SallyAnn Salsano is the founder of 495 Productions, a Los Angeles-based company that has produced several hit television shows. Its latest, Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, is a reality cooking series featuring two celebrity entrepreneurs as hosts: lifestyle expert Martha Stewart and rapper Snoop Dogg. The show's guests have included famous names like Seth Rogen and Robin Thicke.

The unlikely friends aren't afraid to poke fun of each other, which is perhaps what makes the show so appealing. In Episode 2, Snoop makes a quip about Stewart's home state: "Maine is a place where I feel like a raisin in a bowl of cream of wheat," he says.

Already named 2016's highest-rated unscripted show on cable television, Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party drew more than three million viewers for its premiere. And earlier this month, after just two episodes, it was renewed for a second season.

Even with the show's early acclaim, Salsano isn't resting. The 41-year-old entrepreneur explains that when you run a film production company, success is never a guarantee--nor is it sustainable. "It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. You're only as good as your last show," she says.

Because 495 only receives funding for one project at a time, it's constantly planning dozens of new ones in advance. (Salsano has some game shows and talk shows in mind for 2017 and beyond.) And a show's getting sold doesn't always equal success: After the first four seasons of Design Stars (one of Salsano's favorite projects), HGTV decided to hire a different production company. The show first aired in 2006, and was canceled in 2014.

"Everyone has a choice of whom they want to work with," she says of the industry. "You can never think, 'I've got this.'"

http://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/the-small-business-behind-martha-and-snoop-s-potluck-dinner-party.html