It was our idea to pose Sergio Orozco next to a Lego man on the trade mission to Latin America. At 25, Orozco, international manager for Signal 88 Security, was the youngest member of our band of merry franchisors, and thereby, willing to combine work with play. On trade missions, you have plenty of downtime while traveling from airport to airport to get to know the other participants, but not as well as when you give them the Franchise Times Personality Quiz. Here's how Orozco answered our probing questions:

Dan Chaon, CEO of Native Grill & Wings, put together an unusual group of private investors, including himself, to purchase the system and set it up for more rapid growth. He wouldn't disclose the amount of the capital infusion, but said Brad Williams, one of the largest Freddy's franchisees in the United States, who has a 60-store development deal with that brand, is the other lead investor. Real estate players make up the rest of the small group. Plus, three daughters of Native Grill founders Floyd, now deceased, and Judy Anderson retain a small “legacy” stake in the brand. The Anderson family took a road trip from Buffalo, New York, to Arizona in the ‘70s, and started Native New Yorker in 1978. The name was changed to Native Grill along the way.

An adventurous daughter ends up back home, learning her mother's house-building business in a trial by fire. The younger partner's wanderlust is still going strong, but the two have worked out a smart operating system.

At age 34, David Lopez has seen success and failure. Dental Fix RX is a prime example of the former; Froots not so much. He's developed strong points of view along the way. Read on for his particular flavor of Kool-Aid.

Anyone who's dropped a phone knows the pain of a shattered device, and uBreakiFix is gaining customers and franchisees in the aftermath. Can they convince enough people to repair rather than replace?

Well dressed and energetic, Denis Koci was in his element surrounded by a hungry gaggle of onlookers as he explained and demonstrated Burritobox, an automated burrito-doling machine he created that's based on the “replicator” food machines in Star Trek. Koci, a self-labeled futurist, is a massive fan of the spacey TV series.

Nicholas Yates is on a mission to put fresh, healthy snacks into vending machines instead of all that junk food. But a fast start in selling machines—5,500 to date—is colliding with the founders' past.

Mentorship comes in all shapes and phases—sometimes you're the mentor; sometimes you're the mentee. It all depends on where in the ride you're picked up.

Clear, regular communication is the key to success for any growing franchise. It has the power to make or break companies, and compared with legal fees, the cost of communication is downright tiny. So if communication with franchisees is that significant, why do many companies fall short?