NABEEL
ALAMGIR
The secret
to success is:
outwork everyone else.
Nabeel Alamgir, 2022 AD
From busboy to CMO to pioneering voice for the restaurant industry. The CEO and co-founder of Lunchbox shares his journey from poverty in Bangladesh and washing dishes at Bareburger to saving the restaurant industry with Kieran Luke, COO of Lunchbox.
All words by Nabeel Alamgir in conversation Kieran Luke and Seneca.
The only people that say money isn't going to solve your problem are people who have money.
My mom won the lottery to move to the US.
She was working in Dunkin' Donuts, Dad was driving a cab. And cab drivers, you get robbed once a week on average. So it was just... the worst. It was really rough, that's what I grew up in.
I've never had less than two jobs at the same time.
If I don't have a job, I'll break something just so I can fix it.
I walked into my first Bareburger in 2009 for a job. Ugly people in the back, pretty people in the front, more tips that way. So I was a busboy, which means just show up, clean the table, and go back home. I started putting my hand up to do all the things no one else wanted to do. The dirty work. Graphic design? I’ll do it. We need a website. I’ll figure it out. That art on the wall, I made it 7 years ago.
They didn't know what to do with me. Not hot enough to be a server. But I’m unignorable because I'm constantly just doing things. From busboy to graphic designer, marketing manager, marketing director to CMO. It was like, no one's doing it? I'll do it.
Working with Kieran has allowed me to be more of myself.
As a CEO or leader, you have to be a lot of things to a lot of people. As an entrepreneur you have to play a lot of roles. You have to be HR, you have to be Mom, you have to be Dad, you have to be everything. And you forget at the end of the night to be yourself. What did you do today that was you? That you enjoyed? With Kieran, it fits like one of your shirts, it just works.
I cannot ever do what he does. The other person's so good at their domain. Because if they're not good, then that's where there's tension. I'm never doing any of the stuff Kieran is doing because he can do it in a minute, and I get to do the things I’m good at.
I cannot ever do what he does. The other person's so good at their domain. Because if they're not good, then that's where there's tension. I'm never doing any of the stuff Kieran is doing because he can do it in a minute, and I get to do the things I’m good at.
At Lunchbox, I want to save the 100,000 restaurants that we were not able to save during the pandemic.
When I see the restaurant industry, I see an industry that is not able to survive because of margins, because of money. So one of our core values is we have to make money for our restaurants. I'm sorry if that sounds taboo. I feel a huge responsibility to be a voice for space. And what a beautiful job that that gets to keep me and my family out of the place that we came from. It's just a wonderful, cyclical relationship.