Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2015 i Entrepreneur Magazine

HOTEL OPTIONS in the extended-stay category offer little to those who want more than a generic suite but can’t spring for a luxury condo. Enter Roost Apartment Hotel, which falls squarely in the middle. “We designed the brand around ideals including creating a sense of comfort,” says CEO and co-founder Randall T. Cook. The 27 loft-like units housed in Roost’s first location, a historic building in midtown Philadelphia, range from studios to two bedrooms. They feature unique art, houseplants and antique Turkmen carpets, as well as amenities such as Apple TVs, laundry machines in each unit, luxury appliances like Bonavita coffee makers, and access to an in-house fitness center as well as a bike-share program. A second location, in Philly’s Rittenhouse Square, is set to open this year. “More and…

If there’s one clear trend that has emerged as we compiled the 2015 Brilliant 100, it’s that everyone—especially young adults— wants to keep tabs on everything. Millennials are driving technology and commerce in an altruistic direction that melds personal responsibility (for one’s health and well-being, as well as that of employees and customers) with social responsibility (for the global community, planet and big-picture economy). That starts with monitoring our own bodies and habits. The global market for wearable devices is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 35 percent, reaching 148 million units by 2019, according to a report from BI Intelligence. Nearly half of wearable tech owners, 48 percent, are between 18 and 34 years old, according to Nielsen. In addition to their health, consumers are keeping…

The Harvard Business School grads behind the Women’s Venture Capital Fund invest in businesses with at least one woman in a leadership role because they believe gender-diverse teams make better decisions, higher-quality products and, ultimately, higher profits. ZestFinance improves on traditional underwriting models by using machine learning and large-scale data analysis to make credit available to more people without raising the risk to lenders. The FlashFunders no-fee equity investment platform streamlines the fundraising process by offering entrepreneurs SEC-compliant documents and FDIC-insured escrow accounts, saving them thousands in legal fees. Online financial service Fundbox helps small businesses clear outstanding accounts receivables by offering low-cost advances on invoices of $100 to $25,000. VerInvest is a secure, confidential verification platform that eases compliance with securities laws by enabling qualified financiers to verify their…

For $49 per month, users of Vida’s Health Coach app can get daily text or weekly video checkups with a health coach using information gathered from a smartphone to monitor activity levels and sleep patterns. For patients suffering from chronic illnesses, it can replace costly in-person checkups at a doctor’s office. It’s here: a great-looking smartwatch. The Swiss-made Withings Activité tracks movement and sleep patterns and works with the Health Mate app for coaching. All with a handsome analog interface. Play games, earn rewards and track your habits with Beam’s Bluetooth-equipped motion-sensing toothbrush. CrossChx’s proprietary platform leverages siloed information from healthcare providers to generate unique global identities for every patient. Its SafeChx software verifies patient identity through fingerprint scan, reducing medical record error and improving treatment. The Sleepio digital platform…

Larry LeSueur is used to former peers from the software world asking him, “What the heck are you doing?” It’s a reasonable question, considering the decidedly different turn he and his former Microsoft colleague Jose Lugo took in 2010 when they founded Redmond, Wash.-based WISErg, anxious to solve the growing problem of food waste in America. That’s right—the duo went from high-tech to food scraps, hoping to address the fact that 40 percent of food in the U.S.—about $165 billion worth per year—goes uneaten, with most ending up in landfills, according to a 2012 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Though the grocery industry recognized the problem, nobody could really explain why it was happening. “I said, let’s first and foremost try to understand why food waste was being…

The use of drones for commercial purposes is a regulatory gray area for now, as the Federal Aviation Administration has had a hard time drafting rules that keep up with ever-advancing technology. While final policies may be a couple of years away, there are some provisions in place that should keep your business (and personal) drone use on the up and up. Don’t fly drones at night, near airports or out of sight of the operator. Keep them below 400 feet. Apply for a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA. This is your business’s ticket to legally fly the friendly skies.…

“We are a five-person B2B gifting company and concierge service that sends personalized gifts, mostly to employees on behalf of their employers. The packaging our gifts are shipped in is as important to our customer experience as anything we do, so we’ve put a lot of effort and money into making sure it’s just right. Initially we hired a designer, found a manufacturer and handled logistics ourselves. But earlier this year we heard about a product-packaging startup called Pakible. Its online platform allowed us to pick a style of packaging, drop in our brand and logos, pick text and colors and otherwise automate the process of making business packaging. I was particularly attracted by how we could dynamically price our order based on the number of units we needed. As…

