What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Stuart Thomajan founded Chameleon Companies and how they select and develop concepts 
• The ingredients for a successful hospitality business
• How to develop a fearless approach to entrepreneurship

Chameleon Companies and its founder and CEO Stuart Thomajan can’t be put into a box. Specializing in real estate, development, hospitality, and technology, Chameleon’s ventures are nonexclusive and eclectic, guided by Thomajan’s refined taste for excellent concepts.

An entrepreneur at heart, Thomajan says he has “always worked for myself,” starting his career in commodity trading abroad after graduating from the University of Texas, Austin. Ten years later, he returned to the US and worked in tech for another decade. Garnering experience in finance, operations, sales, and tech, Thomajan saw that he could help other people’s ideas get off the ground and founded Chameleon Companies in 2001. As a family of companies that develop, operate, and finance businesses and projects, Chameleon is a leader in the industry and invests in people, ideas, and markets.

The sushi restaurant Uchi was Chameleon’s first foray into hospitality, and a few years later Thomajan was introduced to Paggi House. Despite consistent business, the owners felt the restaurant was not reaching its full potential. Thomajan rose to the challenge and bought four books on restaurant management and finance, bringing some ideas back to the owners. After making some of his suggested changes, business at Paggi House started to improve, and Thomajan established himself as a restauranteur. Chameleon Companies currently runs three restaurants that have Austin raving.

Hearkening back to the founding principles of Chameleon, Thomajan explains that people are the most important part of any venture. Communicating the vision and goals of the company to a receptive team is crucial to the success of any business.

For restaurants specifically, Thomajan has idenitifed three priorities: food, service, and ambiance. “But the difference between a good meal and a great meal is the story,” Thomajan reveals, understanding that a strong concept must be communicated in each of those three elements, and felt by their combination.

In addition to maintaining quality relationships, Thomajan knows that fearlessness is essential to his success. He always approached opportunities with an open mind and moved forward even if he wasn’t familiar with an industry or concept. “You’ll never have all the answers… so you shouldn’t wait for all the answers,” Thomajan says, explaining that you just have to get started – which is the hardest and most important part. “Commit to that first step,” he encourages young entrepreneurs, “even if it’s symbolic. It provides impetus, inspiration, and motivation” – and that snowballs into more diverse opportunities.

Listen to the full episode to hear Chameleon’s full story, learn about their other ventures, and discover how Thomajan recognizes and develops a great concept. And once you’ve worked up an appetite listening, check out Chameleon’s restaurants: Swift’s Attic, WuChow, and their most recent venture Rosedale. You can find their other ventures here.

Masters & Founders is a founding_media podcast created in collaboration with foundingAUSTIN.

Host: Dan Dillard

Ryan Francis

Guest: Stuart Thomajan

Transcript:

Hey folks welcome to another episode of masters and founders on the show this week we’re talking to entrepreneur shapeshifter Stuart Thomajan his career business development since started on early age developing an eye for great opportunities from his initial investment in UC two now overseen some of Austin’s most popular eateries which shell killed and sweeps attic Stewart knows good food and good business I’ll let him share how he’s found success with Chameleon companies

hello everybody and welcome to the masters and founders podcasts where we talk about anybody that has mastered the craft or founded a business today we are sitting inside of guild going live with Stuart Thomajan and sorry I might have mispronouncing and dealer to myself Ryan Francis store I I know a little bit about you I know you’re restaurateur I know you are a developer I know that you I know a couple people that your partners with like like with Chow unite I know C. K. Chen and and I’m really excited to hear about your story I kinda like to just throw people into it and let’s start from the beginning wherever that was we started communing group in two thousand one after after particular exit I was in tax for about twelve years and we had a couple tech companies that we’d started and sold and after we sold I think it was our second or third one we we started chameleon we royal we started to million in two thousand one two to do investments mostly to just do outside investments so this was fourth grew we wished we gentleman you have for career path I kind of want to go right to the very beginning is where you started we train was and and and just kind of touch on the the the for careers yeah I actually moved to Austin to go to college at UT Austin I moved from New York City where a born and raised and after finishing college I I ended up meeting a group and ended and moved over to Europe and Asia for a little bit I worked in the commodities trading world physical commodities oil and then after about a decade or so maybe a little less with them moved back to the United States moved back to moved back to Texas and and started getting involved in technology and and a few other things technology pretty much right out of the gate coding and stuff or just I was more on the operations and finance side I’m never been a coder wasn’t my strength so I ended up in business development I ended up in in operations and finance

