Health-focused fast casual Konala is pioneering a high protein drive-thru model with a brand that wants to open access to a new way of eating. And it all began when Trace and his family cured what was supposed to be terminal epilepsy through food and diet. It’s a wild tale that sparked a growth-ready concept with designs to make it big.

The Remarkable Story of Konala, with Founder Trace Miller

QSR Uncut

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** QSR Uncut

## Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of QSR Uncut. I'm your host Danny Klein, the editorial director here at QSR. So always fun, Trace, and we actually have guests on here who are just in our magazine. So first of all, I appreciate you being a part of a story that we ran recently, but also appreciate you being here. So I want to, as always though, give you a chance to introduce yourself. And for those out there, we're doing an episode this week with Trace Miller, founder of Konala.

I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. If I'm not, he will correct me here in a second. But yeah, Trace, just give us a little bit about your background and also tell us a little bit about the concept. I mean, like I mentioned, we wrote about it, but for those who might not be familiar or didn't see that story, just kind of fill them in on what it's all about. Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me. My name is Trace Miller, like you said, founder and CEO of Konala.

Konala. It's named after our dogs, Kona and Nala. So that's the pronunciation. It's pretty easy to remember there. But yeah, we found Konala just under three years ago. Started the first location. Had another concept before this. Those burgers, fries, alcohol, opposite of healthy food. Started with a food truck, a bar, some real estate development, and fell in love with the industry.

And started Konala with the mission to make eating healthy as delicious and convenient as possible. And I believe Konala is the vehicle to do that. We serve high-protein, well-balanced meals coming from whole foods, focusing on chicken, rice, steak, just meat, sauce, rice, served in a bowl form. It was inspired by meal prep. So I've done meal prep for about 15 years, taught people how to eat better through meal prep.

So that was an easy base to accomplish. Our mission was to use that kind of focus on a carb, protein, and some flavor, some veggies or fruit to create a well-balanced meal. So, yeah. So you have kind of a little bit of a crazy background too, right? I mean, I read the story the other day and they didn't think you'd make it to 13, right?

So tell everyone a little bit about that and honestly how it kind of ties into the mission here of what you're doing and how important it is to you to kind of open accessibility to healthy food, you know, which I know has been kind of a mission of a lot of fast casuals over the years. And it's not always the easiest route to take. No, no. I mean, we can get into the complexities like what we're doing to try and change that.

But yeah, the reason for the passion for it comes from my childhood, like you're alluding to. So when I was two, I started having seizures. On my third birthday, I had my first grand mal seizure. I had at the peak there, I was having over 100 seizures a day. I had to wear a helmet everywhere. I had all sorts of different types of seizures. And the doctors, you know, diagnosed me with Lenn...

The Remarkable Story of Konala, with Founder Trace Miller

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

The Remarkable Story of Konala, with Founder Trace Miller

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.