HQ-led decisions

Elevation Burger

Quick service restaurant

Software purchasing decisions at Elevation Burger flow through the FAT Brands technology leadership, specifically Senior Vice President of Technology Brandon Drake. The most recent FDD mandates Social Media Management Software, while other operational systems remain open for vendor evaluation. With 32 franchised locations and an average unit volume of $1,083,585, the addressable market is compact but concentrated under a single parent entity's tech stack strategy.

Mandated & recommended tech

The systems vendors compete with

1 of these are mandated in the franchise agreement. Each is named in Item 11 of the filing — the incumbents a challenger must displace or integrate with.

Social Media Management Software
Mandatory
Marketing automationItem 11

Social Media Management Software listed as an advertising expenditure category

Who buys here

The buyer at this brand

The decision-maker a vendor sells to at this scale, and the gaps they’re paid to close — derived from the corpus by segment and unit count, not a guess.

Sales LeaderEmerging 20 99

The franchisor's owner/CEO decides; an ops or franchise-development lead may evaluate.

VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
  1. 41.9% of quick service brands mandate no POS system, leaving a massive blind spot in your target list.By instantly identifying the 452 brands with no POS mandate, you replace weeks of manual FDD research and focus your pipeline on high-fit displacement targets, cutting customer acquisition cost by over 60%.
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Live signals

Total units
32
32 franchised
Unit growth YoY
-8.571%
vs prior filing
AUV
$1.08M
Item 19, 2026
Royalty
6%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$50K
per unit
Investment range
$517K–$1.99M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing

The vendor opportunity at Elevation Burger

Elevation Burger operates 32 franchised locations, all under the FAT Brands umbrella. The system generated an average unit volume of $1,083,585 in the most recent reporting period. While unit count contracted by 8.57% year-over-year, the brand remains an active quick-service concept with a 6.0% royalty rate and a 15-year initial franchise term. For software vendors, the opportunity lies not in a sprawling footprint but in a centralized technology decision-making structure at FAT Brands headquarters. A single conversation with the right executive can unlock the entire system.

Who controls software purchasing

Technology purchasing authority sits with Brandon Drake, Senior Vice President of Technology at FAT Brands. The broader executive team includes CEO Andrew A. Wiederhorn, President Taylor Wiederhorn, COO Thayer Wiederhorn, and CFO Kenneth J. Kuick. Because Elevation Burger has no company-owned units and no multi-unit operators mapped in our corpus, the buying center is exclusively HQ-driven. Vendors should direct outreach to the technology leadership rather than pursuing a fragmented franchisee sales strategy. The absence of a large operator base means no single franchisee controls enough units to drive an independent tech adoption cycle.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2026 FDD mandates Social Media Management Software. No other technology systems—POS, online ordering, loyalty, inventory, or labor scheduling—appear as mandates in the disclosure. This narrow mandate leaves significant whitespace for vendors offering operational or back-of-house platforms. The lack of a named POS mandate is particularly notable in the quick-service segment, where many franchisors lock in a specific system. Vendors should treat the current stack as largely open, with the understanding that any HQ-level adoption would likely cascade to all 32 locations.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the FDD does not provide a procurement extract, meaning no designated supplier list is publicly disclosed. This typically signals an approved-supplier or open-market model, giving software vendors a direct path to pitch either HQ or individual franchisees. Renewal terms run 10 years, with conditions including good standing, a renewal fee equal to 40% of the then-current initial franchise fee, and a signed general release. The recent unit contraction suggests that renewal-driven technology refreshes will be infrequent in the near term. Vendors should focus on net-new HQ initiatives rather than waiting for contract expiration cycles.

How to read the Elevation Burger FDD

The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document is the authoritative source for technology mandates, procurement rules, and executive disclosures. Item 11 details the mandated Social Media Management Software requirement. Item 1 lists the full executive team, establishing the buying center. Item 17 outlines renewal conditions and term lengths that shape the technology refresh calendar. Review the embedded PDF below to extract additional vendor-relevant details. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.

Questions vendors ask

Elevation Burger, answered from the filing

Brandon Drake, Senior Vice President of Technology at FAT Brands, oversees technology decisions. The executive team also includes CEO Andrew Wiederhorn and CFO Kenneth Kuick, forming a centralized HQ buying center.
The 2026 FDD explicitly mandates Social Media Management Software. No specific POS, delivery, or back-of-house system mandates are disclosed, suggesting an open or approved-supplier model for core operational tech.
The system comprises 32 total units, all of which are franchised. No company-owned locations are disclosed. This represents a compact, single-brand footprint within the quick-service restaurant segment.
The FDD does not provide an Item 8 procurement extract. Without a designated supplier list, the model likely defaults to approved supplier or open-market purchasing, giving vendors a direct path to pitch franchisees or HQ.
Initial franchise terms run 15 years, with 10-year renewals. The system saw an -8.57% unit contraction recently, so renewal-triggered tech evaluations may be limited. Vendor conversations should target HQ-driven stack upgrades or new mandates.
The 2026 FDD was filed with state franchise regulators. You can review the full document using the embedded PDF viewer below to analyze Item 11 tech mandates, Item 8 procurement, and executive disclosures directly.
Source

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Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.