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
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 and former CEO of The Knot. The wedding planning platform that helped shape the modern wedding industry. After taking the company public and eventually selling it, D...
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 competing as a professional swimmer, qualifying for the Olympics, modeling for brands like Dolce & Gabbana, studying acting in New York and opening restaurants across the...
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 Brewing in the mid-90s.
Over the next 30 years, Dave and his partners grew the company from a small warehouse operation into a regional craft brewery producing tens of t...
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 and later worked as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. After moving to Chicago without knowing anyone, he struggled to find connection through traditional social clubs and networ...
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 spent more than 15 years in hospitality PR and brand marketing. She also worked at Tend, helping the company scale from just a few locations to dozens across the East Coas...
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 in Chicago, moved to Philly to work in museums and took a job at Whole Foods as a janitor just to pay the bills. Fifteen years later, after working his way up to produce buyer,...
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 national pop-ups and major retail partnerships.
Before launching Pop-Up Grocer, Emily built her career in food and beverage marketing, starting at Chobani in its earliest days. Sh...
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 barely knowing english.
He started as a dishwasher and talked his way into Le Bilboquet NYC and worked under legends like Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In 2013 Stephan...
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 apartment lined up and built a career in big tech working with some of the world’s largest consumer brands.
In late 2024, Ireland started asking the question: ‘Where doe...
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. Before opening Forte Vita, Marcella built her career in New York’s luxury fashion PR world, later returning to LA to represent wellness and lifestyle clients, one of which led her t...
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 corporate role with raising two young kids. A single visit to an open art space with her toddler sparked the idea for Artsy, a place where kids could create freely without the ...
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, and began hosting food pop-ups, one of which evolved into Bunna Cafe, a beloved Ethiopian vegan restaurant that’s been a neighborhood fixture since 2011.
In 2024, Sam launched Farley’s, a 300-sq...
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 through fine dining in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and New York, earned his master’s at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, and spent over five years at Smith & Wollensky before ...
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, sitting in Los Angeles with no plan, no network, and plenty of time to think. What started as a $1,000 experiment with 10 folding tables and 22 Korean American friends selling ce...
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 Blue Dove Coffee in September 2023 with a welded cart, a disabled-veteran permit, and a relentless work ethic that had him waking up at 2:30 a.m. and getting home at 9 p.m. seven days...
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 dental company built around no insurance, no drills, and no surprise bills.
A serial founder from Canada with exits in digital media and fintech, Tyler applied his obsession with customer e...
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 the while, she was quietly stockpiling binders of ideas, gift products, fixtures, and concepts, planning for the day she’d open her own store.
In 2007, after securing a $...
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 ice cream shops like Cafe Panna and il laboratorio del gelato before landing in the pizza game.
In June 2024, at just 24 years old, he opened Jonny’s Pizza on Orchard Stree...
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 spinning up daily Zoom classes for eBay employees.
He parlayed that traction into Aesthetic Lab: first a bright, SoHo studio, then a larger TriBeCa flagship. Today he leads a 9-...
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, building a loyal clientele and a decade-long career that included high-profile clients and a front-row seat to how salons scale, and bloat.
In 2025, Marissa and her partner Gabby ...
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