When the Franchise Help staff and Matt Wilson decided to assemble a list of the 10 most famous franchise founders of all time, it quickly became clear that achieving any kind of consensus about this ranking would be nearly impossible given all the great candidates from which to choose.
Fearing the debate would never end (and with our coffee running out), the staff finally settled on the following (admittedly unscientific) criteria: size and longevity of operation, visibility of brand, and — quite honestly — how compelling we found the founder’s success story.
To see the entire list online, including Gary Heavin of Curves (#9),click here.
Throughout the history of franchising, there have been some amazing rags-to-riches stories, many of which have entered the realm of modern business lore. 