Help us build
the world's first
wellbeing fast food chain.
Otogo is two stores in Sydney. By 2030 we plan to be 50+ across Australia —
and from there, the path to global scale opens up.
Three people will join us at the beginning. Not as franchisees. As Founders.
5-min application. Suitable for angel investors and serial entrepreneurs. Reply within 7 days.
From Japan to Your Hands in 90 sec.
The compass
McDonald's price.
Kyoto craft.
Zero guilt.
Four billion people on this planet eat rice every day. None of them have a global QSR brand they can call their own.
Otogo exists to change that — not by selling rice balls, but by liberating people from the trade-off between fast, cheap, and healthy.
Our front of house feels like old Japan.
Our back of house runs on 22nd-century automation.
That's why a $10.90 combo arrives in 90 seconds — without a chef.
Why now
The model is proven.
The brand is unknown.
That's the opportunity.
Stores trading in Sydney CBD with positive cash flow
Average order-to-counter time, with no chef in the kitchen
Estimated investment recoupment for a Founder Partner store
Town Hall · Flagship
4.8★ Google
Sydney CBD prime location. The model in its finished form. Featured in Sydney Morning Herald.
Ultimo · R&D Lab
4.4★ Google
Test store — every early complaint became a system improvement. Town Hall is the result.
Operating efficiency
~25% labour
Labour ~25% + central kitchen ~5% = ~30% total. Well below QSR norms — automation removes the chef line item entirely.
The system works. What's missing is partners with the conviction to scale it.
Who you'd be partnering with
A chef who learned scale
the hard way — on purpose.
Mitsuhiro Yashio — born on Tanegashima, trained under a Michelin chef in Kyoto, owner-operator in Sydney since 2009.
Five restaurants opened over fifteen years. Three closed for reasons outside our control — buildings demolished, leases not renewed, a franchise relationship that should have been a partnership. One franchise group built and sold. Then COVID. Then a four-month landlord delay on the Town Hall flagship that nearly broke us.
Otogo is what we built once we knew exactly what we never wanted to depend on again: a chef, a single landlord, a single location, or a single person's energy.
Watch: Mitsu in his own words
What you're actually buying
Otogo is not a restaurant.
It's an IP stack with a kitchen attached.
A great restaurant dies when the chef walks out. Otogo's value is engineered to live without one — encoded in five layers of intellectual property the Founder Partner gets full operating access to.
01 · Recipe & supply IP
Kyoto dashi · 110-year Kagoshima tamari soy (exclusive distribution) · 20+ onigiri formulations.
Otogo holds the exclusive Australia distribution of Kaneyo's 110-year tamari — competitors literally cannot buy this soy without going through us. Two decades of a Michelin-trained chef's library, codified into machine-replicable formulas.
02 · Operating system
Kiosk + onigiri robot + soba machine + pressure fryer = 90 sec, no chef.
Sourced, tuned, and integrated into a single front-counter flow you cannot reproduce by buying the same machines off the shelf.
03 · Brand IP
Otogo wordmark, "Ricey" character, packaging, store design language.
"Ricey" merchandise already trades commercially in-store. Trademark filings in progress as part of the franchise rollout. The brand already wins organic Google Reviews and Sydney Morning Herald press — without paid PR.
04 · Backend DX (AI Operating System)
Labour, food cost, weekly P&L, marketing — run by AI agents, not a back-office team.
Custom-built AI subagents (CFO / CMO / CTO / CPO) that turn one operator into a full management team. This is what makes a $420K store profitable at this scale.
05 · Central kitchen path
Today: shared kitchen at Town Hall producing core sauces and prep for both stores.
Tomorrow: dedicated CK facility built as we add Founder Partner stores.
Founders lock in lifetime preferred pricing on every CK item, regardless of how the facility scales. This is the layer that lets 50 stores taste like one — the foundation for global scale to follow.
Buying a single Otogo store means licensing a piece of all five layers — for life.
The package
One number. Everything included.
We don't believe in surprise costs. Below is the full all-inclusive figure for one Founder Partner store in a high-foot-traffic Sydney location (food court or CBD passing trade).
Total all-inclusive investment
A$420,000
Indicative · finalized after site selection
- Joining Fee (paid to Otogo Group)$0
- Opening advertising fee$10,000
- Equipment — onigiri / soba / pressure fryer / kiosk$250,000
- Construction & fit-out$80,000
- Furniture · Design · IT$40,000
- Lawyer · setup · training$40,000
Financing & cash needed
- Equipment loan (financed, ~5 years)−$250,000
- Cash required from Founder~$170,000 + bank guarantee
Refundable (B/S asset, excluded from ROI)
- Bank guarantee (returned at end of lease)~$50,000
Indicative annual sales
~A$1,000,000
Indicative net profit
~A$130,000
Recoupment
~3.7 years
Numbers are based on Otogo Town Hall trading data and conservative assumptions. They are indicative and not a forecast. Actual results vary by site and operator. Detailed unit economics are shared with shortlisted candidates under NDA.