I think the commodities career help with a very a great comfort with numbers at that point and so when I first got back to Austin actually stayed in it’s sort of financial money management area and then you know quickly dove tail that in that into chat I got fascinated by technology because I got involved with a sort of an online trading entity and watched how the trading and and technology was changing and move more fully in the technology after that and spend another decade in technology and then from there was of the natural jumper that was their Oscars in the entire time well I was always an entrepreneurial with the I think the commodities group was was one that I work for somebody else and then after that I really pretty much work for myself and I started with the technology and joined a group that had really in its Mason phases and then we develop that I was a partner in that and then we sold that and then started another one and then we sold that started another one and we sold that and then after after does one during that second one really in the Middle East I started chameleon to make investments in in various things and what we ended up doing was was investing in other people’s ideas and using and leveraging the experience that we gained in technology and finance and operations and sales to help other people get sort of some of their ideas we we say it on the website we invested in people ideas and market sort of in that order people being the most valuable asset and and we we ended up doing that for we’ve we’ve been doing that ever since really and then the restaurant serves grew out of that as well so we invested early on in in the hi hospitality and she grew that was our first really I was our first restaurant investment and then we invested in the house and then subsequent to that we we started Swiss ourselves and started which ourselves in and now we’re seeing today

that’s that’s beautiful what made the transition into restaurants was in a partner that you Matt when was it when it’s wet static open as is that your first one that you guys that yourselves yeah well it was kind of goes back a little further than that after investing in an issue with Tyson uhhuh Darryl it was we were we had invested in another restaurant called pudgy house which was located down on reside and Lamar and it was in the second oldest building in the city you it’s it’s an amazing an amazing sight so there today it’s a it’s a law office now but we invested in that and then I guess it was about two thousand eight in sometime around two thousand nine we actually required for all the full interest in the restaurant with two other partners we’ve been working with and we that was our first restaurant that we kind of owned and managed and we sold that restaurant in two thousand and twelve to one of the partners that we were doing it with and in two thousand twelve we started sweat so about a month before we sold party house we had we had officially open source to the public and then we just continued from there and in two thousand fourteen really fifteen we open which Alan and two thousand seventeen slash eighteen I want to talk about some of these time frames because and also the fear and not fear we talked with a second ago but really we’re looking at you know come out recession two thousand and eight two thousand nine so there’s a lot of that site I’d have to think as an investor especially in restaurants you you hear this all time like one of the most risky type businesses that you get into but what gave me the confidence and lack of fear after that kind of an economy the jumps up some into some like that

I guess would be two parts one is that prior to two thousand and eight during do that between two thousand one and two thousand and eight primarily we were doing a lot of real estate development a lot of real estate development in fact in two thousand eight two thousand nine we had just finished sixty four unit condo development right there on south Lamar and it was finishing up and we were selling out of that that project beautiful project that’s still there today again love it this call to Korea and then that recession here started having to liquidate condos and liquidate assets in the moldings we got really fortunate in that our products sold and people still wanted and we didn’t really get impacted by that and so when that middle market development lending went away and we were really a middle market developer when that middle market development went away I was looking around for things to get involved with and all the house was a restaurant it that everybody seems to love and we always seem to have people in it but it really wasn’t making money that a lot of the partner something should or thought that it could and we we had a I want to do with the partners that I was working with and I I made a comment I said

