'START UP' Turns Lights and Cameras on Fort Worth Entrepreneurs

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The lights, cameras, and action of television production crews were in town over the past several months, and it had nothing to do with a Taylor Sheridan-branded franchise.

Rather, it’s “START UP,” a unique show that tells the stories of startup founders and their journey in business.

Season 12, which debuts on Sept. 28, will feature six Fort Worth-area entrepreneurs, including Toan Luong of Ampersand, the coffee house by day and the lounge by night.

“I came to Fort Worth for the first time, I think, last year,” says Jenny Feterovich, the producer of the show. “I came as a part of the Entrepreneurs Organization. I was blown away just what a hotbed of entrepreneurial businesses Fort Worth is, honestly. So, when we decided to do something around Dallas-Fort Worth, that really played a big role in us making this decision because we could source 13 businesses between both metro areas so quickly.”

Luong and Ampersand will kick off the season in Episode 1. The show airs locally at 6 p.m. every Saturday evening on PBS.

Juan and Paige Rodriguez, owners of Magdalena’s Catering and Events, which just this week announced a partnership with the Westland Restaurant Group will appear on Episode 4.

Others include:

Episode 7: Zach Freeman, Veterans Moving America

Episode 8: Christie Moore, Mansfield Funeral Home

Episode 10: Edward Morgan, Revitalize Charging Solutions

Episode 11: Skyler and Vanessa Brooks, The Blok Climbing Co.

Moore is finalist for a second consecutive year in Fort Worth Inc.’s Entrepreneur of Excellence program. Winners will be announced at a gala on Nov. 21 at the Fort Worth Club.

The Brookses escaped California for Texas intent on opening a business in the fertile soils of Texas. “They were done with California … over it,” Feterovich says. Before they settled here, however, they scouted other U.S. metros.

They went to Dallas, Feterovich says, but “didn’t really care for the vibe. They went to Fort Worth, saw it, and they’re  like, ‘This is our community.’”

Using the money they leveraged from selling their home in California, they opened a climbing gym at 5252 W. Vickery.

“What a beautiful story because that story coincides exactly with what your community is,” Feterovich says.

Magdalena's was another story Feterovich “loved.” A couple that meets at work and then follows their dreams.

Juan Rodriguez has TV experience as a participant in the Food Network’s “Chopped” five years ago. Rodriguez says his business was identified as a candidate for “START UP” through the Fort Worth chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization. He and Paige had a meeting with producers through Skype. Shortly after, they were invited to participate.

"It was great," Rodriguez says. "Gary Bredow [the host] was awesome. He's an entrepreneur himself, so, he knew the ins and outs of trying to build a company. So, we meshed well together."

Ampersand, Feterovich says, "blew me away."

“I don't know what I was doing in my 30s, but it was not opening several locations of coffee shops, in the back of which were bars, and opening a $2 million build-out at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport," she says. "What an amazing story because they're all friends. They're all in their 30s. When people talk about millennials being lazy, here's the counter side of somebody so passionate about their business and driving it forward.”

Ampersand has two locations, on West 7th and University Drive, with one arriving at the airport soon.

“START UP” is in markets all across the country. It tells the stories of American small business owners.

The show has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding host, outstanding writer, and twice for outstanding casting.

Gary Bredow is the host, writer, and co-founder of the series.

The inspiration was the Great Recession of 2009. Bredow began to notice that, rather than seeking new employment, the laid-off were starting their own businesses.

“It ended up being the perfect storm,” Bredow says on the show’s website. “These things that kept people up at night, the things that they fantasized about from their cubicle, now they had a chance to make it happen. That's really how the idea for START UP was born; tragedy turned opportunity."

He turned to Feterovich, a friend who owns a production company, to partner with him on the series. She also casts the series.

Feterovich has a great story.

She arrived here with her family at age 13 as part of Operation Exodus, a program that assisted Jews to escape the dying Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Jews there were an oppressed minority.

The family settled in Detroit.

She enjoys noting that in her former homeland owning a business was illegal. “It’s really an interesting juxtaposition,” she says of the Soviet Union, where one didn't even bother to dream, and the land of the free, where dreaming is part of good citizenship.

Feterovich opened her first business at 18, failing “miserably,” she says. It was a resale shop in the wrong part of town. But the experience of “learning to fail forward” was worthwhile. Since then, she has successfully opened a number of businesses.

She hopes “START UP” is the inspiration for others to reach for their dreams.

“The reason we make the show is we want to inspire and educate the next generation of dreamers and entrepreneurs,” Feterovich says. “I just got the best email yesterday. I live for these emails. We get quite a few teachers that use our show as teaching curriculum. And this woman wrote us and said, ‘The favorite day for my high school students is PBS “START UP” day. We show them the episode, they watch it, and they talk about it.’ And, John, honestly, even if just one of those kids goes on to become an entrepreneur, and the seed was planted in their high school, I'm a happy kind of girl.”