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, choosing the latter, initially decided to start a hot dog business, but changed to opening a sandwich business due to costs.
Dragons' Den is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is known as The Tigers of Money, a pun on "The Tiger of Malaya", which was the nickname of WWII general Tomoyuki Yamashita. The format was created and is owned by Nippon TV and is distributed by Sony Pictures Television.
Entrepreneur is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. The magazine was 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 is or 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.
Raymond Alexander Muzyka is a Canadian investor, entrepreneur and physician. Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency department and family physician after graduation, he is the co-founder of video game developer BioWare, and was CEO, senior vice president, and general manager of the BioWare label of Electronic Arts. In October 2012 he announced that he was embarking on a 'third career' mentoring and angel investing in technology, new media, medical and social entrepreneurs, and impact investing at ThresholdImpact.
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.
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 been rated one of the top 500 franchises for over 20 years. The global headquarters is in Markham, Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada.
Saunders College of Business is one of eleven colleges at Rochester Institute of Technology and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB). As of fall semester 2018, Saunders College of Business encompasses nearly 11% of RIT's enrollment, home to more than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in programs across RIT Global Campuses in Rochester, New York, Croatia, Dubai, Kosovo, and China.
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.
SKEMA Business School is one of the top French business schools, devoted to higher education and research. It has the legal status of a non-profit association under the French "1901 law". It was founded in 2009 as a result of the merger between the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESC), Lille and CERAM Business School, Sophia Antipolis. The Lille school was founded in 1892 and CERAM in 1963. It offers programmes such as a BBA in Global Management, Master of Science, EMBA, doctoral equivalences and executive education programs in France, Brazil, China, and the US.
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 is a franchise of 24-hour health and fitness clubs that is headquartered in Woodbury, Minnesota, United States. The company operates over 4,000 franchised locations in 50 countries. The gym facilities are open 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Anytime Fitness was the fastest growing health club franchise in 2014. In 2015, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Anytime Fitness first on its global franchise list. Anytime Fitness is a subsidiary of Self Esteem Brands, LLC.
Baybars Altuntaş is a Turkish entrepreneur, angel investor, speaker and author based in Istanbul. He founded Deulcom International, a vocational training school in Turkey in 1992 and currently serves as the president of the executive committee of the company. He is currently a jury member on the new Turkish entrepreneurship program and is the current host of the Turkish version of The Weakest Link, En Zayıf Halka
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.
Sally R. Osberg an American business executive who formerly served as president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, where she partnered with founder and chairman, Jeffrey Skoll. She was the founding executive director of the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.
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.
Nevzat Aydın is a Turkish internet entrepreneur, angel investor and a mentor. Aydın is the co-founder and former CEO of Yemeksepeti, the leading online food delivery portal in Turkey.
Cruise Planners is a privately owned American Travel Agency franchise network. The company is headquartered in downtown Coral Springs, Florida. The company's travel agency franchisees specialize in booking cruises/travel to destinations around the world. The company has more than 2,500 franchise owners in all 50 states.
uBreakiFix is an electronic repair shop founded in 2009, and currently exists in over 832 locations. These stores are primarily located in the United States, though franchises also exist in Canada and the Caribbean Islands. They are most commonly known for repairing all kinds of household electronics. In August 2019, uBreakiFix was acquired by Asurion, LLC, an insurance company.