so I walked by restaurants all the time and there’s not that many people in them and they stay open for years and then have a walk by party house it seems like there’s a lot of people in there seems like there’s enough people in there and and it doesn’t seem to be making the money that we think is good so I I think that there’s there’s an opportunity there and the two partners that I was working with at the time thought enough to say will you know go ahead and try it and so we just sort of jumped in with both feet I literally went out and bought a book for looks really but one book on restaurant management two books on restaurant financing one book on restaurant inventory management and just read on and then started showing up at the restaurant and tried to try to change things and the restaurant turned around really quickly and what of what I have heard from the four books what have you learned during during that time pudgy house what did you learn that you had no I did you know that it was going to be as hard as it is to run a restaurant I know how hard it is yeah did you know actually no did the books say listen this is gonna be really hard on yeah or it wasn’t at the I mean everybody says the restaurant business is really difficult I think it’s really it is really difficult but I think it really falls down to again that we go back to the people ideas and Martin was the the founding principal of what we would invest in with with chameleon and people are the main thing and and you have to have the right people doing the right things in the right areas and you have to have everybody sort of pulling together in everybody’s got a everybody’s gonna believe in understanding what the vision and the goal in the ideas and if they do that and they’re all pulling together at the same time then usually things will will have a way of working themselves out it’s when I I it’s one I think that people don’t really understand where we’re going and and they just don’t have a clear idea thank you sort of seem to get in trouble or did everybody just not pulling the same direction as a lot of self interest that happens I think the our team the comedian came right now is is amazing I mean we’re really fortunate

so one of the things that we did at party house was just sort of jumped in and just sort of made our presence known and work with everybody that was there to try to say well this is what we’re trying to do to try to go forward with Dr we try to get better we’re trying to eat better we’re trying to you know stay and be here as opposed to not be and I think when when people hear the honesty and that at least apology at that point a day sort of we sort of started to believe in and we are here with us they can’t we dared everybody cares we definitely care yeah and we can get other people to care I think that it will take care of it not take care of itself but it makes it makes life a lot easier there’s a lot of management is a lot of details in the restaurant business but if you’ve got a good team and you’ve got good people that are able to to to pay attention to details and and take care of the things that they know they’re supposed to take care of the it’s about execution it’s about execution then then you can do great things read something this morning were says you can’t get your customers to believe in the interim ploys themselves like us that’s exact yep rest for you guys use this is tell the story to the employees which is trying to communicate and then have them first of all believe in it and then to make it up to the clients I’d

I would absolutely agree I mean we do that in a couple of different ways and one has to do with with making sure that that everybody from a concept perspective right is restaurants are three service and ambience is really only three things right so if you’ve got it food guide service got hit the ambiance but behind that is that concept it’s a concept is is solid and people respond to the concept and it’s all about execution after that we got to build a physical plant is beautiful and or that’s comfortable not even beautiful doesn’t have to be beautiful it has to be comfortable people have to want to be there people have to want to he willing to spend time there it it does matter how rest have beautiful places if it doesn’t feel like you don’t want to be there it’s not gonna work even if this is great the service is great they ought to be about as a food service ambience but again if you if you put the concept forward if you tell the story and the staff forget to you’re trying to do and and is willing to come along on that ride and then you can do great things and and we say even beyond that how you convey that story to the to the to the customers to use gases even is even more important right we said the difference between a good meal at a great meals the story and so it’s it’s one thing to to come in and have really good food but we tell a story here about this or somebody understood we haven’t killed and the story behind it is is is a meaningful one our executive chef and my partner sterling writings went to napa and ate it French laundry as a special honeymoon meal and was inspired by this one actually had a French laundry and and the oyster selling on dish you know came out of that I don’t need to go into the whole story but it’s one of the things that we do that our IT staff will share with our gas and it and it it provides something that that somebody can connect to and so we have the concept through the food through the story for the gas and it seems to work out so being that you have a couple different concepts now what have you seen in the restaurant industry in Austin how have you seen it evolved since you started

