The Franchise Gold Rush: How to Build Wealth, Cash Flow, and Real Estate Through Franzi | Alex Smereczniak

Summary

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The Franchise Gold Rush: How to Build Wealth, Cash Flow, and Real Estate Through Franzi

Podcast: The Entrepreneur DNA
Host: Justin Colby
Guest: Alex Smereczniak, Founder of Franzi.com
Date: December 11, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the world of franchising as a path to entrepreneurship, wealth-building, and real estate investing. Justin Colby interviews serial entrepreneur Alex Smereczniak, founder of Franzi.com, about democratizing business ownership, the lucrative opportunities in franchising (beyond just big brands like McDonald's), and how technology and data are reshaping access to franchises for everyday entrepreneurs. Alex shares his entrepreneurial journey, the origins of Franzi, and candid advice on capital, scaling, exit strategies, and finding your ideal franchise match.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Franzi.com: The “Zillow for Franchising”

• Franzi’s Mission:
  To enable 1 million new entrepreneurs by democratizing access to business ownership, starting with franchising.
• Platform Overview:
  Franzi.com provides a data-rich, transparent marketplace listing 4,000+ franchise brands with detailed info (costs, revenues, territories, executive teams, risk fit, etc.), akin to Zillow for real estate.
  Alex: “Think of Franzi as the Zillow for buying and selling small businesses.” (02:32)
• No Broker Pressure:
  Users can browse, compare, and pursue opportunities without ever talking to a broker—unless they want to.

2. Franchise Opportunities: Myths, Models, and Wealth-Building

• Franchising Myths:
  Franchising is more than just fast food or McDonald’s; there’s a franchise in every niche—from home services to wellness to crime scene clean-up.
  Alex: “There really is a franchise for everybody… it’s the American dream.” (07:51)
• Cost of Entry:
  Investments range from as low as $10k (small service franchises) to several million (big QSR brands), with many opportunities in between.
• Home Services Trend:
  Home services franchises (gutters, roofing, HVAC) are especially hot: low entry cost ($150k–$250k), high revenue potential, and less risk from technological disruption.
• Real Estate Angle:
  Franchisees can “double-dip” by owning the property their business operates in, with some paying above-market rent to themselves to leverage for financing more locations.
• Scalability:
  Multi-unit operators benefit from economies of scale, can hire general managers, and position themselves for profitable exits.

3. The Franchise Business Model: Operations and Financing

• Plug-and-Play vs. Entrepreneurial Brands:
  Mature franchises (50+ units) have comprehensive playbooks, training, tech, and dialed-in systems; emerging brands (under 50 units) offer more entrepreneurial flexibility and influence, but may need heavier operator involvement.
• Franzi’s Support:
  The platform combines a massive data set of franchise FDD documents (26,000) with personalized, expert coaching—free for users, paid for by brands.
• Franchise Success Rates:
  Franchises are five times more likely to succeed in the first five years than independent startups.
• Owner Income Expectations:
  Owner-operator income varies wildly, but solid cash flows exist even in lower-investment franchises. McDonald's franchisees can clear $600k–$800k per store (if scaled to dozens like some operators), lower-entry franchises may generate $20k–$30k for sub-$10k investments.
  Alex: “Franchises are five times more likely to succeed in the first five years than traditional startups.” (11:44)

4. Hottest Franchise Sectors & Rising Trends

• Golf Simulator Studios:
  Indoor golf franchise models are booming, requiring $200k–$400k to open, yielding $100k–$150k/year in cash flow, with minimal staff and inventory, and serve busy dual-income households.
  Alex: “No employees, no inventory… $200 to $400k to fully develop and then they cash flow $100, $150k a year.” (22:51)
• Real Estate Integration:
  Innovative approaches: buying a strip mall, filling it with your own franchise locations, creating synergy between property and operating business.
• Multi-Unit Bundling:
  Big players seek to acquire bundles (three, five, or more units), driving up exit multiples and creating lucrative acquisition markets.

5. How Franzi Disrupts the Franchise Landscape

• Eliminating Broker Misaligned Incentives:
  Traditional franchise brokers get huge commissions (up to 60% of franchise fees), often steering buyers toward franchises with higher payouts.
• Franzi’s Model:
  Flat success fees paid by brands prevent this bias; users get unbiased matches based solely on their goals, risk, skills, and passion.
• Tech-Driven Personalization:
  AI and data scraping index franchise disclosure documents to sort options that fit the user’s profile.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Franzi’s Mission:
  “Our mission with Franzi is to help enable the next 1 million entrepreneurs… democratizing access to ownership and businesses, starting with franchising.”
  — Alex Smereczniak (02:32)

• The Real Estate Wealth Angle:
  “Some franchisees purposely pay themselves higher than market rent because then they can go borrow against that cash flow on the real estate side to go open their second and third one.”
  — Alex Smereczniak (09:27)

• On Franchise Cash Flow and Scale:
  “He owned 43 or so McDonald’s… [each] $600 to $800k in cash flow… He’s paid almost like an NFL quarterback.”
  — Alex Smereczniak (16:50)

• On Entry Accessibility:
  “There is a franchise that costs 10k to get into. It’s not going to replace your income, but it can kick off 20 to 30 grand a year in cash flow.”
  — Alex Smereczniak (18:31)

• The Franchise “Plug-and-Play” Question:
  “Can you literally… is this like a plug and play and you just follow the recipe and it’ll come out as a beautiful cake?”
  — Justin Colby (27:24)

• On Franzi’s Values:
  “We get paid by the brands a flat dollar success fee so that we have no incentive to promote one brand over another. And we’re going to keep it that way...”
  — Alex Smereczniak (34:40)

• Misconceptions About Franchising:
  “I think the number one [misconception] is that franchising is just these big brands—McDonald’s, Subway. There is truly a franchise for just about any concept you can imagine.”
  — Alex Smereczniak (52:16)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic / Quote | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:32 | Franzi’s mission & “Zillow of small businesses” explanation | | 05:52 | Home services franchise opportunity explosion | | 09:27 | The real estate ownership + rent “double-dip” strategy | | 16:49 | McDonald’s mega-franchisee success story | | 18:31 | Entry points: wide spectrum of franchise investment options | | 21:45 | Hottest new franchise trend: indoor golf simulator studios | | 27:24 | Is franchise ownership really “plug-and-play”? | | 34:40 | Franzi’s flat-fee, unbiased coaching model | | 37:33 | Alex’s entrepreneurial journey—college startup, growth, and exits | | 43:03 | Why Franzi was born & the pain of legacy franchise brokers | | 46:26 | The matchmaking nature of franchising relationships | | 52:16 | Biggest misconceptions about franchising |

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Additional Insights & Advice

• Who Should Use Franzi?
  Alex recommends at least $50k cash and a $150k net worth (700+ credit score preferred) for most franchise opportunities.
• Finding the Right Fit:
  Franzi matches users not just on finances but on operational skill, lifestyle goals, personal interests, and risk tolerance.
• Exit Multiples on Franchising:
  Franchise business exits can command far higher multiples (up to 4–10x EBITDA) than independent businesses because of the brand and systems.
• Legacy Building:
  Justin and Alex both emphasize the potential for franchise businesses to be part of family legacies—with wealth built in both the business and the real estate.

