05 · Research
The study firms sell from $4,900, run in under 11 minutes
From $4,900 what firms charge for this study, taking 9 to 16 business days; the machine's run: 10 min 36 s
What it does
Before anyone signs a restaurant lease, a feasibility firm sells a study from $4,900 and takes 9 to 16 business days. I built that business on a 24-hour clock and finished at 6:29:31. On a real 1,918 SF space at 715 Lincoln Blvd in Venice, all three concepts I locked before any data came back DON'T at the rent the study reads from the listing, and a fast-casual counter only opens if base rent comes down to $2.41 per square foot a month.
What I built
- A study machine built entirely on public data: trade areas from the real street graph, Census and LODES, BLS spending, the Economic Census, a Google Places competitor census and Caltrans traffic
- A month-by-month forecast against the rent, with an SBA loan and a stress test
- A fresh, walled-off red team after every run, with every finding made a permanent check
- The Workbench app: the real block in 3D, with live assumptions
- A 15-page client report with a PDF, and an offer page
The record
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What a feasibility firm charges: a restaurant feasibility study from $4,900, with a turnaround of 9 to 16 business days, on its own price page as read on 2026-10-10
Research sources
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The space: 715 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, a 1,918 SF second-generation restaurant end cap with a hood and kitchen, listed 'Immediate'
Build log
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Three concepts locked before any data: coffee and café ($11 ticket), fast-casual counter ($17) and full-service dinner ($48)
Locked concepts
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Finished at 6:29:31 elapsed on a 24-hour clock
Build clock
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8 runs, each red-teamed: the run 1 audit found 3 critical, 5 major and 5 minor issues; the run 8 audit found 5 minor
Build log
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The final audit: "I found nothing critical and nothing major."
Red-team audit
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Checked by 26 tests; the run 8 checks file has 26 passing lines
Test results
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At the rent the study reads from the listing, café, fast-casual and full-service all come back DON'T; fast-casual opens at a base rent of $2.41 per square foot a month or less
Build log
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The rent the study uses: $6.50/SF a month base plus a $1.25 NNN estimate, $14,864 a month. The listing prints its rate per year; the study reads it as monthly because every nearby comparable is quoted per month, and the broker must confirm it
Red-team audit
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The final study run, run 8, took 10 min 36 s (14:08:11Z to 14:18:47Z)
Build log
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Run 8's forecast at the rent read from the listing: café $371,971 a year (rent 49.4% of sales), fast-casual $867,835 (21.2%), full-service $1,376,354 (13.4%); all three are still losing money every month in year 10
Final study forecast
Honest frame
A desk study of a real public listing, built on a clock; it hasn't walked the block. The verdict rests on one reading: the listing prints its rate per year, and the study reads it as a monthly rate because every nearby comparable is quoted per month. At the printed per-year rate, fast-casual and full-service would both open, so the broker must confirm the rent. Nothing was deployed, posted or sent, the broker and landlord were never contacted, and no study has been sold.