#StartupsEverywhere: Alex Smereczniak, Co-Founder, Franzy
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
The future of franchising
After a career in the startup ecosystem, Alex Smereczniak knew he wanted to help others along their journey to entrepreneurship. Using his experience franchising his laundry business as an example, Alex co-founded Franzy, a research and matching tool assisting individuals in opening franchises. We had the opportunity to chat with him about his product, the franchise industry, and more.
Tell us about your background. What led you to Franzy?
I started my entrepreneurial journey while at Wake Forest University. I started a laundry pickup and delivery business my freshman year, ran it all through college, and sold it the year after I graduated. I learned more from that hands-on experience than I ever did in a Wake Forest classroom, mainly because solving real-time problems with limited resources is not something you can teach.
After working at Ernst & Young for a quick stint, I pivoted and opened 2ULaundry in early 2016. When we first started, the business operated similarly to Uber, we partnered with independent contractors. We ran into quality issues on the laundry side, which led us to partner with Electrolux to build physical laundromats in underserved communities. Each location cost over a million dollars to build. We needed a way to scale without raising hundreds of millions and spending twenty years doing it. Our solution was to franchise the brick-and-mortar laundromats and layer our pickup and delivery model on top. We launched LaundroLab in 2021 and sold 116 locations in just 14 months.
I realized I wasn't the right person to take the company from 30 to 300 locations and transitioned into a board seat. With my newfound free time, I got the opportunity to chase another idea I’d had and Franzy was born to help people pursue franchise opportunities. I think entrepreneurship is an amazing catalyst for societal impact, job creation, and more. There are a lot of people who want to pursue that path but don’t know where to start. I love the idea of franchising because it’s a stepping stone, a de-risked way to get into business ownership.
What services are you providing at Franzy?
Franzy is essentially Zillow for franchises, where individuals are matched with potential franchises. The goal is to assist individuals who want to be entrepreneurs but don’t know where to start. We help pair individuals with the best-fit franchise based on financial readiness, operational experience, risk tolerance, goals, and interests.
At Franzy, we also assist the franchisors, so they have more cash to reinvest in their business, leading to higher success for the individual franchisees taking big bets on themselves. With our tool, their chance of success increases by making a positive, self-fulfilling cycle.
Can you expand on how your AI works, and what role it plays in simplifying the franchising process?
At first glance, all corporate types might look the same—late 30s to 40s, ready to leave their job and replace their income. But one might be passionate about hiking and the outdoors, while another dreams of owning a restaurant. They both work at Bank of America and have the same cash to invest, but they’re very different people. Our AI helps make that distinction by asking the right questions. The model is trained to respond to the individual, learning from their likes and dislikes and adjusting based on how they interact with different brands.
The goal of our AI is to ensure individuals are matched with the right fit—brands, lenders, and commercial real estate agents—as efficiently and accurately as possible. To accomplish this, users could take a variety of paths. They could get one-on-one coaching and have a conversation. Others want to use our data and do their research using the AI tool to help refine their options from 3000 to five.
We also have a lending tool on our platform that informs individuals if they are pre-qualified so they can know what they can afford earlier on in the process and refine their search. We’ve collaborated with several Small Business Administration lenders to identify the questions they consistently ask and establish reasonable qualification ranges based on a person’s personal information.
How are you using government data to help match customers with the right franchise?
We have data from over 3000 brands through franchise disclosure documents (FDDs) that are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. An FDD is a 200-page, legally onerous document with all the important information on franchising—bankruptcy, brand litigation, investment cost, average revenue, and more.
An average person is not reading every page of the FDD. So we’ve pulled all the data from as many FDDs as we could find into our platform. Then potential franchisees give us first-party data about themselves as they answer questions. We are then able to use these two data sets to find the perfect matches for our users.
Are there any local, state, or federal startup issues you think should receive more attention from policymakers?
Franzy is aimed at helping people become entrepreneurs, while also championing the franchisors. When I was a franchisor of a laundromat concept I worked with business brokers, and found they take a 60 percent fee. The fee is meant for the brand to reinvest in their franchisee's training, sales, and marketing. However, if 60 percent is gone right at the beginning, a lot of good brands struggle for a while because they don’t have the capital to support the franchisees.
I think franchising has gotten a bad reputation because there are some snake oil salesmen taking advantage of people, and it can sometimes feel like the Wild West. Franzy is our attempt at a solution to the chaos, but it would be helpful to have disclosure and licensing standards to make the franchising process more accessible. Having that standard would champion the American dream by ensuring more safety in entrepreneurship.
What are your goals for Franzy moving forward?
We’re helping create the next million entrepreneurs by being the platform that gives people the confidence, funding, and fit to pursue business ownership. We aim to guide users through the franchising decision process and ensure it’s the right fit for them.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
