Left to right: Andrew K. Smith, co-founder and Managing Director; Shauna K. Smith, co-founder and Managing Director; and Clay Dover, CEO
By Alicia Kelso, Nation’s Restaurant News
The Savory Fund is marking eight years since its launch and the private equity firm has since grown its roster to 13 brands. Throughout the company’s evolution, co-founders Andrew K. Smith and Shauna Smith have maintained their philosophy — to partner with unique, founder-focused concepts with high-growth potential, providing them with the infrastructure and resources they need to successfully scale.
Some of these concepts you may have heard of, like Swig — which is widely credited for defining “dirty soda” — Houston TX Hot Chicken, Via 313 Pizzeria, Saigon Hustle, Pincho, and Mo’Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food.
Now, Savory Fund is ready for its next chapter and is tapping an industry veteran to help it reach even newer heights. Clay Dover, who has spent the past eight years as chief executive officer of Velvet Taco, has been named CEO of Savory, effective immediately.
With this announcement, Shauna Smith has been promoted from CEO to managing director alongside her husband, who serves in the same role.
Dover brings nearly 30 years of restaurant experience to the position, including not only Velvet Taco, but also Raising Cane’s and Pei Wei. In an interview this week, he said the opportunity to join Savory after overseeing significant growth at Velvet Taco was a no-brainer.
Clay Dover
“I’ve known Andrew and Shauna for years and have admired the work they’ve done. Every transaction and move has made me more and more impressed,” Dover said. “The brands they’ve brought under the Savory banner are impressive, but once I looked under the hood at (their balance sheets), it was even more impressive.”
Dover said he is particularly magnetized by Savory’s focus on its brands’ founders.
“They aren’t just creating an assembly of restaurants; it’s a community and ecosystem where great concepts can thrive without losing their soul,” he said. “It’s one thing to purchase brands under one banner, but they’re actually bringing them together and they’re all working together. That’s unique. There is a humility here that lets founders continue to be involved in their brands.”
Serendipity kicks in
Perhaps serendipitously, this hire came about after Shauna Smith spent much of 2025 reflecting on her “word of the year,” which was “elevate.”
“I began thinking about how to elevate our teams, our brands, our work. I would be remiss if I didn’t think about how I can elevate myself and do this role better,” she said. “Savory is in a really good place, but you never want to be the founder or CEO who should have brought in an executive CEO sooner. So, I began asking questions like when is it time for an executive CEO to come in who knows a thing or two about this industry.”
Shauna Smith
Shauna said she had exactly one name in mind — Dover’s — but never brought it up with him or Andrew because she didn’t want to interfere with his work at Velvet Taco.
“As luck would have it, Clay called Andrew out of the blue telling him he was exploring opportunities,” she said.
The Smiths brought Dover to Savory’s headquarters in Lehi, Utah, and it felt like a perfect match from the get-go.
“It was obvious we were aligned in our values and that he had experience I didn’t have that I knew he could bring to the table immediately,” Shauna said.
Andrew calls such experience a “force multiplier.”
“I’ve been an operator, Shauna’s been an operator, Clay is an operator. He grew up in the industry leading teams and brands through growth, and that was really important to us. It was really the best match we could find,” he said.
Andrew is motivated by Dover’s history with brands that were small when he joined and that grew in large part due to his leadership. Velvet Taco, for example, had just four locations when Dover came on board and now has nearly 55 restaurants.
“To build a foundation, processes, systems, and people to then scale it — that doesn’t exist in our industry that much,” Andrew said. “That’s why Clay is the perfect pattern match for us, because every one of our brands is going through that scaling process.”
What is next for Savory now that the Smiths are both in managing director roles and have a new CEO in place? Shauna said her priority is to simply get Dover onboarded, integrated, and then “get out of his way.”
“He is going to come in with what I think of as a Steve Jobs approach. At Apple, people would bring (Jobs) updated prototypes and he’d say, ‘let’s do this, tweak that,’ and all of a sudden, he revolutionized the product,” she said. “I imagine this will be like that, where Clay will make what we’re doing that much better.”
Andrew, meanwhile, is looking to leverage Savory’s new executive team to ensure the company is the “most approachable, kind, family-friendly PE firm in the industry.”
“There is a bad aura around PE, and I understand that to a degree because there are some broken systems,” he said. “But I want to make sure we take the slot of being supportive and driving results. Clay’s experience and enthusiasm will help us do that.”
It’s still too early to know Dover’s defined objectives, but his initial priorities are simply to “grow smart, scale with discipline, and protect the soul of every brand we have.”
“There are all kinds of opportunities out there and many of them are not great. That is not the case here. These brands are succeeding. This is like jumping on a speeding train,” he said. “It’ll be a lot of fun.”
Clay Dover, Shauna Smith, Andrew Smith
Dover stepped down from Velvet Taco in November after leading the chain through material growth, including year-over-year sales growth of 21.6% in 2024, according to Technomic data, ending the year with nearly $148 million. Velvet Taco’s footprint grew nearly 20% last year to finish 2024 with 49 units. Since 2019, Velvet Taco’s sales have jumped 128%, while its unit count has increased 113%.
Prior to joining Velvet Taco, Dover served as chief marketing officer at Pei Wei. From 2008 to 2015, he was president and chief marketing officer at Raising Cane’s.
Savory Fund now spans 370-plus restaurants across 26 states and more than $750 million in assets.
