# Nick Kokonas

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/people/nick-kokonas/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 6 moments of Nick Kokonas (Owner, Tangle Ranch Vineyards) talking, from an interview on My First Million published Oct 26, 2026.

- Role: Owner, Tangle Ranch Vineyards
- About: Built Chicago's Alinea Group and co-founded Tock, the restaurant reservations platform later acquired by American Express.
- On X: https://x.com/nickkokonas

## What Nick Kokonas said

- [A restaurant group returned investors about 28 times their investment](https://realalpha.app/s/a-restaurant-group-returned-investors-about-28-times-their/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 3 min
  > “And then they got 8x their initial investment walking out the door, right? So I think overall it was like 27 or 28x.” — Nick Kokonas · [1:28:05](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/?t=5285)
- [He took control of diligence to move a sale forward](https://realalpha.app/s/he-took-control-of-diligence-to-move-a-sale-forward/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min
  Facing a sale deadline, Kokonas and his team handled 896 diligence questions themselves and finished in three days. They also cut out an investment bank, keeping control of the process and its incentives.
- [The trading firm expanded before it built management systems](https://realalpha.app/s/the-trading-firm-expanded-before-it-built-management-systems/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min
  > “we didn't know how to build a layer of management and accounting and we're terrible at that” — Nick Kokonas · [37:03](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/?t=2223)
- [Restaurant prices should vary by time and location](https://realalpha.app/s/restaurant-prices-should-vary-by-time-and-location/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min
  > “I genuinely believe that geofence, meaning localized dynamic and variable pricing for time-slotted businesses is something that someone's going to make hundreds of billions of dollars with.” — Nick Kokonas · [46:58](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/?t=2818)
- [Publishing Alinea's process built an audience before opening](https://realalpha.app/s/publishing-alineas-process-built-an-audience-before-opening/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min
  > “And so I was like, let's just open source the whole business plan.” — Nick Kokonas · [57:57](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/?t=3477)
- [Magician techniques can improve restaurant recommendations](https://realalpha.app/s/magician-techniques-can-improve-restaurant-recommendations/)
  My First Million · Oct 26, 2026 · 7 min
  > “if you want to gain people's trust you don't sit across from them or stand across from them you will stand next to them” — Nick Kokonas · [1:12:46](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/?t=4366)

## The episode

- [How to find your arbitrage (from the guy who’s done it 3x)](https://realalpha.app/v/YdRLpWQARtA/) · My First Million · Oct 26, 2026