Franchising, Fatherhood & Other Bad Decisions: February 2026

In short

The February edition has one argument: momentum beats motion. Rob Lancit says the question ‘how fast can we grow’ is the opening scene of most franchising horror stories, and that the better question is how well. Posts announcing 30 units awarded in a quarter do not say how many are open or profitable. When a brand grows too fast, he writes, things break in a set order: support, then culture, then economics. His test for a franchisor is whether the existing system would get stronger or wobble if development stopped signing deals tomorrow.

A mid-quarter check asks the same of the pipeline. How many candidates have validated, have real capital, and have a timeline other than someday? He says some franchisors avoid disqualifying anyone because they fear what an empty funnel says about the brand, and that screening for net worth while ignoring operator mentality is a mistake.

He reports on Let’s Grow, where the conversations that stayed with him were in the hallways and where he heard that the market is selective, not soft. On stage he spoke on strategies for secondary and tertiary markets with Seth Holan and Pete Baldine, in a session facilitated by Danielle Wright. His position is that those markets are not leftovers, and a big-city playbook cannot be copied into them. They need different conversion strategies, industry-adjacent thinking, local partnerships and non-traditional channels. He also mentions filming development videos with Carli Showmaker. The dad lesson applies to both halves of the title: more freedom has to be earned with more responsibility.

Summary by the editors of this site. The original is Rob’s own writing; read the edition at the source.