Cousins Subs Systems vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s is the stronger opportunity, and it’s not close. The dimension that wins here is TAM—total addressable market. With 965 franchised units against Cousins Subs’ 34, you’re looking at a 28x larger base of independently owned locations that need POS, scheduling, and marketing automation. Both brands are shrinking, but Papa Murphy’s contraction (-3.6%) is slower, meaning your installed-base churn risk is lower while you still have a massive greenfield for displacement. The tighter investment band ($450K–$693K) also signals more uniform unit economics, which makes your ROI pitch repeatable across a larger, more predictable prospect pool.

The meaningful tradeoff is budget depth versus volume. Cousins Subs’ nearly $1.16M high-end buildout and $865K AUV suggest individual franchisees have more capital to spend on premium software stacks and may be less price-sensitive. If you sell a high-ACV, deeply integrated platform, Cousins gives you a fatter per-seat opportunity. But that’s a boutique play on a 34-unit base that’s shrinking at 5.6% annually—you’d be fighting for wallet share in a contracting pond. Papa Murphy’s lower AUV and royalty rate imply thinner operator margins, so you’ll need a lean, value-driven package, but the sheer unit count and slower decline make it a volume game you can actually scale a sales motion against.

Timing and terrain reinforce the call. Both use an approved-supplier procurement model, so there’s no locked gate—you can sell direct to franchisees without corporate mandate. But Papa Murphy’s 1,014 total units give you a meaningful corporate-owned wedge (49 units) to pilot and reference-build before attacking the franchise base. Cousins’ 58 corporate units on a 92-unit system is proportionally interesting but numerically trivial. You go where the logos are.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s wins on TAM, sales motion repeatability, and slower base erosion, making it the superior software-sales target right now despite thinner per-unit budgets.