How Selling Yo Sushi Changed Everything

1 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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A founder sold his sushi restaurant chain Yo! Sushi three times and walked away with a few million pounds 30 years ago. He describes the moment lawyers' attitudes shifted, checking the money at an ATM, and asking a stranger in line about their bank balance.

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The first time I made an exit, I exited Zousushi 3 times, sold different parts of it. And the first time I made a few million, you know, it was such a relief. Lawyers, lot of them suddenly turned into nice people for the day. And I went back and he said, the money will be in your bank account. I pulled out my checkbook, gave him my current account number. Of course I had to go to the ATM to just check it was actually there. And I was looking at it for so long, this long number. There was a queue form behind me and the bloke behind was sort of coughing, excuse me. And I just turned to him and I said, excuse me, mate, copper, look at this. What was your bank balance then? Over £2 million, and that was 30 years ago. So that's quite a bit of money in those days. And for me, it was like a relief.