Barrio Burrito Bar vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s dominates on TAM—the dimension that pays the bills today. With 965 franchised locations against Barrio Burrito Bar’s 4, the sheer number of potential seats for your software is two orders of magnitude larger. Budgets are a wash (both brands sit in the $430K–$770K investment band with nearly identical fees), and terrain offers no edge (each runs an approved-supplier model). When you’re selling into franchises, unit count is the top-of-funnel multiplier that no other metric can offset. A current FDD filing reinforces that Papa Murphy’s is actively managed and still signing deals, so the installed base isn’t orphaned.

The tradeoff is timing: Barrio Burrito Bar’s 100% YoY unit growth signals a brand on the rise, while Papa Murphy’s is shrinking at –3.6%. But growth on a base of four units is a rounding error for a software vendor. Even if Barrio doubles again, you’re chasing single-digit deals for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Papa Murphy’s decline is slow and its 1,014 total units give you years of runway to penetrate existing operators, upsell modules, and expand wallet share before churn materially dents the TAM. In franchise software sales, you follow the installed base, not the growth rate.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s is the stronger opportunity right now because TAM trumps trajectory when the unit delta is 250x.