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The Sweet Spot Turns Sour: Why the Jack’s Donuts Doughnut Chain Chapter 11 Filing Is a Warning for All Franchises

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The news has been buzzing across Indiana: a beloved, decades-old local institution, Jack’s Doughnuts, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. For loyal customers, the immediate question is, “Is my local shop closing?”

The short answer is: No, not yet.

However, this isn’t a typical story of economic decline. The financial collapse of Jack’s Doughnuts’ corporate entity is a stark, self-inflicted cautionary tale about sacrificing quality for efficiency, and it highlights the immense risks in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) sector when brands abandon their core promise.

Here’s a deep dive into the Commissary Catastrophe, the shocking $14.2 million debt, and what this corporate crisis means for your next dozen doughnuts.

The Root of the Rot: Why Quality Died and Sales Tanked

The bankruptcy filing itself—formally by Jack’s Doughnuts of Indiana Commissary LLC—is merely the symptom of a massive operational blunder that occurred in late 2023.

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For over 60 years, the Jack’s Doughnuts brand was built on a simple promise: fresh, locally made, handcrafted doughnuts. But the corporate team made a disastrous strategic pivot that changed everything.

close up photo of stacked doughnut with sprinkles
Photo by Erlian Zakia on Pexels.com

The $14 Million Mistake: The Central Commissary

In October 2023, the corporate entity opened a massive, highly leveraged centralised production facility, or commissary, in New Castle, Indiana. The idea was simple: stop the independent franchisees from baking in-store, centralise all production, and ship pre-made goods to the stores. This was meant to save costs and standardise the product.

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In reality, the results were catastrophic.

Franchisees were forced to sell off their baking equipment and lay off their specialised bakers. Once the products started arriving from the commissary, customer perception shifted almost instantly. As one franchise owner heartbreakingly recounted, customers “compared us to a gas station doughnut.”

When a speciality food brand compromises its quality to that extent, customers walk away. The immediate drop in revenue across the entire system meant the highly leveraged corporate commissary entity had no income to service the enormous debt it had incurred to build the facility.

Understanding the Financial Abyss: $14.2M in Debt

The bankruptcy documents filed in October 2025 reveal a truly staggering level of insolvency for the corporate entity:

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  • Total Liabilities: Over $14.2 million
  • Total Assets: Only $1.4 million

That’s a 10-to-1 debt-to-asset ratio, confirming the corporate structure was completely insolvent. This crisis wasn’t a slow burn; it was a rapid liquidity collapse that forced the corporate team to file under Chapter 11, Subchapter V.

Chapter 11 Explained: Not an Ending, but a Pause

Chapter 11 is reorganization bankruptcy, not liquidation. It’s a legal shield that allows the corporate entity (the Debtor-in-Possession) to keep operating while it creates a plan to pay back creditors over three to five years. It stops creditors—like Old National Bank (owed about $3.5 million) and suppliers like Carter Logistics LLC (owed over $700,000 for delivery services)—from immediately seizing assets or collecting debts.

The fact that the company faced at least four major lawsuits for millions in unpaid bills in the months leading up to the filing confirms that cash flow was completely gone. The Commissary model had failed so profoundly that the corporate team couldn’t pay its basic delivery partners.

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The Franchisee Paradox: Your Local Shop is Fighting Back

This is the most critical point for customers: The independent franchise stores are legally separate and are NOT subject to this bankruptcy filing.

While legally protected, the franchisees who followed the corporate mandate to use the Commissary were instantly thrown into operational chaos. They had to:

  1. Halt Shipments: Immediately stop using the terrible Commissary product.
  2. Scramble: Hastily buy back or rent baking equipment and rehire skilled bakers.
  3. Return to Tradition: Revert to the old, handcrafted, in-house baking process that customers loved.

Many of these local shops are “alive and well” precisely because they have doubled down on the quality and tradition that the corporate entity tried to eliminate.

The bankruptcy has essentially flipped the power dynamic. The corporate entity is near-worthless, but its only remaining source of income is the royalty payments from the successful, solvent franchisees. This means any future reorganization plan must meet the demands of the franchisees, which universally requires the permanent abandonment of the failed Commissary model.

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The Road Ahead: Survival, Liquidation, or Acquisition?