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How to Connect & Next Steps

• Contact Alex: Email [e-mail] to book a call or for personal advice.
• Try the Platform: Browse opportunities at Franzi.com.
• Follow on Socials: @AlexFromFranzi on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for educational content.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is a masterclass in how the world of franchising—once seen as the domain of big players and food chains—can be a versatile, accessible launching pad for entrepreneurial ambitions. With the democratizing force of Franzi.com, more people than ever can find, evaluate, and invest in businesses aligned with their skills, lifestyle, and financial goals. The biggest barriers are know-how and courage; Franzi aims to solve the first, hoping it unlocks the second.

Justin Colby:
“To me this is a real estate play, this is a business play, this is a lifestyle play… not only do you have your income on the way in and through, you have an exit on the franchise if you want, and you have an exit on the actual property. Or maybe that’s the legacy play.” (50:00)

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For anyone considering a career shift, investment opportunity, or legacy business, this episode breaks down the practical, profitable—and very human—pathways that modern franchising can provide.

Transcript

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[Alex Franzi]

Happy Holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the show grow from all of us at Believe. Have a Merry Christmas everyone and a happy holiday.

[Justin Colby]

What is up Entrepreneur DNA Family? I am here with a really special guest. This individual is only 33 years old and is a serial entrepreneur. He's had three businesses and already exited two of them. He's on his last what I think swan song exit. With Franzi.com we have Alex Smers Nak.

[Alex Franzi]

Nailed it. Yeah, thanks.

[Justin Colby]

That was going to be a tough one.

[Alex Franzi]

Thanks for having me.

[Justin Colby]

All right dude. Well, excited to have you here. You know you're 33 as I was just giving you a little bit of a hard time. You've already built this incredible resume with two exits. You're working on a third. Franzi.com is phenomenal. But let's jump into to Franzi to start. What is Franzi? What's your mission? What are you thinking about moving forward in the next three to five years with it?

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. So our mission with Franzi is to help enable the next 1 million entrepreneurs starting in the US and the way that we're going to do that is through democratizing access to ownership and businesses, starting with franchising. So think of Franzi as the Zillow for buying and selling small businesses. So you have all this data. 4000 brands, investment cost, average revenue, who's the executive team behind it, what territories are available? Does this match my risk tolerance? All the stuff that you need to do, just like Zillow has square footage, bedroom, school district. Yeah, Franzi has that for small business all at your fingertips. Don't have to talk to a broker unless you want to. Don't have to commit to anything unless you want to. It's all just the data and the information that you need and the, the support that you need to get. Lending and finding the right, the right brand.

[Justin Colby]

No kidding. So when you think like mergers and acquisitions is such a big topic right now. I've had more than a handful of people here as guests with that. Does this play into that realm of merger and acquisitions? Is this just the franchise model? How, how are we [e-mail]?

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. So for now it's just de novo units or territory. So new net, new development of, you know, a Jimmy John's or a Gutter Brothers franchise, a service business where you don't need retail. You would buy the territory for Fort Lauderdale or for Miami and then go develop that out and start it from scratch. Yeah, we are starting to work towards a resale marketplace where Justin could come on and also buy the existing Jimmy John's franchisee in Miami or the existing Gutter Brothers territory. Yeah, depending on, you know, where you want to jump in. Some people like an existing business and yes, other people want to, you have their stamp on it and build it up from, from scratch with the franchisor.

[Justin Colby]

So we are talking to any and all entrepreneurs here because at the end of the day I today Justin Colby can go to franzi.com and I can say, you know what, I want to get into the restaurant business.

[Alex Franzi]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

You have a list of restaurants. Let's just use Jimmy John's. But you likely would have more. Maybe you can name them but like.

[Alex Franzi]

4,000 brands on the 4,000 brands. It's almost every franchise concept that exists.

[Justin Colby]

In the United States are is on Franzi.com Yep. Right now go check out frames you dot com. I mean I was so excited about this because I just think as I'm a serial entrepreneur like I got to be careful with our conversation right now because next, you know I'm going to be on frames. You're like, what's the next industry? I'm going in. Sorry, Right.

[Alex Franzi]

A few times people we've met have bought a business with us.

[Justin Colby]

Yes.

[Alex Franzi]

As us having a conversation like this and three months later they're like, well, now I own this operating company.

[Justin Colby]

Right? Hey, now I got to go do this thing. I'm reading a great book, Big shout out to the road. Less stupid if you've ever heard or read that one. It just is kind of the fundamentals of business where people just react and make emotional decisions. Like I get all fired up here and I go buy a franchise. Like, is that really the best thing I should be doing right now?

So I, this is exciting because I think, well, let's jump into what I believe is a great industry sector. Home services. I'm a real estate guy. We all know that, right? We're, we're listening to me because that platform. But how many of those, I mean, do you have a number of. How many, you know, home services type companies? Roofing, like you just mentioned gutters, windows, flooring, H vac. Like I just, I think that's a major play for a lot of individuals.

[Alex Franzi]

It has been increasingly popular because there's average unit volumes of revenue of these service businesses, you know, well over a million dollars. But the Startup costs are 150k, 200k, 250k versus a retail restaurant or health and wellness franchise could run you half a million, a million, 2 million in some restaurants cases or more for not too dissimilar of revenues. I mean restaurants, chick fil a McDonald's will have kind of gold standard revenues. But these home services brands, again, seven figure revenue for a low six figures investment. And so there's a lot of money and people moving into home services because one, it's cheaper. Revenue upside is still there. Plus AI is likely not to disrupt, you know, people washing windows or painting, you know, sidewalks or painting houses for, for a while. I mean it's probably going to happen at some point, but at some point these are safer for a little bit longer.

[Justin Colby]

What is.

Okay, so do you ever get excited about a business or an industry that you, you get on Franzi all the time.

[Alex Franzi]

I mean, I'll see things like if I had endless money and time, I would buy one of those. Buy one of those. And so I have a podcast too called How I Franchise this where I'm interviewing people that have gone from everyday corporate America or they were at Tesla or they were, they were born into it. Whatever their story was before Franchising then how they got into it, how they specifically found the right brand, how they financed it. So this tactical, you know, storytelling. But I've interviewed a few people that started, you know, seven years ago with zero franchise locations and now have 100 plus across six or seven brands. They've got OrangeTheory, they've got Restore Hyper Wellness, they've got Dave's Hot Chicken Pop Up Bagels. And I see that and I hear their stories and exactly how they did it. Yeah. And it to me it's like if you're willing to work hard, if you're willing to go raise some capital and bring on, you know, private equity or private debt partners, anyone can literally go do this. It's the American dream. If you're willing to go and do it. And franchising just provides this platform that I think is unlike anything else. The playbooks are there, the brand is there, the recipes are there, the training, the marketing, it's all there. You just need to be willing to go do the work and operate. And I've seen this story over and over and over again and the same consistent theme across all of them is they were willing to do the hard work, they found the right capital partner and then they went all into the franchise model. And six, seven years in, like a diamond, you know, they put the pressure in.

