Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Karbowski and Austin Patry.
Sophia and Austin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We met in one of our entrepreneurship classes the first semester of our senior year of college. At the end of the semester, we were sitting in the library, procrastinating on a project we desperately needed to finish. During our semester in class together, we learned that we both have a passion for home cooking, healthy eating, and living an all-around healthy lifestyle. This specific night in the library, lots of our friends were complaining that there was nowhere they could go close to campus to get a healthy, filling, and quick meal. On nights like these, cramming away during finals, we didn’t have any spare time to stray far from “club lib.”
So, the procrastination continued from classroom to library to avid texting. What if we could fix this problem? The ideas started flowing and flowing… and we were getting excited about it. What can we serve that Fort Worth is lacking? What do our peers want?
We arrived back at school after winter break with the intention of making something happen to solve this problem. Our first idea was to open an açaí cafe – a storefront within walking distance from campus. But, we needed to start small. We wanted to start this debt-free, no investors style.
We started scheduling meetings on meetings with food industry professionals in Fort Worth who have been in the business for years and years to gain valuable insight. We cannot stress enough how important the information we learned in these meetings were for our business now. The absolute most important thing we did when starting RnB was talking to every single person we encountered about our idea. We asked everybody for their opinion and if they had any ideas themselves for how we could improve. When we say everybody, we mean even at the grocery store checkout. You will never ever know who can help you unless you ask!
From what we learned in these meetings, we ultimately came to the decision to start small by beginning with a food truck! To quickly answer another question we are often asked – no, we had absolutely zero ideas we wanted to start a business like this before we started talking in class. We didn’t know this was going to happen even one month before and we sure as heck didn’t have it in any post-grad plans. It really just, happened. And it happened because we started getting so much incredible feedback from our peers and because we are truly so passionate about what we are doing and serving. Almost everyone we spoke to about our idea genuinely thought it would be a success, and this helped give us a push to really make it a reality.
Fast forward a year and a half, and we are approaching our second brick-and-mortar cafe opening. After graduating in May 2017, we finished preparation to open our food truck, which in total took about five months. We operated out of our food truck for a full year from July 2017 to July 2018- open everyday in the same location – which was just down the street from TCU. In August we opened our first store on campus at TCU and we are hoping to be open in the next couple of months in the new Crockett Food Hall in Fort Worth!
Has it been a smooth road?
No! Not at all. We have faced numerous challenges that could easily have set us back and scared us out of continuing. The belief and passion that not only we have for our product, but that our customers have, is what keeps us moving forward! We easily could have decided that we couldn’t afford the startup costs back when we were seniors, but we just took it day by day and kept pushing forward. Now opening two restaurants almost at once without investors has REALLY taught us what its like to be living on the edge.
Managing people is another one of the biggest challenges we have faced. We have about 30 employees on our team at TCU and that number is about to double as we open our second store. Throughout the past year, we have learned that finding people who genuinely want to help improve your business and grow with you is truly so valuable. With this growth we have learned we cannot do it all by ourselves, and having like-minded, driven people growing with us is so incredibly helpful!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
RnB is an açaí bowl, smoothie, and juice cafe based in Fort Worth. We serve the best, most authentic açaí bowls in Fort Worth and we were actually the first açaí bowl focused establishment here! We use all-natural ingredients and fruit with 0 added sugars. Our most popular menu items are our OG açaí bowl – the Super Monkey Bowl, our Coco Loco bowl – blended with PB and cacao, and our Loaded Avocado Toast – fresh bread piled high with avocado, arugula, feta, tomato, and all the seasonings!
We pride ourselves on only serving food that we truly believe in and would order ourselves. We truly care about our customers and want to provide them with healthy, nourishing, and delicious foods that will keep them full and energized throughout their day! Our hard work has allowed us to become an accessible healthy food option for TCU students and we are eager to get back to serving the rest of Fort Worth.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes! Fort Worth is an incredible place to start a business. The Fort Worth community is so welcoming and supportive of local businesses and truly do what they can to encourage them. Incubators of all sorts have been opening and there are professionals in so many fields that have mentored us and helped us tremendously throughout our journey. No matter what field you are in, we feel strongly that Fort Worth is a great place to start a business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rollinnbowlin.com
- Phone: 6302006393
- Email: info@rollinnbowlin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rollinnbowlin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rollinnbowlin/
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
