Peter Yang, 29

COFOUNDER, POKÉWORKS

What’s in a sushi burrito? Like traditional ones, it contains rice and avocado, but the similarities end there. Roasted seaweed wraps replace flour or corn tortillas, and inside are such ingredients as raw salmon, tuna, mango, pickled ginger and wasabi aioli.

The idea of a sushi burrito caused so much salivation in America last year that a video of one prepared at Peter Yang’s Pokéworks went viral on Facebook, accumulating 49 million views. From there, his six-seat Manhattan shop had two-hour lines morning till night for the rest of the year. “It was make or break for us,” says Yang, who cofounded the company with $150,000 in savings in 2015.

As his company’s name suggests, Yang’s work is serving up poke—pronounced pohkay—to new clientele. The dishes of raw fish are rooted in traditional Hawaiian cuisine, and Pokéworks serves bowls (fish and noodles, rice or quinoa), salads (with add-ins like lotus-root chips, seaweed and edamame) and the aforementioned burritos prepared on a Chipotlestyle assembly line. A meal costs about $12.

Pokéworks should bring about

$15 million in revenue this year from 13 locations (with 5 more set to open by 2018) across America and Canada. Yang, who immigrated to San Diego with his family from China at age 6 and whose first job was as a drive-through attendant at a burger joint, hopes to reach 100 stores by 2020. “We focus on customization because we saw a trend for diners to be more conscientious of what they’re eating,” Yang says. “We wanted to have that option for everybody—just the way they like it.” —Maggie Mcgrath, Natalie Sportelli and Chloe Sorvino