Five Star Painting

The vendor opportunity at Five Star Painting

Five Star Painting presents a concentrated addressable market of 245 franchised units for software vendors targeting the home services sector. The system is fully franchised, with no company-owned locations disclosed in the 2026 FDD. This structure means every unit is a potential seat for your platform, but adoption flows through a centralized headquarters in Texas. The operator base is predominantly single-unit owners: 164 operators run a single location, while only 12 operators control between two and nine units. No operators exceed nine units. This fragmentation means the franchisor’s technology mandates carry significant weight, as individual franchisees lack the scale to drive independent purchasing decisions.

Geographic concentration offers an efficient path to density. Texas leads with 26 mapped operators, followed by Florida with 20. New Jersey, Washington, and Colorado round out the top five states. For vendors whose go-to-market strategy relies on regional penetration, these five states account for a substantial portion of the system. The royalty rate is 6.0% of gross revenue, a figure that informs the unit-level economics your software must support.

Who controls software purchasing

The buying center at Five Star Painting is identifiable from the 2026 FDD. President David Sutter and Vice President of Operations Dayna Roberts are the named executives most relevant to a software sales process. Michael Anthony Davis serves as Chief Executive Officer, with Malia Gelfo as SVP, Corporate Controller, and Heather Shipley as VP of Finance. For operational and field-facing tools, Roberts is the likely operational champion. For financial platforms or anything touching accounting and royalties, Shipley and Gelfo are the gatekeepers. The absence of a named CIO or CTO in the filing suggests technology decisions are made within the operations and finance leadership team, not a dedicated IT function.

Because the system is 100% franchised with mandated technology, the franchisor holds the power to specify, approve, or block software used by franchisees. A vendor’s path to adoption runs through this HQ group. Multi-unit operators, while few in number, may have some influence, but the mandate structure indicates top-down control.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2026 FDD lists a set of mandated systems that define the operational backbone of Five Star Painting. FranConnect, provided by FranConnect, serves as the franchise management platform. QuickBooks Online by Intuit Inc. is the mandated accounting system. ProTradeNet is mandated for procurement functions. A system listed as “CORE” is also mandated, though the vendor behind it is not specified in the extract. For talent acquisition, Paradox ATS is named, though it is not explicitly marked as mandated in the same way as the other systems.

This stack creates specific opportunities. Any vendor selling against QuickBooks Online must address Intuit’s entrenched position and likely integration with FranConnect. The presence of FranConnect as the mandated franchise management system means any operational tool—scheduling, CRM, estimating—must either integrate with FranConnect or displace it. ProTradeNet’s role in procurement signals a managed supplier network, which may limit franchisees’ ability to independently adopt procurement or materials-ordering software.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

The available FDD extract does not include Item 8 procurement restrictions or Item 17 renewal and termination signals. This means the specific rules governing franchisee purchasing—whether they must buy from designated suppliers, may buy from approved suppliers, or have open discretion—are not disclosed here. Similarly, the initial franchise term length and renewal conditions are not provided in the extract. Without this data, vendors cannot model contract renewal windows or anticipate when franchisees might be free to switch systems. The 2026 filing date suggests the document is current, but the gaps mean a full review of the complete FDD is necessary to build a precise timing model.

How to read the Five Star Painting FDD

The FDD is the foundational document for understanding the legal and operational constraints on franchisees. For software vendors, Items 8, 11, and 17 are the most actionable. Item 11, partially reflected here, lists the mandated technology investments. Item 8 governs purchasing restrictions. Item 17 covers renewal, termination, and transfer—the events that create switching moments. The full Five Star Painting FDD, filed with state franchise regulators in 2026, is embedded below for your own analysis. Use it to verify the mandates, identify any additional approved vendors, and map the contractual triggers that open a sales window. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.