Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/919877
14 FEDA News & Views Combining the words "Investing" and "Encyclopedia," the two settled on the name Investopedia.com. Eight years later, when Forbes Media and its partners acquired the upstart—which by then had ballooned into a recognizable domain manned by 40 fulltime employees—CEO Steve Forbes called it "a smart, popular and innovative site." "Today it's one of the top 1,000 most- visited sites in the world; when we sold it, it was among the top 2,500," says Wagner, who's proud of the fact that millions still look to Investopedia for all things finance, but doesn't regret making the sale. "Cory and I were both getting married, and having children, and 99 percent of our net worth was tied up in the website," he says. "We were petrified that Google might change its algorithms, and we'd go from a highly- trafficked website to nothing in a matter of days. Fortunately, the Forbes family approached us. The timing was great, and we stayed on for two years after the sale." It was Wagner's wife, Heidi, who got the itch to open a restaurant. "We have a lot of family in Denver and every visit always included dinner at the Melting Pot in Littleton," he says. "About two years after we sold Investopedia, she called the corporate office in Tampa and said, 'Hey, have you guys thought about opening an international location?'" Apparently, not until Edmonton. The Wagners opened the first in 2010 and other franchisees followed with locations in Mexico, Indonesia and Dubai. "Initially, Melting Pot thought that they could take a U.S. store and transport it to Canada, and that was what we did," says Wagner, who took on the task of overseeing the construction of the restaurant and securing the equipment and supplies. "All our equipment was shipped from a distributor in Tampa. Our walk-in cooler came from Nashville. Our smallwares from Ohio." Then, the not-so-fun part of being first began to converge—fears that the warranty covering their $300,000 equipment package was no longer valid, trouble getting certain pieces through customs, mounting expenses due to tariffs. "All of a sudden, we went from opening a restaurant to me being a logistics guy 24/7," says Wagner. "I had to deal with customs, duties, tariffs, and all sorts of headaches. At the time, I kept thinking, 'There are a lot of McDonalds and Subways in Canada. There has to be a better way.'" That's how Edmonton's first and only Melting Pot initially connected with HESCO's Vice President of Sales Adam Ungarian—by Wagner "just calling around and looking for someone to take the weight off." "It was so distracting for the first six months we were in operations," he says. "Instead of focusing my time on how to deliver a great customer experience, I was focused on logistics. Fortunately, HESCO was able to take a good portion of that on." Fix My Pain Seven years in and the Edmonton Melting Pot currently holds the distinction of being the second highest- grossing restaurant among the fondue chain's 120 North American locations. The first is the Littleton Melting Pot the Wagners still frequent during family visits. What are the challenges Edmonton continues to face? The same culprits plaguing the rest of the restaurant industry, the rising minimum wage, labor shortages, an indecisive economy and the push by consumers to offer conveniences like online ordering. Now, here's where the two worlds begin to collide. " We just brought in HESCO to redesign our kitchen to help us address some of these issues," says Wagner. "Ever y square inch counts. How do we make the kitchen smaller and more efficient to save on the labor side and, at the same time, stretch the front of the house to turn tables faster, or accommodate 12 more people on a crowded Friday night?" This is the kind of thinking the restaurateur has brought to HESCO since stepping into the role of president roughly seven months ago. Although saying, yes, wasn't a given. Yes, he and GREAT EXPECTATIONS THE EDMONTON MELTING POT CURRENTLY HOLDS THE DISTINCTION OF BEING THE SECOND HIGHEST-GROSSING RESTAURANT AMONG THE FONDUE CHAIN'S 120 LOCATIONS.