everybody’s opening up restaurants and and there’s a lot of successful one so the competition as spike super high and it wasn’t like that ten years ago right I mean you had you had the first ones coming up Tyson Cole yep Bryce Gilmore was coming up and then now now it’s everybody right yeah so how’s that changed and and how have you evolved with it and your business well I think that the business is much different than it was ten years ago I think that the biggest thing that we probably have to deal with the staffing there’s just it’s just not enough people to to be involved as many people moved also in it it it always if you talk to other people in the business and might not be true you talk to other people in the business we all sort of feel like the same thing we all feel like we’re all competing for qualified people in Austin there was a huge proliferation of restaurants restaurants a couple years ago restaurants were open and every every couple of Haiti’s seriously I mean it was really amazing to see the the clip at which people just sort of came in and were able to open restaurants but I’ve also seen restaurants I think did that I think you have to have it there’s got to there’s a lot that goes into it and there’s a million reasons why restaurants maybe won’t make it but there’s also a million reasons why restaurants and make it but I think that that the things we talked about before that clear communication always helps but I think that the the industry has seen a lot of development and a lot of concepts come in so for us it’s the difficulty in finding the staff and then trying to find something in Austin wants is the other thing I mean gilder so I we signed the lease on this building at twenty fifteen yeah and that was we had the concept and leans in twenty fifteen so the rest is is is a couple years of just trying to get it out of the ground and try to get a percentage of the city but you have to sort of figure out what you think the city wants and what area of the city you want to be and how you’re going to deliver that to that area of the city and then and then make it happen so that the the challenges sort of finding that thing in Austin once and then finding the place you think it needs to be and then translating what that area wants it to be the space has to work through and then putting it all together some of the

for me it there’s a big help with the real estate as a real estate developer senator the the build projects I I have the ability or I have a I feel like I have the ability to kind of look around and feel a little bit more about what the space kind of not necessarily wants to be but could be would be yeah because I’ve I’ve done it a few times and I I guess maybe we have a little bit of that benefit I’ve also learned a lot from from the real estate about how to create a space that people want to be in that feels comfortable it feels a little warmer it’s really from designing houses and commercial spaces and stuff like that some I mean maybe that’s a little bit of I don’t know if it’s an edge but it’s a little bit of experience that I bring in that regard which has helped in the restaurants but I think that the chance your question the thing that changed the most is that the people and I think the concepts yeah it’s it’s probably a little more challenging to find the thing that the city once the area of the city wants it and get it to market in a in a reasonable time and with the reasonable amount of money yeah and being that you have different concepts how do you develop concepts you sit with your team in a room and you’re like whoa is it just like that what is Austin want what doesn’t have what can we bring to them yet is that right I do I do so you you mentioned which are before you mention seeking for would show grew out of a I’m from New York originally and and I’ve been here this time for twenty years and I’ve lived half more than half my life at this point and in the city I kind of feel like I’m in Austin I more than more than not but I remember as a child growing up eating really really good Chinese food and in Austin I just felt like there was a need for that kind of thing and and see can I were working on swift’s and we were looking at spaces and we found the IBC space in the building sort of look like a building at a Macau it had this really interesting little curve to it and we thought there’s an opportunity there for for something you know it had it just a slightly Asian feel to watch and see case background is jeep C. case chains and speak Chinese and he also grew up eating that food we had another concept that we were kicking around but I mean it just sort of when we stood in the space of just sort of fit and we presented to ideas to I. B. C. and I like the Chinese idea better in which I was born but it it came from but prior to that it came from just sitting down with a with a group of people and sort of saying what is also want what is often need more what are we missing what what don’t we have and it just one I think also probably has a little of everything it just has to be a question of we’ll email you actually I’m in

