James Whitman McLamore was an American entrepreneur, the founder and first CEO of the Burger King fast food franchise, along with David Edgerton. He also created the Whopper sandwich. After selling Burger King to the Pillsbury Company in 1967, he remained CEO for five years. After retiring, he was on the board of several large corporations, was chairman of the University of Miami, chaired the United Way and was a member and chairman of the Orange Bowl Committee. He invested in the Miami Dolphins for several years and reinvested in the educational institutions that impacted him at Northfield Mount Hermon and Cornell University. He was also a gardener, and chairman at Fairchild Tropical Gardens.
Jimmy John's Franchise, LLC, commonly referred to as Jimmy John's, is an American sandwich chain, headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The business was founded by Jimmy John Liautaud in 1983. After Liautaud graduated from high school, his father gave him a choice to either join the military or start a business. Liautaud decided to start a hot dog business, which changed to sandwiches due to costs.
Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc. is a restaurant operator and subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based company JAB Holding Company. Bruegger's and its wholly-owned subsidiary Threecaf Brands Canada, Inc., are franchisers and operators of Bruegger's bakery-cafés, and Michel's Baguette.
Entrepreneur is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. First published in 1977. it is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California. The magazine publishes 10 issues annually, available through subscription and on newsstands. It has been published under license internationally in Mexico, Russia, India, Hungary, the Philippines, South Africa, and others. Its editor-in-chief is Jason Feifer and its owner is Peter Shea.
Brian Scudamore is an American–born, Canadian entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of O2E Brands, the parent company of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, and Shack Shine. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, writing about small business ownership, franchising, and building corporate culture. His first book, WTF?! : How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success, was published in 2018 and his second book, BYOB: Build Your Own Business, Be Your Own Boss, was published in 2022.
Michael V. Capps or Mike Capps is an American video game designer who was the president of Epic Games, based in Cary, North Carolina from 2002 to 2012. In 2018, he co-founded a new artificial intelligence company called Howso. He has been described as "a legendary figure in the video game industry."
Arlene Dickinson is a South African Canadian businesswoman, investor, author, and television personality. She is the general partner of District Ventures Capital and CEO of Venturepark. Dickinson joined the cast of the CBC business reality show Dragons' Den during its second season in 2007 and departed in the ninth season in 2015. She then returned to continue with the Dragons for the 12th season in 2017. She was selected to perform on the series after she won numerous awards, including Calgary Business Owner of the Year, PROFIT magazine's Top 100 Women Business Owners, the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards and Canada's Most Powerful Women Top 100. The show describes her as a self-made multi-millionaire.
Instant Tax Service was, until a federal court ordered its closure as part of a fraud lawsuit, based out of Dayton, Ohio, and specialized in tax preparation, electronic filing, and refund anticipation loan services.
Yogen Früz is a Canadian chain of frozen yogurt and smoothie stores that also serves healthy alternative food products. The chain is run through company-owned, franchised, and non-traditional partnerships. The chain operates worldwide and has its global headquarters in Markham, Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada.
PropertyGuys.com Inc. is a Canadian private sale real estate, or FSBO, franchise marketing company based in Moncton, New Brunswick. With over 100 franchise locations across Canada and thousands of active listings on its site, it is the largest private home sale network in North America.
Clyde Rucker is an American entrepreneur and businessman who currently serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rucker Restaurant Holdings. As of 2019, he owns 80 Jack in the Box and Denny's restaurants in Arizona and Texas.
Anytime Fitness Franchisor, LLC, doing business as Anytime Fitness, is an American franchise of 24 hour health and fitness clubs that is based in Woodbury, Minnesota, United States. The company operates over 5,000 franchised locations in 50 countries. In 2014, Anytime Fitness was named the top franchise of 2014 by Entrepreneur magazine.
Michel Kelly-Gagnon is a Canadian lawyer and businessman born in 1971. He graduated in law from the Université de Montréal and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1994. He is currently the president and CEO of the Montreal Economic Institute.
Edible Arrangements, LLC is a U.S.-based franchising business that specializes in fresh fruit arrangements, combining the concept of a fruit basket with designs inspired by flower arrangement. The company also sells a variety of specialty fruit gift items, such as gift boxes featuring chocolate dipped fruit, and fresh fruit products and other products like fresh fruit cups, fresh fruit smoothies, chocolate dipped fruit cones flower bouquets desert boards, chocolate dipped fruit platters.
Shahrzad Rafati is an Iranian-Canadian chairwoman and CEO of RHEI, formerly BBTV, – a global media company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, which provides services to content creators and media companies.
Merchlar is an augmented reality (AR) company based in Montreal, NYC, and Paris. It develops mobile applications using AR and VR technology for clients, including Desjardins Group, Ubisoft, and Mohegan Sun. In addition to its agency, Merchlar has a R&D department that creates patented AR technology.
ASP – America’s Swimming Pool Company is a franchised swimming pool service chain, specializing in swimming pool maintenance, repair, and renovation. Stewart Vernon founded the first ASP - America's Swimming Pool Company in 2001 in Macon, Georgia, where the franchise headquarters currently resides.
Vivian Prokop was a Canadian businesswoman. She was the Chief executive officer and Executive Director of The Canadian Youth Business Foundation.
Michele Romanow is a Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality, board director and venture capitalist. She co-founded Clearbanc, a Toronto based provider of revenue sharing solutions to fund new online businesses, and other e-businesses, and made the list of 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2015. She was named as one of the Forbes Top 20 Most Disruptive "Millennials on a Mission" in 2013 and Canadian Innovation Awards’ Angel Investor of the Year in 2018. Romanow joined the cast of CBC’s Dragons' Den in Season 10.
uBreakiFix is an American chain of electronic repair shops, founded in 2009 with over 832 locations in 2016 across the United States and the Caribbean. They are most commonly known for repairing all kinds of household electronics. In August 2019, uBreakiFix was acquired by Asurion, LLC, an insurance company. Its Canadian division was sold to Mobile Klinik in January 2023, and all franchises there were rebranded.
