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- Burritos, bed parties, big ideas
Start the business of your dreams.
Happy Friday – Danny here 👋
I’m back from 7 days hiking around Mallorca, where the mountains smell like oranges, stone wall building is an Olympic sport, and a horde of Rapha-clad German cyclists are around every. single. corner. Lots of starters were met. Visited the Mortitx vineyard, 400 meters up the Serra de Tramuntana – it’s a passion project launched by a group of wine lovers. Ate delicious cheese from Formatges Sa Cabreta, founded by a group of friends right before the pandemic. And spent time at a little paradise of an agriturismo biz called Son Mico, run by French sisters who sell fresh quiche, lemonade and local beer to hikers. Unreal views.
Hope you had a fab week. You’d be forgiven for not knowing this was National Small Business Week in the US. Things are a bit… topsy… turvy… for American small businesses right now. I’m nothing but an optimist, and yet – yikes. But we’ve got this.
📬️ Tariffs impacting you? Have thoughts? Ideas? → [email protected]
In this issue:
Inspo ➠ Cake & frozen burritos
Advice ➠ 101 rules for living
Ideas ➠ College bed parties 😲
Resources ➠ AI market research
Town Hall ➠ Get your 🧢🧢🧢
👋 Did a smart friend forward this to you? For Starters is your essential weekly briefing for the next generation of small business owners – written by Danny Giacopelli, former editor of Courier magazine and host of Monocle’s The Entrepreneurs podcast.
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Like great-grandfather, like great-grandson
1. For years, Alex Matisse downplayed the whole “great-grandson of Henri Matisse” thing. He wanted East Fork, the wildly popular, community-driven pottery brand he built in North Carolina, to stand on its own. And it has. (I’m a customer and fan.) Now, for the first time, he’s leaning into the family legacy in a new way. East Fork just dropped a limited-edition collection featuring Matisse’s iconic aquatints and cut-outs on its signature plates and mugs. Check it out. 🎨
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2. Here’s a wild idea for your next chapter: Move to a remote Scottish island (population 125) and take over the local smoked salmon business – for free. That’s the offer on the table from Richard Irvine, the 65-year old who’s run Colonsay Smokery for the past few years and is now looking for someone new (preferably a couple or family) to carry it forward. He’s throwing in mentorship, too. If you’ve ever wanted to combine biz ownership with a slower, stranger (saltier?) pace of life… this might be the one? Read more and get in touch with Richard here. You’ll have to beat my application though, and I’ve made a pretty convincing case. → Not every business needs a pitch deck. Sometimes you need to just say yolo and buy a ferry ticket.
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3. Husband-wife team Hank and Sam Murphy didn’t just start a burrito business, they’ve built a cult following. After years in corporate roles at Amazon and Walmart, Hank’s turned a decade-long obsession with perfecting bean and cheese burritos into Bad Hambres. Starting from their home kitchen in Phoenix, Arizona, they produce batches of frozen burritos featuring slow-cooked pinto beans, house-made salsa, and locally-baked tortillas. Their drops sell out verrrrrry quickly, with pickups and deliveries across the Phoenix metro area. They’re building in public and sharing all the lessons on IG & TikTok. 🌯
“Each drop is an almost instant sellout. The most recent drop of 6,000 burritos was completely gone by the week's end, prompting another late-night cooking session to keep up with the demand. The hunger for the Bad Hambres bean and cheese does not seem to be abating, with an ever-growing list of burrito hounds clamoring for the next drop announcement via the company's mailing list.”
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4. Morgan Knight didn’t plan on becoming one of NYC’s most recognizable cake designers. She started Saint Street Cakes in her college apartment at Northeastern, gaining exposure by posting her creations on social (including this cake inspired by a Phoebe Bridgers album). Then came Olivia Rodrigo’s team, who asked Morgan to make cakes for SNL. She delivered 20 of them – designed to be smashed on stage. Now she’s running her biz full-time and opening a physical shop in Brooklyn next month. 🍰
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5. And in London, filmmaker Dom Hicks is opening up a new indie cinema this summer. It’s called The Nickel – a 35-seat venue celebrating film’s ‘grindhouse spirit’. Funded by film fans, it’ll be home to “the most subversive, bewildering, sensational, fearless, sublime, shocking, transgressive, death-defying, psychedelic, psychotronic, bizarre, rebellious, baffling, degenerate cinematic treasures – from the silent era to the digital age.” Also in the works: a shop, zine, events and workshops. 📽️
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You, whenever you want.
