Walk into Cong Tu Bot, a popular Vietnamese restaurant in Portland, Maine, and you might smell shrimp cakes with turmeric and scallion, or caramel braised Faroe Island salmon, or congee with local organic king oyster and mung bean, being prepared in the open kitchen. The lively restaurant has both communal counter and individual table seating, inside […]
Trailblazers
Stories about innovative company builders in the middle of America
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As Math Scores Plummet, A Tulsa Startup Launches A Digital Math Arcade With $5M In Funding
Edna Martinson and her husband Clarence Tan are tackling a big issue school systems across the U.S. face: improving math education for students in grades K-6. Their Tulsa, Oklahoma-based edtech startup, Boddle Learning, has developed an adaptive digital 3-D gaming platform that uses machine learning. It helps kids learn concepts ranging from fractions to multiplication […]
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Is Entrepreneurship A Human Right? This Longtime Champion Believes It Should Be.
Victor Hwang, a former vice president at the Kauffman Foundation, launched the nonprofit Right to Start in January 2020 to achieve a lofty mission: He wants to make the freedom and ability to pursue one’s entrepreneurial dreams a basic human right, up alongside the rights to speak and worship freely. Since 2021, the group’s support, […]
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Trailblazer: How Cotopaxi’s Founder Built a Cult Following and a $160M Salt Lake City-Based Company
Davis Smith, CEO of Cotopaxi, a sustainably sourced outdoor gear and clothing company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, exemplifies how entrepreneurship can make a difference in people’s lives. Nine years ago, he founded Cotopaxi as a certified benefit corporation with the goal of helping underserved communities worldwide. Since its launch, Cotopaxi—known for its colorful […]
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A Jobs Platform That Helps Moms Reenter the Workforce on Their Own Terms
Ashley Connell, CEO and founder of Prowess Project, is on a mission to help women have more equitable careers as they balance work and family. Her four-year-old company trains women looking to re-enter the workforce after a career hiatus, and then uses a proprietary algorithm to match them with employers in need of part-time or […]
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Businesses Have Been Fighting Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Law. A Federal Judge Just Temporarily Halted It.
Drag shows have been popular in Tennessee cities, especially Nashville, for two decades or more. They grew out of the city’s identity as a hub for music and a generally welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people and their allies. On any given night, or during the weekend brunch hours , there might be an exuberant show […]
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How One Woman Reinvented a Hot Niche in the Beauty Business—and Built a Franchising Empire
Noemi Grupenmager has made her mark in a lucrative and fast-growing niche in the U.S. beauty industry – unisex body waxing. It is a $7.8 billion market expected to grow to an estimated $10.8 billion by 2028, according to Marketwatch.com’s marketing analysis. Over the last three decades she’s built her company, UKW Franchising Co., into […]
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Trailblazer: An Audacious Denver Entrepreneur Recruited An Xbox Creator To Develop Her Gaming Vision
Shail Mehta was a regular on the circuit of board game conventions, where hundreds and sometimes thousands of people gather to play everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Monopoly. A few years ago, she had an idea to reinvent the centuries-old past-time. The epiphany came when she began to wonder why she couldn’t use a […]
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Vermont Farmer Creates A New Drink Category With Roots In The Past
The number of gently sweetened, flavored carbonated drinks has exploded over the past several years, from Spindrift to Olipop, but Shrubbly is the only “sparkling shrub drink.” Shrubs, not to be confused with bushes that grow in the ground, are concentrated fruit syrups, sometimes called drinking vinegars. Typically made with apple cider vinegar and a […]
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The Passion of The Christian Hip Hop Entrepreneur: James Rosseau
Since its beginnings in the 1980s, Christian rap, also known as Christian hip hop, has slowly gained in popularity. Now artists such as John Legend are partnering with Christian rappers like Lecrae to bring this music to the masses. The song “Drown,” a collaboration between the two artists, has been streamed 25.5 million times on […]
