Opening Soon
Opening Soon is the podcast where we go behind the scenes with founders of brick-and-mortar businesses - from Pilates studios to coffee shops, boutiques, medspas, and more.
Hosted by Alan Li, co-founder of FotoLab Studio and Signs and Mirrors, each episode explores how real entrepreneurs found their space, designed their store, hired their team, and built something from nothing.
Episodes
30 episodes
From Tech Founder (The Knot) to Omakase Restauranteur (Kinjo) - David Liu
David Liu is the founder of Kinjo, a 14 seat omakase counter and cocktail lounge in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Before launching Kinjo, David spent more than two decades building one of the internet’s most recognizable consumer brands as the co-founder an...
How Franco Noriega Built 15-sq-ft Fellini Coffee Into One of NYC’s Most Viral Brands
Franco Noriega is the founder of Fellini Coffee, one of New York City’s most popular coffee brands, with more than six locations opened in under three years. Before launching Fellini, Franco had an unconventional career path that included compe...
Building a $10M Brewery starting in high school: The 30 Year Journey of Ska Brewing
Dave Thibodeau is the founder of Ska Brewing, one of the early pioneers of the American craft beer movement. He started brewing beer in high school after discovering his dad’s old homebrewing logbook, which eventually led to launching Ska...
Building a $1 million Social Club with Draymond Washington (Three Cities Social Club)
Draymond Washington is the founder of Three Cities Social Club, a Chicago-based membership club designed to help adults make real friends and build a meaningful community.Before launching the business, Draymond played professional soccer...
Building Ziggy’s Roman Cafe: A Family-Friendly Restaurant Born From Parenting Reality
Helen Zhang is the co-founder of Ziggy’s Roman Cafe, a new restaurant in Dumbo, Brooklyn designed to solve a problem many parents have. How do you go out to eat with kids and still enjoy a great meal?Before opening Ziggy’s, Helen s...
From Garage Pop-Up to $16M Grocery Store: The Riverwards Produce Story with Vincent Finazzo
Vincent Finazzo is the founder of Riverwards Produce, a neighborhood grocery market in Philadelphia that started in a 20x20 garage and has grown into a multi-location business doing nearly $16 million in annual sales.Vincent studied art ...
From Chobani to Pop-Up Grocer: How Emily Schildt Built a New Kind of Grocery Store
Emily Schildt is the founder of Pop-Up Grocer, a grocery store designed to help emerging, better-for-you brands reach customers. What started as a 10-day experiment in New York City has grown into a permanent store in Greenwich Village with nat...
From Dishwasher to $6MM Dallas Restaurateur: The Unexpected Journey of Stephan Courseau
Stephan Courseau is the founder of Travis Street Hospitality and some of Dallas’ most beloved French-inspired restaurants including Le Bilboquet Dallas, Knox Bistro and Georgie. Stephan arrived in New York City from Paris in 1987 with $500 and ...
From Big Tech to a 19-Sq-Ft Photo Booth: Building Memento with Ireland McGill
Ireland McGill is the founder of New York Memento, a triangular 19-square-foot photo booth in the West Village in New York City. Before launching Memento, Ireland grew up in a small town in southern Oklahoma. She moved to New York with no apart...
Opening a $100K Fitness Studio in 6 Months - The Forte Vita Story with Marcella Giuffrida
Marcella Giuffrida is the co-founder of Forte Vita, a heated, weighted workout studio in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and the founder of MGPR, a boutique PR and social media agency specializing in emerging lifestyle and wellness brands. Befor...
How Brittney Wysong Built a Kids’ Art Studio While Working Full-Time
Brittney Wysong is the founder of Artsy Studio, a 1,700-square-foot process-based art studio for kids in Trussville, Alabama. Before opening the studio, Brittney spent a decade in healthcare marketing and graphic design, balancing a full-time c...
$2,500/Month Rent & 300 Sq Ft: How Sam Saverance Built NYC’s First Sloppy Joe Diner
Sam Saverance is the co-founder of Bunna Cafe in Bushwick and the creator of Farley’s Sloppy Joes in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Before opening restaurants, Sam worked as a freelance designer, spent time in finance, a...
