Danny Meyer delegates early and lets slow starts scale faster
The Union Square Hospitality Group founder says he hands work over before the business looks ready, and gives new ideas time before judging them.
Danny Meyer built Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack. Asked about the work habits behind that, he names three: delegate early, do not micromanage, and let a new idea sit long enough to take root.
The claim underneath is counterintuitive. Meyer argues that going slowly at the beginning is what lets a business scale quickly later.
Delegating early is the part most founders defer. The instinct is to hand over a decision once someone has proved they can make it, which means the founder holds it until the business is already straining.
Meyer's version inverts that. The handover comes first, and the proof follows.
The second habit is the discipline that makes the first one real. Delegating and then correcting every decision is not delegating; it is supervision with extra steps.
The third is about patience with ideas rather than people. A new idea gets time to establish itself before it is judged, rather than being killed by an early reading of the numbers.
For a founder, the practical test is simple enough. Take the decision you are most reluctant to hand over, hand it over this quarter, and then do not overturn the first call the other person makes.
Meyer's specific early decisions at Union Square, and how they carried through to Shake Shack, are not set out in the account of his habits.