STARTUPCENTRAL

Fly By Jing’s founder began with a handful of crowdfunding supporters and pop-up dinners; today her spicy sauces and noodles appear in thousands of grocery aisles, a growth story rooted in restraint and authenticity. Jing Gao’s journey started with a modest Kickstarter campaign that drew only 25 contributions, and a series of underground supper clubs where diners first encountered her take on Sichuan food. Those early experiments served as a low-cost market test — proof that

What began as a modest purchase for his mother has become a nationwide restaurant chain with more than 235 locations and a business model that has handed ownership — and wealth — to longtime employees. Eddie Flores Jr. bought a small eatery for $22,000 and built L&L Hawaiian Barbecue into a network of company-run shops and franchises by keeping the brand closely tied to Hawaiian identity and trusting people close to the operation. Flores Jr. didn’t set out to create a franchi

A local-operator’s checklist for cutting through glossy pitches and finding the real help that keeps a business running. Franchises sell support the same way they sell brand recognition — with slick brochures, discovery events and friendly development teams. Those elements matter, but they rarely show how a franchisor behaves when things get messy. Prospective owners should treat marketing claims as a starting point, not proof, and push for concrete evidence of how the brand

Local business leaders and HR managers are increasingly finding that incorrect paychecks usually have roots in how hours are tracked and approved, not in the payroll run itself. Errors that appear on payday tend to accumulate over several days or even weeks — a missed clock-in, an unrecorded shift swap or approvals that arrive after a payroll cutoff can quietly distort the data payroll uses, leaving workers underpaid or the company exposed to unexpected costs. Those small mis

When a neighborhood shop owner accepts a chance that feels premature, the aftermath often matters more than the moment itself. I’ve found that stepping into situations that provoke anxiety produces far more usable information than playing it safe. Rather than seeing those events as looming failures, I now treat them as experiments that reveal what I can actually learn and what I still need to practice. A few years ago I agreed to moderate a panel with a visiting author—an off

Many small-business owners hit their 40s and find that success doesn’t bring the comfort they expected — it brings questions about purpose, priorities and the next chapter. By midcareer, a surprising number of founders report a creeping sense of disconnect: work that once charged them now feels burdensome, achievements no longer satisfy, and the engine that pushed early growth seems to sputter. For owner-operators on Main Street as well as founders of tech startups, this is l

How a youth program expanded from 30 to 300 students after installing repeatable systems, metrics and a more adaptable leadership approach Many charities begin with strong convictions, but sustaining growth requires more than drive. When I joined Youth Champions two and a half years ago the group had already been operating for six years, with proven programming and community trust. What it lacked were reliable systems and a management framework that could support a larger ope

Speaking this week at Semafor’s World Economy Summit, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said his team dropped a finalist for a high-level post after noticing the candidate treated a front-desk employee poorly. The person had performed well in formal interviews with executives, but a single negative interaction with building staff prompted the airline to move on. Jordan framed the decision as part of a broader hiring approach that prizes humility and putting colleagues’ needs

A Washington farm taught one CEO that steady, season-by-season attention and protecting core assets matter more than flashy moves — lessons he brought to building a calling platform for sales teams. I learned leadership among rows of concord grapes long before I ever ran a software company. The farm where I grew up sprawled across hundreds of acres southeast of Seattle, and my teenage summers were spent cutting back vines, fixing trellises and watching weather windows for the

Many executives assume stalled work means teams need more briefings. The bigger problem is that decisions often leave meetings without a clearly named owner, and that gap turns momentum into muddled action. Too often a major program gets signed off inside the executive room and everyone walks away thinking the job will proceed. Months later, teams are still asking questions that should have been resolved. One unit treats the outcome as direction, another treats it as optional