MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: HENRY BORGESON

Studio IX:             Hey, Henry!

Henry:                  Good morning.

Studio IX:             Ok, let’s jump to it. How about an easy one to start? What did you have for breakfast?

Henry:                   I had peanut butter toast with a banana.

Studio IX:             That's good. I didn't have any breakfast.

Henry:                   You're eating a muffin right now.

Studio IX:            It's about to go in. (laughter)

Henry:                   But yeah, peanut butter toast almost every day.

Studio IX:            Chunky or smooth?

Henry:                   Smooth.

Studio IX:             Yeah?

Henry:                    Yeah, smooth. Sometimes I like to get chunky.

Studio IX:            Really? You switch it up?

Henry:                     Maybe 5% of the time, I'll do chunky.

Studio IX:             Yeah?

Henry:                   95% of the time I'll do smooth. You don't appreciate the smooth without the chunky.

Studio IX:            Surely there’s a gem of business wisdom in that comment. (laughter)

Henry:                  Yeah.

Studio IX:             So next question. Who are you?

Henry:                    Who am I?

Studio IX:             ... And what do you do?

Henry:                    Okay. I’m Henry Borgeson. I’m the President and CFO of Roots Natural Kitchen.

Studio IX:            Could you share a bit about what that entails?

Henry:                     I'll speak to the CFO piece first.

That's really just making sure there's money in the bank account and making sure everyone understands how it got there. I think a lot of people like to dress up and imagine that finance is going out, finding big bags of money, and stashing them somewhere. Really it's just that everyone needs to know what the operation did in financial terms, and I try to make sure that happens. Then as we go forward, make sure we have the money we need to continue to do what we want to do.

Then on the president side, that role is new, but it almost exists in a similar vein. It’s holding us accountable to the promises we make to our people.

Often times I think any failure in an organization really comes down to mismanaged expectations. People think you're doing one thing when you're doing something else. Making sure everyone is in a lane where they can succeed and thrive, and they feel good about what they're expected to do, and what they're expected to accomplish – that’s what’s meant to be represented in the role of the President. It's that presence that is supposed to help make sure that happens within the organization. And I take that quite seriously and I enjoy it a great deal.

Studio IX:             Have you been around from the inception of the business? When did Roots start?

Henry:                     So, Roots Natural Kitchen started in 2015, Albert and Alvaro, our two co-founders went to UVA and they had the idea, a simple idea really, there's no place to get healthy food on the corner. Albert, in particular, he gets itches, sees something and thinks, "I need to solve that problem." So, that was the one itch that he had to scratch. He needed to put that restaurant on the corner. And it's grown from there. I knew both of them at UVA and they reached out to me.

Studio IX:                 You were at Darden?

Henry:                     UVA undergrad.

Studio IX:                 Oh, okay.

Henry:                    McIntire, the Undergrad Business School at UVA. Albert and Alvaro reached out to me about three years ago now. Then they slowly roped me in, and my role has grown from there.

Studio IX:                 What are you passionate about?

Henry:                      What am I passionate about?

Studio IX:                 And that's not exclusive to just Roots or your career.

Henry:                     I do find that most of my brain power is committed to the role within Roots. But everything I'm doing within Roots really does resonate with what I'm passionate about. I feel kind of silly saying this because I am rather young, but I'm very passionate about what I alluded to within the context of the president role. I'm very passionate about helping people get to places where they feel like they can succeed. Something that I find very disappointing is that when you survey Americans, over 50% of them say they are dissatisfied or unhappy with their job. That’s very disappointing.

Henry:                          We're supposed to be the pinnacle of society. We're better off than we've ever been before in economic terms, yet people who are going out to work, over half of them say they don't enjoy it. I think that's a failure. Most people look to their place of work to be a community. I am passionate about making sure Roots can be that community, and making sure people feel like Roots is really a place where we say, "Yes, you can go out and do that thing. You've identified a challenge within our organization that you want to take on. I want to help you do that, and make sure you feel good about taking that on." I think that approach has really helped us over time.

