Meet: Tom Monaghan

Context

Domino's Pizza was founded 64 years ago as a one-store in 1960 by brothers Tom and James Monaghan.

• Domino's is in 90 countries today.

• In 2023, Domino's operated 20,591 locations.

• On average, two new locations open each day.

Tom Monaghan’s story

In 1960, after Tom returned home from serving three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, his brother James told him about a man who wanted to sell his business for cheap: a pizzeria called DomiNick’s.

Considering that James had previously worked in a pizzeria and Tom needed the money, the Monaghan brothers went for it. They took a $900 loan, purchased the pizzeria, and started working in shifts.

However, James didn’t want to quit his job as a full-time postman, so Tom became the sole owner of DomiNick’s pizzeria after purchasing his brother’s share in exchange for the Volkswagen Beetle they’d been using to make deliveries.

Tom started working 100 hours a week (2.5 times more than a full-time job today), sleeping in the pizzeria, and constantly improving his work process. Over time, some of these improvements became industry standards.

By 1965, Tom had purchased two additional pizzerias and wanted all three to have the same branding, but the original owner forbade him from using the DomiNick's name.

One day, a delivery guy suggested the name "Domino's", and Tom immediately loved it! He then officially changed the name of the business to Domino's Pizza.

Tom began opening new locations, and by 1985, Domino’s was opening nearly three new locations a day, more than any restaurant chain in history.

In 1998, after 38 years of ownership, Tom announced his retirement and sold 93% of the company to Bain Capital for $1 billion.

The story behind Domino's Pizza logo: Tom put three dots on the logo to represent the three restaurants he owned at the time and planned to add a dot for each new location. He jokingly said in an interview back in 2003: “As you can see, I wasn’t thinking of a national chain back then”.

Market differentiation

Tom’s emphasis on fast delivery led him, in 1973, to guarantee that a pizza would be delivered within 30 minutes or the order would be free. This was Domino's strongest differentiator, which made them take off and spread locations all over North America.

Moreover, Tom invented an insulated box that would not only keep the pizza warm but also support the weight of multiple boxes. This allowed several to be delivered at once, and the modern-day pizza delivery service was born.

Tom’s career advice

1. Enjoy the process and dream big: “It takes hard work to be successful. However, I think it is important to enjoy the work you do. I always loved the challenge of running Domino’s. I also think my creativity or my ability to dream big and think outside the box served me well.”

2. Experiment with new things: “A good entrepreneur needs to be willing to take calculated risks. In business and life, there are very few sure things, so one has to be willing to try new things.”

If you're interested in listening to a podcast with Tom Monaghan, check it out here: Asking Domino's Pizza Billionaire How He Beat The Odds

Until the next one,

– Steve