at the time I remember I remember distinctly thinking to myself Austin doesn’t have any Chinese food and lo and behold Lucio pops up I mean seriously was the perfect time and that’s that’s all about execution right on the idea of what Austin once so I I want to go back a little bit to Tyson and you finding Tyson or for Tyson finding you I don’t know how it happened you mean the first investment yeah for some of us went yeah I am because that’s a pretty good one that’s a great one right so cheap yeah they are the best yes they don’t like that into a really really good job and sterling my day executive chef your head chef here and and my partner is is actually came from Chico but the and a lot of people in this town and have come through and graduated through that hi hospitality group and put out some amazing amazing stuff so that at the very least there an incubator and at the very best they’re probably in a one of the very best restaurants in the city and well run restaurant but the the relationship with Tyson started to muster sheen yeah and the funny thing is Swiss attic is it he does old space where Tyson for started really anyway the I met Tyson a mostly she knew and and we just became friends and one day sitting in the kitchen in the back of the restaurant he was talking about wanting to do his own thing and we said that if you were not the only investors others I think it’s four other five other investors in the group but he came to us and said are you can give to me specifically and said you know I want to do my own thing and I said well at the time I was really in restaurants it probably should have said yes but at the time I said if if you can find somebody to do it with you and we’ll we’ll put some money in and that’s how that’s how that happened and then a few months later he more than a few months later but a few months later he came and said Hey we’re ready and so we invested in a certain routine and and and that was history and then after that there was some people that I knew from Kenichi Jane stark he came and brought me in to meet a few other people and we ended up investing in in party house and then we bought us and you know that a little yeah conversations it it yeah a lot of I want to go back to what we were talking before we start the podcast was ninety million yeah and I think that’s interesting we just share with the audience were you guys came up with the why yeah

I wasn’t in two thousand and one I wasn’t really sure what we’re gonna do with this direction that we were we were we knew we were going to make investments and other stuff what about stuff and we knew we wanted to do people ideas and markets and we wanted to do it primarily in the southwest but you know I had finance and operations and I had sales and business development experience and we had a couple of people that we were working with at the time that rounded out a couple of other areas and I’ve this background intact and so we were we started and AT and in college I used to work on I was in construction so I started doing land bank financing deals and I started doing these specific floor landing two developers that weren’t conventionally bankable and guys just could walk into a bank and get a loan so they would come to us and we would work together with them on on their real estate developments and we worked out on investing in some tax and so we weren’t really sure we were really doing we would and the land bank financing was just really off balance she conduit stuff is really interesting fun in a in a rising market but some because we weren’t really sure we want to do so we just said you know what what could we change what’s what’s more viable and so we just call the company chameleon were really sure I love that union for passion don’t even know what you want to get into I’m doing my own thing right and going for you also mentioned something I want to bring up of the conversation between you and your wife about this thing called fear and and and your philosophy her philosophy about your fear or fearless

well my wife says that I lack fear about started something specifically I mean I’m I have fear I carry some stress but as far as starting a new business or getting involved in something she said that I I I just don’t have any fear I usually listen to these so she said one of the things that that that she’s observed is that if I don’t know something about something just go find read a book yeah well I’m just I think there’s I think the restaurant business was that was that was definitely something that I needed to get up to speed on really really quick thing but I we try to consume I use what we a lot I try to consume a lot of a lot of information a lot of data lot of magazines a lot of books a lot lot of on here where the where the market’s going and you know what what’s what’s needed what what the opportunities are we just consume a lot of that and it was a sort of filter it through and and and try to look for for transit directions looking going but the and I think that that helps with with some of that maybe not fear but if if somebody comes with an idea or a thought or business that we’ve never done before that we have been involved in you have an open mind this is like yes we have a very open mind looking me up and right now especially an amazing people that if I don’t know something about it I can just turn to laser earlier barrier for Sheeran’s guys and just say Hey we think about this and it’s it’s really nice to have that center work but lacking any it’s not necessarily confidential call confidence and it’s just like it it’s not limiting yourself we just look forward to say we can do this and if we can’t necessarily if we don’t have what we need right this second we’ll figure it out or will gain it over the track it or will will edit or will learn it moves hours so powerful and so I want to bring that out in in the podcast because that is I just people’s sit at home sometimes an idea for years and don’t move because sometimes I try to have all the answers before the start of the never have all the answers what is never say

