How Jae Kim is Scaling Chi’Lantro

How Jae Kim is Scaling Chi’Lantro

Jae Kim emptied his $30,000 in savings and maxed out his credit cards to launch a Korean food truck in Austin in 2010. Now he is leading 13 Chi’Lantro restaurants across Texas and building toward the next cycle of growth. He even won a deal on Shark Tank, then walked away from it to grow on his own terms.

Jae has lived every stage of growth and made the hard calls even when he felt stuck. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and hear insights from a Founder building a brand to break through!

The late night that created kimchi fries

Late one night on his downtown Austin food truck, Jae had a batch of kimchi sitting unused. Customers kept telling him they did not know what kimchi was, so they did not want it.

This is hard to believe today, however, in 2010, of course, no one knew kimchi.

Jae did what every visionary Founder does: he caramelized it, let the smell roll out of the truck, and piled it onto hot fries. His bet was simple: let people taste it before they could second-guess it.

That is how The Original Kimchi Fries were born, a dish Chi’Lantro now serves more than 200,000 times a year. If you are building something the market has not seen yet, your first job is the one Jae had on his truck. Get people to experience the difference.

Jae’s story is about one critical decision after another, each made while the business was stuck in the middle, too big to be small and too small to be big. If you are a Founder facing those same challenges right now, this is your episode.

The risk everyone told him not to take

Every Founder eventually meets the moment when their own success becomes the ceiling. In 2015, Jae met it with five food trucks and lines wrapping the block. It was clear that Chi’Lantro was a success and leading the charge in the red-hot Austin food scene.

The safe move was to keep adding trucks. Jae decided to do the exact opposite. The reason he chose stability over momentum is the lesson restaurant Founders need most. The next move changed the trajectory for his business forever.

Jae did not gamble. He moved before the ceiling could trap him, and that is the difference between Founders who scale and Founders who plateau.

Walking away from Barbara Corcoran

Most Founders would chase the very deal Jae landed: $600,000 on Shark Tank from a shark who believed in him. A shark with a proven track record of scaling businesses. Jae made it on Shark Tank after applying three times, got an offer and then walked away.

Understanding why he said no is worth more to your business than the deal itself. He turned down money to chase something he valued more. Instead, he backed himself with partners who had already built and sold a brand bigger than his own. That is the kind of decision that keeps paying off for years.

“I’ve wanted that relationship more than the money because of the experiences and the wisdom that they had.” – Jae Kim

When sales dropped 90%, his real test began

In 2020, Chi’Lantro’s sales fell 90% almost overnight when the governor told residents to stay at home.

Jae could have protected himself and pulled his money out. What he did instead tells you everything about why people follow him.

He again made what many would say would be a difficult decision — he chose his team over selling out. He told his team the truth about how long the company could keep paying them and gave them a choice to stay or go. Every team member chose to stay.

Then, with no customers, Jae and his team just started giving their food away, more than 20,000 meals through Chi’Lantro Cares. Their community wrote checks to keep the kitchen running. The team he protected became the reason Chi’Lantro came back stronger.

Those values trace back to his family: a single mother who built business after business after immigrating, and a sister he lost to NF2, whose memory still drives him.

It is the WHY beneath every decision he makes.

Why success in one city means nothing in the next

The love you earn in one city does not always follow you to the next. Jae is living that right now in Houston, and it has been one of the hardest parts of scaling.

What keeps him in the fight is a fanatical focus on his core fundamental principles he refuses to compromise on. Chi’Lantro serves authentic flavors with uncompromising standards for: great food, great service and clean restaurants.

“It’s easy to open up a restaurant, but the real fight comes afterwards on a day in, day out basis.” — Jae Kim

Listening to what Jae protects, and why, will sharpen how you defend your own brand.

More lessons worth pressing play for

1. The three questions Jae asks himself before opening any new location — the ones he says he learned to ask the hard way.
2. Where Jae goes to keep sharpening his decisions, and how he turns other Founders’ experience into his next move.
3. His read on why money is more expensive right now, and the kind of growth he believes this market actually rewards.

Where to start if you are stuck

I asked Jae what he would tell a Founder still sitting there, grinding it out right now. His answer was about the Founder, not the business. These are the lessons that a Founder tells a Founder. These are the lessons you want and need to hear.

So, if you are stuck in the middle today, listen to this episode and start there. Take care of yourself first, then make the next decision the way Jae is taking his $30,000 and building a company that continues to break through.

P.S. Jae’s story is the kind we bring to life at the Founderology Growth Summit, the event for visionary restaurant Founders ready to scale.

If you want to spend two and a half days with Founders doing this work, join like-minded Founders at 2027’s Founderology Growth Summit, Aug. 2-4 in Chicago.

If You Are Ready to Grow, We Are Ready to Go!

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and hear insights from Founders who are building brands to break through!

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