the three maintain a close relationship. They speak regularly and vacation together each year with their families. Lalani is also building a house next to his brother.

The group brought on Michael Trifari as COO seven years ago to help lead and strategically grow the business. The partners prioritize hiring, developing, and rewarding employees while giving them the autonomy to do their jobs. It is a philosophy Lalani took from his family's restaurant decades ago.

"From the early days of Vibe, we had the mindset we were going to scale," Lalani says. "We were going to pump money back into the business. We've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but we look at it as an opportunity to learn. We have great people on our team, and we know where we want to take the company in the future."

Personal

First job: My first formal job was as a food runner at P.F. Chang's when I was 19 years old.

Formative influences/events: I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My parents have owned a restaurant in the Dallas area for 40 years. My brother and I started working there when we were 8 to 10 years old, doing things like cleaning tables and refilling ketchup bottles. I learned the power of hard work from that experience as well as taking care of a team of employees. We pride ourselves on a people-centric approach at Vibe, and that has roots from our experience at my family's restaurant.

Key accomplishments: Being part of the growth we have had at Vibe Restaurants over the past 14 years.

Biggest current challenge: Maintaining our history and culture as we grow from a startup to a midsize enterprise. Next big goal: Surpassing $350 million in revenue.

First turning point in your career: When I moved to Dubai in 2006 and took an opportunity with JLL hotels. It was my first real job outside the family business. I learned what it meant to have a work structure and see how large organizations operate.

Best business decision: Joining my brother Faisal Lalani and partner Shalin Patel to form Vibe Restaurants in 2010. The second-best decision was hiring Michael Trifari as COO seven years ago.

Hardest lesson learned: To cut your losses quickly and move on.

Work week: Monday through Thursday. Fridays, I spend with my 2-year-old daughter.

Exercise/workout: I work out with my trainer at the gym twice per week. I also do yoga twice a week and run at the track once a week.

Best advice you ever got: Hire the best and then get out of their way.

What's your passion in business? To help others reach their fullest potential and provide opportunities for them.

How do you balance life and work? I have built an excellent executive team, and I entrust them to run the day-to-day of Vibe Restaurants. Both our COO and CFO have a playbook from their previous roles.

Guilty pleasure: Fishing and scuba diving.

Favorite book: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Favorite movie: "Office Space."

What do most people not know about you? That I love to fish and camp.

Pet peeve: When people ask, "Can I be honest with you?"

What did you want to be when you grew up? A CEO of a big company. My parents always worked very hard and were challenged to empower other people. I was interested in hiring others who were smarter than me and seeing what kind of impact it would have on business.

Last vacation: We spent one month in Asia this summer between Japan and South Korea.

Person you'd most like to have lunch with: Warren Buffett.

Management

Business philosophy: Hire the best, invest in your people, care about their success, and get out of their way.

Management method or style: Collaborative. I always try to be an inspirational leader.

Greatest challenge: Switching off and disconnecting from Vibe Restaurants. I am very passionate about the brand, but I am cognizant of the time I spend with my family and balancing both commitments. One way I do it is by empowering our COO to lead the company on a daily basis.

How do others describe you? Kind, generous, energetic, humble, and inclusive.

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? Not formally. However, over the years, I have built relationships with many industry veterans who have given me priceless advice. I would certainly be eager to be a mentor to someone else now.

One thing you're looking to do better: Giving real-time feedback to my team.

How you give your team room to innovate and experiment: We agree on the end goal and they have the autonomy to come up with their own plans/playbook to achieve the goal. We try our hardest not to micromanage, and titles don't mean anything at Vibe Restaurants.

How close are you to operations? I'm very close to our COO, and he keeps me in the loop on what is going on at Vibe Restaurants operationally. All three founders started working inside our Little Caesars, and we have never forgotten the importance of running great restaurants. Michael Trifari's views are in line with that, and under his leadership, we have continued to raise the bar.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? National marketing and innovation (both products and kitchen/restaurant design). We rely on their creative abilities and marketing experience to promote brands to a national audience. We have seen the positive impact national TV has on a brand.