Security cameras can catch people in the act, but the devices themselves are often targets of thieves or vandals. Enter the Sengled Snap ($199), a Wi-Fi-connected LED spotlight that cleverly houses a 1080p HD camera and microphone, camouflaged in plain sight. It’s a cinch to install—simply screw it into any standard light socket. With motion detection and a facial-recognition feature, the smart bulb can be programmed to record only unknown persons, sending the footage to the cloud, where you can access it from anywhere through the Sengled mobile app.…

Not long ago I received a text from my 16-year- old son—who works part-time at my company—that read, “Mom, can I open a Roth IRA?” I was thrilled that he was beginning to appreciate the significance that compounding interest and time would have on his retirement. What I didn’t realize was that I, too, stood to gain from my son’s investments. This I learned from Kimberly C. Ford, managing partner with the accounting firm Hill & Ford in San Antonio, Texas, who specializes in tax strategies for small businesses. She says few entrepreneurs realize that the IRS allows an employed child to make annual Roth contributions of up to $5,500. Moreover, this account can be used to pay for the child’s higher education (with some restrictions). By hiring my son,…

Entrepreneur: Barry Givens, owner of Monsieur, which produces robotic bartending machines for homes and businesses. “Aha” moment: When Givens was a student at Georgia Tech University, he and his roommate went to a bar to watch an NBA Finals game. Knowing the place would be packed, they arrived early, scored a table and ordered drinks. At halftime, about two hours later, their drinks finally arrived. The staff wasn’t incompetent— just overwhelmed. The two mechanical engineering students conceived a machine that could make simple drinks so customers wouldn’t have to wait for human bartenders. Distilling the idea: After graduating in 2008, Givens worked as a mechanical designer for John Deere and then as a project manager at Caterpillar. That didn’t last long. “I just didn’t feel right in corporate [America], and…

After leaving her overseas insurance underwriting job in 2007, Ashley Hunter decided to return to the U.S. and hang her own shingle. There was just one problem: She wasn’t landing the types of large accounts she handled during the years she worked for large insurance companies such as AIG. Her former boss and mentor encouraged her to return to the Middle East, where she’d already built a reputation in the industry. So she moved to Bahrain and started her commercial insurance brokerage, HM Risk Group. The bet paid off: In 2014 her five-person company wrote several million dollars in annual insurance premiums for startups, as well as Fortune 500s and other large companies, in the Middle East, U.S., U.K. and Australia. That’s not to say that launching a company abroad…

Ari Yakobson wasn’t aware of the growing trend of blow-dry bars when he stumbled upon the three-unit chain Blo in 2008. “Being blunt, at first I thought the Blo concept was ridiculous and wouldn’t work,” says Yakobson, who at the time owned a chain of children’s hair salons across Canada. “But I took a look at the numbers and became intrigued. I saw the business model and systems and thought it could become massive with a little injection of capital.” So he bought Blo and began franchising the concept, which now has 50 units internationally; he hopes to add 15 to 20 units in the next year. In June 2014 the concept got an extra boost when actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her longtime hairdresser, David Babaii, partnered with the company.…

Football fans have been celebrating kickoff with Baskin-Robbins’ Quarterback Crunch since 1978, when it was created by franchisees in Chatsworth, Calif. Shaved-ice franchise Bahama Buck’s created a Fiesta Flavor menu featuring cucumber, horchata, melon and chamoy treats suggested by franchisees in communities with large Hispanic populations. Fans of Sub Zero’s cool liquid-nitrogen freezing process who aren’t fond of dairy can now enjoy Italian ice and sorbet options, thanks to an innovative franchisee. Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt’s first venture into co-branding, with three Ghirardelli flavors, sprang from a suggestion made by a franchisee. A South Carolina franchisee helped dream up Sonic’s summer promotion now running for the third consecutive year offering ice cream shakes in 25 flavors.…

The twisty, curvy road to innovation is lined by a boneyard of failures, some catastrophic and some less so. Call them what you will—flameouts, burnouts, cash burners, dogs—the end result is the same: road pizza. But this is not unexpected. Any time you intro- duce change and herald new ways of thinking, failure is a possibility. In an organization, stagnation by lack of innovation is a death knell. This is the part where the big, slow- moving, keep-as-is companies tend to get knocked into the boneyard. Some people simply cannot embrace innovation. Politicians, policymakers and old-school accountants are not prone to change. (Nor is Russia, but that’s another story.) Where the stagnant reside is where you’ll find opportunity. The risk-reward equation rests heavily on the side of innovation. But innovation…

