How I Built This with Guy Raz artwork

Apr 6, 2026 · 1h 18m, Episode 824

Wingstop: Antonio Swad. A Brilliant Idea — And a Nail-Biting Exit

From How I Built This with Guy Raz

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A lot of founders spend their lives chasing one big idea. Antonio Swad had two. The first? Migrating chicken wings from the Happy Hour buffet to the center of the plate. The second? Building a pizza business that catered to a very specific demographic: Latinos. That first idea became Wingstop, a deep-fried wing concept that grew to 3,000 stores. The second became Pizza Patron, a franchise that rewarded customers for ordering in Spanish, and let them pay in pesos. This is the story of how Antonio got there.<...

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