it’s like some you know what we’re gonna do this we need at this company name chameleon right and we just can’t afford due to this they have the same attitude about new ideas I think I think you can start almost anything you want with sheer force of will I think if you want it bad enough and you really want to move forward you like you said I don’t think you should wait for all the answers I mean it’s it’s good to be educated it’s good to know what you’re doing I’m not reckless by any means were I would like to we’ll take chances but but we’re still conservative I mean we don’t like to make mistakes right but I don’t think you’ll ever gonna have every single answer and and well my wife and I talk about is that you know she says that the hardest part did she seem for most people is started it’s just taken the first step and that’s what you gotta do you you’ve got to commit to that first step first just do it if it’s whatever it is even if it’s symbolic if you want to have this company just go and start the company just go down as secretary of state’s office and file the paperwork and get your LP or your LLC or your C. courtier escort whatever you you know you want to do and just do it and then you have the name of the piece of paper and hopefully that will provide some level of impetus some level of inspiration some level of motivation for you’ll to start doing stuff and then add in and that once you have that responsibility you have to step on the air and just start you don’t have to have it all figured out it’s good to have a lot of it figured out

I’m a big fan of business plans not necessarily for other people but the big fan of business plans to help you understand exactly what your thought process is may not nobody might read five years from now marketing plan for this restaurant but the fact that I had to write it think through the process at least helps me understand my market is and you know right now working with Liz we knew what before we open the restaurant what our marketing plan was honestly at the ready but listen I now work together following at that idea that marketing plan who was our demographic who are people who are how do we get to that how do we attract them and we bring them into the how do you build a where all these things are things that we we continue we are working on but you have to start right you have to take that first step and just start you love the love that I love that too you know we’re sitting in for the audience that that can’t really see us because we are on a podcast we are in a beautiful restaurant and it’s guild the G. U. I. L. D. and this is your third concept within right at fourth really yeah four have you cannot yeah yeah yeah so forth if you count Poggi houses we redid pudgy I mean we went in to buy the house and we did a a redesign and a lot of construction work and and check basically change the concept so forth tell the audience is primarily Austin tell them all about guilt and what the concept is and what you guys want to do with the food and what kind of food that you’re actually doing here again to our guild is a seasonally driven restaurant that’s seafood forward I mean we’re more of a seafood restaurant I think we probably have about sixty percent of the menu seafood it’s also stable and it’s very for the table in fact out front we have our own little victory garden it was starting to grow our own little urban garden here now and and sterling concept was as we work forward was to treat the protein with respect that it deserves kind of thing it wasn’t it’s not like a would you like swordfish would you like a black and would you like a grilled would you like it now you know that the official com the way that the fishing to contest on the flash of the taste and the you know where we got it and all that kind of fun stuff and so we felt that there was a need that I think that that a lot of people are moving more towards since more seafood products the last I think it’s what do they say in the last ten fifteen years last fifteen years people reading ten percent less a lan protein I think people are moving in the direction of of seafood especially sustainable seafood we need to move in the direction of sustainable seafood section being that a lot of the the seafood is is healthier ground I think that between one runs I personally am allergic to by growth hormones I can’t eat most the setting that states so I think that you know there’s a perception that that it’s it’s healthier and we wanted to be healthy clean restaurant focusing on seafood in this part of town

no I don’t think that this specific part of town really has a lot of a lot as many choices as a downtown or even even further north so we we picked this spot and we pick that concept in so far we’ve been really well received nice to see love that a good offense is there anything else we need to let the office know about you know the restaurants you will hear how to yeah absolutely you can if you want to get a hold of of us or me specifically you can go to the website million G. P. dot com G. P. as in general partner and an old where we were you know more of an investor group but communing GP dot com and you can reach out directly to me through that website you can call the office and and you know leave a message and I’ll get back to very good great Stewart well thank you very much for having us and everybody on the audience just just something to recap start just start go down the path because you’re not gonna get anywhere unless you you make that first step so go ahead and do that thank you thank you thank you enjoyable sustainable and unique things that have made Stewart successful in what can be intensely competitive industries thank you Stuart for speaking with us the masters in founders team includes me down Dillard producer Mariah gossip and audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you to the entire crew of family loss and for your support want to connect with other masters in Paris France make sure your member of our Facebook group the link is in the show notes please show the show with a friend or leave us a review on I tunes to help others find the show thanks for listening