GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Orlando, Florida to meet up with John Rife, the owner of East End Market, a food hall and neighborhood market that's creating a small business ecosystem in the Orlando area.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

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♪ GARY: My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country continues to recover from extraordinary challenges, small business owners are showing us why they are the backbone of the American economy.

We've set out for our 11th consecutive season, talking with a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

♪ This is Start Up.

♪ GARY: A food hall is a large indoor space that features a variety of food and beverage vendors, often grouped together in a communal dining area.

It's a modern take on the traditional food court and typically offers high-end and artisanal food options.

Today, I'm heading to Orlando, Florida to meet up with John Rife, the owner of East End Market, a food hall and neighborhood market located in the Audubon Park Garden District of Orlando, Florida.

East End Market houses a dozen merchants, a large event space, a demonstration kitchen, an incubator, offices, retail shops, and a world-class ramen restaurant.

From what I understand, John comes from a commercial real estate background, but he's always been passionate about maintaining local sustainable food systems.

I can't wait to meet John and his team and learn more about this exciting business.

♪ Let's talk about this space.

Where are we right now in the building?

JOHN: Yeah, so this is the main market hall.

We've got 10 merchants along here.

These are all individually owned and operated businesses.

When we started, we didn't know how much space they would need.

They can average maybe 250 square feet.

GARY: Were they specked out prior to the business or did you guys... JOHN: No.

GARY: Did you white box it?

JOHN: Yes.

GARY: Customized?

JOHN: It was totally evolved as needs arose.

So- GARY: Okay.

JOHN: Even the kitchen in the back was like, "How big do we need to service these guys?"

You know.

GARY: So business first, and then build out.

JOHN: Yes.

These are actually pop ups right now.

So we always pop up to see what the community likes and if it works, it stays.

GARY: What kind of thought goes into the, the, uh, category of business?

Were you like, "I'm gonna go 50% food and 20% retail and..." Was there any thought JOHN: Yeah.

GARY: To that curation- GARY: Or not really?

JOHN: Yes.

No, for sure.

Of having a balance that you want people to be able to have something.

I wanted some commodity type businesses.

GARY: Mm-hmm.

JOHN: Like, you can actually...

The cheese monger here.

GARY: Sure.

JOHN: I wanted you to be able to get some really great slices of cheese, but they also do food.

I wanted you to get retail plants.

I want you to get at retail stuff, but then also food ready to order.

GARY: Right.

JOHN: Or cookies off the shelf.

They're not making those cookies right this second.

But, like, you know, some of that interplay of something to grab, something to take to a party.

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: Something, you know, to eat while you're here.

Like I want to...

It's more the experience that I wanted to be- GARY: Sure.

JOHN: Multi-leveled.

GARY: So you don't necessarily need to come here for anything.

You can just kind of- JOHN: No.

GARY: Come here and grab something and look around.

JOHN: Yeah.

It's like going to Costco.

We are a food hall, first and foremost, GARY: Right.

JOHN: But while you're waiting for your coffee, go explore everything else that's in the market.

♪ East End Market is a food hall, but it's basically a place where businesses come to go from idea to a thriving business.

And then to be launched out into the world to, hopefully, conquer by disseminating locally distinct food and retail businesses throughout our area.

GARY: What would make a business drawn to be part of East End Market?

JOHN: Safety in numbers?

I think people go, "Hey, "I can be around other like-minded, switched-on entrepreneurs."

And there's a lot of camaraderie that comes from that.

There's a sense of, "Hey, we're one tribe, and we're all working together," and that kind of rising tide lifts all ships scenario.

And works really well for us.

GARY: Well I'd like to learn a little bit about you and figure out how you got to this point.

JOHN: My dad will say that I'm a fart in a windstorm.

That I'm like, (Gary laughing) "Woo, that's interesting.

And oh, look at this over here."

And so I, you know... GARY: Squirrel.

JOHN: Yeah.

I am that guy.

Squirrel!

And I passed it on to one of my children.

I got into TV film production for a little bit.

I worked as an assistant director for a boys' summer camp.

I was a missionary in the South Pacific.

So literally, I mean... Real estate.

I did a ton.

Dabble, dabble, dabble.

Take what I learned and, you know, use it if I can.

But it wasn't until this, like, starting this up, I got to use the film degree, 'cause we're telling our story.

