Making Smart Bets: Emerging Brands Offer Multi-Unit Franchisees Opportunities and Risks

The next great franchise opportunity may be hiding among hundreds of young brands and so may the next expensive mistake.

From 2017–19, before the pandemic, the franchise industry averaged about 352 new emerging brands each year; from 2021–23, the average was about 412 new brands, a roughly 17% increase, according to FRANdata figures. There has been a leveling off with 393 new brands debuting in 2024, and FRANdata estimated there were 360 new brands in 2025.

“Offering a blend of established success and scalability, the franchise model is drawing growing interest from nonfranchised brands seeking to expand their operations and market presence,” FRANdata COO Paul Wilbur wrote in Franchise Update magazine.

The growth gives experienced multi-unit operators opportunities to get in early. Emerging brands can offer larger territories, better sites, closer relationships with leadership, and the chance to help shape a system as it develops.

They also come with less operating history, fewer units to validate, and systems that may still be evolving.

For experienced operators, sorting opportunity from expensive mistake means knowing what to look for. The four franchisees interviewed for this story approach emerging brands differently, but their decisions turn on many of the same fundamentals: unit economics, leadership, scalability, geography, differentiation, and fit.

They aren’t looking for certainty.

They’re looking for enough evidence to make a smart bet.

Requirements

Cori Cammarano knows what she wants from a franchise.

The multi-unit franchisee already operates 14 The Joint Chiropractic locations across Illinois, Oklahoma, and Florida. When she and her husband began looking to diversify their portfolio, they spent about a year searching for another concept. Cammarano went to franchise fairs. She studied brands and eliminated plenty of them.

“We wanted something that we knew we could have multi-units relatively quickly. That was important to our vision,” she says.

Eventually, their search turned toward the pet industry. Cammarano saw lasting demand there, but she had another requirement that would eliminate more contenders: Whatever they chose had to be affordable enough to work across different markets.

Cammarano lives in Aurora, Illinois, next door to affluent Naperville, where a premium concept may find plenty of customers. But operating in other parts of the country has taught her not to mistake the economics of a prosperous Chicago suburb for the economics of the U.S.

“Oklahoma wants nice stuff, but they want nice, affordable stuff,” she says. “Affordability is the name of the game right now.”

Sparkle caught her attention because its routine dog-grooming model reminded her of something she already understood at The Joint. It’s a membership-driven, recurring service that’s relatively affordable and not dependent on selling merchandise. She specifically rejected pet concepts with significant retail components because she didn’t want to compete with Amazon and Walmart.

Still, checking all those boxes didn’t eliminate the risk. Sparkle had just one corporate location when Cammarano became involved. Franchise veterans behind the young brand gave her confidence.

“They had a plan, and they had franchising understanding,” she says. “It wasn’t pie in the sky, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to franchise this.’”

Getting involved early gave Cammarano room to stake out territory and help shape the system as it grows.

“You’re going to get the pick of the litter,” she says. “You’re going to get the best sites. You’re going to get the best regional developer areas. You can forge your own path.”

The opportunity to influence the young system also matters. Cammarano says Sparkle’s leadership has been willing to listen to its early franchisees as the brand develops.

“I love that they listen,” she says. “That’s another reason why I like being in on the ground floor.”

Cammarano is now building her first Sparkle location in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and holds regional development rights across Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Western Missouri.

That gives her plenty of territory to test the premise that drove her search. The markets may be different, but Cammarano believes the concept has the right fundamentals to work in all of them.

“You need to make your concept so that it will work in all 50 states,” she says.

Cammarano wasn’t looking for a franchise she could learn to love. She wanted one that fit the investment thesis she already had: scalable, affordable, backed by experienced leadership, and capable of growing far beyond a handful of affluent markets. Sparkle survived the cuts, making Cammarano more willing to take a risk.

“It’s exciting, and it’s scary,” she says, “but that’s part of being alive to me.”

A Savvy Runway

Anirban Maiti isn’t ready to leave the corporate world. He works in a leadership role for an engineering company while building a franchise portfolio on the side.

Maiti began with Great Clips, an established brand that gave him a place to learn the mechanics of franchise ownership. He started from the ground up, finding a site, overseeing construction, hiring and training employees, and building a management team.

