Founder's Story - David Grutman: From Bartender to Miami’s Nightlife King | Ep. 338

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Daniel talks with David Grutman about the real mechanics of influence: not clout chasing, but doing the work to make people feel taken care of at a level they never expected. David explains how he made Miami “stick” for celebrities and founders by curating unforgettable trips, why hospitality is a game of obsessive details, and how social media turned nightlife into an instant feedback loop that makes the job ten times harder. They also unpack his investing approach, his mindset around fear and pressure, and the message of his book Take It Personal: if a bartender can build an empire, you can too. Key Discussion Points David explains his early strategy was simple: get influential people to Miami, then control the full experience so they fell in love with the city. He breaks down his “value add” philosophy, saying it is not about keeping score, it is about serving because the act itself is the reward. David shares how to add value to people who “have everything,” by spotting the one thing they do not have access to or are not even thinking about. He reveals that hospitality excellence is built on micro details, from lighting and music to table flow, empty glasses, and service pacing. They talk virality, including the iconic “beef case” and the over the top royal cart that creates instant FOMO and turns dinner into content. David explains why social media made hospitality harder, because there is no lag time anymore and the market demands a hit every night. He shares what scares him most, waking up to nightly sales reports and seeing red, because in hospitality anything can change the next day. David talks about building global expansion through years long relationships and only partnering with people who fill gaps and align on goals. He explains why he wrote Take It Personal, turning a five year FIU course into a blueprint for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Takeaways If you want powerful relationships, stop asking when it “evens out” and focus on becoming the person who adds value by default. Being great at hospitality is not vibes, it is systems and details, spotting every pinch point before the guest ever feels it. Viral moments are engineered, and the best operators design photogenic, shareable experiences that make the whole room turn their heads. If you want to open a restaurant or nightclub, do not skip the journey, learn every role first because the reps build judgment. Trust is earned fast but lost forever, and David’s rule is simple: trust people until they give you a reason not to, then it is over. Closing Thoughts David Grutman’s story is the long game in action: relationships, repetition, and relentless attention to detail. Take It Personal is his proof that influence is built, not inherited, and that the “fun business” is still one of the most stressful businesses in the world. The real surprise is what matters most to him now: being a great father and husband, and building something his daughters can surpass. Thank you to our amazing sponsor, Shopify, who has changed my life. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at SHOPIFY.com/foundersstory Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trying to get people of influence to come to Miami. When they come to Miami, I wanted to control every aspect of their trip here to make sure it was the most perfect thing ever. And that meant taking people at that time to Winwood before all the hoop. I was just starting to bubble and just a bunch of street artists. And taking people to places or taking them on a lap around the Miami Bay, right? Because when you go on a boat with somebody in Miami, it kind of changes your outlook on Miami.

I just wanted to be that touching point for people when they came here to really make them love our city. I love Miami. I push Miami. And now I'm so happy that so many people have discovered Miami that they know how great it is as well. So when you think about building relationships, and I imagine a lot of that is value adding to other people, how do you look at this balance of value adding versus value being added back to you? I don't think you look at it that way. I think you have to look at it as just I want to add value.

I want to add value. And I thought about this the other day because questions come up a lot to me going, hey, you know, at what point does it start to equal out? It's not about equaling out. It's kind of like when you do charity work or when you do anything that you're doing something for somebody else, when you're just serving and you see the look on their face when you do something great for them, for me, that's reward enough. If there's anything that comes out of it, great.

but it's selfishly, it's good for me when I add value to other people because it gets me excited that I've been able to do something good for others. What do you find is a big value add to somebody that has everything, that maybe they have fame, they have a lot of money. What is the value that you find is important to them? Great question, because people are like, wow, these people must have whatever they want. And I think that's for you to kind of figure out for that person. Like, what's one thing that you can add value to that they just don't have access to or they just don't know or you think can enhance their life and they're not even think of it. I think when you do stuff like that, when they're not even thinking of something and you say, listen, I got a great person for you to meet that

that they never thought about meeting and something great happens or let me show you this. Maybe you didn't even know about this. Something there added value. Or hey, I'm looking at this deal. I think it's a deal that you should be part of. When you start a relationship with somebody, start to learn their story, learn to see what they love, what they hate, what they gravitating to. And then once you know that, it's really easy to add more value, right? Because you know those touching points. When you look at the industries that you're in, because I know you're also an investor, over 40 companies, look at certain industries, because I know like hospitality I've heard. I'm also in hospitality. It could be very cutthroat. It could be very competitive, maybe not always

the biggest margin depending on what you're doing. What do you look at in terms of the businesses that excite you? So I look, is there a ways for me to incorporate those businesses within my business, right? Is there a way I could take skinny dipped and do a skinny dipped dessert? Is there something, could I take coconut coat and maybe launch a froyo? I don't know. Maybe when they go to do frozen yogurt, could they do it in one of my spots? So I look at brands that it would be an easy fit for me to do it or also something that I know that my guests that are coming to my spots would be very interested in learning more about. So I've been to all of your places, and I have to say, you create a really once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Was that always something that you said from the beginning? So I always wanted, I knew people would, yes, they're going to the nightclub and they're having that experience. But on the restaurant side, I wanted people to be able to just have fun. I'm in the fun business at the end of the day. Creating experiences all the way throughout my businesses, there's a common thread that It's part of my DNA is to be able to create and do this and serve the food in the middle that everything's shareable, creates energy at the table.

But it's also the music, the lighting, the place setting, the china, the glass, everything is part of a puzzle to put together to create that experience. Back in 2014, I remember sitting there trying to figure out how to sell products online. I had this men's grooming line, but the what-ifs were allowed. What if I can't figure out the tech? But I took the leap. One of the biggest reasons I was able to do so was Shopify. They made it possible for a guy with a product and a dream to actually build a real business online.

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Shopify handles everything in one place, inventory, payments, analytics, shipping, so you're not juggling 10 different platforms just to run your store. It's time to turn those What ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash founders story. Go to Shopify.com slash founder's story. That's Shopify.com slash founders story. This reminds me of my wife. She's crazy about the details, stuff that I never see.

She'd be like, you didn't see that. I'm like, I'd never even notice that thing, right? She's always thinking about what people will be thinking about that specific detail. Did you always have this trait that you're saying? Or was this something that you built over time? So I'm definitely hyper-focused on the details, but you have to focus on the things that you know that people are missing, which is light bulbs out,

is there trash on the floor? But also, knowing the way that service goes in restaurants, you have to look for the empty glasses. You have to look to see if the menu is being placed on the plate because that means they're not getting service. You have to see, is the table dirty? How many plates are actually on the table at one time? It's a server doing a journey for them, not just order firing everything at once.

And I think those are the details that you have to train your brain on because that's your business. So if that's your business, you have to look for all the pinch points along the way. And if there's anything that's being missed. It's not about, of course, people are going to get great service. But you always want it to be better and better. And if you could see what they're missing and why they're missing it, is it their eyes? Is it them not caring? How do you get them to really focus on?

that table. Do they have too many tables? You have to focus and the details is what makes it. Yeah, I was out in Vegas and I was eating at your restaurant and I saw the beef case come out. And I was like, what the heck is that? And I noticed just everyone turns around, starts taking pictures. I imagine a lot of this virality. It's the new marketing sense. Was that your idea? No. So I have a great partner, David Poppy Einhorn. He created this whole beef case. It started him doing the Quentin Tarantino. He was doing a funny and he said, you know what? I'm going to take this and I'm going to bring it to the table. And now he's gone overboard. Now he has a royal cart. And the royal cart not only comes with a

beefcase, it comes with a live king crab and a kilo of caviar. And it's $5,000 and it rolls up to you. And again, it creates this moment for people to be able to take pictures, make it go viral and gives everybody back at their hometown FOMO that they weren't there with us. Being a hospitality legend and you've been in the game for a while, what were the differences from when you started to now? Well, of course, social media was never part of that whole thing. It was all about the PR It Girls and press you were going to get in what magazine was going to do features on your places. Now it's so instant, instant, instant that people don't realize that, you know, you could throw a great party and see in page six maybe the next day or two days later. That was like the biggest success in the world.

