Founder Stories
How Terry Black's BBQ chose its first location.
A handshake, a lease that almost didn't happen, and the corner that made a Texas dynasty.
By The Editors · 12 min read
Issue N°01 · Cover Story
Where ambition meets its address.
Every business begins somewhere. A warehouse. A storefront. A garage. A corner office. A lease that almost didn't happen. Ground Floor explores the real estate decisions that shape businesses — and the entrepreneurs who make them.
Filed
Fort Worth, TX
Weather
Clear · 62°
Word Count
4,812
Fig. 01 — A vacant corner in the East District. Photograph by the editors.
◆Vol. I · Issue N°01◆Fort Worth +4.1% YoY◆New from The Deal · Anatomy of a Teardown◆Ground Floor Live · Fort Worth · Mar 04◆The Journal · Sundays◆Nashville filings +6.3%◆Now Recording · N°015◆The Ground Floor 50 · 2026◆Vol. I · Issue N°01◆Fort Worth +4.1% YoY◆New from The Deal · Anatomy of a Teardown◆Ground Floor Live · Fort Worth · Mar 04◆The Journal · Sundays◆Nashville filings +6.3%◆Now Recording · N°015◆The Ground Floor 50 · 2026
A Note From The Editors
"Every business has a story. Most people tell the story of the product. We tell the story of the place."
A warehouse. A storefront. A garage. A corner office. A coffee shop. A leased space that almost didn't happen. Every great company began somewhere — and the somewhere is almost never an accident.
In This Issue
Featured stories.
1,284
Leases studied
96
Founders interviewed
42
Cities on the map
8
Sections, one idea
The Ground Floor Podcast · N°014
The lease that almost didn't happen.
Mikel Terry · Terry Black's BBQ · 54 min
Conversations with the founders, brokers, architects, and lenders who decide where American businesses actually begin.
Listen to the seriesApple · Spotify · Overcast · YouTube
The Ecosystem
One idea. Six surfaces.
Ground Floor is a magazine, a podcast, a journal, a research desk, a room, and — soon — a school. Same masthead. Same standards.
01 / 06
The Magazine
Long-form reporting on the business of place.
02 / 06
The Podcast
Founders, brokers, architects, lenders — around one table.
03 / 06
The Journal
A weekly editorial dispatch. Sundays.
04 / 06
Intelligence
Market reports and annual indices.
05 / 06
Live
Quarterly gatherings. One city. One evening.
06 / 06
Academy
Coming 2026. Leasing, site selection, and how to grow.
Ground Floor Intelligence
The markets.
TX
Fort Worth
+4.1%
Retail rent, YoY
TN
Nashville
+6.3%
New business filings
TX
Austin
−1.8%
Office vacancy shift
SC
Charleston
+2.9%
Main-street occupancy
ID
Boise
+5.4%
Small business leases
RI
Providence
+3.2%
Adaptive reuse permits
Annual Reports
The indices we're building.
Four flagship reports published each year — the raw data that powers everything else we make.
N°01
The Ground Floor 50
The 50 best neighborhoods to start a business.
2026 Edition
N°02
Startup Streets
The most walkable retail corridors in America.
Q2 · 2026
N°03
The Small Business Rent Index
Quarterly benchmark across 42 cities.
Q1 · 2026
N°04
The Main Street Report
Occupancy, vacancy, and the return of the storefront.
Annual · 2026
The Journal
We don't send newsletters. We publish journals.
One long article. One lesson. One map. One deal. One recommendation. Delivered every Sunday to a small, serious audience.
12,400 readers · 68% open rate · 0 tracking pixels
Ground Floor Live
Four founders.
One architect.
One lender.
One developer.
Quarterly. One city. One evening. Cocktails, a live podcast recording, and the room founders want to be in. Our next gathering:
Fort Worth
March 04, 2026 · The Foundry, Southside
Limited to 120 guests
Objects
The shop.
No swag. Field-grade objects for people who take place seriously.
The Blueprint Notebook
$34
Grid-ruled. Linen bound. 240 pp.
The Field Mug
$28
Heavy ceramic. Concrete gloss.
The Architect's Scale
$42
Solid brass. Six-sided.
The Field Cap
$38
Waxed cotton. Brass eyelet.