[Justin Colby]

And so what I think is the key is most franchise. And I don't know a lot about franchises, right? But you hear the stories of McDonald's, right? Just the concept of like there is a book, they give you the book, you run the play, rinse and repeat every day. It works, Right? And that is in large part, I'm the real estate guy, right? And so I. Are there real estate people or is there a real estate sector to francie?

[Alex Franzi]

So a lot of these big multi unit franchisees will also go in and buy the underlying asset that they're developing on. Unless the franchisor, you know, McDonald's kind of does a lot of that corporately. They're one of the largest, you know, real estate businesses in the world. People don't think about it that way. They're disguised as a burger shop. Right. But some franchise concepts, a lot of them actually aren't thinking about that because they're not at that scale yet. In fact, most franchise brands are considered emerging. 75% of them have less than 100 locations open. Over 100 is more mature and that's their 25%. But if you get in with an emerging brand that you like, that has the upside. Dave's hot chicken early, pop up bagels early. You can go develop the real estate yourself and have this owner operator play where you've got, you know, cash flowing operation on top of an asset that you own. I've heard of some franchisees purposely paying themselves higher than market rent because then they can go borrow against that cash flow on the real estate side to go over in their second and third one. And so there is a whole strategy for those interested in commercial real estate and a real estate play on top of the operating business.

[Justin Colby]

That is a really smart angle. As a real estate guy. I'm really that way. You just hit like you buy the. Whether it is a current location or maybe even develop one. Right. You buy that corner. That's just this rundown thing, tear it down, build your new.

Dave's hot chicken. Right. Whatever the franchise, you pay yourself higher market rent. The income shows strong finances.

[Alex Franzi]

Banks love it.

[Justin Colby]

Banks love it. They go give you more money to do it again.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. It's almost like Burr method for residential looking different.

[Justin Colby]

I love that. You know, there's a. You're not a real estate guy and you're throwing out real estate terms. This is good. Yeah, no, it is. I mean, this is where I go as a real estate play. We could even be the McDonald's. Right. We don't. I don't have an allegiance to name me three. You said papa bagels, Dave's hot chicken in orange theory, besides working out, which I do love, but I wouldn't have an allegiance to any of those brands as a brand. But what I do know and what I do love is the business model of buying the real estate. Understanding the economics of that getting higher than market rent, understanding bankability. And now I have real businesses that have real operations. There's a formula running a real estate play. The bigger play is the McDonald's real estate play.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. And again, when you get to a hundred units, I mean, this is real, real scale.

[Justin Colby]

Wow, that's.

[Alex Franzi]

You get to five, that's significant for people. I mean, there's everywhere in between. There's an opportunity to run both of those plays if you have the capital and the desire to go structure it that way. The issue I think a lot of people run into is they're not capitalized well enough to be thinking about. You have to develop five net new locations. Plus now I got to buy the real estate, which could be, you know, six figures high seven or mid seven figures. And so they're trying to navigate, you know, how do I finance all this.

[Justin Colby]

Franchises are five times more likely to succeed in the first five years than traditional startups. But finding a franchise ownership opportunity can be overwhelming with over 4,000 thousand brands to choose from and brokers with misaligned incentives. That's why my friend Alex Smirnick, co founder and former CEO of 2U Laundry, built Franzi. Whether you're interested in fitness, home services, automotive or food, franzi make it simple to find your perfect match when you visit Franzi.com and answer a few simple questions about your goals, lifestyle and budget and and get access to hundreds of personalized opportunities plus free top of the line coaching that will never cost you a dime. Franzy is completely free to use from start to finish. You'll never have to pay them. If you're ready to take the next step towards franchise ownership, visit Franzy.com that is F-R-A-N Z-Y.com to get started today.

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[Justin Colby]

So the real estate individuals listening to this right now, they they come up with the same challenge, right? They say, okay, I want a single family.

[Alex Franzi]

Brrrr.

[Justin Colby]

Right? I want to fix and flip. I want an apartment, I want a fourplex, whatever those things are. The secret of raising capital that I found, and I've raised tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars, the secret's always this. Give the opportunity out there. Someone's going to like that opportunity, right? What I believe for most real estate investors and business owners, if you are in need of capital and you don't actually let anyone know there's an opportunity, it's very hard. Like, everyone goes to the bank to let the bank know I'm in need of capital. There's no difference in running a business being a real estate investor needing capital and not going outwardly, like posting on Facebook or Instagram, not, hey, can I get a loan? Everybody, it's, hey, there's an opportunity I have. Would you like to be a capital partner? There's a lot of money out there. I literally had one yesterday. And he, I think he owns a Dave because he talked about this chicken. I swear to God, he was like, I had a buddy who had this operation, he needed some capital. It's a chicken spot. I threw 150 grand at it. And the revenue is incredible. It could be one of those, which is funny. But the point being is that individual I came across because I have apartments, and he's thinking about lending on the apartments, but he also lends in partners on this operation. And so I would tell anyone out there listening to this, like, this is very real. Like, in my world, the upside, I have no genuine want to own a.

Like a Dave's Chicken or like, but the real. Right. But if I could just put it together, let the, the booklet run itself right, but have the upside of the real estate. There's a very exciting play for those.

[Alex Franzi]

Individuals, especially if you do more than one location. You start to get these local economies of scale where you can have one general manager, one gm run the business for you, essentially. Like, you still have to be involved as far as, like, site selection. You build out costs and modeling it out. But if you're willing to do that work, find the right capital partner and operate to some extent, you can hire GMs. There's a story I tell a lot of a guy that I know met him five, six years ago. I don't want to name his name because he likes to be under the radar, but he, when I met him, owned 43 or so McDonald's. McDonald's, on average do four to five and a half million in revenue with like an individual, individual location and then $600, $800k in cash. Flow. So you do the Math. On his 43 locations.

[Justin Colby]

Makes a couple bucks.

[Alex Franzi]

He's paid almost like an NFL quarterback. And since I last, you know, I talked to him about a year ago or recently, and he's up from 43 to like 90 or so McDonald's now. Cause he's just. He's got this cash machine. He's just going. Buying up three over here. Justin six, you know, in. In Greensboro.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

Ten here. Yeah. And you can just, you know, the momentum doesn't stop. And I asked him, I was like, how do you manage all this? And he's like, I have one COO that I think he pays 350 grand a year. So not, you know, not insignificant, but also not a crazy amount for that large of a business. Yeah. And that individual runs the whole thing. He's like, I haven't been in a McDonald's from. From an operations, you know, operating perspective in a long time.

And so, like, you go buy a McDonald's, that's on a huge scale. Like, imagine now you have three of some new concept. You can take the same lessons, hire a gm, pay them well. Yeah. They'll run that business. Give them some profit sharing.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

And you're. You're now, you know, the one operating two, three steps ahead. You're looking for location four, five, and six, or a group of five that you can bundle up and, and buy together. Becomes an acquisition game. As long as you have that operating team that's properly incentivized.

