Jabal Coffee House vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s is the stronger opportunity right now, and it’s not close. The dimension that wins here is TAM—total addressable market. With 965 franchised units against Jabal’s zero, you have an actual, buyable base of independent operators who control their own tech stacks. Jabal is a single corporate-owned location with no franchisees, no growth, and a franchisor-controlled procurement model that locks down vendor choice. There’s no pipeline, no urgency, and no buyer with autonomy. Papa Murphy’s gives you a real installed base to sell into immediately, even with negative unit growth.

The meaningful tradeoff is terrain. Papa Murphy’s shrinking footprint (-3.6% YoY) means you’re selling into a consolidating base, not a growing one. But that’s a timing problem, not a dealbreaker—existing franchisees still need POS, scheduling, and marketing automation to run their stores, and churn creates displacement opportunities when competitors’ contracts lapse. Jabal’s flat growth looks cleaner on paper, but zero units times any growth rate is still zero. There’s no budget to capture and no buyer to sell to.

Budget and procurement model seal it. Papa Murphy’s approved-supplier setup means franchisees have purchasing power and vendor flexibility, while Jabal’s franchisor-controlled model means the single corporate entity dictates all software decisions—if they even entertain a switch. Papa Murphy’s franchisees are writing checks for tech today; Jabal’s one store isn’t.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s wins on TAM, budget access, and procurement openness—sell the installed base, not the growth chart.