Latest edition: 23 September 2026London — published continuously since 2026Free forever
The Founder Gazette
Startup news, held to newspaper standards

Filed under: franchising

5 stories

The archive, indexed. Every story carries its tags at the foot of the page.

Positioning

HTeaO built $147m of iced tea sales on its water

An Amarillo family chain picked the most boring input in the drink and made it the brand. The lesson is in what they chose not to compete on.

205 · 8 September 2026
Founder tactics

Filmmaker refused a $100,000 deal over AI-generated faces

Trevor Rappleye told a franchise brand his studio would not fake testimonials. He spent three hours certain he had ruined his company, then the board signed anyway.

114 · 22 August 2026
Founder practice

How a 60-person childcare firm closes for two full weeks a year

Haven shuts every club for a week in summer and the last week of December. The scheduling is set more than a year ahead, and staff are paid for both.

110 · 21 August 2026
Founder story

Sacked in 2019, he sold $85,000 of bagels from his kitchen

Jeff Perera had never made a bagel before he lost his job. He estimates he has now baked more than 1.5 million, and the business he and his wife built has 35 locations.

98 · 19 August 2026
Founder story

Rejected by every bank at 26, he built the trampoline park himself

Michael Browning Jr. laid the wood and unloaded the foam cubes for the first Urban Air park with his father in 2011. The franchise platform he built on top of it reports it passed $1bn in sales last year.

32 · 9 August 2026