[Justin Colby]

And how. How much. You may not know this answer, but how much would a. What's an average income for the owner, operator of a. Of a franchise? I'm sure they vary, but, like, if. If people are thinking like, I'm tired of my nine to five, I don't want to do this thing. I'm looking for something else. Like, what could you consider if you go buy a franchise? And again, I'm sure it varies. And I'm not going to hold you to it. And neither should they. Don't hold them to it.

What. What are you talking about? Whether it's McDonald's, maybe that's the most known. Or Dave's Chicken or orange theory. What. What would you consider?

[Alex Franzi]

So I'll give. I'll give a couple answers because I think the common misconception is like, you think McDonald's, you think Subway. When you think of franchising. Yeah. And immediately one or two things happen. You think that's too expensive. I could never own that. This franchising isn't for me. But they're wrong because they don't realize there's a franchise that costs 10k to get into. It's not going to replace your income, but it can kick off, you know, 20 to 30 grand a year in cash flow and not.

[Justin Colby]

And that' return on investment. Great. Just depends on how much you have to work for that investment. But great return so all the way.

[Alex Franzi]

On that end of the spectrum. And Chick Fil A even is only ten grand to get into because they, it's not really like a full franchise. They make you work 40, 50 hours a week. You're more buying a job and they get 50% of the profits, which is not normal for franchises. So even a Chick Fil A you can get into if you're the right operating operator willing to do the work. And then it goes all the way up to, you know, some of these swim school franchises where you're building seven pools and you're teaching kids how to swim. It's an expensive investment. The average unit volumes are very high. That's more like 3,4 million to get into. Yeah, and there's everything in between. I always, you know, people think I'm joking when I say it, but there really is a franchise for everybody if you want to go do this and depending on what your goals are, I think you have to have, I'd say to do this right, 30k minimum in cash and then go borrow. You know, an SBA loan is meant for businesses like this if you're just getting started. So it really is accessible to, you know, you're kind of on a middle class working person can go do this if they're wanting to be entrepreneurial and to go take some of that ownership back all the way up to the more sophisticated. Maybe they've got entrepreneurial experience, they got a little bit more capital saved up. There's the opportunity to take bigger swings and do the real estate play or do a multi unit deal. And so there truly is an answer for everyone and their goals. And then there's a certainty group that, you know, they may be just getting started and they don't have more than five grand saved up. Like I, you know, my advice to them is work and save like you would to pay off debt and then go buy the business when you've got a little bit of a nest egg to go invest in, you know, a services business that you can start.

[Justin Colby]

It's interesting because I, I'm just such a serial entrepreneur. Like the, the, the other side of this is being make making sure you are In a financial place. I think that was a great point. Like maybe don't push all your chips in if you're gonna go quit your job and like every last dollar you have, you're gonna go start X franchise. Like maybe give yourself some level of a bridge, right?

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

And I am just more curious for my own interest, what is the more expensive level of franchise? Like what's a McDonald's franchise? What else would be considered expensive?

[Alex Franzi]

So some of the quick QSRs or quick service restaurant franchises because there's so much build out, there's all this equipment, massive refrigerators and freezers that are. Sure. You're already 50 grand a pop. Yeah.

Two, three in some cases $4 million developments depending on where it is and.

[Justin Colby]

How you at least 10% to get into it, I would guess.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. And so the franchise fee typically is. It's not crazy. 30 grand to 50 grand to get the rights to a territory or location. It's really just the build out costs. I mean finding the site, developing it, getting the right gas line in electrical.

[Justin Colby]

What do you see as the newest, hottest franchise that on the market right now? I mean you have 4,000 of them.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. So there's a few categories. One is golf right now is just taking off. I think it's with, you know, the Netflix effect of them having swing and swing. Yeah. Tiger woods and Rory doing the stadium golf stuff. Right. Liv even, you know, creating that kind of more like, I don't know, entertainment approach or version of golf. It's. It's kind of like what Netflix did to F1. There's just a lot more interest now. And so these indoor golf simulator franchises are taking off their. It's almost like Anytime Fitness. Do you remember that? Right?

[Justin Colby]

I do.

[Alex Franzi]

You know Bob in.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

It was a great franchise model. Worked in these really small markets across the United States. Has no employees.

[Justin Colby]

Never happened.

[Alex Franzi]

They, they're crushing it. Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

They're doing the low ticket thing is huge in terms of the clientele. So if you service the clientele that doesn't need to spend a lot of money for you, I would assume that's gotta be huge.

[Alex Franzi]

And so this, there's no employees, there's no inventory. Private golf simulator bays, you know, room a fourth of the size of this.

[Justin Colby]

This is why I got six.

[Alex Franzi]

Because then the investment cost isn't high. That' a good real estate play because you put them in these smaller, you know, out parcels etc.

They'Re 200 to 400k to fully develop and then they cash flow 100, 150k a year. No way. With no employees. And it's BYOB so people can bring a six pack and play pebble beach in an hour when the kids. This is.

[Justin Colby]

So I'm going to bring this back to real estate. So storage facilities versus apartments. People will always make the argument. And by the way, I own both. I tend to support this argument. No tenants, no headaches versus apartments, which is always something tenants, et cetera. Right.

This is the, the equivalent in the franchise world. Right. And I'm sure there's a couple of them, but like that's exciting. You go put a hundred. What did you say to start it?

[Alex Franzi]

It's like 200 to 400k again, depending on size. How much is that?

[Justin Colby]

Easy as the build out. That's also the franchise fee. Like you're somewhere in there.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

And you'll spit out 150 grand gross or net. Stop it. That return is insane.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. A lot of these franchises you want to look for should have the ability to generate revenues at least one times the cost to put in. And then you want a payback period of ideally as little as possible at 2 to 3 years. Ideally is what you're, you're made whole now beyond three can work, five can work. But you start to get into this longer. Yeah, the timeframe, there's a little bit more risk there and things have to be executed better. But if you can get to three years or so, that's usually a good something like that. Could you.

[Justin Colby]

I mean what's the locale? Like, what is the typical location for like a golf. Indoor golf simulator type of.

[Alex Franzi]

So it's kind of like middle class, upper middle class households, dual income families with kids.

It's. They're busy families. They can't go golf for six hours. I mean because realistic, let's be honest. That's right. How long it takes. I was like, I didn't pack. Look, I love to go high. We can play, unpack, right? No, I think you go play pebble beach in an hour, you know, at 10pm when the kids go down or what. You know, you can do it whenever you want. One of the brands that I, that we work with, they have an example of they've got these surgeons that play every day at 3am they get off their shift and they go to the location, go play around and then go home.

[Justin Colby]

Well, where are these locations? Like what kind of facility would it look like? Is it a. More like a rural area? Like is it big? Like what is that act well, like.

[Alex Franzi]

Suburban areas, like buy it you know, near a target in a. In a strip center. Yeah, development could work. Okay. You're in like class B property. I'd say you're not in like the Barry's boot camp or the like primo real estate, which is great.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

Um, you can be in class B, maybe even class C in some instances. As long as you're backed up to a neighborhood that has, you know, a few thousand households that fit that demographic of busy family, you know, enough income to like golf and enjoy it, but don't have the time to go.

[Justin Colby]

For all my entrepreneurs or aspiring. Like, you gotta look at this.

