Sbarro vs La Pino'z Pizza

Sbarro is the only viable target right now, and the math isn’t close. The dimension that seals it is TAM: 237 franchised units versus zero. Zero means no pipeline, no reference accounts, no seat count to sell into—La Pino’z is a pre-revenue concept in this FDD, so any software “opportunity” is purely notional. Sbarro’s 7.7% unit growth sweetens that TAM with forward motion, giving you net-new locations to capture in-year without waiting for a brand to get off the ground.

The terrain also tilts decisively toward Sbarro. An approved-supplier procurement model means franchisees have some latitude to choose their own stack; that opens the door for a vendor to sell around the franchisor and create grassroots pull. La Pino’z, with franchisor-controlled procurement, would require clearing a single corporate gatekeeper—high deal risk with zero proof of concept. Sbarro’s current filing and 2026 FDD fiscal year signal active, compliant franchise sales, so decisions are being made now, not in some indefinite future.

The one tradeoff worth naming is deal size per location. La Pino’z investment ceiling stretches to $1.25M, well above Sbarro’s $981K cap, which often correlates with larger physical footprint and more complex ops—and therefore bigger potential software wallets. But that’s a pot of gold in an empty building. Without live units, payroll, or scheduling pain to solve, the higher theoretical ACV is just noise.

Verdict: Sbarro is the clear play—zero-unit brands don’t buy software.