Data are presented on the coupled-stripe laser operation (continuous wave, 300 K) of a single InAs quantum-dot (QD) layer coupled via a thin (5 Å) GaAs barrier to an auxiliary strained InGaAs quantum well (QW) grown (confined) in an AlGaAs–GaAs heterostructure. Because of strain-induced (QW strain) improvement of the QD growth and QD alignment along diagonal (reflecting) ridges, the InGaAs-QW+InAs-QD crystals exhibit high gain along and across laser stripes, which is advantageous for coupled-stripe laser operation. A twin-stripe single-QD-layer QW+QD laser (4 μm stripes on 6 μm centers) of usual cleaved length, < 500 μm, is capable of continuous 300 K operation, with only probe heat-sink clamping and testing, at >50 mW.