[Alex Franzi]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

Even if you're the real estate guy like me, this is something that like I'm genuinely. Now you have 4,000 opportunities. Like this one now is intriguing to me because I actually was thinking this weekend I want to play more golf. By more, I mean any at this point because I just have two kids in life. Right. This is a big real estate play like that one would probably be hard to own the asset. Right. You'd probably have to do a lease, I'm guessing.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. Because if you're in a strip center, unless you take down the whole center and put two or three different concepts. You could put two or three. I mean, I see people, which you can. Absolutely. They'll buy a strip center and they put three complimentary franchise businesses next to each other and we have a few hospitality groups that are developing hotels and. Yeah, different mixed use development. Asking me like, hey, we got six open, you know, spots or bays. What, what concepts, what franchises can we put in? They're going to own and then operate the phenomenal. Like I hadn't heard of.

[Justin Colby]

I almost feel like only a real estate play at this point. Just maybe because like I just. You go buy a strip mall, which is right now like on the cheap. Relative lending is not perfect, but that's why it's on the cheap. You now have the businesses you can put into the strip mall. Everyone's concerned about strip malls because of COVID obviously changed the game for a lot of different things, but like, lending's not great. But if you actually occupy the units with your own businesses, you are your own tenant, you increase your rent to pay down the loan and you rinse and repeat. Like I just feel like now here's the key operations systems, like I'm on a big push. Processes, principles, people, procedures.

[Alex Franzi]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

And then you can profit.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

But if you don't have these processes, principles, people and procedures like dialed, your profit is going to either suck or go the other way and you won't profit. Right. You're going to lose. Are most of these franchises extremely dialed in? So someone like myself that doesn't have a lot of time, or maybe someone that doesn't have the business acumen and is going to learn this, are they pretty dialed in with these books and game plans and processes? Like, can you literally. People think about it this way? So I want you to kind of tell me, is this like a plug and play? And you just follow the recipe and it'll come out as a beautiful cake.

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[Alex Franzi]

This, the honest answer is it does depend on the stage of the brand. This is where Franzi comes in to help. We do give free coaching from folks that are franchisees themselves. So if you came through and you said, this is kind of my background, this is my operational experience, my risk tolerance, my capital situation, and here are my goals, we go match of the 4,000 specific brands partially using AI. So we've indexed 26,000 what are called FDDs, franchise disclosure documents. And then we pair it up against Justin's unique set of criteria, interest, goals, et cetera. Because while there's some different, you know, similar flavors to what people are looking for, you have very different hobbies. Passions like that is an important part. You don't want to buy a business that in a year you're like, I don't really align with that. Right. Have time for it or agree with it. Right. And so it is important that it's something that you can get excited about five years from now, 10 years from now, and you're not gonna be like, I own the, you know, gutter cleaning thing. And people are complaining all the time. I'm just not passionate about it. So we help you do that. And to answer your question about you know, the how plug and play is it, it does depend. Some brands over 50 units especially have full blown teams training, marketing, playbooks, technology that they've built out for procurement and their CRM, their point of sale is all just dialed in. But these emerging brands are not as dialed in. It's more entrepreneurial. So when we get clients that come through, they're like, I want to do this because I want to be entrepreneurial. I want to have a say in what gets built. We actually tell them to not join like a chick fil a or mature brand because you're basically buying cash flow or, and, or a job.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

At that stage, like they're like, Justin, here's what you do. Don't sneeze this. You know, this is how you sneeze. This is like they'll probably exactly what you need to do and you have to do it.

[Justin Colby]

And for some that's great.

[Alex Franzi]

Some people love that. Other people are like, I don't want that. I'm doing this. Their purpose, their why is I want to be an owner, I want to be entrepreneurial. I want to let my creativity run. And we tell those individuals, you should take an earlier brand because you're not going to get to. That's not going to scratch your itch fully. You might be your own boss, you might have cash flow coming in, but you're not, you're going to be miserable just like you might be now in this 9 to 5. And so go take the additional risk of joining a brand early. And with that comes other upside. You get an influence on the franchisor, you might get to negotiate franchise fees, royalties because they're earlier. You get the ability to white space territory out of fourth unit, a fifth unit at six territory, et cetera as you go versus Dave's Hot Chicken McDonald's. They're mostly sold out. So now it becomes an acquisition game for that.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, for resellers and all that. And you guys are getting into that space at some point here.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. So we've started building a prototype of the resale marketplace. The reason we didn't start there is with de novo or new territories. It's. We have structured financials that fdd, that franchise disclosure document I mentioned is a standard document that the Federal Trade Commission regulates across all franchises. It's easily indexable, scrapable, and so we can give you accurate clean data as soon as we get into resales. Justin's books look different than Alex's books, even though both on a Jimmy John's and your definition of seller discretionary areas is different than mine and Florida is different than North Carolina. And there's all these things that come into play. And so AI allows us to get kind of more apples to apples faster and not needing as much human underwriting and modeling. But that's the interesting problem we're trying to solve with technology is how do we build a resale marketplace that has clean, accurate data and is still mindful of people's sensitivity around their financials? And when do we show Justin's book to a seller? How much do we verify the seller? How much friction do we know?

[Justin Colby]

All this goes through Frenzy.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

So let's talk a little bit more in frenzy because I just geeked out on this opportunity.

Describe frenzy for everyone in the understanding what it is and then whereas what the trajectory is.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. And so I know I, I use this almost maybe too much, but the way I describe it just to, to get it clear quickly as possible is honestly what Zillow did for real estate buying for Franchise It. It's a platform that has and houses every brand you can imagine with all this data and information on them. The revenue, the cost to get in, what the royalties you're going to pay are, who the executive team is, is there, has there been any bankruptcy or litigation so that you can see those red flags? And we're starting to pull in more third party data. What are consumers of this brand? The customer going to go buy the Dave's Hot chicken sandwich? What do they think about it in each region in the country? What are commercial rents and leases? So we start pulling in just more and more so that you have the information you need to make a smart, thoughtful, diligence decision. So that's all the data piece. There's also this very emotional part of this. Some people aren't doing it, you know, purely as an investment. So I had one guy come through, he's like, just show me the business that makes the most money like that. Some people, that's what they want. They don't care what it is. There's a franchise called Bio One. It's Bio, Bio One. They clean up crime scenes and like dead bodies and like, oh, that could make the most money. And the all right guy, that this one's for you. But other people, like, I want to build a business with my kids and it's a legacy that we're probably not going to send you to buy or one we're going to send you to a milkshake or a dessert concept. So can cash flow. But is something your kids could work at in high school and could be a part of, you know, as you build. And some people come, they've made more money than you know, they need and they're doing this because it's intellectually stimulating. They want to show their kids entrepreneurship. There really is all these different reasons people do it. And think of Franzi as the again database and diligence information with that kind of softer coaching where we talk you through what is Justin's. Why, what can you afford? How do we think about all these different brands? Does it actually solve your goals, your financial picture and what you're operationally good at?

