From the day a business is conceived, it is constantly faced with numerous strategic challenges that have impact on its survival, success, and/or failure. Many independent businesses fail within the first three years. For the ones that survive and prosper, they may remain as independents, private and or family businesses, while some transform into corporations and even become publicly traded entities. We use FAT Brands as a case study to examine the evolution of a company from a single restaurant concept and expanding by diversifying into a multi-concept and publicly traded corporation. Internal and external factors such as the impact of leadership, private versus public ownership, domestic versus internal markets have all had an impact on the growth and evolution of the company.