Sean Porter | Daddy’s Dogs
Owner of Daddy’s Dogs
Sean Porter is the founder of Daddy’s Dogs. In this video, he shares how a late-night side hustle turned into Nashville’s go-to spot for gourmet hotdogs and why staying authentic has been the key to his success.
The Hustle That Sparked It All
Sean Porter was always a hustler at heart. What started as a hot dog cart in a garage during music tours became a full-time business when he realized Nashville had no gourmet hot dog scene. The challenge? Find his niche, his people, and a way to stand out in a crowded food landscape.
The Bold Approach
With a yellow pirate-flag logo featuring his face and a commitment to being “authentically Tennessee,” Sean leaned into late-night crowds and event culture. Daddy’s Dogs quickly expanded from one cart to multiple locations, including partnerships with Geodis Park, Nissan Stadium, and more. His mantra: “Just do it. Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Owning the Outcome
Nearly a decade later, Daddy’s Dogs is a beloved part of Nashville’s food scene, and Sean credits that success to hard work, staying true to himself, and the unique energy of the city. His advice for other entrepreneurs? Be ready to work, don’t fear failure, and build something only you could build.
“Go into everything with what I call the Nike attitude—just do it. Don’t be afraid to fail, because you will. And don’t get hung up on those failures.”
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My name is Sean, big Daddy Porter. I own Daddy's Dogs and we make the best gourmet hotdogs in the country, maybe the world. I got started as an entrepreneur when I was really little. I've always been a hustler. I started doing like lemonade stands, kind of the classic, came into the music business and wanted.
To make some extra revenue while we were on tour and we thought a hotdog car might be a fun thing, we could run that out of our garage and make a little bit of extra money. When I moved here, there was no hotdog places and I was like, let's see what we can do. That side hustle kind of just rolled into a full hustle and we've been going ever since, almost 10 years.
When I started, when the logo, you know, I, I asked the designer to just. Make a pirate flag with my face on it and uh, make it yellow. And so that's where we started. You know, some of the struggles we had early on was finding locations, finding our crowd, finding our niche, fell into the late night scene and kind of fell into events.
And pretty soon after that we just. Decided to see what we could do and, and how fast we could grow it. So, you know, we went from one car to my garage to to four and outgrew that very quickly and had, this was our first brick and mortar location. So, yes, ever since we've opened this one, we've got some in printer's Alley.
Uh, we just opened Madison and Franklin last year and we've got partnerships at. Geodis Park Nissan Stadium, as well as Marathon Music Works. My biggest piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is, uh, get ready to work. And I go into everything with, I call it the Nike attitude. Just do it. Don't be afraid to fail because you will.
And don't get hung up on those failures. Best piece of advice I got and I've tried to stay true to be you, be authentically you, Tennessee, like, and just as a whole, it's been an amazing place. I don't, honestly don't think daddy's would've worked in many other places. You know, Nashville especially, it's, it's such a melting pot of different people from different places.
It's pretty awesome that like Nashville has, uh, has loved daddy's dog so much and you know, I've. I've loved being a part of this city and this community. You can find Daddy's on the streets with any of our carts late night. You can find us at any of our locations, uh, and always on the internet. Daddy's dogs.com and follow us on Socials Daddy's Dogs, Nash.
Why We Share These Stories
We believe that celebrating Tennessee’s entrepreneurs will inspire the next generation of bold thinkers, risk-takers, and community builders. Entrepreneurs don’t forget where they come from—and they carry the power to transform not just their businesses, but entire neighborhoods, towns, and local economies. See more entrepreneur stories from the Patton Foundation.
