A lot of founders spend their lives chasing one big idea.
Antonio Swad had two.
The first? Migrating chicken wings from the Happy Hour buffet to the center of the plate.
A lot of founders spend their lives chasing one big idea.
Antonio Swad had two.
The first? Migrating chicken wings from the Happy Hour buffet to the center of the plate.

The second? Building a pizza business that catered to a very specific demographic: Latinos.
That first idea became Wingstop, a deep-fried wing concept that grew to 3,000 stores.
The second became Pizza Patron, a franchise that rewarded customers for ordering in Spanish, and let them pay in pesos.
This is the story of how Antonio got there.
He was a kid from Columbus, Ohio, working at a steakhouse straight out of high school…who eventually saw two big opportunities where no one else did.
Wingstop was the breakout idea, but just as it was exploding, Antonio made a surprising decision. He sold the company.
A $22 million deal.
Only…the money did not materialize.
What follows is one of the most surprising—and cautionary—tales we’ve told on this show: a single word buried in a contract that cost millions…and the moment Antonio realized he might never see the money he’d been promised.
This episode is about instinct, risk, conviction—and why sometimes…your biggest success can lead to your biggest mistake.
What you’ll learn:
Timestamps:
This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Olivia Rockman. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley.
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