Raising Cane's grew from a business plan graded B-minus
Raising Cane's began as a college business plan that earned a B-minus and was turned down by investor after investor. Its founders paid their own way with manual labour jobs, opened near LSU in Baton Rouge in 1996, and built a chain that by 2025 ranked third in US quick-service chicken sales.
Todd Graves and Craig Silvey drafted the plan for a restaurant selling little but chicken fingers while studying at different universities; Silvey handed it in for a business-writing course, and Graves was working at Guthrie's Chicken Fingers at the time. With investors unwilling, the pair raised money through manual labour and a Small Business Administration loan.
The first restaurant, nicknamed The Mothership, opened on 28 August 1996 at Highland Road and State Street, close to the North Gate of Louisiana State University. While renovating the building Graves uncovered an old mural from Wolf's Bakery, whose red brick tones, white script and yellow tagline shaped the logo. The name honours his yellow Labrador, Cane, and later yellow Labradors have served as mascots and certified therapy dogs.
Silvey sold his share soon after the second restaurant opened, leaving Graves as sole chief executive until AJ Kumaran, who arrived as chief operating officer in 2014, became co-CEO three years later. The menu stays narrow: marinated, battered chicken fingers with a dipping sauce whose recipe leadership keeps private, served alongside Texas toast, slaw and crinkle-cut fries.
Cane's went abroad in 2014 with a restaurant in Kuwait, where the dog stays off signs and merchandise because dogs are unpopular there for religious reasons. During a staff shortage in 2021, hundreds of corporate employees were sent to cook and work registers while the company aimed to hire 10,000 people. In 2022 it sued an Indiana shopping centre after learning that a McDonald's non-compete barred other tenants from selling deboned chicken. A Times Square branch opened on 27 June 2023, and Dubai followed in 2024.
Source: Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers
