The Firefighter Brothers Who Started With $100 and Sold for $1 Billion in Cash: Firehouse Subs

When Chris and Robin Sorensen opened the first Firehouse Subs on October 10, 1994, in a strip mall in Jacksonville, Florida, they had less than a hundred dollars left in their personal checking accounts. The first day's receipts amounted to little more than "two hot dogs" — company lore's shorthand for a launch nobody noticed. Twenty-seven years later, Restaurant Brands International — the global parent of Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes — paid one billion dollars in all cash to own what they built. ------------------- Gain FREE access to secret full-length documentaries on wealthy families "too scandalous for YouTube" by joining our newsletter: https://www.substack.com/@oldmoneyluxury ------------------- The Sorensen brothers grew up in Jacksonville in a household steeped in the fire service — their father, Rob, served more than four decades in the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. Both sons followed him into public safety careers before opening a sub shop in 1994. Before Firehouse, every business venture they had tried had failed. By the time the first store opened, they had no cushion at home. Chris kept working firefighter shifts without drawing a paycheck. Robin's salary from the restaurant hovered at $12,000 to $15,000 a year for nearly a decade. The first attempt at franchising came in 1995, barely a year after opening. The brothers quickly realized they were not ready and made one of the most revealing decisions in the brand's history — they halted franchising and bought back their own units to protect brand integrity. Around 2001, they relaunched with proper training programs, manuals, and selection criteria. By 2010, the chain had grown to 379 locations. By July 2016, they had opened the thousandth restaurant. In 2005, after feeding first responders on the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the founders created the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation — distributing defibrillators, fire trucks, radios, and turnout gear to small departments that could not afford them. By the time of the acquisition, it had granted $62.5 million. The cumulative total has since passed $100 million. When RBI announced the $1 billion all-cash deal in November 2021, the system had roughly 1,200 restaurants generating about $1.1 billion in system-wide sales and $50 million of adjusted EBITDA — meaning RBI paid roughly twenty times earnings for a brand whose deepest asset was not unit economics but emotional loyalty no competitor could replicate. ------------------- Today the system has grown past 1,400 locations under RBI, and Chris and Robin remain the public faces of the founding story — two firefighters who started with less than a hundred dollars and proved that authenticity, patience, and the willingness to admit you are not ready compound over decades.