But Maiti wasn’t simply looking for another source of income. He wanted to build something that could eventually outlast his corporate career and become a business his children could inherit.

“I wanted to build something generational,” he says.

Great Clips presented a problem. Maiti had entered a mature franchise system in a market where longtime operators already owned substantial portfolios. Some had been in the system for 20 or 30 years, leaving a newer franchisee limited room to grow.

“I cannot compete against them,” he says.

But by then, Maiti no longer needed to. Nearly three years of operating an established franchise had given him confidence in his ability to handle the business side. What he needed was room to grow.

That search led Maiti toward younger brands, including Savvy Sliders. Because the brand was not yet established in Pittsburgh, Maiti saw an opportunity to become a major operator in the market as the brand grew.

“Since they are a newer brand, even though they’re rising, they were willing to give me the whole market without a lot of financial commitment as long as I work with them to grow and build the market and the brand in Pittsburgh or the greater Pittsburgh area,” he says.

That was the appeal. “I have the runway that I need to be able to expand my wings,” he says.

Today, Maiti operates one Great Clips location and two Deka Lash studios. He is also working to bring Savvy Sliders to the Pittsburgh market with plans to develop at least three to five locations. The first has not yet opened as Maiti searches for suitable real estate, including second-generation restaurant space that he can repurpose.

That experience changed Maiti’s tolerance for risk. When he first entered franchising, he had ruled out emerging brands because he didn’t yet trust his ability to operate a business. Now, he can evaluate a younger concept differently. He needed a product he believed in and a leadership team he could work alongside.

Maiti found both with Savvy Sliders. He first encountered the brand at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, where he tried the food and met the founder’s son. Later, Savvy invited Maiti and his family to visit its headquarters and tour its locations.

“It didn’t feel like a franchisee-franchisor type of a relationship,” he says.

Maiti communicates with Savvy’s real estate and operations teams through a group text, an experience he compares to working in a startup.

“Being able to shape the direction we are going together is a very humbling experience,” he says. “It feels more personal.”

Investing in an emerging brand offers that runway he was looking for and provides the opportunity to build generational wealth. “Hopefully, my kids are motivated, see this as an exciting thing to be part of, and someday join me,” he says. “That is the long-term goal.”

Perspectives

Kayla Edidin has seen emerging brands from both sides. Before becoming COO and 60% majority owner of Red Door Brands, Edidin joined Mike’s Red Tacos when the emerging concept had just two locations open. Eight months later, the company had sold 200 franchise locations.

Now, Edidin helps oversee a multi-brand portfolio that includes three Arby’s, two Little Caesars, and five McAlister’s Deli restaurants. She and Red Door Brands President and CEO Argus Wiley are also applying lessons learned from years of working in franchise systems to develop concepts of their own. Red Door is preparing to launch Firenze, a fast-casual pasta concept, and Sammie’s, a steamed-sandwich concept inspired by a Knoxville, Tennessee, tradition. The first Firenze was nearing completion when Edidin spoke with Multi-Unit Franchisee.

“We know what makes systems and brands work,” she says. “We know where they struggle.”

That experience is shaping how she approaches Red Door Brands’ emerging concepts. Rather than rushing Firenze into franchising, the company plans to open several locations and establish the restaurant’s unit economics first. Only then will the company begin putting together an FDD and offering franchises.

“We really need it to be open. It’s helpful to have some financials in your FDD,” Edidin says. “We need to be able to have accurate and complete information before we can start to put that together.”

That same discipline applies when Edidin and team evaluate an emerging brand as a potential franchisee. Experience may make the company comfortable with younger concepts, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for proof.

When Red Door Brands considers adding a new brand, Edidin says the team looks closely at the concept itself and whether the economics work at the individual-unit level. The brand also must complement the company’s existing portfolio rather than simply adding more of what it already owns.

“We’re looking to differentiate,” Edidin says. “We don’t want to be only value brands. We don’t want to only be fast-food brands. We want to have a nice blend between all of that because those businesses ebb and flow.”

