Why franchise businesses suck

How I got here…

21: Graduated Vanderbilt in 3 years Magna Cum Laude, and took a fancy consulting job.
23 yrs old: Left my fancy consulting job to start a business (a gym).
24 yrs old: Opened 5 gym locations.
26 yrs old: Closed down 6th gym. Lost everything.
26 yrs old: Got back to launching gyms (launched 33). Then, lost everything for a 2nd time.
26 yrs old: In desperation, started licensing model as a hail mary. It worked.
27 yrs old: "Gym Launch" does $3M profit the next 6 months. Then $17M profit next 12 months.
28 yrs old: Started Prestige Labs. $20M the first year.
29 yrs old: Launched ALAN, a software company for agencies to work leads for customers. Scaled to $1.7mmo within 6 months.
31 yrs old: Sold 75% of UseAlan to a strategic buyer in an all stock deal.
31 yrs old: Sold 66% of Gym Launch & Prestige Labs at $46.2M valuation in all-cash deal to American Pacific Group. (you can google it)
32 yrs old: Started making free content showing how we grow companies to make real business education accessible to everyone (and) to attract business owners to invest or scale their businesses.

Today: Our portfolio now does $200M/yr between 10 companies. The largest doing $100M/yr the smallest doing $5M per year. Our ownership varies between 20% and 100% ownership of the companies. Many of them we invested in early and helped grow (which is how we make our money - not youtube videos).

To all the gladiators in the arena, we’re all in the middle of writing our own stories. The worse the monsters, the more epic the story.

You either get an epic outcome or an epic story. Both mean you win.

Keep crushing. May your desires be greater than your obstacles.

Never quit,

Alex

*FULL DISCLOSURE*
I make content to make money - just - on a longer time horizon than most. I want to build trust with business owners so we can find the best ones and help them scale. And if they’re awesome, write them a check and go all the way as partners.

[skylivley]

Alex thank you for making these you help me get through another day.

[SigiCoria-cdvg]

I'd rather start my own franchise concept that's where the real $$$ is at

[ghoststorm]

Would it be better to be an independent owner of a gas station or should I contact Arco or Chevron to consider Franchise Opportunities and have my independent gas station turn into a BRANDED one!

[arielohayon_]

Alex can you make a video on what it truly means for a biz to be considered a failure? Isn’t it more-so in the mindset of the owner and what their goals are?

[SigiCoria-cdvg]

Portillos Average volume per unit is $7 million, cost to open one $350k to 700k

[kenaultman]

Lookin like the liver king of the franchise world.

[iairbor]

Is possible to make a recurring business from a course??

[GeorgeCastillo-zf]

How can I buy a franchise business like chipotle or something ??

[shayankerai]

We shut down our franchise, still paying debts on a million dollar loss.