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The Last Word: Thrift for Good Co‑Founder on Leveraging AI to Transform Thrift Stores

by | Nov 20, 2024
Founded in 2019, Thrift for Good enables people to buy and donate used goods while helping out charities, in an industry where 84% of donated clothes end up either dumped in a landfill or destroyed. Cooper and her fellow co-founder and co-owner, Taylor Watts, are building AI-based software for thrift stores to try to reduce that waste and inefficiency—while working to grow their DFW footprint.
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The Last Word: Chili’s Triple-Dips Its Way to a New ‘Sleep Collection’
by | Nov 19, 2024
Dallas-based Chili's says its Triple Dipper—a plate loaded with cheese pulls, burger bites, and sauced Chicken Crispers—went viral on TikTok this year, snagging "over 200 million views." Now the company's following that up with an eye-opening (uh, make that closing) marketing stunt.
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The Last Word: DFW’s ‘Fastest-Growing Company’ CEO on Being David in a Goliath Industry
by | Nov 18, 2024
McKinney-based Maverick Power tops both Dallas Business Journal's Fast 50 and SMU's Dallas 100 private company rankings with record-breaking recent growth.
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The Last Word: ‘Uber with Guns’ BlackWolf Founder on Expanding to Dallas
It's been called "Uber with guns." Now the Atlanta-based BlackWolf rideshare service—which features armed drivers with military or security backgrounds—is expanding to Dallas, Austin, and Houston, according to the Dallas Morning News' Sarah Bahari.
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The Last Word: Ross Perot Jr. on the Strength of the North Texas Economy

Inside the sprawling, cowboy-chic Texas Barn at the Perot family’s Circle T Ranch in Westlake late last month, an elite group of investors, founders, and key stakeholders gathered for an exclusive VIP event kicking off the 2024 Venture Dallas business summit. Ross Perot Jr. sat at center stage in a fireside chat with Venture Dallas Co-Founder and Board Chair Aaron Pierce and Anurag Jain, founder and managing partner at early-stage VC firm Perot Jain. 
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The Last Word: Texas Trees Foundation CEO on Partnering with TXU to Plant 400 Trees Across Texas
by | Nov 7, 2024
Irving-based TXU Energy and the Dallas-based Texas Trees Foundation are launching a statewide tree-planting campaign, celebrating 20 years of working together to create “greener, healthier communities” via the TXU Energy Urban Tree Farm and Education Center at Dallas College's Richland campus.
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The Last Word: $3B Island’s CEO on Recruiting Tech Workers to North Texas
Mike Fey—co-founder and CEO of Dallas-based enterprise browser unicorn Island—launched his company in 2020 during the pandemic and has since seen its valuation rocket to $3 billion. Speaking at the Venture Dallas conference last week, he talked about why he decided to found his company in Dallas instead of in Silicon Valley. 
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The Last Word: U.K.-Based Black Sheep Coffee Co‑CEO on Entering U.S. Market in North Texas
Coffee with a British accent is politely muscling into North Texas, as anyone driving down East Mockingbird Lane in Dallas this week could tell you. Founded in London, England, in 2013 by college friends Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, Black Sheep Coffee has 110 restaurant locations in the U.K., France, the United Arab Emirates, and Philippines. That total includes the newly opened 6240 E. Mockingbird location (housed in a former bank building) and one at Preston Parkway Center in Plano, which opened a few months ago. 
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