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With so many emerging fast-casual brands looking to follow in the footsteps of successful concepts like Chipotle and Shake Shack, it can be challenging to find a foothold in the competitive landscape, but Denise Tran — founder and CEO of five-unit, San Francisco-based Bun Mee — aims to do just that by franchising Bun Mee nationally.

Bun Mee is named after the English phonetic pronunciation of the popular Vietnamese sandwich, banh mi, and was founded by Tran in 2011 when she realized that she could not really find Asian sandwich concepts in the U.S., and that Vietnamese food (besides pho) was not mainstream in America:

“Back in 2008 when I was living in New York City, a banh mi was still something that people couldn’t even pronounce, and it wasn't part of our lunchtime vernacular as it is now,” Tran said. “I thought it was a great opportunity because there’s no other Asian sandwich out there right now. We have dumplings and baos, but nothing like the banh mi.”