How LifePlate Built a 11,378% Growth Story by Staying Close to Its Customers

By ICIC | September 24, 2026

What does it take to build a business that grows more than 11,000% in five years?

For Christopher and Deana Young, the answer is not a secret formula. It is relationships, a clear sense of purpose, a willingness to keep learning, and a team that believes in what the business is trying to accomplish.

Their company, LifePlate, delivers prepared meals to families and schools throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 2025, LifePlate was named the #1 company on ICIC’s Inner City 100 (IC100) list, which recognizes the fastest-growing businesses in under-resourced communities across the country.

From 2020 to 2024, LifePlate increased its revenue by 11,377.94%.

For a company that started with a vision of making healthy food more accessible, that kind of growth is remarkable. But the Youngs will tell you the numbers are only part of the story.

Start With a Problem Worth Solving

LifePlate was built around a simple observation: eating healthy should not mean eating food that feels like a compromise.

The company serves families and schools with meals designed to make nutritious eating more approachable, flavorful, and accessible. For children, that means exposure to a wide range of cuisines and flavors.

“When we receive kids, they become a LifePlate Kid,” Christopher says. “The exposure it gives you, gives you more curiosity about food.”

That curiosity is part of the company’s larger goal. LifePlate wants children to learn that healthy food can be something they actually enjoy.

“We’ve serviced schools,” Christopher says. “We’re building a business here, building the company, to meet the needs of our neighbors.”

For business owners looking to grow, that is an important place to start. Growth is easier to sustain when there is a real customer need at the center of the business.

Let Your Customers Become Your Growth Strategy

LifePlate did not build its customer base through an elaborate marketing machine.

“We have grown substantially by word of mouth exclusively,” says Deana.

That did not happen by accident. LifePlate has made relationships a core part of how it does business, from its conversations with prospective schools to the way its team interacts with families.

“We have a lot of customers and a lot of schools that we work with that it’s relational,” says Brandon, a LifePlate employee. “We kind of, like, add our customers to our family, like they’re all invited to the barbecue.”

For an entrepreneur trying to grow, it can be tempting to focus on acquiring as many customers as possible. LifePlate’s experience offers another approach: Build relationships strong enough that customers want to tell other people about you.

That means listening. Following up. Remembering the details. Showing up consistently.

Sometimes the strongest marketing strategy is simply delivering an experience people want to talk about.

Give Yourself Room to Step Back and Learn

Running a growing business leaves little time to stop and ask whether the business is heading in the right direction.

The Youngs made that space through their participation in Santander’s Cultivate Small Business program in 2022. The 12-week program gives food entrepreneurs business education, mentoring, professional connections, and access to capital, with the goal of helping participants strengthen their businesses and plan for the future.

For LifePlate, one of the most valuable parts of the experience was the chance to step back and put its plans into focus.

“Santander’s Cultivate Small Business was a great resource,” Deana says. “We learned a lot from just being a part of the cohort.”

She remembers developing LifePlate’s business plan and pitching it as particularly useful.

“It’s been helpful to help us to fine tune and refine aspects of our business and to see it plain and simple,” she says.

That is a lesson worth carrying into any growing business: Sometimes you need to get out of the weeds.

A business plan may not feel like the most urgent item on a founder’s to-do list when there are customers to serve, employees to manage, and problems to solve. But taking time to clarify the business can reveal opportunities and gaps that are hard to see when you are focused only on the next task.

For LifePlate, that experience became something the team could continue building on.

Build a Team That Lives the Business

Growth brings another challenge: The founder cannot do everything.

LifePlate has built its culture around a set of values the team calls QWC CAR: quality, working together, curiosity, clear communication, ambition, and doing the right thing.

Deana says those values are not just business principles.

“Our core values are not only for the business, but they’re our personal core values,” she says. “We live by it every single day.”

Christopher takes a similarly hands-on approach to finding people who fit the company.

“Always be interviewing,” he says. “We’re always trying to find the best people for the right seats in the company.”

For entrepreneurs ready to scale, hiring is not just about filling open positions. It is about finding people who can carry the company’s values and make good decisions when the founder is not in the room.

Keep Growing Without Losing the Why

The IC100 recognition celebrates how much LifePlate has grown. But the Youngs are already looking beyond the numbers.

Through LifePlate Cares, the company is working to expand access to healthy food and nutrition education in communities that face barriers to healthy eating.

That work reflects the same purpose that shaped the business from the beginning.

“When we think of the word ‘changemaker,’ we think of pioneer,” Christopher says.

He imagines a future where healthy, plant-forward, and anti-inflammatory eating becomes the standard rather than the exception.

“Hopefully our impact will reach multiple communities who don’t currently have access to healthy food,” he says.

For business owners with their sights set on growth, LifePlate’s story offers a powerful reminder: Scaling a business does not have to mean leaving your original purpose behind.

The strongest growth can come from getting closer to your customers, investing in your team, making time to learn, and staying focused on the problem you set out to solve.

LifePlate did not become the #1 company on the 2025 IC100 list by chasing a number.

It grew by building a business people believed in.

Ready to Build What’s Next?

ICIC works with entrepreneurs across the country who are ready to strengthen their businesses, pursue new opportunities, and build lasting growth. Explore ICIC’s small business programs to find opportunities for executive education, coaching, technical assistance, and access to capital.

And if you are looking for inspiration from other ambitious entrepreneurs, explore the Inner City 100 awards list to meet some of the fastest-growing businesses in under-resourced communities across the country.