Dok Kwon, Cupbop chief operating officer, says the brand known for Korean food in a cup is filling a gap in the QSR segment. Founded in 2015, Cupbop has 52 locations in the United States.
Dok Kwon, chief operating officer at Cupbop, believes the Korean concept can be the next big Asian quick-service brand. Kwon and CEO Junghun Song, however, aren’t putting the cart before the horse.
Founded in 2013, Cupbop has 52 locations across the United States and 170 more in Indonesia, where it operates under Kawan Lama Group. The majority of its U.S. locations are company owned, but the brand opened the door in April to multi-unit franchising with a selective approach to finding partners.
“We’ve never been in a hurry to go out and find a franchisee,” Kwon said. “We thought hard about what the best strategy is with the franchise model, which has an advantage with the speed of growth, creating a structure and being easier to manage. Our conclusion was that we’ll continue to open corporate units and we’ll also selectively work with multi-unit franchisees that believe in our brand and can take care of it and go from there.”
Cupbop received nearly 2,000 inquiries from individuals interested in the franchise, but rather than pursue growth with a large number of single-unit operators, it’s opting to only grant individual agreements internally to people in the company.
“What we’re really looking for are multi-unit franchisees with a restaurant operational background,” Kwon said. “The most important thing for us is that they have run a number of restaurants. There’s a massive difference between people who’ve run restaurants and those who’ve not.”
Through the growth strategy of multi-unit deals and company openings, Kwon said the goal is to fill a gap in the QSR sector by creating another nationwide Asian concept.
“There’s no other Asian QSR players, other than Panda Express,” Kwon said. “You can look at the top 100 QSR brands, and Panda Express is the only one there.”
Song sees a lack of Korean options in the space, too, and it was that absence that led him to start Cupbop. “One of my friends in the industry had invited me to a food convention,” said Song, who’s originally from Seoul. “I tried all the food and I saw so many Mexican, Japanese, Chinese and even Thai food options, but I couldn’t find any Korean food.”
Cupbob CEO Junghun Song
Song launched a Cupbop food truck a decade ago in downtown Salt Lake City. Cupbop’s twist was its convenience factor; it served Korean barbecue quickly and in a cup.
“Korean food is really yummy, but it takes a lot of time,” Song said. “They have to make the rice, the main dish and then eight to 10 different side dishes. When people are on their lunch break, though, they’re moving fast. So, the goal was making the product simple and fast.”
The workflow was effective for the food truck space and Kwon said the efficiency carried over to its brick-and-mortar locations.
“Our operations are intended to be simple. That is the mantra of the company,” Kwon said. “It’s one we focus on heavily because we believe that’s where the competitive advantage is for our brand versus other concepts.”
Cupbop can fit in small spaces, which can lower initial costs. The brand’s first brick-and-mortar unit was just 300 square feet, Kwon said.
The efficiency and deals with experienced franchisees give Kwon confidence the brand will continue to have sustained success. What gives him even more assurance, though, is the growing popularity of Korean culture in the U.S.
“I think there’s a connectiveness and continued interweaving of cultures brought to us by technology,” Kwon said. “It has a lot to do with people watching Netflix and seeing K-dramas or ‘Squid Game,’ and people becoming fans of K-pop. You name it. It’s not foreign anymore, even compared to five years ago. I’ve lived in the States for 20 years and the difference I’ve seen has been very noticeable.”
One person who became a fast fan of the brand is Mark Cuban, who invested $1 million in Cupbop in exchange for a 5 percent stake in the business during a 2022 “Shark Tank” episode.
This cultural interweaving, Kwon said, can produce the same success Chinese food has experienced in the U.S.
“Once food comes here, and people taste it and like it, it stays,” Kwon said. “This hasn’t happened with Korean food until now, but now there’s the cultural influences, too, and that’s why we’re well positioned. A lot of people are now interested and want to try Korean barbecue.”