Now, yes, but now you also want it to be as viral as possible on the internet, everybody going as crazy as possible. Do you think that makes it harder to be in hospitality or easier? It makes it ten times harder because it's where people used to think they had a lag time of a day or two before. It just makes you have to get right back on the horse the next day. I imagine, too, like competition. Like people are like, it's so hard to do.

It's right there. It's a presentation for them, right? They're like, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. You know how many people have tried to do their own beefcase around the world? It's really embarrassing to me. They'll have like some weird guy dancing and briefcase from like their grandfather. And they put the thing in there. And I'm like, just stop.

Yeah, you know, I go to all these schools and I speak. And they say, you know, I'm going to graduate next year. I'm going to open my own nightclub. I'm like, you know, the fun part for me was taking that journey was being the manager, the bartender, the host, the service. the server, general manager, taking that journey, learning all the different traits that go into owning a restaurant, nightclub, anything like that, that was the best part of my life. So if you don't know those things, just try to skip all those steps and not take the journey,

you really miss out on life and you're not going to be successful. So what do you think students that are about to graduate from college, which I always find interesting that entrepreneurship is being taught in school? What do you think students need to know? I mean, listen, I love, you know, of course, I love anything entrepreneurial. I love entrepreneurship. And I think, you know, they have so many platforms and vehicles to become entrepreneurs, way more than you and I had when we got out of school, right? So for them not to try to take advantage of that, if they have a great idea,

they now have the ability to be entrepreneurial earlier than us. And I don't see anything wrong with that. What scare you? And the reason why I say that is I think people see social media. They see you hanging out with all these incredible people. it seems like you have the best life. Is there anything that wakes you up at night? And you're just like, wow.

I wake up hoping not to see red with the nightly sales report the next day, right? That's what is always a scariest thing. You know, there's so many different things that could affect your business, especially in the hospitality business, from a new place opening to the weather being rainy outside, a special event that happened to be in the city that you never saw coming. You always just want to keep fighting, fighting, pushing, pushing. Did you ever have a moment where you, in your whole journey,

where you just said, you know what? I'm just going to go get a job. Like, screw all this. I'm going to go back to working. It would be so nice to go get a job and let somebody else just worry about the fight and just worry about everything else. But I'm not built for that. I'm built to be a leader. I'm built to grow businesses and are built to build brands.

Just business in general. What are some of the ideas that you have for the future? So, you know, investing in a lot of these different startups and consumer brand goods and stuff like that has been really rewarding for me. I'm looking at my brands that I have here that, you know, that I can grow outside. We're looking to outside America now. Big focus is growing my brands outside and not just Miami and not just America. I imagine partnerships can be incredible, but they could also go negative. Yeah, sure.

What do you look at when you talk to someone and you're like, I think this is the right partner? I mean, I just don't find a partner overnight. It takes years of a relationship before I even consider a partner like. that and then you want to make sure that you're aligned with that partner in your goals, in the way you do things, and how you set off to accomplish that. I think making sure that you're super aligned with whoever your partner is and that they bring something else to the table that you don't already have is always something I'm looking for. Like, I know what I'm really great at and I know what I'm really not great at. And I'm always looking for people that

can help fill in those gaps that I'm not great at. And I think that's something for someone to take self-inventory of themselves and be really honest with themselves and say, you know, I'm really great at marketing, but I'm not great at financials. I'm not great at controls. Or I'm great at the details and service, but you know what? I can't read a contract to save my life. How do you look at trust? Because I have an issue with trust sometimes when it comes to partnerships. I've only had very few partners because I have an issue with trust myself. I hear this a lot. Like, how do you trust people? How do you trust people? I trust people until they give me a reason to not trust them. And then, you know, once that trust is gone, it's gone. What makes you the most happy now?