That was part of what initially attracted the company to Main Squeeze Juice Co. The emerging health-focused juice concept offered something different from the company’s existing restaurant portfolio. At the time of the interview, Red Door Brands was in the process of selling its six Main Squeeze Juice Co. locations in Houston, Texas.

“Geographically, it didn’t fit into our current program,” she says.

For operators who find the right fit, Edidin says the opportunity to influence brand decisions is an advantage to joining an emerging brand. With fewer franchisees in the system and a business model still evolving, experienced operators can have a greater role in shaping what the franchise becomes.

Edidin experienced that firsthand at Mike’s Red Tacos, where franchisees and leadership regularly discussed what was working and where the brand should go.

“It was a little bit more of a dialogue rather than a one-way communication,” she says. “And I think that’s the fun of emerging brands.”

Risk Meets Rigor

Kal Gullapalli, CEO of Built Different Brands, likes risk. He just wants to manage it.

Over the past three to four years, Florida-based Gullapalli has added emerging brands to a franchise portfolio that includes Dave’s Hot Chicken, Marco’s Pizza, PopUp Bagels, Restore Hyper Wellness, Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa, Vio Med Spa, and Sandbox VR. Emerging concepts bring more uncertainty, but they can also offer more available territory and the potential for greater returns.

Gullapalli spent much of his franchise career acquiring existing businesses but says premier brands have become increasingly expensive. Paying a high multiple for an established operation can leave little room for an economic downturn or operational mistakes.

“Isn’t it better to maybe take a calculated risk or gamble on an emerging brand that has a very strong product or service and a strong management team?” he says. “That’s where I see that the risk-reward is better in emerging brands, especially when multiples are high.”

His latest bet is on Mike’s Red Tacos. Gullapalli recently signed a development agreement for Tampa, Orlando, and Florida’s east coast. The first location is expected to open in early 2027.

Gullapalli’s willingness to take risks doesn’t mean he takes many of them. He looks at a couple of opportunities each week but estimates that he passes on 98 to 99%.

The reasons vary. A brand may not fit his geography or may duplicate something already in his portfolio. Gullapalli is also wary of emerging concepts trying to enter a niche category already dominated by established competitors.

“If you’re like the fourth or fifth player in the same market and there’s already an incumbent or there’s already a number-one player,” he says, “what I don’t understand is why someone would jump into that fourth, fifth, and sixth player.”

A new concept needs to offer something substantially better than what is already available.

“If it’s not a lot better, I’m not sure why you’re even playing in that category,” Gullapalli says.

Getting past those initial hurdles begins a deeper examination. Gullapalli looks at the management team and what its executives have accomplished before. Without an established track record, he wants to see whether the CEO has the grit to build a successful system. He also listens closely for whether leadership is focused on franchisee profitability and unit economics rather than simply selling franchises.

Gullapalli won’t invest in a brand with no operating locations. Even when only a handful exist, his team studies their economics and tries to determine whether their performance can be replicated in the markets where he plans to operate. He also considers whether the concept has staying power and whether he has the right operating partner to lead it.

“A lot of times, the biggest sniff test that we look at is can we get our capital back in three years?” Gullapalli says. “If the answer is no, we don’t even take a call.”

Numbers can take Gullapalli only so far. Even after thorough examinations by people who know what they’re doing, an emerging brand remains a bet on what comes next.

“At some point, it does become gut feeling,” he says. “You look at all the data that you want, and that’s helpful to guide your gut.”

Key Takeaways

• Know what you want. Establish your investment criteria before evaluating brands.

• Accept the added risk. Emerging brands offer less history and fewer proven locations.

• Study unit economics. Make sure individual locations can generate sustainable returns.

• Evaluate the leadership. Experienced, franchise-savvy management can reduce uncertainty.

• Look for differentiation. A young concept needs a compelling reason to beat established competitors.

• Consider scalability. Determine whether the concept can work across multiple locations and different markets.

• Protect your geography. Available territory is valuable only if the concept fits the markets you can operate effectively.

• Value early influence. Early franchisees may gain greater access to leadership and a voice in shaping the system.

• Demand financial discipline. Set clear return expectations and be willing to walk away when the numbers don’t work.

• Leave room for judgment. Data and diligence can guide the decision, but eventually operators still must make the bet.