The natural-beverage industry is poised to “capture consumer ambivalence about soda,” says Zevia CEO Paddy Spence, adding that many Americans are “not comfortable” with the volume of traditional soda they are drinking. Zevia is just one option for soda drinkers who want to get away from high-fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors and sweeteners. According to research firm Packaged Facts, beverages accounted for 15 percent of all natural and organic foods sold in 2014. (Fresh produce was the largest category, at 35 percent.) Forty-nine percent of those beverage sales were at mass- market retailers (compared with 41 percent for specialty shops like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s, and 10 percent for all other outlets, such as farmers markets and warehouse stores). Packaged Facts estimates that the natural-foods and beverage…

When asked to offer advice, first do not offer advice. Listen instead. Then listen some more. When the advice-seeker stops talking, continue to listen. Remember: You’re not doing it right unless it’s awkward. You’re listening for clues that will help you know if you’re the right person to be giving advice. Because you might not be. In which case, you should point out someone who is. Don’t tell the advice-seeker what to do. Instead: Ask questions—not only to help you understand the problem, but to help them understand the problem. If you deem the situation advice-worthy and yourself mentor-worthy, then speak energetically. Use motivating language like, “You’re not the first person who’s had this dilemma.” Or, “The problem is not as complicated as you think,” and “I can’t wait to…

Q: Am I the right leader for my startup? A: They’re creative visionaries, sure, but not all entrepreneurs are equipped to run the companies they start. Randy Nelson, author of The Second Decision: The Qualified Entrepreneur, suggests this three-step approach to deciding whether or not you should stay at the helm of your company. 1. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH INDEPENDENT ADVISORS. Nelson, who sold two businesses he founded, says he relied on CEO peer groups for input. The goal is to better assess your own strengths and weaknesses. 2. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SHORTCOMINGS, THEN ACT ON THEM. “By becoming more self-aware,” Nelson says, “that’s saying to yourself, ‘I want to improve.’” He calls this step the transition from “I don’t know what I don’t know” to “I know what I don’t know.”…

1950 Mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing’s seminal paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” inaugurates the modern era of AI research and introduces the Turing test, which examines a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligence equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, human aptitude. 1952 IBM’s Arthur Samuel completes his first checkers-playing AI program; a learning version follows three years later. 1956 Computer scientists John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathan Rochester and Claude Shannon organize Dartmouth College’s first summer AI program. At the second conference later that year, the term “artificial intelligence” is used for the first time. 1956 Carnegie Mellon’s Allen Newell, J.C. Shaw and Herbert A. Simon demonstrate the Logic Theorist, often cited as the first true AI program. They present their General Problem Solver machine three years later. 1958 John McCarthy invents…

AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange is a crowdsourced platform enabling small businesses to monitor and discuss digital risks. Participants from 140-plus countries contribute more than 1 million threat indicators daily. With GroupAhead, organizations build dedicated smartphone apps to communicate with members, manage calendars and coordinate job needs. It’s like a private Facebook for your business. ExpenseBot automates expense reporting, approval and reimbursement, and learns employees’ spending habits over time so it can draft reports automatically. Narrative Science offers “advanced natural language generation,” translating big data into simple stories, rather than spreadsheets or complex visualizations. Startups.co has everything for launch, including Clarity.fm, a VC consulting platform with mentors like Mark Cuban; business-plan tool Bizplan; and equity crowdfunding through Fundable. Duet Display turns your iPad into a second monitor for use with…

EveryLayer has developed a cloud-based software system to wire Africa at half the cost, working with Facebook, Cisco, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and others to expand support for communications after the Ebola outbreak of 2014. The low-cost BioLite HomeStove burns biomass twice as efficiently as open flame while emitting one-tenth of the carbon monoxide and smoke, and generates electricity to charge devices like cell phones—a potential lifesaver for the 3 billion people worldwide who cook over open fires and lack access to reliable power. BluMarble collects glass bottles from Las Vegas resorts and eateries and cuts them into glassware, light fixtures, jewelry and other tabletop accessories sold at a retail shop downtown and in the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. Brand-name used-clothing e-tailer Twice boasts low prices on…

