Would you start a business with your best friend?
Childhood friends Jonathan Warren and Michael Barnett founded Market Square Popcorn together back in 2017. The business got its name from its original location off Market Street and the brief expansion into the City Market. Today, Market Square Popcorn’s brick-and-mortar is located inside the Castleton Square Mall, but the popcorn can be found at events, festivals, fundraisers and stores throughout the city — and pretty soon, on the shelves of TJ Maxx.
“I think it’s kind of funny because we talk about this a lot,” Barnett, chief operations officer of Market Square Popcorn, said. “We talk a little bit about business, but it’s more like you have somebody that, no matter what, is your friend, and yeah, there’s gonna be difficult conversations you gotta have about different things, but it never supersedes a friendship and the trust, and then just the respect that you garner from your friend for like 30 years.”
Barnett grew up with Warren, the CEO and co-founder of Market Square Popcorn, and they attended Ben Davis Jr. High and High School together. Both men are fathers to boys (who are also friends) and avid Pacers fans — hence the blue and gold Market Square Popcorn logo, Warren said. Barnett even played basketball throughout school and said that having a “go-getter, entrepreneurial spirit” propelled him into business.
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However, Warren knew he’d end up a business owner from an early age. There’s a special kind of pride that comes from hard work when working for oneself, and Warren said he wanted to have the freedom and control over his destiny that came with running his own business.
“There’s something powerful about trusting God, but you also know what God is going to provide you,” Warren said. “You don’t have to lean on anything. If you put in the work, you’ll be blessed, so I’ve always wanted to lean towards entrepreneurship.”
Warren is a microbiologist by trade and worked in the food industry in various roles. When it comes to a ready-to-eat product that’s not only shelf stable but fun and versatile, popcorn was the obvious choice, he said.
“When we do things, we don’t want to do something that’s so stressful,” Warren added. “It’s just a good little business because your margins are really good and a lot of people like popcorn, you know, it’s just a fun thing.”
Market Square Popcorn offers five year-round flavors, including Movie Theater Butter, Aged Sharp Cheddar, Butter Crunch Caramel, Sweet Heat and Market Square Mix, which is a combination of Butter Crunch Caramel and Aged Sharp Cheddar.
“Sweet Heat is the thing that kind of differentiates us from everyone else,” Barnett said. “It’s a little spicy, a little sweet, but it’s very flavorful. It’s the one that we call the ‘People’s Champ,’ so once you taste that product, normally you’ll be hooked, and … that’s kind of what’s propelled us forward.”
All ingredients are gourmet and high-quality, though, in full transparency, Barnett said they are in the process of renaming two of their flavors — Movie Theater and Buttery Crunch Caramel — to better reflect their ingredients.
Throughout their business, Barnett said he and Warren always wanted to ensure they were putting the best product on the market and that it could “stand the test of time, no matter what.” Despite being incredibly proud to be a minority-owned and veteran-owned business, Barnett said they don’t always lead with that, instead “keeping in the back of our mind that the road we’re traveling, there is not a lot of people on that road that look like us.”
“However, no matter who’s on that road, we want to make sure that they know our product and our work ethic is steeped in who we are and not necessarily what we look like,” Barnett added. “But to those regards, we’ve always looked at it as the additions of artisan, veteran and minority, those enhance what you do, and they help people understand who you are as a business owner.”
If a business makes good popcorn in Indiana, then they are competing with everyone in the world, because Indiana is known for corn, Barnett said. Market Square Popcorn aims to transcend all of that. Barnett and Warren want it to be the best artisan popcorn business — and also happen to be minority-owned.
Today, Market Square Popcorn is a wildly successful certified minority- and veteran-owned business. They partner with Indiana Grown and the Indiana Department of Agriculture to use almost entirely locally sourced ingredients, right down to Indiana-grown corn, and are one of the few artisan board-approved popcorn companies in Indiana.
Every year, Hoosiers munch on Market Square Popcorn at the Irvington Halloween Festival, Juneteenth Foodways Festival, Indianapolis Zoo and Indiana Black Expo. It’s also the official popcorn of Indiana University football and basketball, the Indy Eleven and Visit Indy. Market Square Popcorn was a featured vendor at the 2024 NBA All-Star, and for the last two years, Senator Todd Young has requested that popcorn from Market Square Popcorn be sent to Washington for the Senate Luncheon.
“We went on the national news during the Indianapolis 500. We were selected as one of ‘The Best Things About Indiana’ with three other businesses, and we had so much national attention from that during the month of May that our website crashed,” Warren said. “People know that … if you do popcorn in a state that does popcorn really well, then you’ve got to be pretty good, and that was a pretty big honor for us.”
Throughout their success, Warren and Barnett make sure to give back to their community whenever possible through fundraisers — particularly within the Pike Community — and by donating popcorn to corporate events and local organizations, including the Heartland Film Festival, Zoobilation, ZooBoo, the Indianapolis Urban League and more.
“As we have grown our business from the beginning, we’ve always had just an urge and a want to make sure that we are part of our community,” Barnett said. “People don’t know that popcorn from Indiana actually has been in the hands of these filmmakers and these directors that come from all over the country. … We’re at all these places … and you would never know it came from us because it doesn’t have our name on it.”
Sometimes it boils down to partnerships and private labeling, other times there is simply a disconnect between what people believe small, minority-owned businesses like Market Square Popcorn can achieve, Warren said.
“It’s hard for them to equate that a small minority business out of the north side of Indianapolis is in Total Wine and Leo’s, and we just got into Kroger, and we’re onboarding with Meijer,” Warren said. “Sometimes they’re like, ‘I know this is not the same popcorn that I get at the mall.’ … It’s just hard for them to understand how you’re able to do so much because they just see you as small. We are small, but it’s small but mighty.”
Though at the end of the day, running the business alongside his childhood friend makes their 16-hour work days and occasional 80-hour work weeks feel less like work and more like a lifestyle. Getting to do something he enjoys, make money, give back to the community and then some is “a dream come true.”
“We go to lunch, and we’ll talk business, but we talk about everything,” Warren added. “Being an entrepreneur, working in a family business with somebody you’ve known forever and with your family, it becomes not just a job.”
For more information about Market Square Popcorn or to order online, visit marketsquarepopcorn.com.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe has a bachelor's in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and has previously worked for Indy Maven, The Lantern, and CityScene Media Group. In her free time, Chloe enjoys live theatre, reading, baking and keeping her plants alive.
