The vendor opportunity at CSG
CSG is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Massachusetts with a total footprint of just 4 units—2 franchised and 2 company-owned—according to the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. No year-over-year unit growth rate is disclosed, and no parent company is on file, indicating an independently owned micro-franchise. For software vendors, the addressable market is limited to the 2 franchised locations, as the 2 company-owned units are under direct HQ control. The royalty rate is 6.0% of gross sales, and the initial franchise term runs 10 years. Average unit volume is not reported in the FDD, so revenue-based sizing is unavailable.
Who controls software purchasing
All software purchasing decisions appear to be centralized at the franchisor level. The 2025 FDD lists Lisa Dowd as CEO and Lead Corporate Trainer, making her the most likely point of contact for technology vendors. The board of directors includes Geoffrey Howe, Ann Howe, Patricia Mischke, and Todd Fairchild. No multi-unit operators are mapped in our corpus, and the FDD does not identify any franchisee-level technology decision-makers. Vendors should expect a direct, relationship-driven sales process with this small leadership group rather than a decentralized, operator-led procurement cycle.
Mandated and current tech stack
The only technology explicitly mandated in the 2025 FDD is an Online Bookkeeping System. No specific vendor is named for this system, and no point-of-sale, inventory management, payroll, or other operational platforms are listed as required or recommended. This suggests the franchise may be in a very early stage of technology adoption or that the franchisor leaves most operational software choices to individual franchisees. Vendors offering accounting integrations, financial reporting, or bookkeeping automation may find a direct mandate to leverage, while those selling POS or broader operational suites will need to build a case from scratch.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD, which typically outlines procurement restrictions and designated suppliers, contains no extract in our data. This means the franchisor’s formal procurement model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not publicly disclosed. The renewal terms in Item 17, however, provide a potential window for software evaluation. Franchisees seeking a successor 10-year term must give at least 90 days’ notice, maintain or find acceptable premises, remodel to then-current standards regardless of cost, and sign the then-current Franchise Agreement, which may contain materially different terms. They must also achieve Gross Sales of at least 50% of the chain median over the prior 12 months and an average audit and mystery shopper score of at least 85% over the prior three years. These renovation and compliance triggers often prompt operational reviews where new technology can enter the conversation.
How to read the CSG FDD
The full 2025 CSG Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. Key sections for software vendors include Item 1 (identifying executives and the franchisor entity), Item 11 (the franchisor’s obligations, where the Online Bookkeeping System mandate appears), Item 8 (procurement restrictions, though not extracted here), and Item 17 (renewal conditions that may open technology evaluation periods). Because CSG is a micro-system with only 4 units, the FDD is likely concise, but every data point matters when assessing whether this account fits your ideal customer profile. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.