The future of the Jack’s Donuts corporate name rests with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and a new independent trustee. To survive, the reorganization plan must address three things:

  1. Kill the Commissary: Permanently liquidate the physical assets of the failed production center.
  2. Clean House: Creditors and the court will likely demand a complete overhaul of corporate leadership to address the history of alleged financial mismanagement and ongoing state investigations into securities violations.
  3. Focus on Royalties: Reorganize the corporate shell purely as a brand management company, extracting reliable fees from the healthy, decentralized franchisee network.
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If the corporate shell cannot prove it has cleaned up its financial act and can provide value to its franchisees, the court could easily convert the case to Chapter 7 liquidation, where the brand name and trademarks would be sold off, potentially to a new, more stable owner.

The Ultimate Lesson

The Jack’s Donuts saga is a valuable lesson for every QSR brand: authenticity is a business asset. When you try to save a few pennies by turning a 60-year tradition of “handcrafted” goods into a “gas station donut,” the market will punish you swiftly and severely.

The future of the brand now depends on whether the corporate entity can credibly signal a return to the quality and transparency that customers and franchisees demand.

What do you think? As a customer, would knowing a local shop has reverted to in-house baking bring you back, or has the corporate scandal permanently tarnished the brand for you? Let us know in the comments below.

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Startups

🌐 The Global Blockchain Show 2025 Is Coming to Abu Dhabi – December 10–11, 2025

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The blockchain world is converging in Abu Dhabi this December for one of the most anticipated Web3 events of the year: the Global Blockchain Show 2025, taking place December 10–11, 2025. With over 7,000+ attendees, 250+ global speakers, and 350+ pioneering companies, this summit promises to be a powerhouse of innovation, networking, and strategic insight globalblockchainshow.com Cointelegraph.

🚀 A Premier Web3 & Crypto Conference

Organized by VAP Group and powered by Times of Blockchain, the Global Blockchain Show is more than just a conference—it’s a launchpad for the future of decentralized technology. Held at a world-class venue in Abu Dhabi, the event will spotlight the UAE’s bold leap into blockchain adoption across government, enterprise, and finance Cointelegraph.

🔍 What to Expect

1. Global Thought Leadership

Hear from 250+ blockchain pioneers, founders, and policy shapers driving the next wave of innovation. Topics will span:

  • Web3 infrastructure
  • Tokenization and DeFi
  • Blockchain regulation and compliance
  • Enterprise integration and smart contracts

2. Elite Networking

Rub shoulders with:

  • Top-tier investors
  • Tech giants
  • Startups and developers
  • Government officials and regulators

This is your chance to forge partnerships that could shape the next decade of blockchain evolution.

3. Immersive Exhibitions

Explore cutting-edge solutions from 350+ companies showcasing the latest in crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and enterprise blockchain applications.

🌍 Why Abu Dhabi?

Abu Dhabi is rapidly emerging as a global blockchain hub, with progressive regulation, strong institutional support, and a thriving tech ecosystem. The city’s commitment to digital transformation makes it the perfect host for a summit of this scale and ambition.

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🎯 Who Should Attend?

This event is ideal for:

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  • Blockchain founders and developers
  • Crypto investors and analysts
  • Web3 startups and entrepreneurs
  • Government and enterprise leaders
  • Legal and compliance professionals

Whether you’re building the next unicorn or shaping policy, the Global Blockchain Show offers unparalleled access to insights, capital, and community.

📅 Save the Date

Global Blockchain Show 2025
🗓️ Dates: December 10–11, 2025
📍 Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Ready to be part of the future?
Visit the official website to register, explore the agenda, and secure your spot among the world’s top blockchain minds globalblockchainshow.com.

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🌍 World School Summit 2026 – Malaysia

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34th Edition | 24th January, 2026

Introduction

Education is evolving faster than ever, and the leaders shaping tomorrow’s schools must stay ahead of global trends. The World School Summit, now in its 34th edition, is set to take place in Malaysia on 24th January, 2026. This prestigious gathering will unite the world’s top educators, school owners, principals, directors, and institutional leaders for a transformative day of learning, networking, and collaboration.

Why the World School Summit Matters

The summit is more than just an event—it’s a global platform for innovation in education. With participants from across continents, the summit fosters dialogue on the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing schools today.

Key highlights include:

  • 🌐 Global Networking: Connect with principals, directors, and school owners from diverse regions.
  • 💡 Thought Leadership: Hear from pioneering educators and experts on the future of learning.
  • 📈 Strategic Insights: Explore new models of school management, leadership, and institutional growth.
  • 🤝 Collaborative Opportunities: Build partnerships that extend beyond borders.

