Business · 2
At what age did Fred DeLuca open his very first sandwich shop, the seed of what became Subway?
Answer
17
In 1965, 17-year-old Fred DeLuca opened a sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut, using a $1,000 loan from family friend Peter Buck, and the venture eventually grew into the global Subway chain.
💡 Did you know?
Subway founder Fred DeLuca started his first sandwich shop at age 17 with a $1,000 loan from a family friend to pay for college tuition, accidentally creating a 37,000-location empire.
Other options people guess
- 15
- 19
- 21
Topics
- franchising
- subway
- entrepreneurship
- 1960s
Know your business trivia?
Play a free Business quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Business facts
Business
What was Fred DeLuca's original financial goal in borrowing $1,000 to open his first sandwich shop in 1965?
Subway founder Fred DeLuca started his first sandwich shop at age 17 with a $1,000 loan from a family friend to pay for college tuition, accidentally creating a 37,000-location empire.
Business
Which entrepreneur transformed a small California burger stand he purchased in 1954 into the McDonald's global franchise empire?
Ray Kroc didn't invent McDonald's—he bought a small San Bernardino burger stand in 1954 and turned it into a $200 billion empire by obsessing over systems, not food.
Business
What is the term for a business agreement where one party pays for the right to use another's brand and business model?
The word 'franchise' traces back to Old French meaning 'freedom' — early franchises were royal grants giving merchants the freedom to trade in a territory.
Business
Which co-working startup's 2019 IPO collapsed after investors learned its founder had personally profited hundreds of millions while the company posted massive annual losses?
WeWork's IPO collapsed when the public saw founder Adam Neumann collected $700 million in personal profits while the company lost billions annually.
Business
FedEx was founded to operationalize a business concept its founder had previously dismissed in writing. In what decade was FedEx founded?
FedEx founder Fred Smith wrote a paper predicting overnight delivery would fail, then built the company anyway to prove himself wrong.
Business
Which country's government commissioned the 'People's Car' project that gave rise to Volkswagen and its logo?
Volkswagen's VW logo was originally designed under Nazi Germany's regime as part of the state-sponsored People's Car initiative.