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🍍 Learning from sweetgreen
How Benjamin Habbel created a new lifestyle brand
I waited 40 minutes (at 2pm!) to pay $20+ for a sweetgreen salad I had to take out and eat in the park last time I was in New York.
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Benjamin Habbel saw the rise of sweetgreen and brands like them that were design and experience-centric while he was building a technology company in NYC in the 2010s - and it inspired him to create Aethos, a new lifestyle hotel brand.
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He calls it “inspirational arbitrage.”
“​​Whether you think they did this authentically or not, they really captured this idea of wellbeing, sustainability, and making a positive impact on communities – and they formed hospitality brands around that.”
In Habbel’s view, Europe had a lot of culture and incredible experiences but fewer brands built a clear hospitality experience around it. There was an opportunity to take part of what worked for sweetgreen and apply it to hospitality.
You can read the full story here.
Dan Ryan and I talked about this a bit more at minute 35 of the Defining Hospitality podcast that just came out this week.
What are you getting inspiration from right now?
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