From a side hustle to an empire: how Waffle House became a 24/7 beacon for waffle lovers
Before Waffle House became what it is now, it was just a side hustle. On Labor Day 1955, next-door neighbors Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner opened a restaurant in sleepy Avondale Estates.
The complicated math behind buying a college education in Georgia
We set out to break down what it costs to attend some of Georgia’s top schools—and how much of those price tags is paid from the pockets of students.
No child will be denied school lunch again if a crusading Gwinnett mom has her way
Alessandra Ferrara-Miller, a Suwanee resident and mother of two, founded her one-woman nonprofit, All For Lunch, in 2017 with the intent to abolish all of the outstanding school lunch debt in metro Atlanta. Long-term, she hopes All For Lunch can act as an emergency fund for all school lunch debt in the metro area.
We billed this city: $1,825 for pizza and other curious findings from Atlanta’s new spending transparency database
In light of the FBI's investigation of City of Atlanta officials after concerns of bribery schemes, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms created Open Checkbook, which allows the public to monitor the city's spending. We looked through the resource and here's what we discovered:
Atlanta 500: Business
These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on banking and finance, investments and private equity, private companies, public companies, retail, and technology.
At the Farm, Comcast’s startup accelerator at the Battery, entrepreneurs are working to break into the Atlanta’s tech scene
Inside an office at the Comcast Regional Headquarters at the Battery at SunTrust Park is a group of local entrepreneurs who are hoping to position themselves at the forefront of Atlanta’s innovative tech scene.
With Start:ME, Emory looks to connect Atlanta’s minority communities with startup know-how
"Entrepreneur accelerator” START:ME focuses on small-business owners in communities like Clarkston, East Lake, and Atlanta’s Southside. The Emory University Goizueta Business School’s 14-week program aims to give entrepreneurs the skills, networks, and seed capital to develop scalable business.
3 new Georgia-grown beauty brands
When a new beauty brand pops up in the Peach State, it’s worth taking note. Here are a few that deserve more than a passing glance.
Viva Videodrome, the Atlanta video rental store that refuses to die
Videodrome, the roughly 2,000-square-foot shop at the corner of North Highland and North avenues, is the last video store standing in Atlanta that is not of the XXX variety. It is an oasis for film buffs (and the occasional visiting celebrity) who are suckers for special features, director’s cuts, or not letting Netflix’s algorithms ration out their media diets.
The Uplifter: How Spanx CEO Sara Blakely became one of the most inspirational women in business
That’s her schtick. She’s the cheerleader and the nerd. She’s a girly girl, but she's also the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. This is how Sara Blakely became one of the country's most influential women after cutting the legs off of a pair of panty hose one day 20 years ago.