Here’s a fantastic list of rules – for life, business, and everything in between. It was compiled by Mitch Horowitz, a PEN Award-winning historian, former VP at Penguin Random House, TV host at Discovery/HBO Max, and a writer exploring occultism, mysticism and the unexplained (!)
A small sample…
#6: Be willing to clean toilets and wash floors.
#22: Great execution matters far more than great ideas.
#66: Nothing does more to squander goodwill than being a smartass.
#87: There is no dishonor in electing to give in. Each conflict must end.
#100: Those who bill by the hour work not for you but for the hour.
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1. College bed parties → Not what it sounds like. If you live in the US, you might’ve seen them: high school seniors posing on beds piled with college merch, balloons, custom cookies, and pillows. What started as a fun post-pandemic photo-op has turned into a proper industry. Parents are spending real $$ (sometimes thousands 🤯) for these setups, and side-hustlers are jumping in: custom blanket makers, cake decorators, balloon stylists. It’s grad season meets Pinterest-core. More here & here. → Not saying you should start a bed party biz. But… I’m not NOT saying it. It’s a good reminder that niche + timing + a bit of flair = serious opportunity.
2. Montessori-style wooden toys → Quality, wooden, toddler toys with no batteries is apparently a hot industry! Just maybe don’t manufacture them in China (scroll to the Findings section below…)
🛠️ Tools
→ There are tons of new AI tools that help starters (and big companies) do market research. HBR’s got a new piece on it, mentioning tools like Meaningful, Outset, Synthetic Users, Rockfish Data, Arena, Civic Sync, and Evidenza – the latter of which surveys AI copies of your customers to build sales and marketing plans, a process the CMO of EY Americas called ‘astonishing’.
→ 50 fonts that will be popular with designers this year, from Creative Boom.
📚️ Reads
→ How This Burnt-Out Lawyer Accidentally Created NYC’s Biggest Night Market. A decade ago, John Wang launched the Queens Night Market. Today, with food from almost 100 countries, the regular event draws millions of visitors as it platforms up-and-coming restaurants. Eater NY
Of all the improbable things about the Queens Night Market – outside of the millions of visitors served, the 450 new businesses launched, the nearly 100 countries represented – the most unlikely element is that the entire enterprise is still largely managed by a single person, with no marketing, franchising, or scheduling teams. Even this simple idea, which seems obvious in hindsight, was a happy accident.
→ She started running to avoid dying young – but no workout gear fit. Now her clothing brand helps others. Charlotte Young Bowens had an epiphany while competing – and now she helps bigger people feel confident outdoors. Guardian
→ Import, Immature. Scope of Work
→ Can This Yassified Gas Station Become a GenZ Buc-ees? Maggie's wants to bring back hospitality in C-stores. Snaxshot
→ The High-School Juniors With $70,000-a-Year Job Offers. Companies with shortages of skilled workers look to shop class to recruit future hires; ‘like I’m an athlete getting all this attention from all these pro teams’ WSJ (Thanks to Spyros Ladeas for this one)
→ People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies. Self-styled prophets are claiming they have "awakened" chatbots and accessed the secrets of the universe through ChatGPT. Rolling Stone
→ The Unsung Ingredient in Stripe, Square and Linear’s Success: Taste. Tactical advice for weaving craft into your product and operationalizing taste. First Round Review
🧠 Findings
46% → The percentage of US toy companies that say they’ll soon go out of business due to US tariff policies (145% tariffs on toy imports from China). 96% of US toy companies are small and medium-sized businesses. More here.
1.27 million → The number of Japanese small biz owners over the age of 70 who have no successor. That’s half of all small businesses and a third of all Japanese companies full-stop. The good news: there are lots of initiatives to help fix the problem. Meanwhile… ⤵
70% → The portion of US small biz owners with no formal succession plans, according to Codie Sanchez’s new 2025 State of Main Street report. This, despite nearly a third planning to exit within five years.
🙃 Fun
– Exceedingly small hotel room concepts have reached escape velocity beyond Japanese capsule hotels and have landed in NYC.
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