Why Steak 'n Shake Will Let You Run a Restaurant for $10,000

For $10,000, Steak 'n Shake will let you run one of its restaurants. The catch: about 52,000 people applied for the first 159 spots, and the company keeps up to 15% of sales and half the profit. We follow the deal through the company's own filings: why it was built, what it changed, and where the money goes now. CHAPTERS 0:00 The $10,000 offer 1:20 What $10,000 actually gets you 2:24 The rescuer's second crisis 4:19 The bet, and the guarantee 6:06 Tearing out the waiters 8:02 Did the deal do it? 10:20 What partners make 11:44 Who gets the money SOURCES (every number in this video comes from these) Biglari Holdings Inc., SEC filings (9 filings): https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed... Biglari Holdings Inc.: 2019-02, 2020-02, 2021-02, 2022-02, 2025 The Steak n Shake Company, SEC filings (3 filings): https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed... Indianapolis Business Journal: 2008-03, 2018-08 Steak n Shake Inc.: 2019-06, 2021-01, 2026 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: 2026-07 VA Northern Indiana Health Care System: 2026-07 The American Legion: 2026-07 Nation's Restaurant News: 2020-02 IMAGE CREDITS Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Spatms, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Missvain, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Retail Thriller, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... loganrickert, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=..., https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Ed!(talk)(Hall of Fame), CC BY-SA 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Dwight Burdette, CC BY 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... thekirbster, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Pom', CC BY-SA 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Marc-Anthony Macon, CC BY-SA 2.0: https://www.flickr.com/photos/city_of... Michael Rivera, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Coverr-Free-Footage, Pixabay Content License: https://pixabay.com/videos/id-1058/ rashed7671, Pixabay Content License: https://pixabay.com/videos/id-172894/ clembore, CC BY-SA 2.0: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanhoos... Kaffeesüchtig, Pixabay Content License: https://pixabay.com/videos/id-199545/ justephens, CC BY 2.0: https://www.flickr.com/photos/justeph... Dx21, Pixabay Content License: https://pixabay.com/videos/id-129723/ Peter K., CC BY-SA 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Plus 2 public-domain/CC0 photos from Wikimedia Commons. Licenses: CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Pixabay Content License https://pixabay.com/service/license-s... Photos are cropped, zoomed and in places darkened or blurred behind graphics. Why Borders Died and Barnes & Noble Didn't HOW THIS VIDEO WAS MADE: AI-assisted research and scripting, reviewed by a human editor; every factual claim was checked against the sources above. The narration voice, music, sound effects and illustrations were generated with AI (ElevenLabs, Google Gemini). The Nickel: why American brands rose, fell, or survived. Sources in the description.