It wasn’t fresh mist swirling about the air in Dongguan, China—it was toxins. “You couldn’t even see toward the end of the block because the pollution was on eye level,” says Yael Aflalo, who once designed clothing for Urban Outfitters and now runs Reformation, a fast-fashion line that’s rejiggering the notoriously pollutive apparel industry. “All these dresses I was making for Urban Outfitters, they were all made out of fossil fuels.” A typical wardrobe includes clothing made from polyester, acrylic, nylon or spandex—all petroleum-based products— which release chemicals as they decompose and take years to biodegrade. Surprise: Cotton isn’t much better for the environment; a cotton shirt can take 700 gallons of water to make, and the crop consumes 25 percent of the world’s insecticides, despite using only about 2.5…

With Credibles, customers prepay for eats at a farm, restaurant or artisan food maker and get a debit card stocked with “edible credits,” while helping their favorite business get the money it needs to grow. Freight Farms transforms shipping containers into self-contained farms that grow fresh produce using LEDs and hydroponics, while an app controls metrics like humidity and temperature remotely. The flagship Leafy Green Machine starts at $76,000. The Foodily virtual recipe book allows users to search, save and share digital recipes on their smartphones or tablets and, via partnerships with retailers like FreshDirect, turn recipes into shopping lists and order ingredients online for delivery. The SmartGrill by Lynx, programmable via smartphone, is voice-activated to cook on user command, or automatically via a database of more than 200 preprogrammed…

Hate the Wild West of Uber? AsterRide works with taxi and limo businesses to offer both on-demand requests and advance reservations, guaranteeing a smooth ride by professional drivers. Transit App finds the best route by displaying all available options, from buses to bike shares to Uber. Flight delayed? Reroute around the airline and receive compensation for your trouble using the Refund.me app or website. Shuddle, an Uber-like car service for minors and seniors, runs extensive background checks. At pickup, the driver says a secret word selected by the family to confirm their identity; once the ride reaches its destination, a message is sent to the adult family member. Dufl is an apparel storage, shipping and cleaning service for business travelers. Ship clothing to the Dufl warehouse, where it’s inventoried, cleaned…

Q: Are the new high-tech customer loyalty systems worth it? A: The short answer is yes, if only for the customer analytics they provide. With such systems, customers sign up online; after that, you’ll know exactly when they’re in your store, what they bought and how quickly they redeemed the promotional offer that brought them there. For a more detailed discussion, we turned to Flora Delaney, president of Delaney Consulting in Edina, Minn., who works with retailers such as PetSmart on business development. —Mikal E. Belicove HOW DO I IMPLEMENT A TECH-POWERED LOYALTY PLATFORM? Let’s back up. Before someone becomes a loyal customer, they have to be aware of your business. That means traditional awareness efforts, like advertising, are already in place, and your promotional offers are bringing in new…

For help building a business abroad, you need to know more than local museum hours. One place to start is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which details information on regional chambers abroad; you should also check out trade and industry organizations in your regions of interest (such as the Japan External Trade Organization) and overseas accelerators and incubators (such as Start-Up Chile and Italy’s M31). Here are some other entrepreneur-friendly resources. • NomadList.com is a filterable ranking of worldwide cities, based on cost of living, internet speed, weather and other criteria. • GoToLaunch.in produces digital guidebooks on starting a company overseas. • TropicalMBA.com is a podcast and blog about starting a business anywhere in the world.…

Which Wich allows franchisees to personalize their menus to fit their markets. In New Mexico, that meant the introduction of green chile sauce to sandwiches. Employees at an East Coast Wings location in Florida invented Kamikaze, an Asian-inspired wing sauce that combines ginger, molasses, sesame, crushed hot peppers, red chilies, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. The New Mexico franchise group for Freddy’s Frozen Custard suggested the Hatch chiles that have been heating up the chain’s burgers and hot dogs seasonally since 2013.…

David Garvin and Joshua Margolis, professors who wrote the Harvard Business Review article “The Art of Giving and Receiving Advice,” say good advice involves the following: Finding the right fit Developing a shared understanding Crafting alternatives Converging on a decision Putting advice into action Giving advice should not involve: Overstepping boundaries Misdiagnosing the problem Offering self-centered guidance Communicating poorly Mishandling the aftermath And it should definitely not involve: Taking responsibility for the seeker’s eventual action. “Both the decision and the consequences are [the advice-seeker’s],” Garvin stresses, “not yours.”…

Q: Based on the backlash I’ve seen against business leaders who were open about their takes on social or other issues, I feel like as a company owner I have to keep my personal beliefs secret. That doesn’t seem fair. What do you think? A: A company’s leaders are never truly off-duty. What you say and do, even after business hours, reflects on the company you lead. That’s only fair; leaders derive much of their social standing and place in the community from their company roles. If you take sides in a polarizing social or political issue that makes employees, customers or other stakeholders feel marginalized, disrespected or antagonized, it could have an impact on the business. That doesn’t mean you should stay quiet, but you need to really think…

