Poker Lessons, Pasta Vision, And Patient Growth : Andrew Macleod of Emilia’s Crafted Pasta

We explore how poker shaped Andrew Macleod's thinking and how those mental models helped him build Emilia’s Crafted Pasta into a debt-free, multi-site brand. From scouting Italy to opening under budget and growing slow, we show how to balance soul with margins.

• Poker as a mirror of risk and behaviour
• Bootstrapping events and earning trust without capital
• Finding the pasta gap and validating with travel and craft
• Raising seed from relationships built on delivery and discipline
• Securing a first site through persistence and landlord alignment
• Opening lean, surviving the quiet months, building word of mouth
• Frameworks for skill acquisition and early career risk-taking
• Balancing hospitality warmth with unit economics
• Cross-functional accountability and consequence visibility
• Choosing independence, optionality, and long-term brand depth

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