Infinite Loops John Wang - The Man Who Built The Queens Night Market (Ep. 299)
Jan 29, 2026
John Wang, founder of the Queens Night Market, left a legal career to build a $6-capped, culturally diverse food market. He discusses starting the market from childhood market memories, the two-vendor-per-country curation, how it incubates micro businesses, operational realities like sales variability, and the challenge of keeping food affordable amid rising costs.
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The One-Year Experiment That Lasted
- John woke up one night and decided to start New York's first night market as a year-long experiment.
- He expected it to fail but later saw it named a top-10 market globally by the Financial Times.
Curation Plus Affordability As Core Rules
- John created two founding principles: represent as many New Yorkers by country of origin and keep food extremely affordable.
- The $5 (later $6) price cap became a cultural statement against New York's high cost of living.
Make Failure Affordable To Encourage Startups
- Make it affordable for people to try entrepreneurial ideas by lowering initial costs.
- John intentionally kept vendor startup costs low so failure wouldn't destroy livelihoods and would encourage experimentation.