La Pino'z Pizza vs Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy’s is the stronger opportunity right now, and it’s not close. The dimension that dominates is TAM: 1,119 franchised units versus zero. La Pino'z has no operating locations to sell into, no franchisees writing checks, and an FDD marked DUE—meaning the offering isn’t even current. A 2025 fiscal year on paper means nothing when the unit count is zero. You can’t build pipeline against a ghost. Papa Murphy’s gives you a real, if shrinking, installed base of 1,127 locations doing ~$680K AUV, with a 5% royalty and 2% ad fund that signal franchisees have enough margin to absorb software spend.

The terrain tradeoff is real, and it’s the one dimension where La Pino'z looks interesting on a five-year view. Papa Murphy’s uses an approved-supplier procurement model, which means franchisees control more of their own vendor stack—that’s fertile ground for POS, scheduling, and marketing automation that plugs into fragmented operations. La Pino'z is franchisor-controlled procurement, which would normally be a hard gatekeeper problem, but if they ever actually launch units, a single-threaded sale to the franchisor could lock in the whole system. That’s a bet on a future that doesn’t exist yet. Right now, the only budget, the only decision-makers, and the only urgency sit inside Papa Murphy’s franchisee P&Ls, where -2.3% unit growth makes churn a risk but also makes efficiency tools an easier pitch.

Timing seals it. Papa Murphy’s FDD is overdue, which means a refresh is imminent and franchisees will be reviewing obligations—your window to insert software into that conversation is now. La Pino'z can’t even give you a valid FDD to qualify prospects against. You sell into what exists, not what might file.

Verdict: Papa Murphy’s is the only brand with live budget, live units, and a procurement model that lets you sell franchisee-direct today.