A Winner's Mentality

Raising Cane's restaurants turned Todd Graves into a billionaire. Social media turned twin basketball players Hanna and Haley Cavinder into wellness and fitness stars. Here's their joint playbook for success.

- JASON FEIFER

When Raising Cane's opened a new restaurant in Miami, it hired local influencers to hype it up. That included two of the city's buzziest names—Hanna and Haley Cavinder, twins who rose to fame while playing basketball for the Miami Hurricanes, and cofounded the TWOgether fitness app and Hustle Beauty brand for athletes.

Recently, we asked the twins what entrepreneur they'd most like to talk with. They circled right back to that chicken restaurant—and said they'd love to meet Raising Cane's billionaire founder, Todd Graves. They'd seen his business from the outside, but they wanted to understand it from the inside. And Graves, who believes that partnerships are the key to success, was eager to meet and learn from them too.

So we brought the three of them together for a conversation. In turn, they drew up a game plan for growth—in business and in sports.

This conversation was part of a new series we call The Playbook, produced in partnership with Sports Illustrated. We pair entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial athletes for career-spanning conversations. Here's an edited version of their conversation; you can watch the full video at entrepreneur.com/twins.

HALEY CAVINDER: When you started Raising Cane's, did people understand what you wanted to build?

TODD GRAVES: I got turned down by every bank in town, because it was a weird concept back then: Just chicken-finger meals. Other restaurants were adding more items to add more sales. The only model I could think of was In-N-Out Burger—which primarily sells hamburgers—but nobody in Louisiana, where I started, had heard of that.

But I just believed in myself. I said, “If you can serve a ‘craveable’ meal consistently, over and over and over, it's going to be a success.”