Steven John

The North American food marketplace is in the middle of a structural demand reallocation. Call it consumer discontinuity, call it channel fragmentation, call it the democratization of meal access. Whatever the label, the outcome is the same: legacy assump... See more

Creative work and predictable income feel like they’re supposed to be opposites. Artists , photographers, designers, writers, musicians built their practices around the work itself, not around revenue systems and operational infrastructure. Then reality h... See more

By any metric, Toast is on a heater. The Boston tech player that already powers roughly one in five independent restaurants has been stacking logos, scaling payments, and moving upstream into enterprise. Landing deals with Applebee’s, Firehouse Subs, and ... See more

In 2026, the North Star for food retail is no longer novelty. It is permission to purchase . Consumers are signaling loudly that they will migrate to operators who balance what it costs , what they receive , and how easy it is to get . I call that the Pri... See more

Valentine’s Day may be circled on the calendar, but the consumer mindset it unlocks does not shut off at midnight. When a dinner, dessert, or drink delivers connection, indulgence, and memory-making, shoppers want the feeling again — just with less pressu... See more