The Asus Chromebit plugs into the HDMI slot on any monitor or TV and (with a Bluetooth-connected keyboard and mouse) turns it into a Chromebook with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, a USB port and Wi-Fi. Best of all, you can put your computer in your pocket when you’re on the go. It’s the supersmartphone: The Android-powered V2 from Saygus has a wireless HD connection to stream films to a big screen, wireless charging, Harmon Kardon 3D sound, a 21-megapixel camera and 320 GB of storage. And it’s waterproof. Toss Panono’s camera-covered ball into the air for a 360-degree panorama you can view from any angle using the company’s app. Sweden’s Penclic has designed an ergonomically pleasing mouse that looks, feels and moves like a pen. The…

Rachel Maxwell’s path to financing entrepreneurs wasn’t an obvious one. Before receiving her MBA in 2012, she worked in international climate policy while running an analytics and market research firm with her husband. But her data-crunching background and interest in sustainable energy soon led her to pursue sustainable business financing solutions for local communities. “What I figured out was that we really needed a distributed economic system, much like we needed a distributed energy grid,” says Seattle-based Maxwell. A year spent researching the topic led to Community Sourced Capital, a zero-interest crowdfunding platform for community-based ventures. To ensure that future directors, advisors and investors would honor the mission, CSC became a certified B Corporation and a registered Social Purpose Corporation, a Washington state business designation. “Everybody said to us, ‘No…

The iNaturalist app and website, maintained by the California Academy of Sciences, lets citizen “scientists” upload photos, notes or observations of wildlife populations. Beepi connects sellers and buyers of used cars (that pass inspection); if the car doesn’t sell in 30 days, the company will buy it. Glow First, a not-for-profit program from fertility data specialists Glow, pools the risk of trying-to-conceive couples, who contribute $50 a month to a group fund until they become pregnant. Money accumulated at the end of 10 months gets divided among the remaining couples to go toward fertility treatment. Experiment Engine gives companies access to conversion-rate experts eager to offer web-page variations that can be tried through a comprehensive A/B testing platform. Peerby encourages neighborly behavior by allowing users to post about items they…

Kian Saneii has worked in the technology sector for almost 30 years, so he looks at the world through a techie’s lens. When he began helping his parents take care of his elderly grandparents, he was shocked to find that the digital world had barely made a foothold in elder care. “I had that personal experience, and when I began looking into things, there was not a brand out there associated with taking care of grandma and grandpa,” he says. “I wondered why it is that 30 years into the digital revolution, the only brand for the elderly is still ‘I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.’” At the same time, he acknowledges, technology and the elderly don’t always mix well. Teaching older people to use smartphones, tablets or computers…

The sculptural WindFall Kiosk from Heckler Design, produced in multiple colors, is designed to reach appealingly toward the user while offering stability, cable management and frame options that work with multiple tablet models. The Walleries app helps you hang artwork— no math or tape measure needed—so you don’t have to rehang, rearrange and patch a thousand holes in the wall. Core Construction by Voormi incorporates breathable, waterproof membranes into fabric for a lighter, more versatile weatherproof garment. It’s poised to become the biggest advance in technical clothing since Gore-Tex. Snap a pic of each ear using Normal’s free app, and the company will 3-D print custom-fit earbuds. Designed by product veterans from Method and Shaklee, OLLY’s tasty, brightly colored vitamins have easy-to-understand labels like “Bones” and “Sleep” to help consumers…

FanDuel is fantasy sports on steroids: bigger, stronger, faster. The New York City-based startup benches the familiar season-long league model embraced by millions of fantasy enthusiasts in favor of more lucrative daily and weekly competitions—a model perfectly attuned to the ADD-addled sensibilities of the Millennial generation. Here’s how FanDuel works: Like with fantasy football, baseball and basketball games hosted by ESPN, Yahoo and other brands, players assemble virtual teams of real-world sports stars. Gamers accumulate points based on how the players fare, determined by statistical measures like touchdowns, field goals and passing yards. In traditional fantasy leagues, contestants draft their teams before the pro season, maintaining the same core roster for months. But FanDuel games last just one day or one week; on any given day, entrants can build new…