We're telling the stories of the people that are here.

GARY: Exactly.

The story.

JOHN: Got to use the real estate degree.

GARY: Talk about the early stages of this.

JOHN: I was in commercial real estate, and a locally grown, I mean, locally born pair of chefs came out to us and said, "Hey, we want to start a restaurant in your shopping center."

But big level banks go, "We don't know who you are."

So I had to basically take a risk, you know, on them and tell the partners, "Hey, let's give this a go."

Well, they were fantastic.

They've been James Beard nominated, they've gone on to do great things in Orlando.

And so that was the, "(sighs) Okay.

"Like, something cool like that locally distinct could be something."

So in real estate, I'm starting to see that happen.

Uh- I took this, you know, three-month, cross-country trip around the country and saw really cool, you know, locally grown, locally distinct eateries and food halls, and I just wanted to celebrate it.

I just wanted to say, "How can we do this, "you know, in a way that I get to experience it in my own town?"

So in 2010, we started a thing called the Winter Park Harvest Festival.

Winter Park is a suburb of Orlando.

And I rented the downtown park four days before Thanksgiving.

And the idea being, "Hey, "we're producing all of this food in the state, why don't you buy it from actual local farmers?"

It was this whole kind of cultural milieu of, like, penny loafer attorneys next to full arm tattooed people, and everyone's getting along over food.

I'm like, "Okay, we're onto something.

"Like, everyone can get get on board with this."

GARY: Right.

JOHN: So we did that one year.

We did it the second year.

Another city invited us to do it again.

So we knew we were catching momentum.

The brand was being built.

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: I was certainly building my personal brand, but also some of these merchants were starting to build their own brands.

And I'm seeing them build followers on Facebook and Instagram.

GARY: Off of what you're doing.

JOHN: Yes.

So it just became a flywheel.

Like, there's this, like, kind of vortex of success sucking in cool stuff and spinning it off.

And so then it...

I started looking for- could we do something with four or five tenants?

Like in one of my other shopping center areas?

GARY: Yep.

JOHN: Like, that would be cool.

But ultimately, it was like, this is too cool to be between a nail salon and a dry cleaner.

Like, I need to find something unique.

So I started looking at property, and so East End, what became East End, was a vacant Baptist church.

But it was already self-identified.

It was funky, it was unique.

There was a sense of they knew who they were in this district, and I knew that this would really fit well.

GARY: Mm-hmm.

JOHN: There was a producer- only farmer's market that a partner of mine was running two blocks from here.

So we knew that the honey was already here.

The bees were already coming.

Because this was a big stretch for me.

I mean, you know...

I didn't have any partners because I didn't know it would work.

I mean, I didn't wanna take anyone down if this didn't work- GARY: Sure, yeah.

JOHN: So I'm like... My wife said, "Well what happens if it doesn't work?"

Well... Asheville's a nice place.

We could build a yurt (Gary laughing) and be up there in the drum circles and hippies, and we'd all be happy.

GARY: Nice.

JOHN: Thankfully people did show up, but in 2012, we bought the building.

And over the next- GARY: Okay.

JOHN: You know, year and a half, we were developing it.

And started with most of the tenants already kind of earmarked and then just kind of refined as we started to build the space out.

♪ GARY: Obviously, having a background in real estate, um- you're familiar with how to best purchase the church, right?

JOHN: Starting up anything, um- financing is always the question.

Always saying, "Are people gonna show up?

"Have you done the homework?

Has the temporary led to the permanent?"

Like, I had done, essentially, five festivals at that point before I bought a multimillion dollar building to show that I can mobilize an audience of thousands of people.

GARY: And that data's super important to a bank, to a financier.

JOHN: Well and an investor.

I mean, a lot of these... GARY: An investory, yeah.

JOHN: It's hard.

It's gonna be hard for you to get traditional financing on your first venture unless you're leveraging something else.

So then it's gonna be, you know, bringing on investors of some type of private placement memorandum or some other vehicle.

And they're gonna want to know, "How are you mitigating risk?

What if no one shows up?"

And you're like, "Well if no one shows up, "then the thousands of people on my Instagram is a lie."

You know?

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: "That have been engaging with me all these years."

GARY: And the other five versions of this concept that were one day only would've failed in some capacity.

JOHN: Right.

