Red Mango vs. TCBY (Mrs. Fields Famous Brands)
The challenge: Finding a niche in the increasingly crowded frozen-yogurt field.
What he did: A former investment banker at J.P. Morgan Chase, Dan Kim ditched finance to study photography and ended up a wedding photographer. Worn out by the stress -- "Dealing with brides took years off my life," he says -- he opened a yogurt shop, which he called Red Mango, near Facebook's Silicon Valley offices in 2007. Fittingly enough, Kim attracted customers through Facebook and other social media and kept them by being what he calls a "quality freak" and offering great flavors (mojito and pomegranate, to name two). Kim, 37, also used his finance know-how, raising $12 million in funding. Red Mango's all-natural, probiotic-spiked yogurt generated some $68 million in revenues last year, and today the chain, now based in Dallas, has 229 stores.
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