At Subway, things always come back to Fred DeLuca.

I spent the last few months speaking with people who knew the co-founder and trying to unpack his complex legacy. Here's what I found: https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

If you want to understand how Subway became the biggest fast-food chain in the world, you need to understand DeLuca https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

At Subway, success did not necessarily mean professionalism. Take, for example, the calendar of semi-nude Subway execs — including CEO Fred DeLuca — from 2000 https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Then, there's the fact that DeLuca was known for trying to sleep with franchisees' wives at Subway annual meetings. https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Basically, DeLuca had total control at Subway. Multiple people independently used the phrase "God complex" or "demigod" when I interviewed them https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Unfortunately for franchisees, DeLuca was extremely frugal. Like, yell at his daughter-in-law for buying Whole Foods when he was a billionaire cheap https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

As Subway grew, incentives for franchisees and DeLuca became misaligned, insiders told me. https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

As franchisees' sales started to decline, DeLuca was diagnosed with cancer and Subway faced a series of PR nightmares https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Fred DeLuca died a month after Jared Fogle was arrested — really the worst-case nightmare scenario for any company, but especially one that had been essentially led by one man https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

DeLuca was replaced by his younger sister, Suzanne Greco. She had to fill some giant shoes, and was generally seen as ill-prepared for the task https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Meanwhile, DeLuca's widow inherited his 50% share of the company. Here's what Subway is working with for the corporate board and structure today: https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6

Things have gone from bad to worse at Subway, with @RogerLipton describing the company as a "slow motion train wreck." DeLuca created a dangerous business model — but, insiders now find themselves missing the late CEO https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6