GARY: You obviously attracted that investor.

JOHN: Mm-hmm.

GARY: Renovation.

What does it take?

I mean, this is not a small building.

JOHN: No.

GARY: And something tells me it's...

It's not laid out like it was as a church either.

JOHN: No, no.

GARY: What went into that?

JOHN: It was like, basically you got the whole thing and start from scratch.

GARY: Mm.

Yeah, lot of structural... JOHN: Time and time again that kind of stuff.

I would say it probably cost us 15% more to redevelop this building than to wreck it.

But it was the community that wanted to preserve what little history there was here.

So to save it, I think, really showed the community that we're not here to, you know, whitewash this and gentrify it.

GARY: That you care.

JOHN: We're really here to... to help flourish what's already here.

♪ GARY: When did you first discover East End Market?

DEBORA: It was a couple of years ago.

I had a friend who was showing me the area.

She's like, "I gotta show you East End.

"It's so cool.

"They have so many different "shops and markets... GARY: Yeah.

DEBORA: And restaurants."

And I fell in love with it.

GARY: Tell me about that first time walking in here.

What did it feel like?

DEBORA: It felt like so different than anything I've experienced.

GARY: Yeah.

DEBORA: My fiance and I have been religiously coming every Saturday.

GARY: Awesome.

DEBORA: We even sometimes say, "Should we go somewhere else?"

We're like, "Meh, it's not the same."

You get everything here.

GARY: Yeah.

DEBORA: We get the Dochi's that we love here.

We got the best coffee here.

So, yeah, it's our safe place and it's so close to home.

I love it.

GARY: Talk about the early days of getting the businesses actually in.

Who was here kind of took that risk in the beginning with you?

JOHN: Getting people to come on board, I think I already had a strong enough personal brand that people were like, "I trust you."

But it- like, for instance, handing them the lease for the first time.

You know, they are used to signing one page at a farmer's market.

This is 45 pages.

This is big-boy time.

Like, there's ramifications if you don't pay rent.

There's, you know... You have to have a certain level of insurance.

From the festival, merchants started talking to them going, "Hey, would you be interested?

How much space would you need?"

And so it was very fluid as we started this.

But then each of them is working with the city to design their space and get permits.

And so, I mean, it was... Not a nightmare in a bad way, GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: But it just was so much plate spinning.

Like I'm, you know, working with just that one tenant, and we've got 20, and they're trying to get permitted.

So opening this all up at one time on one day was a miracle and a lot of work.

But ultimately, it made it feel like we're all part of a team.

Like, they're my tenants, but they're also my friends, and they're my family at this point.

And so it was a...

I mean, I shed tears in the year before we were open.

Like, "We've come so far."

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: "We're almost there."

GARY: And if they fail, you fail.

JOHN: Oh, 100%.

GARY: So equal investment.

JOHN: Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

There's a lot of, you know, hand to hand, you know, around each other to make it work.

♪ GARY: Tell me your name and and where we are right now.

FRANK: All right, so I'm Frank, and this is Dochi Donuts, and we started... we are the first mochi donuts in Orlando.

GARY: What is a mochi donut?

FRANK: So mochi donuts instead of regular flour, we use rice flour, so it gives it a nice, little chewier, airier texture.

We started outside, and we were cooking in their kitchen.

And since the marketing was so strong, it just took off.

GARY: Yeah.

FRANK: Right off in the beginning.

There's a lot of things that we learned here, and we took it to the next step.

GARY: Yeah.

FRANK: And we opened our second and third location in Seattle and Denver.

Like, bigger fryer, bigger equipment.

GARY: Was it scary transitioning from just a little popup outside into, "Oh my gosh, I have to sign this big lease?"

This is how... FRANK: Yes.

GARY: It becomes real, doesn't it?

FRANK: Yeah.

It just... And it happened fairly quickly, but it's just so much...

So much has grown from it.

When we approached John with the idea of mochi donuts, I think we had friends and family that didn't even believe in us.

So it's just like... GARY: Ahh.

FRANK: We have no background.

It's not like we came here like, "Hey, John.

I went to four years of culinary school.

"My partner went to, you know... GARY: Business school.

FRANK: Yeah, business school."

And everything like that.

It was just two random individuals that he had met that presented a packet.

So I think, like...

It gets a little weary talking about it.

