Julie Krupa
Since 2023, Julie Krupa has helped breakfast concept Eggs Up Grill double its unit count and accelerate the company’s average unit opening timeline by about 60 days.
Eggs Up Grill promoted Krupa from director of development to vice president of real estate development in July. She said the role change expands her ability to grow the brand’s expansion efforts and advance “progress with purpose.”
“I’m excited where the brand can grow,” she said. “The brand itself is so scalable, and we can fit into so many markets.”
Krupa and her team are analyzing previous growth—in particular, what has and hasn’t worked—as the brand surpasses 100 units. Honing in on locations’ strengths and weaknesses has been imperative in refining the brand’s site selection and model designs.
Krupa credits her “lean and mean team” for minimizing impact and cost barriers for franchisees. These efforts follow the trajectory of her career, as she held notable leadership roles at Taco Bell and Torchy’s Tacos.
“With Taco Bell, I was lucky to be exposed to very experienced franchise partners and very green franchise partners. I think that’s helped me coming into the role at Eggs Up Grill because when I first came on, it was very heavy with new franchise partner growth. You had individuals that had never opened a restaurant before—many of them had never even opened a business,” she said. “Having had that experience of working with green franchisees helps me walk with them knowing they might need that extra help and assistance.”
While Eggs Up Grill has sped up growth, nearing its goal of opening 22 units this year, Krupa said positioning franchisees for success takes precedent over expansion.
The company implemented a project management software—the “eggcelerator”—to follow franchisees through a project’s life cycle. The software includes checks and task management during site selection, preconstruction, design and construction phases, as well as provides operations, finance, marketing and technology tasks.
“We tend to really look at every deal with them and are never going to put them in a position where it doesn’t make sense,” Krupa said. “Even though growth and expansion is top of mind for me in keeping that growth trajectory going, if it takes an extra 30 days or so to find a site for someone because we don’t want to put them in position of financial strain, I’ll do that. I have no problem saying no to something that I don’t think is a smart business decision on someone’s part.”