From Wall Street to 100+ Franchises - Kal Gullapalli

Interested in buying a franchise? https://www.frandawgs.com/buy-a-franchise

 

For multi-unit franchisees looking to sell their locations: https://www.fdcapitalgroup.com/ 

Kal walked away from a Wall Street career to chase his dream of entrepreneurship — and went 5-for-5 picking winning brands. From butcher shops and pizzerias to Orangetheory, European Wax Center, Marco’s Pizza, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Popup Bagels, he’s scaled to over 100 locations with a private-equity style approach. We dig into how he evaluates franchise opportunities, why diversification matters, how he handles scale and capital raises, and what it really takes to build brands that print cash.

If you want to learn how the best operators think about brand selection, growth, and exits — this is the playbook.

Follow Kal: 

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kal-gullapalli-91a7525/ 

MPZ Holdings: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mpzholdings/posts/?feedView=all 

Timestamps (YouTube/Spotify Chapters):

 0:00 – From Wall Street to entrepreneurship

 3:00 – Buying butcher shops & early lessons

 7:30 – The bet on Orangetheory

 13:00 – Scaling European Wax Center to 50+ locations

 19:00 – Surviving COVID & raising capital

 24:00 – Why Marco’s Pizza became the anchor brand

 31:00 – Entering Dave’s Hot Chicken at the perfect time

 38:00 – Site selection, unit economics & the secret to growth

 44:00 – The rise of Popup Bagels and reinventing a category

 50:00 – Diversification vs. going deep in one brand

 52:00 – Kal’s daily routine & what’s next