Erin Wade began her career in law but soon realised it wasn’t her true calling. She founded and became the CEO of Homeroom, a restaurant known for its mac and cheese, where she creates a workplace filled with “meaning, purpose, and connection.” In just a decade, Erin has sold millions of servings and gained recognition from major publications like The Wall Street Journal. Interestingly, Erin’s initial plan wasn’t focused on accumulating wealth; she projected an income of at least $40,000 (around Rs 33 lakh) in her first year. To her surprise, she ended up earning more than her previous salary as a corporate lawyer.
As per Fortune, Erin said, “I wanted to love who I was in the world and how I spent my days there. I wanted the people around me to feel the same way. I wanted to open a macaroni and cheese restaurant, I was living what I had been told was a fairytale ending. I had graduated from top schools and was working as a highly paid lawyer in a cushy high rise in San Francisco. I sounded important at cocktail parties, looked damned respectable in a suit each day and did work representing some of the largest companies in America. The problem was that I was miserable. I had won at playing a game I didn’t even like, but had labored over perfecting for most of my life.”
Erin has also written a book titled, The Mac & Cheese Millionaire: Building a Better Business by Thinking Outside the Box.
“I have personally cooked more than 10,000 mac and cheese dishes. I have grated over one metric ton of cheese, boiled thousands of pounds of pasta, and whisked such vast amounts of cream sauce that I developed a wrist injury. After a decade of running Homeroom, I sold the restaurant in 2020 to a large, venture-backed restaurant company,” the former lawyer added.
Erin Wade says she started Homeroom because she loved macaroni and cheese, but along the way, she discovered her true passion for running a business. As she led her team over the years, her idea of success changed. She became determined to understand why many jobs and workplaces were unhappy and wanted to improve them. Through a lot of trial and error, Erin and her team created new ideas and systems to make work more meaningful, enjoyable and connected.
While most restaurants see their employees stay for less than three months, Homeroom employees typically remain for two and a half years. She learned that making money often comes naturally when you focus on creating something valuable for a lot of people.
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