GARY: It's okay.

FRANK: It's just so much...

When somebody you don't know believes in a different individual to share something, I think it's amazing.

GARY: Yeah.

It's emotional.

FRANK: Yeah, yeah, it is.

It's like... GARY: Are you happy, man?

You seem really proud of what you've been able to do.

FRANK: Yeah because we never we never really get to speak about it, so it's just like... Can't explain it.

Like, going from one store to five stores to 10 employees to 30 employees.

And it all just started because somebody else believed in us.

GARY: Wow.

FRANK: And it was just like, yeah, so.

We cannot take that for granted.

♪ GARY: When you got into the... into the business, what are some other services and tools and things, you know, kind of the...

I hate to say the boring stuff?

JOHN: So one of the benefits of having so many people in one place is the economy of scale.

GARY: Mm-hmm.

JOHN: So everything becomes cheaper per unit because we're all doing it.

But it was a bit of that of going at first, everyone had their own pest control, you know.

But someone would come and spray here and everything... Any pest would go to this one 'cause it's safe.

And I'm like, "This is not working."

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: So we...

So very quickly, we started to evolve and go, "Hey, let's do all this together."

Connectivity for the building, both for our customers to access WiFi and the businesses with their unique issues of like, you know, security and point of sale systems and static IPs, all of that was a bit of a mind job.

But Spectrum Business has been great for us.

You know, any of these tools that we're starting to use, we're saying, "Can everyone use it and lower the price of the value?"

From even having a copier.

Like, our copier is, like, $500 a month, but everyone's using it.

They have their own code to put in.

They get to print their menus.

And so at every step it's like, "How can we layer in the benefits of these economies of scale?"

GARY: Tell me a story that stands out about sort of the reluctant small business owner that you were able to convince.

JOHN: Yeah, everyone's a little bit different on trying to cross the threshold of willing to take a risk.

Some people just needed a warm hug.

Like, the guys from Lineage who run the coffee shop.

I think they only needed to raise, like, $10,000 to start their store- GARY: Wow.

JOHN: But they were panicking.

And so I had them over to the house with my wife.

My wife's our CFO.

And we're having dinner and I'm like, "Look, I'm in your boat too."

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: So that was like, "Okay, "you have indigestion too?

Cool.

"All right, let's go.

"We'll eat Pepto together (Gary laughing) and move forward."

So... GARY: I love it.

JOHN: Some just need that.

♪ JARRETT: My name is Jarrett Johnson.

We're at Lineage Coffee Shop inside of East End Market.

GARY: What was your first brush with East End Market and John?

JARRETT: I got outta the Air Force in 2012.

I was wanting to roast coffee.

I was seeing this style of coffee roasting done in other places, and I wasn't seeing it done in Orlando.

We bought a coffee roaster, started setting up at a local farmer's market here right around the corner.

And I met John, and I saw the vision that he had for this place- GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: And really wanted to start this movement.

'Cause this East End Market really isn't just a building.

It was this whole movement.

It was this local food direct farm to table supporting local relationships.

And I was like, "That was what we wanted for our coffee company."

So it was such a good combination that we were able to come alongside of this.

And John really helped to kind of make it easy for me, because I didn't have any of the resources.

None of the stuff that you typically think you need- GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: When you start a business.

And what he said was, "We can figure it out.

"We can start with just a few hours during the week, "and then you can be open on weekends when you're off anyways."

GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: He really kind of tailor made this way for me to start the business because he knew what it would take.

GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: And he said, "What are "your sales at the farmer's market?

What can you do?

How many hours?"

And he did the math for me and helped me see that it was possible.

GARY: How much does it mean for a small business owner like yourself to have somebody like John believe in you?

JARRETT: It was definitely the difference, because it was more than just dollars and cents.

At the end of the day, I knew if I got in a bind that I could go and talk to him.

And sometimes you need those relationships, especially when you're starting.

GARY: Let's break it down into sort of a little bite- sized piece here.

So essentially your business, East End Market, you're a landlord.

So much more than that- JOHN: Yeah, yeah.

GARY: As we know.

But fixed- sort of fixed revenue, fixed expense.

You're a landlord.

Right?

JOHN: Mm-hmm.

The business model for East End, um- is predominantly as a landlord.

We have a commissary kitchen that people can come in and rent by the hour.

