Episode Description:

CAVA's stock has risen over 300% since its IPO. Its restaurants average $2.6 million in sales. It's on a path to 1,000 locations by 2032. But behind those numbers is a people strategy that most fast-growing brands get completely wrong.

In this episode of Built by People, we sit down with Kelly Costanza, Chief People Officer at CAVA — the woman CAVA's own CEO credits with rebuilding the company's culture from the ground up after a $300M acquisition nearly broke it. Kelly pulls back the curtain on how CAVA turned a cultural crisis into a competitive advantage, and what it actually takes to scale a people-first organization without losing your soul in the process.

This isn't a feel-good story about ping pong tables and unlimited PTO. It's a frank conversation about the hard, systematic work of investing in frontline workers — creating real career ladders for hourly employees, redefining leadership competencies for a post-pandemic workforce, and building a "human deal framework" that treats team members as whole people, not just labor costs.

If you lead people in the restaurant industry, manage HR at a high-growth company, or are trying to figure out how culture actually scales — this episode will change how you think about your job.

What you'll learn:

• How CAVA rebuilt its culture after a major acquisition — and how they measured it
• Why Kelly defines generosity as a business strategy, not just a value statement
• The specific career pathways CAVA created for frontline and hourly workers
• How emotional resilience became a core leadership competency post-pandemic
• Where technology fits in a people-first culture — and where it doesn't