Who Should Attend

The World School Summit is designed for:

  • Principals and School Leaders
  • Directors and School Owners
  • Educators and Teachers
  • School Management Professionals
  • Education Institutes and Policy Makers

Whether you’re leading a single institution or shaping national education policy, this summit offers actionable strategies and global perspectives to elevate your impact.

Malaysia: The Perfect Host

Malaysia, with its rich cultural diversity and growing reputation as a hub for international education, provides the ideal backdrop for this global summit. Attendees will not only gain professional insights but also experience the country’s vibrant culture and hospitality.

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Looking Ahead

As the 34th edition of the World School Summit, this event builds on decades of success, continually adapting to the changing landscape of education. The 2026 summit promises to be one of the most impactful yet, setting the tone for the future of schools worldwide.

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Call to Action

🎓 Join us in Malaysia on 24th January, 2026, and be part of the movement shaping the future of education.

👉 Reserve your seat today and secure your place among the world’s top educators.

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Business

5 Disruptive AI Startups That Prove the LLM Race is Already Dead

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The trillion-dollar LLM race is over. The true disruption will be Agentic AI—autonomous, goal-driven systems—a trend set to dominate TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

When OpenAI’s massive multimodal models were released in the early 2020s, the entire tech world reset. It felt like a gold rush, where the only currency that mattered was GPU access, trillions of tokens, and a parameter count with enough zeroes to humble a Fortune 500 CFO. For years, the narrative has been monolithic: bigger models, better results. The global market for Large Language Models (LLMs) and LLM-powered tools is projected to be worth billions, with worldwide spending on generative AI technologies forecast to hit $644 billion in 2025 alone.

This single-minded pursuit has created a natural monopoly of scale, dominated by the five leading vendors who collectively capture over 88% of the global market revenue. But I’m here to tell you, as an investor on the ground floor of the next wave, that the era of the monolithic LLM is over. It has peaked. The next great platform shift is already here, and it will be confirmed, amplified, and debated on the hallowed stage of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

The future of intelligence is not about the model’s size; it’s about its autonomy. The next billion-dollar companies won’t be those building the biggest brains, but those engineering the most competent AI Agents.

🛑 The Unspoken Truth of the Current LLM Market

The current obsession with ever-larger LLMs—models with hundreds of billions or even trillions of parameters—has led to an industrial-scale, yet fragile, ecosystem. While adoption is surging, with 67% of organisations worldwide reportedly using LLMs in some capacity in 2025, the limitations are becoming a structural constraint on true enterprise transformation.

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We are seeing a paradox of power: models are capable of generating fluent prose, perfect code snippets, and dazzling synthetic media, yet they fail at the most basic tenets of real-world problem-solving. This is the difference between a hyper-literate savant and a true executive.

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Here is the diagnosis, informed by the latest ai news and deep-drives:

  • The Cost Cliff is Untenable: Training a state-of-the-art frontier model still requires a multi-billion-dollar fixed investment. For smaller firms, the barrier is staggering; approximately 37% of SMEs are reportedly unable to afford full-scale LLM deployment. Furthermore, the operational (inference) costs, while dramatically lower than before, remain a significant drag on gross margins for any scaled application.
  • The Reliability Crisis: A significant portion of users, specifically 35% of LLM users in one survey, identify “reliability and inaccurate output” as their primary concerns. This is the well-known “hallucination problem.” When an LLM optimizes for the most probable next word, it does not optimise for the most successful outcome. This fundamentally limits its utility in high-stakes fields like finance, healthcare, and engineering.
  • The Prompt Ceiling: LLMs are intrinsically reactive. They are stunningly sophisticated calculators that require a human to input a clear, perfect equation to get a useful answer. They cannot set their own goals, adapt to failure, or execute a multi-step project without continuous, micro-managed human prompting. This dependence on the prompt limits their scalability in true automation.

We have reached the point of diminishing returns. The incremental performance gain of going from 1.5 trillion parameters to 2.5 trillion parameters is not worth the 27% increase in data center emissions and the billions in training costs. The game is shifting.

🔮 The TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Crystal Ball: The Agentic Pivot

My definitive prediction for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is this: The main stage will not be dominated by the unveiling of a new, larger foundation model. It will be dominated by startups focused entirely on Agentic AI.

What is Agentic AI?

Agentic AI systems don’t just generate text; they act. They are LLMs augmented with a planning module, an execution engine (tool use), persistent memory, and a self-correction loop. They optimise for a long-term goal, not just the next token. They are not merely sophisticated chatbots; they are autonomous problem-solvers. This is the difference between a highly-trained analyst who writes a report and a CEO who executes a multi-quarter strategy.