GARY: Great.

JOHN: Because one of the issues was someone wants to start a business, and they think they do.

They think they wanna start a food concept.

They can come into our kitchen, punch a code on the wall, and just use the exact number of hours they need to then go to the farmer's market and test their product.

GARY: Incredible.

JOHN: So we've got a four station commissary kitchen.

So that's sort of its own standalone business under this umbrella.

It was like, "Hey, are you ready to expand?

"Like I can help you, you know, "negotiate your next lease.

"I can help you- GARY: Man JOHN: "With some capital.

I can help you create the, you know, paperwork to get investors on."

So that has been really, in the last five to six years, how we've shifted is really growing businesses and taking capital and being sometimes their first investor to grow in scale outside of here.

♪ GARY: What is this area called again that we're going to?

JOHN: So we are going to the Mills 50 district.

Between our district and that district is really only about a mile.

GARY: Okay.

JOHN: And so that's allowed us to kind of pollinate that area with the businesses that have come out of East End Market, both that we just happened to advise and incubate.

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: Some that we've invested in.

Also in that district is Dochi's second location.

GARY: Oh!

JOHN: So the Dochi Donuts that we saw earlier, they're there.

And then Lineage Coffee Roasting, their second location after leaving East End was there.

And maybe a good example of someone that said, "Hey, I want to expand.

How do I do it?"

And I introduced them to the right attorneys and helped them write their paperwork.

And we were their first investors.

And kind of did everything from helping them look at the leases GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: To, you know, just "Rah, rah" cheering them on.

GARY: You're making it really easy for these people, man, I gotta tell you.

JOHN: We signed a three-week lease with them.

Everyone else is signing three-year leases, but I... GARY: Three week.

(laughs) JOHN: I knew they'd be great.

GARY: It's a baby step.

JOHN: Yeah, it's a baby step.

GARY: Did it earn their confidence though?

JOHN: Yeah.

So in two days, they, at the end of the first weekend, they came to me and said, "Hey, we wanna sign up for three years."

I'm like, "I knew you would."

GARY: Three weeks did it.

JOHN: That did it.

And this is Lineage Coffee Roasting here on the right.

GARY: Wow.

That's a little bit bigger than the little stand that they have, man.

JOHN: Yeah.

GARY: This is awesome.

♪ Was it scary?

I know that's a big transitional period from... More pop-up style businesses- JARRETT: Yeah.

GARY: To go into the commitment of brick and mortar.

'Cause it's a huge commitment.

What did that process feel like to you?

JARRETT: It did feel overwhelming at first.

It- you know, we're now, like, dealing with a corporation as our landlord.

And we're not, you know, just calling John when things are broken.

We're having to handle some of those ourselves.

So it definitely felt like we were becoming more of a real company.

It felt like- GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: We're no longer, like, doing it in a garage.

GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: But we're a real thing, you know?

So it was... GARY: Legit.

JARRETT: It was, yeah.

Something like that.

Trying to be.

GARY: And at what point of having this brick and mortar did it feel like you were a little bit over the hump?

JARRETT: Actually, opening day here, I remember we opened, and we had this line all the way around the block.

GARY: Nice.

JARRETT: And it felt like, "Oh, people like us and want us here."

GARY: Yeah.

JARRETT: And I think it was that opening day here that we felt like, "We can do this.

We're gonna survive."

♪ GARY: What are your big-picture goals?

I mean, is East End Market replicable in other cities, in other communities, other states?

Is that something you're considering?

JOHN: Yeah, so we're going on 10 years here.

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: At East End.

And I get asked a lot like, "Hey, would you..." I mean, I have forever.

"Will you come do one on our city?"

I have no interest in doing another East End, 'cause this is my family.

And if I do a second one, it commoditizes this.

GARY: Got it.

JOHN: Where if something coming out of here is scalable without losing some of its authenticity, I'm not interested in, you know, scaling for the sake of scaling.

GARY: Gotcha.

JOHN: But if it's a really great business that has its own community and it's wonderful and it has that good feeling and is scalable, that's really the next step for me.

So we're starting to put together a fund to invest in those types of businesses.

GARY: What drives you?

What is it about building this community, working with these people?

'Cause you could very easily be a successful real estate developer in a lot of different capacities, right?

JOHN: Yeah.