Spending time with my daughters and my wife. It's like the coolest thing in the world. What do you like to do typically? What makes you most happy when you're spending time with your family? I love a good cuddle with my girls. That's the best thing. And I love just them seeing me as dad. Is that part of your legacy? When you look back, is it more of the business? side, the parents side. What do you think about with legacy? I think my legacy is, of course, I helped grow some founders and make them better. Of course, being a great father and great husband is something that I'm very proud of. And I always try to push as the top thing. But hopefully my legacy is that my daughters go on to be greater than me. Amazing. Do you think there's

a misconception about you or a misconception about maybe people that have a lot of, like, are tied to a lot of famous people. Do you think there's like some misconceptions that people might have? I think people might think that it's all like rainbows and it's all the most fun thing in the world. But like it's very stressful. Growing businesses, building brands, trying to just make sure people have such great added value around them. It just takes so much of your energy. Would you say you're more extroverted or more introverted? Like do you thrive in the energy of people or you're like exhausted? No, no, no. I love giving it all out. out there and just getting people super, super exciting and whatever I can do to make them happy,

that brings me so much joy. I'm not one of these people that wants to be by themselves. I need people around me at all times. I can relate. When I'm in silence, it drives me insane. The wheels are turning. The voice. I can't shut it off. The whole thing. I'm like, where's somebody I can talk to? It is the worst. One of the most challenging things that I've done in my life was write a book. With so much energy, exhaustion. Why did you write this book? I think it was important. I did this college, I taught this college course for five years at FIU, and I had so many great things in there. Every year it would evolve, evolve, evolve, because I was learning, my business was growing,

and things were coming across my face that I never saw before. And I feel it was important to be able to convey that to the next generation of entrepreneurs, because I don't teach some of this stuff in college. And that's why I said, you know what? I had the college course. Let me go and give a book for it. What do you hope that people take away from this book? I hope they take away that I'm no different than they are. I started off as a bartender at a restaurant of the Aventura Mall. So if I could do it, they could definitely do it. I was talking earlier that I almost moved to Aventura. And sadly, I moved to Orlando. When I went to Aventura, I was very depressed that I didn't move there. I'm sure you got to hang out with Mickey and you got

to eat a lot of chain food restaurants, which was great. I love chain restaurants. So, for me it's the greatest. How have you seen Miami change? Because it seems like Miami is the hottest city right now. I imagine, and I remember back to like 2008, it was like I saw a home, not even kidding, on South Beach, there was a home for sale for $100,000 cash in 2000, I think it was like 2009, 2010 during the crash. Yeah, that's when like my hair, the person that was cut in my hair had four contracts for

pre-construction of condos. It was crazy back then. You know, Miami is definitely a real estate juggernaut right now, but it's also such a great city. You have everybody from all walks of life, but it's definitely had a migration from some of the greatest founders and kings of titans of business ever to be here now. So I wrote a book myself about the unlimited possibilities of breaking through barriers. What was a time in your? your life, that was a barrier that you could consider to be an unlimited possibility, something that you never thought you could break through, but you did. The restaurant business to me, I didn't know I was going to, I was going to be able to

take what I learned in the nightlife business and then from my early days of being a server, manager, a bartender, all that, to really be able to run a multiple unit restaurant group, hospitality group. Breaking through to that, that they all kind of connect and created their own ecosystem for me was the biggest game changer. By the way, I love take it personal. We've talked to so many successful people, David, and everyone has said that that is the thing that made them successful.

Was there anyone who you met in your life that totally was not how you thought they would be? So there's so many people that you have a preconceived, knows that they're going to be like this, and they end up being like that. Many people I've come across, and I thought, and as you come across people that you see on TV and the movies, and you think that's how they are. And in light of that, they're actually way more caring

and way more engaging. And people that you think are unapproachable or not even someone that you could even have a conversation with. I've had some of my best conversations with. People are just people. I think we forget that. That's it. This has been great.

I can't wait to go to Miami. I need to see all the things that you're doing. And I hope everyone gets the book. It's incredible book, April 14th. but, you know, of course, get the book. I've given you the blueprint. Go read it. Go apply it.

Let me know how it goes for you. Well, David, this has been great. Take it personal. Everyone's got to get it. Love the story. Super inspired. Thanks for joining us today. All right, man.

Thank you.