Holy Cow vs Papa Murphy's

Holy Cow is the stronger software-sales opportunity right now, and the reason is timing. A 100% unit growth rate in a young, 24-unit system signals a brand in aggressive expansion mode. That’s the moment when operators are actively building their tech stacks—choosing POS, scheduling, and back-office tools for the first time or ripping out whatever duct-tape solution got them through the first location. The investment range is low enough ($96K–$313K) that franchisees aren’t capital-starved, but not so low that they’ll default to consumer-grade workarounds. You’re selling into a greenfield where every new unit is a fresh deal, and the corporate team is likely still shaping preferred-vendor lists, which means less entrenched competition and faster sales cycles.

Papa Murphy’s wins on sheer TAM—1,119 franchised units and a $680K AUV means a massive installed base with real software budgets. But that’s a trap. Negative unit growth and an overdue FDD filing scream stagnation and potential system turmoil. Selling into a shrinking, mature network means you’re fighting rip-and-replace battles against embedded incumbents, with franchisees who are more worried about foot traffic than upgrading their scheduling tool. The budget is there, but the urgency isn’t, and the terrain is mined with churn risk. You’ll burn cycles defending your deal against a status quo that’s “good enough” for operators just trying to hold on.

The tradeoff is growth velocity versus installed base. Holy Cow gives you a small but expanding beachhead with high deal velocity and low competitive friction. Papa Murphy’s dangles a big number that will chew up your pipeline with long sales cycles and higher churn. For a vendor prioritizing net-new logo acquisition and predictable ramp, the brand that’s doubling in size is the one that doubles your revenue.

Verdict: Holy Cow’s expansion trajectory makes it the higher-probability, faster-ramping target despite a smaller current footprint.