How I Turned $50,000 Into a $300M Business (Oakberry Açaí Founder)

Georgios Frangulis is the founder of Oakberry, the world's largest açaí chain, and a man who opened his first store the same month he came out of cancer surgery. At 26, he took $50,000 from a life insurance policy he had called to cancel and opened a 60-square-foot kiosk in a São Paulo mall two weeks before Christmas. Within three years he had hundreds of locations across Brazil. Today Oakberry has over 1,100 locations across 50 countries, opens a new store every two days, and does over $300 million a year in revenue. 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:15 How Georgios discovered the OAKBERRY opportunity 00:03:53 Why the original US launch failed 00:06:14 Finding the first location 00:07:41 Engineering the business for franchising 00:09:50 The meaning behind the OAKBERRY name 00:13:26 Funding the first store after cancer 00:16:14 Staying positive when failure feels inevitable 00:18:21 How to build a scalable franchise model 00:22:06 Who should become a franchisee 00:25:00 Expanding into international markets 00:26:50 The no-kitchen operating advantage 00:28:20 Why German-speaking locations perform best 00:31:20 Building a lifestyle brand before a food brand 00:33:14 From a missed meeting to the Super Bowl 00:38:08 Why Formula 1 made commercial sense 00:43:44 OAKBERRY’s revenue and growth numbers 00:45:06 Choosing the right international partners 00:47:33 Expanding into CPG 00:50:39 Vertical integration and stronger margins 00:51:59 Why OAKBERRY buys franchises back 00:54:40 Hiring leaders who are better than the founder 00:56:31 Could OAKBERRY become a public company? 00:59:52 Georgios on work-life balance 01:01:11 Racing, cars, and unfinished ambitions 01:03:27 Buying Le Mans football club 01:05:25 First million and biggest founder mistake 01:06:16 The advice Georgios would give his younger self The Venture by Razvan Paraschiv Instagram:   / theventure   TikTok:   / theventure   X: https://x.com/razvanparaschiv LinkedIn:   / razvanpb   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033TtpC... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Georgios Frangulis   / georgiosfrangulis   https://www.oakberry.com/