A lot of our managers in the stores are people who started on the line, or in the dish room, and have worked themselves up to General Manager roles. That's awesome. Taking on challenges within the context of the restaurant, developing into leaders. One of our corporate team members, Hannah for example, she started in the restaurant as well, then started processing payroll, and has worked into her Director of Employee Experience role. It excites me to help people get to places that they feel good about what they're accomplishing.

Studio IX:                    I think you've kind of answered this, but what do you enjoy most about the work? What gets you up in the morning to make your peanut butter toast?

Henry:                          What do I enjoy most? The chance to be with all the people I'm with every day. In the context of Roots, I very much feel like we're all working in the same direction. Being around people who are working in the same direction, who believe in the outcome we’re striving for - many restaurants that help empower people through natural food. Just being around people who want to do that is inspiring. And being around the good things that spin off that is inspiring. Being with people who feel good about the same mission is rewarding. So I get up because I get to be a part of it.

Studio IX:                Yeah, I feel that with you guys. Absolutely. That's pretty amazing. I’m just inventing this question in the moment, but what does a great day look like?

Henry:                          I get up pretty early. Around 5:00 AM. A great day is an eight-mile run, good breakfast, peanut butter toast, two fried eggs. That's a great morning. I like to spend three to four hours by myself in the morning. That's my introverted time.

Studio IX:                I can relate.

Henry:                          I don't know exactly what a great day within work looks like, but it's one where everything feels like it's clicking. Whether it's working with external vendors, external investors, our accounting team, our HR team - it's being able to feel like we're making progress in the right direction. Not like we're slogging through the day, but that we're actually setting ourselves up to succeed today, and for the next week, the next month, the next year. So, as long as there's positivity in those conversations, that feels good.

Then getting home and still having the chance to make dinner. I like to cook. Usually with no recipe, just with whatever's in the fridge. So as long as there are enough vegetables in the fridge to cook, that gives me a moment to be creative in the kitchen. That’s good too.

Studio IX:               Yeah. All I've got right now is roasted potatoes. It's pretty bad. I need to get to the store.

Studio IX:            Could you share a memorable story? A turning point for you? It could be part of your experience with Roots, or just be your own life and work. Something that really mattered. For instance, was there a moment when you guys were like, "Oh shit!"?

Henry:                     I'm almost always supposed to be the voice in the room that isn't reacting that way. So I end up staying very level.

Studio IX:           The pragmatist?

Henry:                The pragmatist. But when we were opening up Penn State this summer, it was awesome to see the first line. There were six construction workers in line, ready to eat our food in State College. This was the first restaurant that I had the chance to be a part of from start to finish. There was a point in time when we didn't know if we were going to be able to even open that restaurant. I love seeing people that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be eating our food. Not saying construction workers can’t eat our food, but often times there are these moments when it's validated that we're serving food that everyone really can enjoy. And to see that in a place that we thought we might not be able to pull it off.

Henry:                     And then seeing Albert walking around the store, looking at everything.

Studio IX:            People reading this cannot see what you just did. But you just did a perfect impersonation of Albert. (Laughter)

Henry:                     That Penn State restaurant open, was really one that represented us turning a corner, being able to do that.  A big moment from when we first embarked on growing from two restaurants. The first one was in Charlottesville, the second one was in Newark, Delaware. Then we took on this very ambitious growth plan where we were going to try to open one in Austin, Texas, one in State College, one in Richmond, and one in Pittsburgh. To try to go from what was really two small businesses to a company of six integrated restaurants, it was too much. So Austin, we had to let that one go. And then we thought we might have to let Penn State go, too. But we hunkered down, secured the financing.

Peter joining our team was instrumental in making sure we could pull off building the restaurants, and organize in a way that would allow future growth. Penn State was almost like the flag on the moon.  "Yes, we can plan for growth. We can manage restaurants." So, that day was special to me. I woke up quite early and went on a run around State College, and then when we went and opened up at 10:30 and people started lining up, it was like, "We can do this whole thing. And we should do this thing, we should do it many times over." That was a good one.

Studio IX:             A great lead in to my next question. What's the five to ten year view look like? What do you see for yourself and also for Roots?

Henry:                     I think people often imagine that there is this moment when the work is finished. But there's always work to be done. Really, as you grow, there are many more roles to be developed, and there are many more people that you need to teach to be part of it, and you need to reshape the organization many times over. It will continuously look different as we go, as there are more restaurants, there are more people supporting those restaurants, and more specialized roles that need help coming into the organization.

