Toast POSToast, Inc.
MandatoryWe use the Toast POS, which each franchisee is required to use.
HQ-led decisions
Lost Dog Cafe
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing decisions at Lost Dog Cafe are centralized at the HQ level, with Director and President Pamela Ann McAlwee, Director and Vice-President Ross L Underwood, and Director of Operations Austin Garcia listed as key executives. The franchise mandates Toast POS by Toast, Inc. across its system. The addressable market is small, consisting of 5 total units (4 franchised, 1 company-owned), all concentrated in Virginia.
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.
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.
The franchisee/operator personally, or a small franchisor still owner-run. Wears every hat.
OwnerCEOPresidentPrincipal
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Live signals
Total units
5
4 franchised
Unit growth YoY
0%
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2024
Royalty
5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$25K
per unit
Investment range
$804K–$1.49M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
The vendor opportunity at Lost Dog Cafe
Lost Dog Cafe is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Virginia with a total of 5 units, comprising 4 franchised locations and 1 company-owned store. The system is entirely concentrated in Virginia, with all 4 mapped operators running single units. No multi-unit operators are present. The franchise charges a 5.0% royalty fee and offers an initial term of 10 years. Average unit volume (AUV) is not disclosed in the 2024 FDD, and year-over-year unit growth is not available. For a software vendor, the immediate addressable market is limited to these 5 existing locations, with no disclosed expansion trajectory.
Who controls software purchasing
The 2024 FDD lists three executives in Item 1: Pamela Ann McAlwee (Director and President), Ross L Underwood (Director and Vice-President), and Austin Garcia (Director of Operations). In a system of this size, these individuals likely form the entire technology decision-making unit. Vendors should expect direct involvement from the president and operations lead in any software evaluation. There is no separate IT or procurement executive named, and no parent company exerts influence—the brand appears independently owned.
Mandated and current tech stack
Lost Dog Cafe mandates Toast POS by Toast, Inc. across its system. This is the only technology system explicitly named in the FDD. No other point-of-sale, back-office, payroll, inventory, or online ordering platforms are disclosed as mandated or recommended. The absence of additional named vendors suggests the tech stack may be minimal or that other tools are left to franchisee discretion without franchisor-level mandates.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD provides no extract regarding procurement rules, designated suppliers, or approved vendor programs. This means the franchisor’s stance on how franchisees may purchase non-mandated technology is not publicly defined in the filing. Renewal terms under Item 17 allow a franchisee to renew for up to three additional consecutive 10-year terms, provided they meet financial, management, and training requirements, sign a new franchise agreement, refurbish the location, pay a renewal fee, and sign a release. These long cycles and the static unit count suggest that major software evaluation windows may be infrequent and tied to renewal events or HQ-driven initiatives.
How to read the Lost Dog Cafe FDD
The full 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. It contains the legal and operational disclosures required by state franchise regulators. Key sections for software vendors include Item 1 (executives), Item 11 (mandated technology and supplier obligations), Item 8 (procurement restrictions), and Item 17 (renewal and term conditions). Reviewing these sections will clarify the franchisor’s control points and any contractual hooks relevant to technology sales. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.
Questions vendors ask
Lost Dog Cafe, answered from the filing
The buying center includes Director and President Pamela Ann McAlwee, Director and Vice-President Ross L Underwood, and Director of Operations Austin Garcia. With only 5 units, these executives likely control all major vendor decisions directly.
The 2024 FDD mandates Toast POS by Toast, Inc. No other operational or back-office technology systems are disclosed as mandated or recommended in the filing.
There are 5 total units: 4 franchised and 1 company-owned. All mapped operators are single-unit operators, and all located units are in Virginia.
The procurement model is not disclosed in the most recent FDD. Item 8 contains no extract regarding designated or approved suppliers, leaving the purchasing process unclear for non-mandated technology.
Initial franchise terms are 10 years. Renewal is possible for up to three additional 10-year terms if conditions are met. With no recent unit growth disclosed, contract windows may align with these long renewal cycles.
The FDD was filed with state franchise regulators in 2024. You can review the full document in the embedded PDF viewer below for detailed legal and operational disclosures.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Lost Dog Cafe files a new annual FDD — usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
4 operators run 4 mapped locations — 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit4
Top states by locations
| VA | 4 |
|---|
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.