Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) wasn’t supposed to happen. For its founder Steve Ells, a classically-trained chef, the dream was a white tablecloth, fine-dining restaurant. Chipotle, fashioned after a Mexican taqueria, was simply the means to get there. But fate had other ideas. What started out as a single store in Denver has morphed into over 2,850 outlets today. As a shareholder for over 14 years, I had the privilege of watching Chipotle grow to a US$50 billion behemoth today. Here are 10 things to know about the company: 1. McDonald’s early investment To be fair, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) had a huge hand in helping Chipotle become what it is today. The burger chain invested US$340 million in Chipotle over a nine year period between 1998 and 2006. Funds from the Golden Arches helped the Mexican chain scale from 13 stores to almost 500 outlets over this period. McDonald’s also provided key expertise to scale such as real-estate knowledge, distribution systems, store construction and more....