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

And that's that like nuanced piece that I think a human does need to stay involved in because people buy from people and that's right. And give you all the data in the world. But after a while you're like now what do I do? I like these three, I think. But I'm not really sure what to do next. Ramsey answers that question too. With human interaction. We'll meet you in person. We'll jump on Zoom calls. As much as you want to use it, it's free for you. We get paid by the brands a flat dollar success fee so that we have no incentive to promote one brand over another. And we're going to keep it that way from here on out. Because this is such a critical life decision. It would be, I think morally and ethically wrong to allow brands oh, I'll pay you triple the amount. And now we're showing Justin brands that might not actually be the best fit. And that's what's happening today in the kind of franchise brokerage world is they're making a 60% commission on the franchise fee. Six zero. So if one brand's franchise fee is 60 grand and another's is 30, it's. You just have the wrong incentives. It'd be hard for a lot of individuals to say I'm going to show you the 30k one even. Even though this one will show you double if. If you buy that.

[Justin Colby]

Right. Right.

[Alex Franzi]

So we're just trying to flip that on its head, make it fully transparent about how this whole world has worked and why, how long brands you've been around for. So we started last summer, took about six months to really get all the data. Last summer. Last summer.

[Justin Colby]

And you were able to onboard and basically sell all these franchises to be able to use you as a platform to go that is come on how.

[Alex Franzi]

Big of a pain point this is for the brands? Because there's so much of the franchise fee, they're hemorrhaging out to all these different middlemen and commissions. Right? You know, fees. So they're desperate for another solution to get high quality, you know, potential franchisees for a much lower cost. And that's our goal with Francis. How do we can democratize this whole process? Power, empower the brand. If we do that, they're going to reinvest into the franchisee. You as the franchisee have a higher chance of success because you're getting more and more capabilities, resources, support being invested in versus 60% going out to a broker two days later. So that's the one of the end goals here, is how do we enable and support again the next million entrepreneurs?

[Justin Colby]

So I'm going to have two questions. One, how did you come up with this concept? Like, just no one wakes up one day, man, I need to solve for this problem about franchising that doesn't happen. Right.

But then two, like, how did I want to get the origin story of, like, how did you push into it? Because that's what a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, right? They found the pain point, they found the solution. They realize they have some gold and they go, now what? Right? And then, and I guess let's even take one step before that and then we'll get to the other two. You've already done two businesses, you've exited two business. Let's talk about those. What, what vertical were they in? Why did you exit? And then why are we here now with Franzi?

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. So I'll give you the. The origin story because the first one for me started my freshman year of college, so I went to Wake Forest. I'm from Minnesota originally, and I grew up with a dad that was, you know, 100% sales, 100% commission. Eat what you kill. So entrepreneurial. You in a big way. I remember, you know, in the summer, he'd golf all summer long. And then fall, winter, spring, especially in Minnesota, was busting his ass. And I was like, how are you able to do this? All my friends, parents are constantly working nine to five. And you have, it seems, all this kind of flexibility and freedom to work when you want. And his advice that has always stuck with me is there's three kinds of career. You know, careers you can have. Alex, you can work for someone else, you can work for yourself, or you can have people working for you. He's like, I'm in the second bucket. I work for myself. I can, you know, I. Some months I make zero commission. Other months it's, you know, half of someone. Someone's annual salary. Right. And he's like, but it gives me, it affords me that, that time and that flexibility. And so it's just always stuck with me as I know I need to go do something that sales working for myself or, you know, some sort of like subject matter expert or working or having people, you know, working for me. And so when I got to college, I was looking for entrepreneurial things to do, and I worked for this laundry and dry cleaning, pickup and delivery.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, man.

[Alex Franzi]

Business in college.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

Like, this is fascinating. This could work at Duke and Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt. I want to. I want to. I want to buy this thing. And so they were selling it for 30 grand. My jaw hit the floor. I'm 18. This is the most money in the world.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. And I'm thinking, how cheap? Oh, my God. How can we get 20 of those now?

[Alex Franzi]

Well, so, yeah, 18. I thought, this is right. I was two grand maybe save.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, maybe.

[Alex Franzi]

So I found two other partners. We got to like 11 grand. Still not enough. So then I'm going to the, the business school before I'm in the business school at Wake, asking finance professor professors, I want to buy this business. How do I structure it? So they're teaching me about seller finance.

18 year old is like trying to. Sure, I'll help him. So, like professors, you know, from Wake. Thank you. Like, they didn't have to do any of that. They spent breakfast hours before I was even in the business school helping me figure out this deal. So we figured out the deal. We did seller financing and paid them a percent of revenue over the course of a few years.

[Justin Colby]

You mean the owners or the people.

[Alex Franzi]

That we bought it from?

[Justin Colby]

Okay, yeah, Andy.

[Alex Franzi]

No, not the professors. Not the professors.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, my God. I was like, good for you, professor.

[Alex Franzi]

So we bought the business. We immediately went to the university and said, this needs to be a checkbox option for your incoming freshmen, parents, et cetera. We took the business from like, it was like 26,000 in revenue. It was doing but high margin, 80% margin or so. And we 10x the revenue our first year. It was like 250k because they gave us a booth at orientation week. So all the parents are coming through, like, get your meal plan, get your food, parking. Yeah. Oh, you got to get the laundry service too. Brilliant, bro. And so we sold that business when we graduated and sold it for about 10 times what we bought it for. Good for you. I was like, we can retire. Yeah, yeah, right. Oh, very many. But then I went and worked for Ernst and Young doing consulting for a year and a half. And I. I really wanted to keep growing to other colleges, but my partners at the time wanted to go do investment banking, marketing for Pepsi. I didn't want to be the laundry guy. Even though that was probably the best time in our life to go do it, I still give it a crowd.

[Justin Colby]

So, like, we could be here right now. I'm like, bro, you should have leaned in. You should have.

[Alex Franzi]

I kind of did. I kind of came back. I went to EY for a year and a half and I hated it. I was like, this is not as entrepreneurial as I thought. I loved the people. I mean, very smart people. I learned a lot, but it just wasn't, it was not fulfilling going into Wells Fargo. And how do we squeak out a tenth of a percent of efficiency and resistance? Things move slower. And I just was hooked from that college laundry thing. I would obsess over it. It was this game almost. Yeah. And I saw all these Uber for X businesses pop up. This was 2014, 2015. So you're seeing Instacart, Shipt, Wag, Rover, Postmates, DoorDash, Uber for anything. And I thought, someone's gonna do this for laundry and dry cleaning. It's not just college kids. Like, there's busy families, no one likes doing laundry. It's time consuming. People outsource, you know, lawn maintenance all the time. Why wouldn't they pay us to do their laundry? Let's take what we learned in college and do this on a larger scale. So we started in Charlotte, and over the course of eight years, we ended up raising 33 million in venture capital, scaled to a dozen markets or so, then realized, unlike doordash and, you know, ride sharing, which is point A to point B, you know, go to the airport, you need it now. Oh, Justin's going now. We're going A to B to split it up into dry cleaning and laundry, then run the process. And so way more logistically complex.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Alex Franzi]

And so we did route based instead of on demand. So we'd go to your neighborhood and pick up 30 orders. We started vertically integrating and building physical laundromats to support all the volume. And it was through that process that, you know, eventually we got to the franchise piece, was these stores aren't cheap. They're a million dollars with all the equipment. They're very profitable because we have a delivery business coming in as well as a walk in customer base. Now using the same asset base. And we needed to scale more vacations. And so we thought, well, why don't we franchise the brick and mortar layer the technology platform on the delivery piece on top. And that's how we got into franchising. In 2021, started franchising a subsidiary called laundry lab. And we sold 118 locations in 14, 16 months.

