The vendor opportunity at Milkshake Factory
Milkshake Factory is a small but rapidly growing quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Michigan. According to its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, the system comprises 14 total units, with a heavy tilt toward corporate ownership: 10 locations are company-operated and only 4 are franchised. The brand reported a 40% year-over-year unit growth rate, signaling an aggressive expansion trajectory that will eventually require scalable technology infrastructure.
Average unit volume sits at $715,513, with a 6.0% royalty fee and a standard 10-year initial franchise term. For software vendors, the immediate total addressable market is just 14 locations. The real play here is landing a corporate-level deal now and growing with the chain as it adds franchised and company-owned units.
Who controls software purchasing
Purchasing authority is centralized at the corporate headquarters. The FDD’s Item 1 lists four executives who form the likely buying committee: Dana Edwards Manatos (Founder and CEO), Dan Reese (President), Shawn Smith (Vice President of Operations), and Micah Keith (Vice President of Marketing). In a chain of this size, the CEO and President typically hold final sign-off on any system that touches operations or finance, while the VP of Operations evaluates day-to-day utility and the VP of Marketing weighs in on customer-facing or loyalty platforms.
There are no multi-unit franchisee operators to influence purchasing. The single mapped franchisee operates one location in Wisconsin, meaning no franchisee advisory council or powerful multi-unit owner exists to drive technology decisions from the field.
Mandated and current tech stack
Milkshake Factory’s 2025 FDD does not mandate or recommend any specific technology systems. No point-of-sale vendor, online ordering platform, payroll provider, or inventory management tool is named in the document. This absence of mandated tech is typical for a chain of this size and maturity. It means the brand is either using a patchwork of legacy or off-the-shelf solutions across its 10 corporate stores, or it has not yet formalized a technology strategy in its franchise disclosure.
For a software vendor, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. The lack of an incumbent means no rip-and-replace barrier, but it also means you must build the business case from scratch. Focus on the 10 company-owned units as a proof-of-concept entry point; the 4 franchised locations will likely follow whatever HQ adopts.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
The FDD does not include an Item 8 procurement extract, so the formal purchasing model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or completely open—is not disclosed in the available data. In practice, chains of this size often operate on an open or informal approved-supplier basis until they reach a unit count that demands standardization.
Renewal conditions, detailed in Item 17, provide a potential trigger for technology conversations. Franchisees seeking a 10-year renewal must execute the then-current form of franchise agreement, complete refresher training, pay a $10,000 renewal fee, and—critically—complete any required renovation and modernization of the business. This modernization clause could encompass technology upgrades if the franchisor updates its system standards between now and a franchisee’s renewal window. Vendors should monitor when the first franchise agreements approach their 10-year mark.
How to read the Milkshake Factory FDD
The full 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document is available for review below. Key sections for software vendors include Item 11 (Franchisor’s Obligations) to confirm the absence or presence of mandated technology, Item 8 (Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services) to understand procurement rules, and Item 17 (Renewal, Termination, Transfer) to identify contract-cycle triggers. The executive team listed in Item 1 gives you the names you need for outreach. For a ranked target list of franchise brands matched to your software category, talk to FranCloud.