BURROS & FRIES vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s is the clear choice, and it comes down to TAM. With 1,014 total units—965 of them franchised—we’re looking at a real addressable market that can fill a pipeline. BURROS & FRIES has 8 units, 4 franchised. Even if we closed every single location, the deal size wouldn’t move the needle. A 100x difference in franchised units isn’t a close call; it’s the difference between a viable sales territory and a rounding error. For a vendor selling POS, marketing automation, and back-office tools, unit count is the foundation of recurring revenue, and Papa Murphy’s delivers a base large enough to matter.

The timing dimension actually reinforces Papa Murphy’s, despite the negative unit growth. A current FDD (2026) means the brand is actively selling franchises and has a compliance obligation to update its disclosure—so there’s a live pipeline of new owners who need software from day one. BURROS & FRIES is dormant, with a 2022 FDD; that signals the franchisor isn’t actively recruiting or may be out of compliance, which kills any predictable flow of new prospects. The 100% YoY growth looks attractive on paper, but it’s a statistical artifact of a tiny base—going from 4 to 8 units—and without an active franchise development program, that growth isn’t repeatable or scalable for our sales effort.

Budget and terrain don’t flip the decision. Both use an approved-supplier model, so we’d face similar procurement friction. But Papa Murphy’s higher investment range ($450K–$693K) and larger system imply franchisees with more working capital and a franchisor that likely invests in technology infrastructure—making multi-unit deals or a preferred-vendor relationship realistic. The tradeoff is growth rate versus installed base, and in B2B software sales, installed base wins every time. A declining 1,000-unit chain still has hundreds of owners who need to replace outdated systems or adopt new tools; a dormant 8-unit concept is a one-off at best.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s is the stronger software-sales opportunity right now because its 965 franchised units create a real TAM and its current FDD signals ongoing franchisee onboarding, while BURROS & FRIES’s 100% growth is a meaningless percentage on a base too small to sustain a pipeline.