What you need from vendors: For our order to be accurate and on time.

Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How? Yes, we are starting to get more involved in our local communities and have hired a director of field marketing to make this happen. Our goal is to make our brand presence known in the communities in which we operate.

How is social media affecting your business? The brands have all done a great job of using social media as a marketing channel. At Vibe Restaurants, I realized at a very early stage the importance of building the brand through social media. With the help of our branding agency, we are very active in telling our story on social media and recognizing the Vibe Tribe, the people who make it happen every day. Highlighting our culture as a people-first organization is one of the reasons we can hire the best talent in the industry. "A" players want to be part of the special thing we are creating at Vibe.

How do you hire and fire? Quickly. To be honest, I'm not as involved in this anymore except for executive positions and some VP roles that we are bringing on. Your attitude and your ability to learn and grow are important to us. We have a saying at Vibe: "Leave your ego at the door."

How do you train and retain? Training is a big part of our success. We have a dedicated training and new restaurant opening team that is led by our newly hired VP of learning and development.

How do you deal with problem employees? As an organization, we are great at giving real-time feedback, the tools you need to succeed, and the leadership for you to grow. If you are let go, it won't be a surprise.

Fastest way into your doghouse: Lie to me or just say "yes" to everything I say or every idea I have. I'm clear to my team that their opinion matters to me, and I want to know if I have a blind spot.

Bottom Line

Annual revenue: We will end 2024 with $200 million in revenue from all brands.

2024/2025 goals: Continue to add to the Vibe Restaurant platform with the addition of some key hires: VP of real estate and development, VP of learning and development, VP of IT, and a director of facilities.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? We look at revenue, unit, and EBITDA growth.

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? We want to continue to develop and add infrastructure to our company. We would like to soon break into the top 100 of restaurant ownership groups.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? Yes, we've invested in the pizza, wings, and burger segments, all of which tend to offer great value for the price of the food guests receive.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? The economy is tightening budgets and spending for our customers especially. It has an overall positive impact on our business. All three brands have tools in their tool belt to target the value customer.

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Yes. Most or all of the markets in which we operate are growing. These markets are also developing both economically and in population. We see a tremendous amount of growth in the Southeast and in Oklahoma City and the surrounding suburbs.

How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? We're continuing to do what we do best and have been able to expand our business portfolio, opening new locations. We're also really focused on being a people-centric organization that values employees, and we're continuing to refine how we do that. We've even taken the necessary steps to look at how we can make a greater impact on the lives of our employees and their families. We're looking at education funds and similar initiatives.

How do you forecast for your business? We forecast for business to continue to be strong. We have invested in really strong and iconic brands that are top of mind with today's consumers, and we continue to invest in the Vibe Tribe.

What are the best sources for capital expansion? It has changed over the years. When we first started, we would use SBA loans, and we were also very creative, working with municipalities and different grants. Later on, we made it onto the radar of GE Capital as our first institutional lender, and that worked very well.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? No. We own 100 percent of the company and plan to keep it that way.

What are you doing to take care of your employees? We have an open line of communication with them and reward their work. We are looking to do even greater things in the near future. I'm a firm believer in the "triple win": A win for Vibe, a win for our employees, and a win for their family/community. We are looking at ways we can create these triple wins at Vibe Restaurants.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? We have seen the financial impact on our P&L. Our focus on culture enables us to keep our people. People won't stay with you just for the money because someone will always give them more. We focus on the Vibe culture and our core values. We've seen people want to be part of something larger than themselves.

What laws and regulations are affecting your business, and how are you dealing with them? Minimum wage in nearly every market. Most of the states in which we operate are rather business friendly, so it hasn't been that bad. We are firm believers in a market wage.

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? We are focused on recognizing top-performing employees in a variety of ways, especially through experiences. We have a saying, "Experience Vibe, experience life." Recognition is one of the biggest ways to acknowledge our appreciation for top performers. We will be doing the first-of-its-kind incentive trip, a cruise in 2025 for the highest-performing teams with Little Caesars and Wingstop.

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? Right now, we are in a good position to keep growing and leveraging our platform as much as possible.