Hey, starter! Read on for…

—Danny (tell me your biz dreams: [email protected])

👋 Thousands of business-builders around the world read For Starters every Friday. Thanks for being one of them. Learn more.

1. A noble pursuit. I’ve got a thing for amazing shop signs. When you walk up to a shop and you see the raw output of a hasty ChatGPT prompt pasted on a sandwich board outside the entrance, does it make you want to step through the door and spend $$$? There are so many bad signs out there and so many elements that go into a good one. NYT Cooking’s new short doc The Dying Art of Hand-Made Restaurant Signs shines a spotlight on some of them, including the creations of Brooklyn-based design studio and sign-masters Noble Signs. → Have a watch and see for yourself. (And check out Noble’s new sign for Chinatown restaurant Uncle Lou, above.)

2. The name game. Speaking of shops, is there a more perfect name for a running and outdoor goods one than Active Cultures? Bravo.

3. Amble on. Over in Portugal, a bunch of starters have just built an electric buggy that looks like a lunar rover – and it’s meant to be road legal in the US and EU.

4. The key to success. And Sahar Yona was unemployed in 2021, interviewing for a receptionist job at a locksmith’s office, when the interviewer suggested she try the trade instead. She spent 2 years training and about $7,000 on tools, subcontracted for bigger firms, then went out on her own. In January the 27-year old posted a TikTok telling New York women to call her rather than let a strange man pick their lock at midnight. It passed 600,000 views. Locksmith Girl of NYC now runs up to 60 jobs a week. 🔑

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Starter Stack, in partnership with Your Brand

This is the bit where your brand goes. Each Friday, thousands of people building small businesses around the world crack open For Starters with their morning coffee. They’re founders, makers and creatives, looking for quality products, ideas and tools worth their time and money.

I work with a highly select number of brands on monthly and quarterly partnerships throughout the year. If your thing helps starters get started, let’s talk. 👋

I’m taking some time visiting family on the east end of Long Island this week, so in place of a regular deep-dive interview, here’s a funny insight from Jerry Seinfeld that’s extremely applicable for starters.

Harvard Business Review once asked Jerry if the world's best consulting firm could’ve helped him find a better way to make his show.

It didn’t go as expected...

The right way is the hard way.

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House accounts 💰 → The restaurants letting regulars settle up with a monthly bill instead of paying at each visit: “At Montague Diner in Brooklyn Heights, nearly 250 people have signed up for house accounts that offer 5 percent off, with a 20 percent gratuity built in.”

How to kill a community… 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 → …before it even starts.

Window browsing for pastries 🥐 → A long, curved counter in a London hotspot bakery is designed to “avoid the bottleneck of choice paralysis.”

Wet coffee grounds ☕ → They sit in landfills, but a new technique can transform them into biochar with “a higher heating value than wood.”

Cities built around selling a single man 🤠 → Welcome to Twain Town, USA.

Pasta windows 🍝 → A charming tradition in Italian restaurants, or a sign of a tourist trap? “That nonna you can see is an Insta-gran.”

Personal business 😇 → “The type of business that both sustains and is sustained by a community. Think of the bodega down the street that will accept your packages for you, or restaurants that have been in operation for as long as you can remember, or a store that you stop in just to chat.”

Proper punctuation 🤢 → It’s apparently passive aggressive (…to Gen Z).

Splitscreening 💰️ → “When a dinner-only restaurant brings on a separate cafe operator to use the space during the day.”

Japanese businesses, given away for free 🏯 → As with all things, there’s a catch.

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Udra — A house and creative space to rent in Galicia.

Free printable graph paper — Lines, dots, and grids galore.

“What book made you a better designer?” — A summer reading list.

How tech workers are feeling in 2026 — Results from Lenny’s annual tech worker sentiment survey.

The Small Stuff — How to lead a more gratifying life.

America’s enterprising spirit is booming after decades-long slump. NYT

How Soft Goods Detroit is redefining Made in America. Sprezza

Inside the flea market fueling fashion’s vintage obsession across the globe. Highsnobiety

The avocado lady who changed the way Shanghai ate. Radii

Savvy ice cream shop owner makes 43% of monthly rent betting on weather: ‘If it rains, we still win’. California Post

How to speak the language of factories. 1Granary (£)

Authentic food? Take it with a grain of salt. PCC Community Markets

AI companies are buying tons of old books because they’re free of AI slop. 404 Media

A Clockwork Ozempic. Taste

Why a Japanese sake giant bet on the Hudson Valley. Swurl

What big food did to ice cream. Medium

How the ancient art of candle making is creating a brighter future for refugees. Positive News

How Portuguese recycler Valérius 360 is transforming waste into a resource. Textile Exchange

Becoming a plumber completely changed my life. The Cut

$15.86 billion → Beef tallow… it’s booming.

A new flip phone for these distracted times.

The world’s most beautiful foosball table.

Dictionary of the Illegible.

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1. For Starters subscribers Becky and Huw from Paynter Jacket spent the first 2 weeks of their son Kit’s life on a neonatal intensive care unit. While they were there they noticed how many single-use milk bottles get thrown away – they can’t be reused. So they took a pile of them to Hugo at Allday Goods, who turns plastic waste into gorgeous knife handles. The result is 20 ‘Baby Butter Knives’, handles made entirely from the bottles. Why a butter knife? In the UK, traditionally the first thing a new mum eats after giving birth is buttered toast. Instead of selling them, they’re raffling them to raise ££ for Homerton Hospital’s Neonatal Fundraiser and UK charity Bliss. Grab a ticket before Sunday night and support a good cause.

2. FS partner in crime Kim Darragon – aka Kim Does Marketing – has got a new deep-dive interview, this time with Roshanne Dorsett, founder of The Glowcery. Have a read and subscribe to her newsletter for marketing tips and interviews with inspiring small biz owners.

3. And last week in Feed Me, FS subscriber Alec Ginsberg, the fourth-generation director of America’s oldest apothecary, C.O. Bigelow, talked about a new haircare brand he’s stocking called Funner. C.O. Bigelow is one of the only retailers in the US carrying it right now. The brand and packaging are, well, fun.

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