southern-california
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Bala Balkrishna had already built a bank. Then he started again.
From a Bank of America teller’s window to two Southern California bank launches, K. P. Bala Balkrishna has kept returning to a simple promise: answer the customer.
Howard Schwimmer has a use for the buildings you overlook
He spent four decades finding opportunity in Southern California’s industrial streets. After co-founding Rexford and helping take it public, Howard Schwimmer is starting another chapter with S5 Industrial Realty.
Gaurav Kumar plays the long game
A conference badge, a stack of business cards and a job nobody wanted helped shape Beyond Codes. Its founder has since found another classroom for selling: the golf course.
Rexford Industrial learns the value of less
Rexford built a business finding hidden value in Southern California warehouses. Its next test is deciding which ones to let go.
TCA Venture Group makes the room smarter
A Southern California angel network turned shared homework into a funding model. Its real product is the experience around the table.
Deepak Chopra’s other plan involved tacos
Before he founded OSI Systems, Deepak Chopra considered going into fast food. His return to electronics led to decades of building, buying and learning when to hand over the controls.
Daniel Kim and the price of a wasted hour
An auditor’s long search for better tools became AuditBoard. The story runs through a childhood friendship, thousands of testing hours, and the decision to let someone else take the CEO’s chair.
CHAGEE USA. A new leaf in latte country.
CHAGEE is bringing whole-leaf tea to America in a format coffee drinkers already understand. The harder part is turning a beautiful first cup into an everyday habit.
Sara Costin Mockus and the question of who gets heard
She left Washington on April Fool’s Day and built a second career around public participation. At Costin Public Outreach Group, Sara Costin Mockus brings campaign experience to the places where construction plans meet everyday life.
Rahul Alim Got His First Customer Before He Left the Parking Lot
The founder of Custom Creatives learned to sell before he learned to delegate. Two decades later, his work in agency coaching and voice AI keeps returning to the same question: who will actually get the job done?
The power to turn it off
Southern California Edison serves 15 million people. Its hardest job is deciding how to keep the lights on when the wires themselves can become a threat.
Ronald A. Kolar and the art of staying in one place
Ronald A. Kolar built L’Abri Management in Downey. Over five decades, the apartment business became intertwined with volleyball teams, old friends and a YMCA carrying his family’s name.
Genoveva Arellano and the power of staying in the room
A Rolodex helped her start a business. Three decades of public meetings, freeway construction and rail projects reveal what Genoveva Arellano built from those first introductions.
Mania Persekian and the work before the keys
Before a home changes hands, someone has to untangle the details. For Mania Persekian, a construction background and a focus on probate and trust sales put that work at the center of the deal.
Eric Mear and the trouble with an ordinary T-shirt
A complaint about black T-shirts sent Eric Mear into the apparel business. Ten years after founding BYLT, his next challenge is taking a company born online into the places people actually shop.
Keep the commission. Fix the machinery.
HomeSmart, Evergreen Realty built its pitch around agents keeping more of what they earn. Making that promise work required a second invention: a brokerage that could grow without drowning in its own paperwork.
Clever Care speaks your language
A Southern California insurer built Medicare Advantage around the people other plans asked to adapt. Its bet: familiar words, familiar care and a place to walk in.
Robert Stone and the three-year job that lasted thirty
He arrived at City of Hope as a lawyer with a three-year plan. Thirty years later, Robert Stone is still working out how an institution can grow without losing the habits that made him stay.
Karen Walker Johnson Learned to Listen at the Bedside. Now She Does It at Scale.
A pediatric nurse became a lawyer, an operator and, eventually, a chief executive. Across every reinvention, Karen Walker Johnson kept the same instrument close: the discipline of listening before designing the answer.
Johan Engman Bet Three Years on Breakfast
A teenage dishwasher opened a café into the teeth of a recession, kept it alive with outside jobs, then dreamed up a breakfast republic in a Borneo rainstorm. The stubborn part was only the beginning.
May Made It Look Simple. The Work Was Anything But.
A small Southern California studio sold an unusually large promise: become the creative department its clients did not have. The evidence is in the work - from a cloud startup's first logo to the screen where its customers clicked.
The PR Agency That Outgrew Its Own Name
Market Street Group began with three former clients and a happy accident. Seven years later, a new name revealed the business it had quietly become: a senior-led communications shop built to connect attention with demand.
The Local Paper That Learned to Sell the Internet
Reeder Media spent decades learning who reads the local paper. Then it turned that trust, distribution, and newsroom muscle into a marketing agency for the businesses down the street.
Arellano Associates and the business of being heard
A railway needs engineering. Its public meetings need engineering, too. Arellano Associates turns maps, text messages and neighborhood conversations into the working machinery of community engagement.
Curt Pringle & Associates knows who needs the letter
Before a project reaches a public hearing, it has to reach the people around it. Inside the Southern California firm that turns government relations into letters, briefings, introductions, and a great deal of follow-through.
Westbound Communications and the art of getting people to act
A rainy winter, a bridge under construction, a family looking for help. Westbound Communications makes its living turning public information into something people can use.
CPOG and the business of explaining the detour
A road project has two schedules: the one engineers draw and the one people live through. Costin Public Outreach Group works where they collide.
Total Exterminating: Who fixes the wood after the termites?
An exterminator can remove the pest and still leave the homeowner with a problem. Total Exterminating puts inspections, termite treatment, and wood repair on the same service menu.
Dream Agency and the case of the missing logo
A restaurant with misplaced artwork. A gym with an awkward website. A region full of pizza. Dream Agency builds its business around the practical work of getting good businesses noticed.
Pegasus Communications knows where the story is hiding
Founded by investigative journalist Frank Girardot, the Southern California PR agency brings a reporter’s eye to hotels, public affairs and community outreach. Its most useful lesson: give people a specific reason to pay attention.