GARY: Why put so much heart and emotion into building this community?

JOHN: Really, my mantra is to "delight, inspire, empower."

I want someone to come in to anything I'm involved with and just go, "God, this feels good.

What, what is it about this?"

And then they go, "I want more of this in my life."

Like, I want them to be inspired to then maybe bring their own thing to the world so that I can go experience it.

I could sell everything and be on a beach, but that would not be fun at all.

Like, what a boring existence.

GARY: Yeah.

JOHN: I would say it's selfish to play small.

Like, the world needs all of us to play big.

GARY: As large as we can.

JOHN: Yes.

You just keep expanding, keep growing, 'cause ultimately, like, all of us doing that together, the world would just be such a cooler place, you know, than playing it safe.

GARY: What advice do you have for somebody out there that has a dream, has a vision, that wants to tackle something bigger than themselves?

Maybe like this?

JOHN: I always just say, "Can the temporary become permanent?"

If you're enjoying it in a temporary way... Like, if you're working your normal side job or you have a side hustle, and on the weekends you're showing up at a farmer's market to test this thing out and you're really loving that.

Okay, what about doing Friday, Saturday, Sunday?

So can you get market validation?

Can you get out there and try it without burning every bridge before?

But I'll also say I'm a big believer in the Viking mentality.

You have a vision, you're gonna go to war.

You load the boat, you sail to the foreign shore, you unload and get ready, and you burn the boat.

There is no retreat.

GARY: Yep.

JOHN: You either win or you die.

GARY: No option.

JOHN: So it's both.

It is a bit of both.

You don't do that the first round, but as this temporary happens, you go, "It's time.

It's time.

"I'm committed.

"I'm burning the bridge to my past life, "my past career.

"I am taking the entrepreneurial path.

"It is this boat.

We are going to war.

If I die-" GARY: No plan B. JOHN: "At least I die in glory."

GARY: I love it.

JOHN: And hopefully in lots of profit.

GARY: I absolutely loved spending time with John and all of the incredible business owners at East End Market.

John could have very easily chosen a different path with his career as a commercial real estate developer.

But his dedication to the local community and his passion for small business led him to exactly where he is today.

And he's giving tons of small business owners the opportunity to succeed.

Between his farm- to-table events, agrotourism trips, gardening classes, and the Winter Park urban farm, John has become one of Florida's most vocal small business advocates and serves as a great example of what can happen if you truly commit yourself to the growth of your local community.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for East End Market.

♪ Next time on Start Up, we head to Cincinnati, Ohio to meet up with Kristen Bailey and Anton Gaffney, the founders of Sweets and Meats, a barbecue food truck and catering business that serves up award- winning smoked meats, homemade sides, and desserts.

Be sure to join us next time on Start Up.

Would you like to learn more about the show or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website at startup-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

GARY: (gasps) What happened?

PASCAL: I put the bird strikes on.

GARY: Oh!

WOMAN: Yay.

(laughs) GARY: Thank you so much.

WOMAN 2: You're welcome.

WOMAN 3: Next on Start Up.

(laughs) WOMAN 4: Gary Bredow, superstar.

Okay.

GARY: With no nose.

♪ GARY: Gonna go tell all his buddies, like, "You wouldn't believe..." ANNOUNCER: Spectrum Business is a proud supporter of Start Up.

Providing connectivity for small businesses with internet, phone and mobile solutions available.

Information available at Spectrum dot com slash business.

ANNOUNCER: At Florida State University, entrepreneurship and innovation are core values.

The FSU Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship offers bachelor's and master's programs taught by entrepreneurs willing to share their knowledge and connections.

FSU is a proud supporter of Start Up.

ANGUS: Being able to come to work every day and be passionate about what I'm doing and take what I learn in the garden and bring it to the marketplace is really enjoyable to me.

ANNOUNCER: More than 60% of sales in Amazon's store come from independent sellers like Angus at Garden Tutor.

Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.

ANNOUNCER: Wearing a lot of hats can bog you down.

Thryv, the all-in-one small business management software can help you manage every aspect of your business, from a single screen with one log in and one dashboard.

Thryv is a proud supporter of Start Up.

ANNOUNCER: The first time you made a sale online with GoDaddy was also the first time you heard of a town named Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

ANNOUNCER: Build a website to help reach more customers.

WOMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, one more.

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