Every single franchise concept that operates today started as an emerging brand. Industry folks talk about emerging brands all of the time. Various private equity firms, lenders, attorneys and other consultants want to invest and work with start-up concepts because, once they are with them on the ground floor, they’ll reap the rewards as the brand grows. And, here at Franchise Times, we cover them within these pages each month. Many are fresh and interesting, and who doesn’t want to read about them?

Take Pvolve, “an omni-channel fitness brand focused on functional movement,” writes FT Reporter Megan Glenn in this month’s issue. Founder Rachel Katzman, who has scoliosis, created a new workout that “wouldn’t cause her pain.”

It was launched in 2017, and Katzman convinced entertainment executive Julie Cartwright to join as president. Cartwright is working to bring Pvolve to a wider market, she told Megan, which is always hard for a start-up brand. Lucky for her, TV celebrity and movie star Jennifer Aniston has signed on as a partner to help promote the workout to her massive fan base.

Then there’s Derrick Hayes, who talked with Franchise Times Senior Writer Joe Halpern about his new concept, Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks. Once a high-school dropout suffering from bouts of depression and tangles with the law, he soon promised his grandfather he would change.

He did, and entrepreneurship helped. Hayes caught the bug and launched in 2014 a water ice concept out of a 700-square-foot Shell Station in Atlanta, switching over to cheesesteaks years later. One of his big breakthroughs came when he catered for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, and later was invited to open a food stand at their stadium. He has three kiosks open there today.

With four corporate locations and a food truck, too, Hayes is “ready to spread the love of cheesesteaks now,” and Big Dave’s franchise locations will open in 2024.

It seems many emerging brands must have that breakthrough moment that grabs attention, just so they can harness the extra steam to grow. And, they’re often competing against brands with more might.

Look at The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual burger chain and a concept that still holds that small brand moniker. It was founded in 1969 in California and later bought by brothers Brent and Bruce Reichard. Fast forward to 2020 and the company had grown to 260 locations when mega-franchisor Yum Brands purchased it. Now that’s firepower.

Yum, which includes Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC under its franchise umbrella, certainly has the wherewithal to help The Habit super charge its growth. But, not so fast, CEO Shannon Hennessy told FT Editor in Chief Laura Michaels.

“There was, I honestly think, a little bit of fear associated with having been bought by Yum,” she said of the employees, who were a little worried they were now working for a large corporation.

She has to maintain the culture, and the product quality customers expect, while leveraging Yum’s real estate, supply chain, technology and marketing power to keep growth moving forward. The expectation is to grow to 2,000 locations nationwide.

These smaller brands remind me of a conversation I had recently with a franchise sector investment banker about up-and-coming franchise concepts. “These emerging and mid-cycle brands are being owned and operated by smart and ambitious operators who know their markets and their people,” he told me. The operators are in the units and often “can run circles around” larger brands.

“There is awesome young talent operating franchises right under our nose,” he told me. Franchisors everywhere, take heed.