“We’re trying to build infrastructure that can support massive growth while also supporting our franchisees.”
— Judy Flynn
BACKGROUND:
• Flynn pulled from her life-long interests in nutrition, health and fitness to create protein shake concept Fresh Monkee in 2014.
• The brand has about 30 units in 10 states, with 50 expected for 2026.
What inspired the idea for Fresh Monkee?
I was adopted and grew up in Connecticut. It was a little rough growing up as it wasn’t a very diverse community, so I threw myself into sports. As a kid, I played every sport I could. As a teenager, I found endurance sports. In that, I found the need to learn about nutrition. I really loved health, fitness and nutrition, and I ended up training friends and family. I started college, dropped out because it wasn’t for me and became a financial adviser. I got married, had two kids, went through a divorce and ended up a single mom. I went into corporate finance during that time and was also a volunteer EMT and firefighter. In 2014, I saw a very small location in Wethersfield, Connecticut, a CrossFit supplement store that closed a while ago. I verbally agreed to take the space, having no idea what I was going to do. My son was an athlete, so we made protein shakes all the time. I thought if it was a CrossFit supplement store, old customers wandering in probably would be looking for something in the health and fitness space.
Protein shakes made sense to me since there was nothing that tasted great that didn’t use sweetened, sugary syrup. The smoothie industry is huge, but they never intended to be a meal replacement. You can add protein as an afterthought, but it doesn’t taste good. My idea was to make shakes high in protein and fiber with healthy carbohydrates and fats. You can modify it any way you want and leave two minutes after you order with a complete meal in a cup that tastes great. My thought was to offer these in a quick-serve space and educate people on the idea that this is a meal. I came up with the whole concept in a weekend and named it Fresh Monkee because I used to buy my kids stuffed monkeys.
How do you ensure the brand stands out?
We’re going to be 12 years old this June, so we were early. With GLP-1s and the wave of people trying to eat clean and get healthy, we’ve seen this massive demand for protein. We feel like we did this a while ago, and now people are waking up to it. People constantly ask, ‘How come you don’t do juices?’ It’s because those don’t create a meal to go. The only other thing we do onsite are protein balls called “monkee ballz.” We only make protein shakes and monkee ballz, so we can really focus on quality, speed and efficiency.
What’s been crucial to your expansion goals?
We brought on a chief marketing officer, Pablo [Vidal Areán]. He’s been incredible at elevating what we do. We’re rolling out our own app and have a swag and merchandise site that will be coming on board soon, so we’re trying to build infrastructure that can support massive growth while also supporting our franchisees. If you were an early franchisee, there wasn’t a ton to offer other than a cool, niche product that’s healthy. All of the infrastructure, we were lacking. Because of Pablo, we were able to step into a mature company with infrastructure and a process when it comes to marketing. That’s been the game changer for us. I’ve built this team with people who started as part-time baristas in college or high school, and they essentially now run the companies. Creating that team has absolutely taken this small business into a national brand. I’ll give them 90 percent, if not more, of the accolades. I’m the one willing to take the risk, take loans and create the company, but they really do most of it.