John Wang - The Man Who Built The Queens Night Market (Ep. 299)

So I figured I'd bite the bullet, become a corporate lawyer for a couple of years, and then then figure out what I wanted to do. I always knew I was not gonna be a lawyer. Why don't I just start New York's first night market? I I fell asleep that night and I woke up like, well, that sounds like something I could do that would could impact New York City forever and ever. And so that day I decided I would spend a year trying to do that.

At the time there was Two competing night markets in Vancouver and then like a once-a-year night market in LA. And that was as far as I could help, that was all that existed in North America. And in like 11 years, somehow the Financial Times listed us as a top 10 market in the entire world. Welcome back to Infinite Loops.

I'm Jim O'Shaughnessy. Today's guest is John Wang, the founder of Queen's Night Market. One of the most joyful civic hacks in New York City. John was a Yale-trained lawyer, burned out, walked away from the clean, high status track, and decided to build something weirdly ambitious. Please enjoy my conversation with John Wang.

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