A proposed 50/50 standard — government co-funds founder-readiness training before start-up credit is issued. It's already how we run Restaurant Build Lab, and it's why we're giving away free places on every cohort from October 2026 to March 2027, by prize draw, to prove it works.
Free to enter — takes 90 seconds, and every entrant also gets free access to the Business Plan Builder.
A new hospitality founder can get a loan, a lease, and a fit-out budget approved in the same month they decide to open. What almost none of them can get, before the doors open, is a structured education in how to actually run the thing — financial control, menu engineering, labour cost, systems, leadership.
An electrician trains before they're allowed to wire a building. A driving instructor trains before they're allowed to teach. Hospitality hands out capital first and hopes the operational skill turns up later. It often doesn't — and closures across independent restaurants and casual dining have been accelerating through 2025 and into 2026, driven as much by weak financial control as by rent, energy or food costs.
Before a founder draws down a start-up loan, they complete a recognised qualification — split 50/50 between government and founder — covering the four things that actually determine whether a hospitality business survives its first year.
Read your own P&L, price with intent, know your break-even before you sign a lease.
Rotas, checklists, stock control and standards that run without you standing over them.
Engineer a menu around margin, not guesswork — every dish priced with its true cost behind it.
Build a team and a culture that can run service — and run it well — without you on every shift.
Restaurant Build Lab already delivers this exact qualification — financial model, systems, menu engineering, leadership — over a 4-week hands-on programme, live, capped at 10 founders per cohort.
Every founder builds on B.R.O.S.S. — the same operating system running inside working restaurants today. Founders who join a cohort up to and including January 2027 get 6 months of free access to the B.R.O.S.S. ecosystem (3 months from February 2027).
A live proof-of-concept for the model above — before we take it to government and industry, we're funding it ourselves.
Entry is free and takes 90 seconds. Free places are drawn at random; the remaining places are paid, and entrants are offered a discounted place. Full refund if cancelled 7+ days before the course start date.
Restaurant Build Lab runs 100% online and live — not pre-recorded. Founders join the same build sessions and the same WhatsApp community regardless of time zone or country.
Check Cohort AvailabilityAs this grows, we're looking for experienced operators to help deliver the model directly — coaching founders through Restaurant Build Lab and the wider Growth Fork network.
Register Your Interest
"The best investment you'll make isn't your restaurant. It's the knowledge and systems that protect it."
Free places on every cohort through March 2027. Takes 90 seconds to enter.
Enter the Free Prize Draw