Powered 500 · 2026POWEREDS. 345 of 500
After his LSU professors gave his single-item chicken finger concept the lowest grade in class, Graves worked oil refineries and Alaskan fishing boats to fund it anyway — building what is now an 800-location, $4 billion chain.
Todd Graves is the founder and CEO of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, one of the fastest-growing U.S.
restaurant chains with over 800 locations and annual revenue exceeding $4 billion. He co-founded the concept in Baton Rouge in 1996 around a deliberately simple menu of chicken fingers, fries, slaw, Texas toast, and Cane's sauce. Graves famously funded the launch by working as a boilermaker and Alaskan fisherman after a business school professor gave the plan the lowest grade in the class.
Interview · In Pipeline
Sponsored placement
An invitation, extended to Powered readers.
Drive the Continental GT S.
Request a test driveBentley T&Cs apply