It's never about finding the stuff you need to get done and throwing it on someone else's plate, it's about finding the pathways to create jobs that people will want to do. That will always be a challenge, whether you have one restaurant, and you're trying to figure out what the jobs are in the store, or you have hundreds of restaurants. Those are similar organizational challenges. I don't really think very well in terms of a long-term vision, like one day we will have a thousand restaurants. What I more so think about is doing the right things today, over the next year, over the next two years, that will potentially lead us down a pathway where that is possible.

So in the next year, we plan to open five more in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Solidify the brand here in the Mid-Atlantic. Develop our off-premise sales channels. We have a great in-store model, people lining up outside the door to get food in the restaurant. But we’re also working on ways to bring food to people, dropping off food at office buildings through Hotspots, executing a catering business, executing third-party delivery through partners like Uber Eats. We’re developing an integrated, multi-channel approach to getting people food. Developing that over the next year, the next 18 months, and solidifying our presence in Virginia and Pennsylvania. That will give us the opportunity to think about expanding further. Everything about what we've done thus far feels positive. So anything working towards continuing to expand feels positive.

Studio IX:            What's an aspect of the work you do that people might be surprised to know?

Henry:                     So we only have a two person finance team. So it’s me and Laura, who joined us in February, who has been an absolute joy to work with. I can't really express how thankful I am for her joining our team, and everything she's done. But it's still only two of us. That's pretty lean from a people working in finance standpoint. So I still end up handling a lot of what I would consider to be entry level finance roles. I end up paying a lot of bills still. Which eventually, as the CFO, you’d hope I’ve managed things in a way where we have other people taking care of that responsibility. But it's something that's still on my plate, just within the context of how we've developed.

But I have so much fun being an accounts payable accountant. I love calling accounts receivable coordinators on the phone. Most people that I call, they expect it to be a frustrating conversation. I love to get them to diverge and have a conversation about their day. So something that people don't know is, I have wonderful relationships with random accounts receivable clerks. Really all over the Mid-Atlantic. There's Jean from Monteverde’s in Pittsburgh, we have an email exchange every Friday.

There’s Dale from Kegel’s in State College & Delaware. No one really knows that I have these great pen pal relationships with accounts receivables clerks. They're wonderful.

I think that's something I almost try to instill in all the things we do with external vendors. They're part of the Roots community, too. If they feel good about the work they’re doing, that makes everything run more smoothly. So just going out of the way to develop those relationships, just a step further, to make sure everyone really is enjoying the work that they're doing. It's fun. So I still get to do that with some of the more day-to-day accounting and finance roles. I really do enjoy doing those things well.

Studio IX:            That's great. Last question is what do you enjoy about working here at Studio IX?

Henry:                     So we got our first office, it was actually this time last year. It's been a year. We were working all over the place, working remote, with some space in the back of our second Charlottesville location. And me and Hannah were looking for a space to work in, and we walked in here and it was just, "This is it! This is where we need to be." I don't know, I think it's a combination of everything in the studio, it just feels right. To me it strikes me that everyone working here is aligned with that feeling of, you should enjoy what you do and it shouldn't just be about the work

It's a co-working space. So I think the first thing you think is that people go there to work, which is true, but why I feel great about Studio IX is that it's a little bit more than that.

I think that’s really true with all work - yes it's good to be productive, it's good to get things done, but there's always a little bit more than that. So maybe it's having an art gallery, where you work, that feels right. Having great music playing throughout the day, all over the space, that feels right. Having people around who you can stop and have a nice conversation with about what they do. That feels right. Good coffee. That feels right.

For me personally, I spend most of my day trying to figure out how to be as productive as possible. I like being in a space that makes me pause and reflect. We can still enjoy the moment when we’re working. As long as you're pausing to reflect that you can be enjoying that moment. That's a good thing. I think Studio IX does that well.

Studio IX:             Boom! That’s it!

Henry:                 Times up?

Studio IX:             Yeah. You nailed it.

Henry: Yeah?

Studio IX:            Yeah.