Two hours before
you see a single brand
Before you see a single franchise brand, I want to understand you: your career, your goals, what you actually want from the next chapter.
Most consultants skip this part. That's why people end up in the wrong franchise.
Most candidates go from intro call to a clear decision in 6–10 weeks. The pace is always yours.
250+
Franchise concepts in our inventory
3–4
Brands presented per candidate, maximum
~30%
Of candidates end up buying a franchise. That is okay.
Before We Talk
What you actually need to get started.
Liquid capital of $100K or more
At $75K you have options. At $100K or more, the options meaningfully expand. We will talk through what makes sense for your situation.
A willingness to explore
You do not need to know anything about franchising. Most candidates do not. Just be open and honest about what you are looking for.
A couple of hours for a real conversation
The discovery call is not a 20-minute pitch. Budget two hours and show up ready to talk openly.
A sense of what you do not want
You do not need to know what you want to own. Knowing what you do not want shapes the search just as much.
Your partner doesn't need to be on the first call
But if we start to get somewhere, I encourage you to bring them in. This is a household decision and I treat it that way.
Thirty minutes to see if this makes sense.
When I was on the franchisor side, I watched people get matched to brands that had nothing to do with their strengths, their lifestyle, or what they actually wanted to build. The match was fast. The regret was slow.
The first thing we do is a short call, usually 20 to 30 minutes. No pitch, no intake form. I want to understand where you are in the process and whether it makes sense to go deeper. If it does, we schedule the two-hour discovery.
I guide the conversation with a structured set of topics, but the goal is simple: I want to understand your strengths well enough to match them to a business model, not just a brand name.
By the end of that call, I usually have a clear picture. You will too.
A clear picture of where you are and whether it makes sense to go deeper.
Your unemotional baseline, in writing.
After every discovery call, I write what I call a model. It is roughly four paragraphs that reflect back what I heard: the role you want to play in a business, the financial profile that makes sense, the lifestyle you are protecting, and the things that would make the wrong franchise feel obvious in hindsight.
I send it to you and ask you to tell me if I got it right. More often than not, I do. If something is off, we adjust.
The reason this matters: franchise development teams are excellent salespeople. They can get you excited about something that does not fit. The model gives us both an unemotional reference point to come back to throughout the process.
A written profile covering your capital range, working style, lifestyle requirements, and what would make the wrong franchise obvious from the start.
Three or four brands. Never more.
I work with roughly 250 franchise concepts across dozens of industries. Before I present anything, I have already reviewed the financial disclosures, checked territory availability in your area, and screened how units are performing across the system.
What I will not bring you is a brand that does not report its financials, a brand where locations are closing faster than they are opening, or a brand that has no available territory near you.
What I look for are brands established enough to have real systems and real support, but that still have open territory with room to grow. Think proven infrastructure, strong franchisee satisfaction data, and financials you can actually read in the FDD. Not household names. Their best territories are long gone. The sweet spot is one level below that.
I bring you three or four. Not twenty. Too many and you start making decisions based on marketing instead of fit.
A shortlist of 3 to 4 brands built around your profile. Each one pre-screened on financials, territory availability, and how the system is performing.
Talking to real owners, without the franchisor in the room.
After your first couple of conversations with each brand, they will invite you to a group call with existing owners. The franchisor is not on that call. Nobody is watching what gets said.
This is where you ask the questions that actually matter. What does a bad week look like? What does the support actually do? What do you wish you had known before you signed? Where does the brand fall short?
These conversations are, in my opinion, the most valuable part of the entire process. You are not hearing from the marketing team. You are hearing from people who are doing the thing, in real markets, with their own money on the line.
Direct conversations with owners who have no reason to sell you anything. You ask what a bad week looks like, where the brand falls short, and what they wish they had known before they signed.
You are always in control.
I use an analogy I made up on a call once and have never stopped using: I am the chauffeur. You own the car. You tell me where you want to go, and I drive and navigate and point out things worth noticing. But if you want to turn left, or slow down, or stop entirely, you tell me and we do that.
At every step of this process, you are the one making decisions. My job is to make sure those decisions are informed ones.
If franchising is not the right move, I will tell you that. About thirty percent of the candidates I talk with end up buying a franchise. I am not trying to move that number. I have the financial freedom to do this because I want to, not because I need a referral fee. A fit that is wrong for you is wrong for both of us.
If it is the right move, you will feel it. The decision, when it comes, should feel more like excitement than fear.
A yes or no backed by complete data, a clear picture of the franchise agreement's terms, and a franchise attorney recommendation for independent legal review.
Want to go deeper before the call? Browse franchise resources →
“The worst outcome is making a $300,000 decision on incomplete information.”
The Waypoint philosophy
Ready to Start
The first conversation costs you nothing
No pitch. No obligation. Just a real conversation about whether this path makes sense for you.