Founder Partner vs Standard Franchisee
Why these three seats are worth being early.
From partner #4 onwards, Otogo will operate as a standard franchise system — with a Joining Fee, higher royalty, and no equity in the parent group. Below is what changes.
| Founder Partner (3 seats only) | Standard Franchisee (from #4 onwards) | |
|---|---|---|
| Joining Fee | A$0 | A$50,000 |
| Total opening cost | A$420,000 | A$470,000 |
| Brand royalty | 5% (locked, lifetime) | 5% royalty + 3% marketing fee |
| Central kitchen pricing | 5% Founder margin (locked, lifetime) | Min 5% — never cheaper than Founders |
| Equity in store | 70–80% you · 20–30% Otogo | 100% you |
| Equity in Otogo Group (parent) | Pre-emptive rights at every future raise | None |
| Mitsu's involvement | Direct line, personal mentorship | Account manager |
| Territory priority | First pick on next 3 CBD sites | Standard application |
| Founders' Wall · Annual Retreat | Yes (lifetime) | No |
The structure
Not a franchisee.
A co-shareholder.
Each Founder Partner store is a separate Australian company. You hold the majority. Otogo Group holds a minority stake and contributes the brand, the recipes, the system, and the founder's time.
Equity split (typical)
- ●You bring capital and (optionally) sweat. You appoint the operator.
- ●Otogo brings IP, central kitchen supply, ongoing R&D, marketing playbooks, the AI-driven backend operating system (DX), and Mitsu's direct involvement.
- ●Profits are distributed by shareholding. Otogo also collects 5% IP licence and 5% central kitchen margin.
- ●Shareholders Agreement governs day-to-day. No franchising-code complexity.
Founder-only privileges
Things the next 100 partners
will never get.
-
01
Lifetime brand royalty at 5%
Future partners pay the going market rate. Yours is locked at the founding rate, forever.
-
02
Central kitchen at Founder pricing
~5% preferred margin on every supply order, lifetime — protecting your food cost as we scale.
-
03
First refusal on new menus and systems
Roll out new products and AI tools before anyone else.
-
04
Direct line to Mitsu
Personal hotline. No support tickets, no account managers.
-
05
Pre-emptive rights on Otogo Group
When the parent brand raises Series A or sells equity, you have first refusal at the same valuation as institutional investors. You don't just own a store — you can own a piece of the platform that runs them all.
-
06
Sydney CBD territory priority
First pick of the next three high-foot-traffic sites we secure.
-
07
Permanent place on the Founders' Wall
Your name in every Otogo store, worldwide. As long as the brand exists.
-
08
Annual Founders Retreat
Kyoto and Tanegashima with Mitsu. Recipe origins, dashi houses, family table.
The process
Five steps. Honest at every one.
- 1
Apply (5 minutes)
A short form so we understand who you are and what you're looking for.
- 2
Founder Briefing (30 min, on-demand)
Watch a private video walkthrough of the model, the numbers, and the founder's story.
- 3
Live Founder Roundtable (60 min, monthly)
Live from Town Hall — front-of-house tour, brand and unit-economics overview, Q&A with Mitsu. Max five candidates. (Kitchen automation is shown only after NDA in step 4.)
- 4
Private 1-on-1 with Mitsu (45 min)
Full unit-economics disclosure under NDA. We meet face to face. You ask anything.
- 5
JV agreement and store launch
Shareholders Agreement signed. Site selected. Build starts. We open in ~16 weeks.
Honest answers
Questions we get asked.
Why only three Founder Partners?
Because we can only do this well with people we'll know personally for a decade. After three, we shift to a standard franchise structure with formal disclosure and a Franchising Code-compliant agreement. Founders get terms that are economically impossible to repeat at scale.
Do I have to run the store myself?
No. Otogo is designed to operate without a chef. Many Founder Partners will be passive investors who appoint a manager. Hands-on operators are equally welcome.
What about the Bank Guarantee for the lease?
Most Sydney landlords require a 6-month rent bank guarantee (~$50K). It's refundable at the end of the lease and sits on your balance sheet as an asset, so it's not part of the $420K invested capital — but it does mean you'll need that cash available at signing.
Can I bring a co-investor?
Yes. The 70–80% Founder side can be one person or a small group. We just need one nominated Director who signs and represents the JV.
Why should I trust a two-store brand?
You shouldn't — until you see the numbers and meet Mitsu. That's exactly what the process above is designed for. We'd rather lose you at step 3 than the day after signing.
December 2026 close
Three names.
One decade.
Forever on the wall.
If you've read this far, you're not browsing.
Tell us who you are.
Or join the next Live Founder Roundtable → (group session, monthly)
Reply within 7 days · Indicative numbers · NDA shared at step 3