At first glance, the Parrot Bebop Drone + SkyController ($899) looks like a toy. With responsive controls, nimble handling and an accompanying high-powered app, the quadcopter would be one heck of a plaything—but it’s better suited for work. The aircraft, which weighs less than a pound, packs a 14-megapixel 1080p fisheye camera with a 180-degree field of view and outstanding image stabilization. This eye in the sky makes an excellent tool for event videographers, real estate marketers and land surveyors. Piloted by an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet—or its adept SkyController accessory, which increases the drone’s range to 2 kilometers—the unmanned aerial vehicle is easy to fly and even easier to set down, thanks to emergency-landing features and a GPS-equipped “Return Home” button. The one complaint: The two standard…

People are often surprised when I respond to their pitch with glowing remarks on the idea, only to tell them there’s no way it’ll get venture capital funding. I go on to explain that VCs want to see potential for the classic hockey-stick growth curve before they make an early-stage investment. Here’s what they’re looking at. MARKET SIZE. Venture-backed businesses need to create or be a part of massive addressable markets—think, the entire world or at least $1 billion in lifetime revenue. Addressable is the key word, and here’s what I mean by it: Your favorite local burrito joint with lines out the door may be making money, but it’s not addressing the total global market for beans, rice and tortillas. This is the biggest kind of nonstarter for sophisticated…

When we started our baby-products company with its focus on teething toys, we went through a factory rep who worked with a marketing firm that subcontracted out the manufacturing work. Those middlemen added costs to our product—at least 25 percent over the manufacturing cost of each toy. After we got up and running, we cut out the layers, and now we work directly with our factory. So far we’ve saved more than $25,000 this year, and in addition to the cost savings, the direct line of communication has decreased our production time and improved the consistency and quality of our product. —As told to Grant Davis…

In early 2012, Melissa Mash, Jessy Dover and Deepa Gandhi asked more than 1,000 people for input on designing a practical luxury handbag. The following year, during a three-month campaign on their website, the Dagne Dover founders presold nearly $40,000 worth of their high-end totes (featuring multiple enclosures to keep laptops, tablets, phones, water bottles, wallets and keys in place) and clutch wallets. Prices range from $125 to $500. Since launching, the company has seen more than $1 million in direct-to-consumer sales through its online store. Last year the New York-based startup bagged $1.25 million from angel investors with ties to leading brands such as Coach, Warby Parker and Bonobos. CEO Mash expects 2015 sales to increase by 250 to 300 percent over last year. “Our average order value is…

When Chris LaRocca launched Crushed Red—his fast-casual franchise concept for customizable chopped salad and pizza—in 2012, several people approached him about buying a unit. But the St. Louis-area entrepreneur turned away even those who seemed experienced and financially capable. After years of helping develop similar concepts, he determined that the way to succeed in the competitive restaurant space was to rely on multi-unit franchisees—those who can buy the territory for several units and build them over a relatively short period of time. “Area development is the only thing we’re going to do,” says LaRocca, who had two company-owned Crushed Red units open at press time (with eight more on the way) and expected to have 11 franchised units up and running by the end of 2016. “It gets us there…

FEELING HUNGRY? Some of the oldest, largest and most successful franchises around are food businesses. In fact, more than a quarter of the companies that ranked in Entrepreneur’s 2015 Franchise 500® are quick-service, full-service or retail food franchises. And you’ll find every one of them on the following pages. One appeal of food franchising is that creative franchisees can contribute to a company’s success. Can you imagine McDonald’s without the Big Mac, Egg McMuffin or Filet-O-Fish? What about Dairy Queen without the Blizzard? If not for inventive franchisees—and franchisors open to new ideas—these iconic menu items wouldn’t exist. So throughout this listing, we’ve highlighted a few of the many offerings franchisees have helped create. Who knows—one just might become the next Big Mac. Keep in mind as you read our…

Brad Shellen says he and his wife, Marilu, were looking to reinvent themselves when they became Tropical Smoothie Café franchisees in 2010. Little did he know he’d end up helping reinvent the company’s menu. Shellen was inspired to find a way to incorporate an unlikely beverage ingredient—avocado—after a customer (who was a grower) brought a case of them to his Miami restaurant. Looking to Marilu’s native Peru for inspiration, Brad found a cocktail recipe that included avocado, lime and coconut. He began experimenting with smoothies that featured those ingredients, offering samples and getting feedback from customers until he believed the recipe was ready. Tropical Smoothie Café’s corporate team conducts a roadshow every other year, holding regional town hall-style meetings with franchisees. At a meeting in late 2012, Shellen excitedly shared…