How Benjamin Berg Built Houston’s $17M Steakhouse and a 14-Restaurant Empire
Benjamin Berg is the founder and CEO of Berg Hospitality Group, the team behind B&B Butchers and more than a dozen restaurant concepts across Texas. Ben started out as a bellman at the Lake Placid Lodge, worked his way ...
$80k in 30 days: Arnold Byun’s Journey Building MAUM Markets
Arnold Byun is the co-founder of Maum Market and Store. After nearly a decade managing some of New York’s most acclaimed restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, Bouley, and Atomix, he found himself jobless during the pandemic, si...
From Cart to Canal Street: Selling $5K of Coffee a Day at Blue Dove with Amadeo Falce
Amadeo Falce is the founder of Blue Dove Coffee, a viral coffee brand that started as a cart in Union Square and has since expanded to a brick-and-mortar café on Canal Street. A former Army paramedic turned entrepreneur, Amadeo started B...
Reinventing Dentistry: Wally’s $249/Year Membership Model with CEO Tyler Burnett
Tyler Burnett never planned to reinvent dentistry. But after a 2017 visit where a dentist told him he needed eight fillings on the spot, he walked out skeptical and down a path that would lead to founding Wally, a membership-based...
Scaling a Gift Shop in NYC - Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store with Ann Cantrell
Ann Cantrell thought she was building a career in fashion. She spent over a decade in product development at Ralph Lauren, Coach, and Brooks Brothers, turning sketches into products and learning the vendor, margin, and production game. But all ...
Building Jonny's Pizza in NYC at just 24 years old with Jonny Rashtian
Jonny thought he was headed for a JD/MBA and a career in tech. Instead, a chance encounter with the founder of 7th Street Burger pulled him into the restaurant world. He hustled through cashier shifts, shadowed build-outs, and cycled through ic...
Scaling a NYC Fitness Studio to 2 locations and 9 trainers with Victor Del Valle
Victor Del Valle went from aspiring dentist to NCP bodybuilder to scrappy trainer hustling through the pandemic, literally converting his NYC apartment into a one-on-one gym. Within weeks he was booked 6am–9pm, charging $100/hr and even spinnin...
Marissa Martin - Building House of Tone, a Nashville salon, for $50K
In this episode, Alan talks with Marissa Martin, Nashville-based colorist and co-founder of House of Tone, a boutique salon in the Wedgwood-Houston neighborhood. After three years of college, Marissa followed her instincts into cosmetology, bui...
Better than Crumbl? THIN COOKIES - Selling 4,000 per day with Yoseph Raja
In this episode, Alan talks with Yoseph Raja, co-founder of Thin Cookies, a fast-growing cookie brand with locations in Long Island and Manhattan’s West Village. Trained as a pharmacist, Yoseph never expected to be in the food business, ...
Building Glo Up Salon: From basement startup to $70k months - Nicole Farsalas
In this episode of Opening Soon, Alan sits down with Nicole, the founder of Glo Up, a thriving beauty brand and spray tan studio based in Chicago.Nicole shares her journey from working in hospitality and nightclubs...
Building Miami’s First Hand Roll Bar with Edouard Benitah of Pari Pari
In this episode, Alan talks with Edouard Benitah, co-founder of Pari Pari, a hand roll bar in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Originally from Paris, Edouard came to the U.S. in 2015, working his way up through the restaurant industr...
Raising $6M to Build 5,000 Suburban Coworking Spaces — Enclave’s Robert Kellman
What if you could launch a profitable coworking space for $65,000, with no staff, and scale that model to thousands of locations?That’s exactly what Robert Kellman is doing with Enclave, a suburban coworking company he founded just befor...
Pilates Studio Owner at 23 Years Old - Sheridan St. Claire
Before Sheridan St. Claire opened her boutique Pilates studio in St. George, Utah, she was a former gymnast with two bad shoulders, a sore back, and no clear path forward. That changed when she discovered Pilates—not as a workout trend, but as ...