Name: Dan Chaon
Profession: Founder of sneakybird
Age: 60
What do you do for a living? After spending most of my career in food and drink – if you all have been to Chili’s, I helped bring them to the West Coast more than 20 years ago – I was ready to do something on my own. As a single father, when my kids were younger and we were back and forth from school to activities, I was always looking for something delicious, quick, and reasonably healthy for us while we were on the go. So, with my kids grown up and more time on my hands, I decided to make it my mission to develop something for families like mine. I developed a specialty oven with experts as well as a top-secret recipe for chicken breading that gives the flavor and texture of being fried, but with zero oils or additives. With a true invention on my hands, I opened sneakybird, first in Scottsdale in 2022 and now we have four locations in Arizona, with a handful of others planned over the next year. We even plan to take our concept nationwide soon!
What type of training do you need to do your job? To create something, if you have a passion, you need a relentless drive and the ability to adapt to whatever obstacles get in the way. For the business side of things, like the accounting and legal requirements of owning a business, I recommend college and a series of internships or jobs while still in school to start gaining experience as soon as possible.
What’s your favorite part of your job? I absolutely love people. If I could spend all day sitting with our customers, eating our chicken (especially our new sliders), and talking about life, that would be the dream!
What did you want to be when you were growing up? I grew up around farming and ranching in Montana. My immediate family primarily raised cattle and grew wheat, and my grandfather had an egg and poultry operation nearby. However, my plan at that time was very much not focused on anything having to do with growing, selling, or making food, funny enough! I initially studied psychology and then health administration in college. After beginning my career in health, I very quickly realized it was not for me. Not scared to change course, I took a family friend up on an offer to begin a management training program at Chili’s, where I stayed for nearly 15 years.
What advice would you give to a kid who wants to have a similar career? There is no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and doing that work. You cannot go over or around when it comes to working in hospitality. You have to go through, meaning go through all the good and bad that comes with the industry, soaking in lessons like a sponge. You also always need to remain true to yourself, your values, your needs, and your goals. Since our industry is often fun with late hours, it can be easy to derail off course. Oh, and never be afraid to change course.
One fun fact NOT about your job? I learned how to drive a combine, which is a massive farm vehicle that cuts and thrashes crops, when I was just 12, a full four years before I got my license to drive on real roads.
