Half a dozen years ago, cousins Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac met up to share a couple of drinks and a couple of memories of the lobster cookouts of their youth. From that meeting, a delicious idea was born: to bring authentic Maine lobster rolls to Los Angeles.

Just about as quickly as they served their first lightly mayo-covered masterpiece, the cousins landed a spot on Shark Tank. Barbara Corcoran took an interest and six years later, Cousins Maine Lobster has become a national lobster franchise with 20 trucks in more than a dozen cities and some brick-and-mortar restaurants as well.

Related: How to Win on ‘Shark Tank’

The lobstermen detailed their improbable journey in their new memoir Cousins Maine Lobster: How One Food Truck Became a Multi-Million Dollar Business. Tselikis recently stopped by the Entrepreneur offices to discuss the book and share his tips on starting and growing a food truck business. Check out the video above, and read below for some highlights of their journey.

Life after Shark Tank

Tselikis: We are incredibly selective with our franchisees, and the result of that has been that we’re now surrounded by a network of hard-working entrepreneurs who share our passion for providing the Maine experience.

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Mixing family and business

Tselikis: It’s funny because I think there is, at times, a misconception that family and business don’t mix, and that family can muddy the waters a bit. But for us, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Maybe it’s because we’re from Maine, and it’s a little bit of a different way of life there, but our family values shape how we run our business — from how we treat our customers to how we treat our employees to how we nurture vendor and business relationships.

Lomac: We have two sayings here at Cousins Maine Lobster — one is “Family First” and the other is “Treat everyone like your mother.” Go to any of our trucks or restaurants and ask our staff to turn around and you’ll likely see “Family First” written on their back.

Never compromise

Tselikis: For us, ultimately it’s about staying true to our values and our identity. And we do that by working, partnering and franchising with like-minded people who share and appreciate those values. We serve the best lobster in the world — wild-caught, sustainably harvested, premium lobster from Maine. We bring our unique rolls from Maine. We never compromise our product.

Related: How This Food Entrepreneur Avoids Getting Burned By Bad Decisions