We are a low-profile franchisor holding company that partners with or acquires the best franchisor brands in north America
We have closed over 25 partnerships in the last 24 months
Founders consistently choose charlie over private equity alternatives because we’re straightforward folks. We’ve tailored our approach to solve for your needs (simplicity, speed, certainty, cash) while preserving and growing your brand
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Selling your company can be tough. So we created charlie, permanent and friendly home for your brand. We are a low profile but industry leading franchisor holding company that partners with or acquires best-in-class franchisor brands across north America
We consider ourselves ‘handshake’ folks and focus on discretion, speed, and transparency in everything we do. Call us old fashioned, but it’s the way we do business.
Being kind, respectful, and
appreciative of differences
of opinion and background.
Providing value for all stakeholders, including potential sellers, employees, and customers.
Upholding the highest standards of integrity and transparency at all times.
Being responsive, reliable, and always treating our counterparty's information with the utmost confidentiality.
Being humble and working collaboratively with our partners.
We believe in win-win outcomes and reputation is everything. We know that partnering or selling your business outright can be stressful and exhausting. So we have designed our process to be quick and painless
“I was immediately impressed with the Charlie team. They were both personal and professional in their approach, which is different than what I have experienced. I always felt that our negotiations were transparent and fair.”
“For any seller considering engaging with Charlie; you are in good hands. Quick, easy and transparent. They don’t play any games and move quickly and honestly. I would gladly work with them again. Good guys.”
“I wasn’t actively looking to sell, but a referral brought Charlie to my attention; I’ve grown my business organically and it means something to me to keep it growing. They made it clear how serious they were about the business, employees and growth; that is what I cared about. A true class act.”
How do we generally partner? Well, we’re problem solvers and want to accommodate you
0% paid out in cash
100% ‘rolled’ ownership (paid out later at a higher expected valuation)
cash infusion for growth
60 - 90% paid out in cash
40 -10% ‘rolled’ ownership (paid out later at higher expected valuation)
partial cash out
100% paid out in cash
we can buy your franchisor in less than 60 days
we have a 30-minute introductorycall to learn your amazing story, core values and see if we can help
we sign a mutual NDA so that the details of your business are legally protected
we provide a basic list of information wewould need (franchisor financials, unit financials, your desired role goingforward etc.) and you send over what you can, when you can
based on the information, we will provide you a simple term sheet with a valuation of your business. If you agree with it and want to move forward, then we would both sign a Letter of Intent or LOI. The LOI is a nonbinding document that formalizes our agreement and gets both sides aligned on the smaller points before diligence
we begin and complete due diligence over the next 30 - 90 days, depending on the complexity of your franchisor
we sign the purchase agreement, wire you the funds, and enjoy a celebratory drink or coffee!
Unfortunately, we don’t have a super satisfying answer here. There are many factors that determine a franchisor’s value so it’s difficult to provide exact guidance. These factors include size, age, growth,profitability, unit economics, and more. However, we pledge to provide quick valuation feedback on any potential partnership if you choose to engage with us. Further, we pledge to be more-than-fair in everything we do.
Our operations team is led by industry veterans and our business development team is led by world-class M&A professionals. Whether it is operations or finance or something else, we like to think that we share the same old-fashioned values, long-term views, and love for great people and a great service!
We can be flexible in how we structure our partnership. We structure some deals as all-cash payouts. We structure other deals with an ‘equity roll’ component (i.e. you will keep minority ownership) or with an earn-out or seller-note component (i.e. you are partially paid cash upfront and then receive the remainder of proceeds over time). Further, we typically keep the current operating team in place with a more-than-fair industry compensation package. People are the heart and soul of Charlieand we make sure our team members know that!
Absolutely! In fact, we love to work with franchisor owners that want to stay on-board post transaction (and keep getting paid!). Of course, if you want to cash out and enjoy the margaritas, we can accommodate that as well!
Yes, non-competes and non-solicits are commonplace in any M&A transaction. As with everything we do, we try to work with the seller and be highly reasonable in our approach to these documents. If this is a sticking point for you, just let us know.
We try to keep the information requests to a minimum until we get to an agreement on valuation and key terms. Once we are aligned, we launch a quick due diligence process to validate numbers. We pride ourselves on being quick and easy to work with. If we enter a preliminary agreement with you it means we trust you as a partner. And when that is the case, we don’t sweat the small stuff!
We keep the process very transparent to avoid any fees at the first step. However, once we send over an offer, we recommend you seek legal advice to validate that we have provided you with a strong proposal.
Our team is led by reformed large cap private equity investors, but don’t hold it against us! We created Charlie to create a true long-term home for your brand