Issue #26

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This is issue no. 26 of 180. Last issue saw a 50.2% open rate with 10.83% of you going to this story on Snapchat's millennials.

10 things that you need to read.

Last Word: the rise of 'hot chicken'

Joe Deloss

A five forces analysis of the 'hot chicken' industry will reveal movement in each direction. The pool of customers has grown tremendously since 2013. KFC now features a hot chicken knockoff in many of its southern and midwestern markets. There have been an influx of competitors and shifting cost / supply restraints. The Nashville-born culinary craze has taken on a life of its own.

Joe Deloss is more responsible for the craze's international growth than you'd think. Sure, his business is in the (reported) seven figure range and that, alone, is an achievement. But I'd argue that his successful business did as much to attract new hot chicken entrepreneurs than the city of Nashville, itself. His Hot Chicken Takeover did exactly that. It bent the demand curve by 378.8 miles.

Columbus, Ohio is hot chicken's second largest market - internationally. In the city's premier business news, it was reported by Dan Eaton that a competing hot chicken franchise was launching just to further commoditize and franchise the product. Opportunism and timing is a reality of business but so is altruism.

Businesses that offer a second chance to the un-hireable deserve our attention and our dollars. Joe Deloss's business does just that. Consumerism is a form of democracy. And it is important to support the small businesses that are built on principle. The ones that exceed the typical path of 'start, grow, IPO.'

Hot Chicken Takeover was founded in the Fall of 2013. Columbus, Ohio (once known as America's test market) was nowhere on the trend chart before Deloss sold his first plate.