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Here are three fictional, yet highly plausible, startup concepts poised to launch this narrative at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield:

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1. Stratagem

  • The Pitch: “We are the first fully autonomous, goal-seeking sales development agent (SDA) for B2B SaaS.”
  • The Agentic Hook: Stratagem doesn’t just write cold emails. A human simply inputs the goal: “Close five $50k+ contracts in the FinTech vertical this quarter.” The Agentic AI then autonomously:
    • Reasons: Breaks the goal into steps (Targeting $\rightarrow$ Outreach $\rightarrow$ Qualification $\rightarrow$ Hand-off).
    • Acts: Scrapes real-time financial data to identify companies with specific growth signals (a tool-use capability).
    • Self-Corrects: Sends initial emails, tracks engagement, automatically revises its messaging vector (tone, length, value prop) for non-responders, and books a qualified meeting directly into the human sales rep’s calendar.
    • The LLM is now a component, not the core product.

2. Phage Labs

  • The Pitch: “We have decoupled molecular synthesis from human-led R&D, leveraging multi-agent systems to discover novel materials.”
  • The Agentic Hook: This startup brings the “Agent Swarm” model to material science. A scientist inputs the desired material properties (e.g., “A polymer with a tensile strength 15% higher than Kevlar and 50% lighter”). A swarm of specialised AI Agents then coordinates:
    • The Generator Agent proposes millions of novel molecular structures.
    • The Simulator Agent runs millions of physics-based tests concurrently in a cloud environment.
    • The Refiner Agent identifies the 100 most promising candidates, and most crucially, writes the robotics instructions to synthesise and test the top five in a wet lab.
    • The system operates 24/7, with zero human intervention until a successful material is confirmed.

3. The Data-Moat Architectures (DMA)

  • The Pitch: “We eliminate the infrastructure cost of LLMs by orchestrating open-source models with proprietary data moats.”
  • The Agentic Hook: This addresses the cost problem head-on. The core technology is an intelligent Orchestrator Agent. Instead of relying on a single, expensive, trillion-parameter model, the Orchestrator intelligently routes complex queries to a highly efficient network of smaller, specialized, open-source models (e.g., one for code, one for summarization, one for RAG queries). This dramatically reduces latency and inference costs while achieving a higher reliability score than any single black-box LLM. By routing a question to the most appropriate, fine-tuned, and low-cost model, they are fundamentally destroying the Big Tech LLM moat.
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🏆 Why TechCrunch is the Bellwether

The shift from the LLM race to Agentic AI is a classic platform disruption—and a debut at Tech Crunch is still the unparalleled launchpad. Why? Because the conference isn’t just about technology; it’s about market validation.

History is our guide. Companies that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt didn’t just have clever tech; they had a credible narrative for how they would fundamentally change human behaviour, capture mindshare, and dominate a market. The intensity of the Startup Battlefield 200, where over 200 hand-selected, early-stage entrepreneurs compete, forces founders to distil their vision into a five-minute pitch that is laser-focused on value.

This focus is the very thing that the venture capital community is desperate for right now. Investors are no longer underwriting the risk of building a foundational LLM—that race is lost to a handful of giants. They are now hunting for the applications that will generate massive ROI on top of that infrastructure. When a respected publication like techcrunch.com reports on a debut, it signals to the world’s most influential VCs—who are all in attendance—that this isn’t science fiction; it’s a Series A waiting to happen.

The successful TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 startup will not have a “better model.” It will have a better system—a goal-driven Agent that can execute, self-correct, and deliver measurable business outcomes without constant human hand-holding. This is the transition from AI as a fancy word processor to AI as a hyper-competent, autonomous employee.

Conclusion: The Era of Doing

For years, the LLM kings have commanded us with the promise of intelligence. We’ve been wowed by their ability to write sonnets, simulate conversations, and generate images. But a truly disruptive technology doesn’t just talk about solving a problem; it solves it.

The Agentic AI revolution marks the transition from the Era of Talking to the Era of Doing.

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The biggest LLM is now just a powerful but inert, brain—a resource to be leveraged. The true innovation is in the nervous system, the memory, and the self-correction loop that transforms that raw intelligence into measurable, scalable, and autonomous value.

Will this new era, defined by goal-driven, Agentic AI, be the one that finally breaks the LLM monopoly and truly disrupts Silicon Valley? Let us know your thoughts below.

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