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Rick Venzura

Rick Vanzura is President of GrowthFactor, an AI-powered commercial real estate platform, and a veteran retail/restaurant executive who previously served as CEO of Wahlburgers and Freight Farms, Co-COO of Panera Bread, and Chief Strategy Officer at GameStop.

Sep 8, 2026

Capitalist Culture

Capitalist Culture

He Ran Wahlburgers, Fought GameStop's Decline, & Says AI Will Take Your Job Before It Gives You a New One

Sep 8 · 1h 19m

Kip Knippel
Kip KnippelHOST
24:04
Um, how did that relationship begin?
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:06
Yeah, it's, uh, interesting.
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:09
So I was at, uh, Panera, um, and, um, Ron had left for a while.
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:17
He came back.
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:19
And at that point I felt like, um, He was going to be there forever.
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:24
So we were looking at a home, a developer in the town I'm in now, Hingham, was building.
Rick VenzuraGUEST
24:32
And in the course of our conversation, I just sort of casually mentioned, I said, geez, I really want to run a business, but I don't see that happening at Panera.

23 MINS LATER

Kip Knippel
Kip KnippelHOST
47:51
So why that problem and why now?

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