[Justin Colby]

Franzi did. Maybe it wasn't.

[Alex Franzi]

It wasn't Franzi, but it was namely condolep as the franchisor. Like, we were the Dave's Hot chicken. We were the company selling franchise licenses. And part of that was we worked with franchise brokers and we worked with what's called an fso, a franchise sales organization. And that's where this idea for Frenzy was born. We were the brand paying out 60% commission that was 80% Russians. They're like, we need this money to invest in site selection support and construction support and marketing. We're just like hemorrhaging out cash. And we'd also raised venture. So we had this unique advantage that most brands never have. You and I franchise this podcast studio or we franchise.

A run club or whatever the concept is. We don't have venture capital behind us typically. And so even more so, these brands need that franchise fee to invest in themselves and their capabilities and support of their franchisees. And that's when the light bulb went off. I was like, if we're having a hard time scaling the team appropriately with the amount of stores we have to open, how does anyone else ever do this? And the answer is they end up giving up way more equity to, like, friends and family or like, maybe more not predatory, you know, VC or private equity, but groups that could really get good valuations. Or they take 30 years and they go very, very slow or they just. They don't scale. They don't. They, yeah, you and I stock capita at three or four corporate stores. And they're like, honestly, I want to go down this path, right? So I think there's a lot of really good brands that should be national and don't because they, you know, there's not the right resources and tools out there. And I think there's some brands, conversely, that get propped up by the broker networks that have no business being as big as, you know, as they were because the underlying financials aren't sound or proven out. But, you know, the networks are just pushing these concepts down everyone's, you know, throat essentially. And so long answer short, Franzi was, you know, born from this idea of how do we put the control and the cash back into the brands, you know, pockets so that they can reinvest in the franchisee ultimately creating this more kind of positive, self fulfilling loop versus today which I think is kind of the wild west unregulated.

[Justin Colby]

So you had what was that original dry cleaning laundry brand.

[Alex Franzi]

So it's called 2U. Laundry was the delivery piece and then laundry lab is the physical brick.

[Justin Colby]

And you owned them and then you franchised them.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

Right. So you went through the whole process of franchising. Then you were the company paying all these brokers, 40, 60% commissions, 80% commissions at times found the pain of like this sucks.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

We're not capitalizing the way to grow that we need because we pay it all out.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

And then he said I could help other brands.

[Alex Franzi]

Technology can do a lot of what the brokers are doing. It's top of funnel, lead gen. It's light matchmaking and it's light qualifying. You buy, you buy a house this way, you know, through bank rate and more ash companies. You buy a carvana. We're not saying society's ready to go buy a half a million dollar business, just online. Sure. Right. But if you think franchising, it's not as pure of a brokerage play as you buying a car wash or a house. There's a buyer and a seller. You kind of need someone in the middle to help negotiate and play nice and then you transact and you're probably done interacting with each other. Yeah. In franchising, if you think about it where you're like, hey, maybe a golf thing, maybe a restaurant, you need some advising and coaching and then the relationship you're building with that brand is going to be a five to ten year relationship. So it's not this transactional. I found the one buy and I'm done.

[Justin Colby]

Right.

[Alex Franzi]

It's, it's dating, it's matchmaking more than anything. And so traditional, traditional business brokering doesn't make as much sense because the relationship in the situation is very different. We're more of a matchmaker. Yeah. Franzi should be a matchmaker, not a broker.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. Like a true. So like you're not a dating site that's very transactional where you're swiping left and hit it and quit it. You're more like one of those matchmakers. Come sit down. 100 people in a room, get to know each other, spend some time with you. Like that's the difference.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. Because you're online credit transactional for a 5 to 10 year commitment with that Brand. So you better like the team you're working with. You like the brand. You better like what you know their mission and their core values are. Because it's going to be a part of your life. Whether you're the hands on operator or just the investor type, it's still a big part of your life and you need to believe in the team behind it and who you're going to be working with.

[Justin Colby]

So you have a team that can hold someone's hand and help them understand all this. I mean that's the brilliance. And so that's what led to franzi.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

Right. So you actually exited your first franchise.

[Alex Franzi]

So I'm still on the board of that business. I sold some of my equity.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

Rolled the rest and had a, you know, a decent liquidity.

[Justin Colby]

Now you're gonna start up and now he's going in.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm back to square one again.

[Justin Colby]

Growing.

[Alex Franzi]

I love that stage. 0 to 1, 0 to 10 million.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Alex Franzi]

And I, I love the scalability of this but also the mission behind it is entrepreneurship has drastically changed my life. It's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. I work most weekends because I want to. I, I have a four and a half month old at home so I'm trying to balance, you know, family time but I, you know this is my hobby. Like people, what do you do outside of work? Work. Because I this, it's fun to me. I genuinely love doing it and I think a lot of people go throughout life not having found that kind of purpose or that thing that you know, lights them up, fills them up every morning and so if we help even 100 people, 10 people find that through Franzi like that's the, that's the goal is like show someone who's been, this has been tugging at them their whole life. It's been eating at them. They've been successful in their own right but it's been for someone else. It hasn't been for them. How do we champion that person, de risk it for them. Find the right fit, find the right financing program and structure and like really give them the tools they need to go take that risk that they're more than capable of doing operationally and you know, intelligence wise.

[Justin Colby]

So your avatar to come see Franzi.com youm would like them to have some level of financial means. They don't need to be.

Affluent.

[Alex Franzi]

50K in cash is ideal because then you can bar, you can basically get into Most franchise concepts. 250k.

[Justin Colby]

50K in cash.

[Alex Franzi]

Yep. 150k net worth, 150k net worth some.

[Justin Colby]

Level, like above 700 credit or is credit not credit?

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah, I think above 700 is good. Above 650 can still, can still work. But.

[Justin Colby]

And you are, do you have a way for. Can people from this episode or wherever they're seeing this, can they get a hold of you in the sense of like book a call, find out more. What's the path to do that?

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah, if you, if you email [e-mail] it's my direct email. We can set up time either with me or other franchisees, you know, other franchise experts on our team. Otherwise we're all over social media. So Alex, from Franzi, on Twitter, X Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, there's all sorts of ways for us to engage. We have a newsletter, a podcast. We're pushing a ton of, of educational information out there because again, I think most people are capable of doing this that they want to. The issue is most people just don't know where to start. That's it. They don't have someone to help them. They don't have resources. And so our goal again is let's give you that so you can take that push to jump and start building.

