EO 360°: A podcast by the Entrepreneurs' Organization
Jul 31, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min · 12 segments
Matt Friedman is the co-founder of Wing Zone, the author of "From Frat House to Franchising," and the new CEO of Epic Wings. He started the Wing Zone in 1993 out of his fraternity house kitchen at the…
Matt FriedmanGuest
Dave WillHost
Uh, y- you're, you're the author of From Frat House to Franchising, which is the Wing story.
And I love the title because it's very intriguing, and people are like, "Whoa, what's this about?" Because I think it resonates with a very young audience.
So many young entrepreneurs think they need this master business plan, and they need millions of dollars to start a business.
And I'm here to tell you that I started with $500 with a one-page business plan, and that was it.
Even though I would argue a one-page business plan is better than a 40-page business plan.
... because it kept us focused, and, and actually laser focused on what we were gonna be.
We were gonna be a delivery-based business, uh, servicing hungry college students late night and with a very simple menu.
I had studied Domino's Pizza, right? Amazingly successful brand, started in college markets, and I always found that, or I always felt that there was, there was a need for an alternative to pizza delivery.
Because they own the market, right? And so we came in with a, a different product, but a s- the same operating system.
We would take customer's order by phone, by hand, writing them out, their address, their phone number, calculating their order on a, on a calculator-
Uh, y- you're, you're the author of From Frat House to Franchising, which is the Wing story.
And I love the title because it's very intriguing, and people are like, "Whoa, what's this about?" Because I think it resonates with a very young audience.
So many young entrepreneurs think they need this master business plan, and they need millions of dollars to start a business.
And I'm here to tell you that I started with $500 with a one-page business plan, and that was it.
Even though I would argue a one-page business plan is better than a 40-page business plan.
... because it kept us focused, and, and actually laser focused on what we were gonna be.
We were gonna be a delivery-based business, uh, servicing hungry college students late night and with a very simple menu.
I had studied Domino's Pizza, right? Amazingly successful brand, started in college markets, and I always found that, or I always felt that there was, there was a need for an alternative to pizza delivery.
Because they own the market, right? And so we came in with a, a different product, but a s- the same operating system.
We would take customer's order by phone, by hand, writing them out, their address, their phone number, calculating their order on a, on a calculator-
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