Subway has become a global fast-food phenomenon — with more than 37,000 locations worldwide. Although it is famous for “Jared” (the real consumer who lost a lot of weight eating Subway heros) and the “$5 dollar foot long,” Subway is a lot more than that. As its Web site notes: “We’ve become the leading choice for people seeking quick, nutritious meals that the whole family can enjoy.”

Recently, Burt Helm of Inc. sat down for an interview with Fred DeLuca, who founded Subway at age 17 with $1,000! According to DeLuca: 

“A lot of stuff happens daily when you’re running a company like Subway. If you get too happy about some things or too unhappy about others, you get worn out. It’s best if you can pace yourself a little bit more.”

“There’s a whole stream of things that keeps occurring in any company as you work on your products. You test this, that, and the other thing. We’ve been emphasizing nutrition throughout our testing. For the past few years, we’ve had a salt-reduction initiative. Almost every product’s got some salt–the question is, How do we make it better or keep it easier, and reduce the salt?”

“I tell everybody there are only three things that we do. We build sales at the store level, we build profits at the store level, and we build more stores. The first two things go in tandem, of course. It’s pretty tough to build profits without sales.”

Click Fred DeLuca’s picture to read more of his Inc. interview.

Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images