[Justin Colby]

People knowing what I you. So I have the science flipping podcast, I have the entrepreneur DNA podcast. I have these podcasts that I know there's a lot of people hungry to be entrepreneurs, right? Some like the real estate play. Like to me this is a real estate play, this is a business play, this is a lifestyle play. Right. Like you're going to solve for a lot of it. I obviously lean into this real estate play because then you have multiple exits. Not only you have your income on the way in and through. You have an exit on the franchise if you want and you can resell it through franz.com if you want. You have an exit on the actual property. Or maybe that's the legacy play that you gift to your kids and you exit the business ownership and you just allow someone else to lease that property. I mean, I just genuinely, I'm should not be doing this podcast because now I'm good. Now I'm going to be eyeballed.

[Alex Franzi]

Keeping my knuckle unlocked.

[Justin Colby]

That's right.

[Alex Franzi]

The other thing to make it even more exciting, someone like you especially is going to love this. I that's one of the reasons I like franchising now is if you get into the right system, the right brand, and you do scale 3, 4, 5 locations I mentioned these bigger fish are constantly Looking to buy up. Oh yeah, those, those, those three to five pack people. There's exits along the multiples are higher in franchising because it's almost like a, a AAA rated bond. It's like you got. It's not just Justin and Alex's coffee shop, it's Starbucks or it's Ziggy's coffee or it's this thing that has a brand behind it, a franchisor behind it, the stop gap. So the risk is less so we can actually sell for. Instead of a 2 to 3x multiple, 4 to 6, sometimes 7, 8, 9, 10x multiples on EBITDA. So you're talking 2 to 3x on your exit than you would have had if it was independent. And so just like the exit opportunities are bigger. So all these, there's all these.

[Justin Colby]

It goes back to the principles, tailwinds, processes, principles, practices. These are the P's I talk about. Like that's a business principle. Go into a business that you can have an exit with. Like no one wants to work forever. So what is your exit? Go into it thinking what your exit is. Yep, this is phenomenal. So Franzi.com is where they want to go. I'm gonna. And by the way, if you follow me, I'm gonna be tagging him all over everywhere. Right. So you're going to be seeing that everywhere. What would be one of the bigger misconceptions regarding franchises? Either Outright lies. Like people just don't know that that is an outright incorrect fact. Like it's not a fact or misconception of a franchise.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah, I think the number one is that, you know, franchising is just these big brands. McDonald's, Subway. There is truly a franchise for just about any concept you can imagine. Yeah, Gutter cleaning, window cleaning, health and wellness. Most people don't realize hotels, most of them are franchises. Hilton, Marriott, a lot of them are owned by individual groups or individuals. Yeah, it's not just food. So there are franchises.

[Justin Colby]

Truly could be franchises podcast there.

[Alex Franzi]

I think there is a franchise podcast studio that's starting to expand. And look at this. Like there, there is the crime scene cleanup. Again, there is franchising for everything. And within that there's also franchising, I think for just about everyone. Again, it's not for those that are just starting to get started in their career or just starting to squirrel money away, take a risk. But very, very calculated. But for most people that have 30k even saved up, you can get into a franchise business. I think that's the other misconception is you think, oh, the rich are just going to get richer. It's going to be wealthy people buying another McDonald's. There definitely is some of that. But there's also the guy who I talked about on our podcast, he had 0 seven years ago and he's up to 120. And he just went one at a time. And then those started cash flowing, and he built onto those. Then he got connected with, you know, family offices and some private lenders and brought partners on and went to 30, went to 50. And it's the American dream. You can do it and go after it if you're willing to take that risk, surround yourself with the right people and be thoughtful about the brands you get into. So, yeah, that'd be. My answer is franchising is way bigger, more encompassing than way broader.

[Justin Colby]

And people less restrictive than people realize is not just Starbucks or McDonald's. It's not these big brands. There's also. And maybe you want a franchise. Maybe you reach out and say, hey, I have an idea that I want a franchise.

[Alex Franzi]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

How did you like 4,000 franchise? Like, is that just call by call, was it? Once the word got out, they started coming to you. How did you build that out?

[Alex Franzi]

That is really impressive. So very similar. We took the Playbook from Zillow. Zillow immediately had all the inventory because they pulled it from the mls. I don't even know what MLS stands for, but it was essentially Multiple Listing Services. Okay, Multiple Listing Services. I don't even know how MLS allowed them to do this or if they did allow them to do it. But Zillow, day one had every house all this price data. And so they wrote a New York or was a Wall Street Journal article about new site Zillow. You can. They'll tell you what your house is worth. And so all of us are curious, right? Like, it's probably the biggest investment a lot of people are making. And so of course they want to see, well, what is this thing worth? And so all this traffic was coming in, claiming their houses. We took a similar tact where we have all the data, just like the MLS in these sds. So we scraped and it took us six months to build this whole data set and platform out. So get all this information. We now have all the brands on the platform and similar tactic. We went to the brands that, hey, we have your brands on here. All this traffic is coming to look at it. They're wanting to buy it, but we're only sending the leads to people that have become verified so, you know, we have all these people looking at you.

[Justin Colby]

So you're verifying them, not the franchise.

[Alex Franzi]

We're. Yeah, we as the platform are verifying Dunkin Donuts, like make sure it's someone actually works at the company. They get on board, they sign a legal agreement with us to basically take ownership of that page. Just like you and I can claim our house on Zillow.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. Or are you verifying the potential franchisee?

[Alex Franzi]

Both. But to get all the brands verified on the platform, we propped it up on the, you know, went live with all those brands, all this traffic started coming in, looking at sites and then we go back to the brand, say, hey, we have all these people that have favorited your page, want to connect with you. Yeah, we want to pass them on, but we can't connect you with them until you've claimed and verified your profile. And so they then all started signing the agreements and wow, there's 4,000 of them. Yep.

[Justin Colby]

Like, is it 4,000 different franchises or are you just talking about locations?

[Alex Franzi]

Different brands. Wow. Yeah. So within those brands, some of them have thousands of locations, you know, Duncan, Taco Hill, et cetera. Then there's the newer brands that might just have five. And so again, I keep saying it and I don't, you know, mean to be cliche, but there really is something forever. If you want more mature, we've got. If you want emerging and you know, more entrepreneurial, we've got it. If you want 4 million dollar investment, we've got it. If you want 20k investment, we've got it.

[Justin Colby]

Wow.

[Alex Franzi]

Service versus retail versus 15 employees versus 2 employees. I mean, you can really filter on every bit of criteria you want.

[Justin Colby]

This is incredible. Franzi.com. who would have thought? I should not have found this episode. This is going to dry. I'm going to go into a wormhole because of you and call you all night, bro. What about this one? Should we do this one? Who should I be talking to? This is going to be great. Guys, this is Alex. I am Justin. This has been the entrepreneur DNA. Make sure you look up Franzi.com make sure you look up Alex. Is Alex Franzi or is Alex from Franzi? Alex from Franzi. All over all platforms this has been incredible, dude. This is a real estate play. It's an entrepreneur play. It's a young person, old person, a legacy play. I mean, this is. I'm genuinely excited about this because I just think this way, right? This is why people become entrepreneurs. Appreciate you being here.

[Alex Franzi]

Yeah, thanks for having me again, guys.

[Justin Colby]

I am Justin. This is Alex. This has been the entrepreneur DNA. If this was pretty cool, share it with two friends. See you on the next episode.