Summary
Most restaurants don’t survive their first year. This one won five awards in it. Including back-to-back People’s Choice titles and a top finish for Best Asian Business in the entire state of Arkansas.
Maria Smith left a long corporate career (including years at Sam’s Club) to open Lasang Pinoy with her brother, bringing Filipino cuisine, and Filipino karaoke culture, to Northwest Arkansas.
In this episode, she breaks down the history behind the cuisine, the real financial and emotional challenges of opening a restaurant, why one specific karaoke song is banned from the building, and her dream of franchising the concept nationwide.
Chapters
00:20 Welcome & Meet Maria Smith
01:46 Maria’s Origin Story: From the Philippines to Arkansas
03:06 One Year In: Awards & Milestones
04:58 The Rich History Behind Filipino Cuisine
07:06 Why Northwest Arkansas Connects with Filipino Food
07:36 Karaoke Nights: Go Bananas & Go Coconuts
09:23 The Golden Mic Karaoke Championship
10:00 The One Song Banned From Filipino Karaoke
11:55 Running a Restaurant with Family
14:50 Building the Right Team
16:07 The Power of Small Details
18:11 Biggest Challenges: Cash Flow & Emotional Endurance
21:21 Giving Back to the Community
24:14 The Future: Franchising Filipino Food Nationwide
Connect
Learn more about Lasang Pinoy: https://lasangpinoynwa.com/
🎙️ New founder stories every week — subscribe so you don’t miss one.
Keep listening
How Korean Founders Break Into the US Market: Founder Interviews from Startup Crawl 2024
What does it take for a startup from Korea to break into the US market? Four founders share how they're doing it. Recorded live at Startup Crawl in Fayetteville…
Show notes
How AI Agents Fix Denied Insurance Claims with Shahbaz Virk of Cair Health
Denied insurance claims cost clinics money, staff time, and patient care, and AI agents are starting to change that. In this entrepreneur interview, Shahbaz Virk…
Show notes
AI and Data Privacy for Growing Companies with Carl Maloney of FloX
On this episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast, hosts Daniel Koontz and Caleb Talley sit down with Carl Maloney, founder of FloX, a technology consulting firm helping…
Show notesNever miss an episode
New episodes and the best founder takeaways, straight to your inbox.
Looking for a specific guest or topic across the archive? Search every episode with CLIPr → or browse the library.
English 
Spanish 
Korean