Biglari was born in Iran in 1977, two years before the Iranian Revolution. The family escaped Iran as refugees and in 1984, the family moved to San Antonio, Texas.
Business career
At the age of 18, he founded INTX.net, an Internet service provider, by raising $15,000. In 1999 with concerns about the tech bubble, he sold the company to Internet America. With the proceeds of the sale, Biglari started an investment partnership at the age of 22. The fund bought shares in restaurant companies including Friendly Ice Cream and Western Sizzlin Corp., which he became chairman and CEO of in 2006. Friendly Ice Cream founder, S. Prestley Blake, found an ally in Biglari and he cashed out and profited when Friendly's was bought out by a private-equity firm. The case was covered by Harvard Business School Professors Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber. Biglari operates Biglari Holdings in San Antonio with a corporate staff of 4. The holding company has over 21,000 employees in total.
Steak 'n Shake
In August 2008, Biglari took over Steak 'n Shake, which had been losing more than $100,000 a day. Biglari turned the company around from near insolvency to one making more than $100,000 a day. By 2015, the company had attained 24 consecutive quarters of same-store sales increases under Biglari. However, since that time Steak 'n Shake has run into serious headwinds. In 2018, the number of customers hit their lowest levels in 8 years dropping to 103 million while same store sales fell 5.1%. Biglari has largely attributed the challenges to slow service speed due to a lack of investment in kitchen equipment. Sardar Biglari failed to achieve meaningful gains at Steak 'n Shake in the long term. His arrogance and unwillingness to seek out counsel led to an ongoing decrease in the value of Steak 'n Shake. As Biglari declared in February in his annual letter to shareholders of his holding company, Biglari Holdings Inc., “As the sole capital allocator, I employ neither analysts nor advisors.”.
Biglari bought 4.7 million shares of Cracker Barrel in 2011. In 2014, Harvard Business School professors Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray wrote a case study on Biglari and Cracker Barrel. By 2016 the investment in Cracker Barrel had gained 284% making Biglari over half a billion dollars. Biglari questioned the credentials of board member James W. Bradford in 2012. On March 14th 2019 it was reported that Biglari wants Cracker Barrel to close its Start up company Holler & Dash.
Maxim
On February 27, 2014, Maxim was bought by Biglari who commented, "We plan to build the business on multiple dimensions, thereby energizing our readership and viewership.". In January 2016, Biglari officially took over as Editor-in-Chief of Maxim, though a Maxim staffer said that the new masthead title just formalizes what has always been clear: Biglari exercises full editorial control over Maxim. At one point in 2015, the staffer said, he decided to throw out a nearly-complete version of the December issue in order to completely redesign the magazine. On January 13, 2016 Gilles Bensimon joined Biglari as a special creative director. "What drew me to Maxim was Sardar's vision for the brand," said Bensimon.
First Guard Insurance
ON March 19, 2014, Biglari purchased First Guard Insurance Company. First Guard Founder and CEO Ed Campbell said: "I couldn't imagine a better, more fitting owner of First Guard."
