QuickBooks OnlineIntuit Inc.
MandatoryCRM and point of sale software, QuickBooks Online for accounting
HQ-led decisions
Special Strong
FitnessSoftware purchasing control at Special Strong sits with its small HQ team, led by CEO Daniel Stein and Director of Process Improvement Graham Baugh. The franchise mandates QuickBooks Online and the proprietary Strong Growth Platform across its 21-unit system. With an AUV of $155,760.14 and a concentrated operator base of 35 single-unit franchisees, the addressable market is compact but specific.
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
2 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.
Strong Growth Platform
Mandatoryyou are required to pay a separate monthly fee to our affiliate, Adaptive Fitness LLC, called the Strong Growth Platform Fee
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 franchisor's owner/CEO decides; an ops or franchise-development lead may evaluate.
VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
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Live signals
Total units
21
20 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
$156K
Item 19, 2026
Royalty
8%
of gross sales
Ad fund
2%
national + local
Initial fee
$47K
per unit
Investment range
$90K–$129K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
The vendor opportunity at Special Strong
Special Strong is a fitness franchise with a total of 21 units, 20 of which are franchised. The system is small and geographically concentrated, with 10 units in Texas, 6 in California, and 3 in Arizona. The remaining units are scattered across Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Average unit volume sits at $155,760.14, and the royalty rate is 8.0%. For a software vendor, the immediate addressable market is limited to these 21 locations, all operated by single-unit franchisees—there are zero multi-unit operators in the system. Growth year-over-year is not disclosed in the 2026 FDD.
Who controls software purchasing
Software purchasing authority is centralized at the franchisor level. The FDD lists Daniel Stein as Chief Executive Officer & Founder and Graham Baugh as Director of Process Improvement. Given the small size of the headquarters team, these individuals are the most likely decision-makers for any system-wide technology adoption. There is no CIO or CTO named in the filing. The operator base consists of 35 mapped single-unit franchisees, none of whom appear to have independent purchasing power for mandated systems. If you are selling software, your pitch must start at HQ.
Mandated and current tech stack
The 2026 FDD mandates two systems. QuickBooks Online by Intuit Inc. is required for financial management, and the Strong Growth Platform is mandated for operations. The Strong Growth Platform appears to be a proprietary system, and no third-party vendor is named for it. No other mandated technology—such as a POS, CRM, or scheduling tool—is disclosed in the filing. This creates a narrow but defined tech landscape: if your product complements or replaces QuickBooks Online or the Strong Growth Platform, you have a clear entry point. If it does not, you will need to build a case for adding a new mandated vendor to the stack.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
The FDD does not include an Item 8 extract, so the procurement model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not disclosed. Renewal terms are clearer. The initial franchise agreement runs for 10 years. To renew, a franchisee must notify the franchisor, not be in default, pay a $10,000 Successor Fee, meet then-current qualifications, sign the then-current franchise agreement, and execute a general release. The renewal term is 5 years. These cycles may create natural windows for technology evaluation, but no specific contract expiration dates are provided in the filing.
How to read the Special Strong FDD
The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document is the primary source for all data on this page. It was filed with state franchise regulators and is available in full below. Key items for software vendors include Item 1 (executives), Item 11 (mandated systems), and Item 17 (renewal conditions). Item 8, which would typically outline procurement restrictions, is absent from the available extract. Use the embedded viewer to search for specific terms and validate the facts before you build your pitch. For a ranked target list of franchise systems that match your software, talk to FranCloud.
Questions vendors ask
Special Strong, answered from the filing
CEO Daniel Stein and Director of Process Improvement Graham Baugh are the key executives listed in the FDD. Given the small HQ, purchasing decisions likely involve these roles directly.
The 2026 FDD mandates QuickBooks Online by Intuit Inc. for financials and the Strong Growth Platform for operations. No other mandated systems are disclosed.
There are 21 total units, 20 of which are franchised. The system is concentrated in TX (10), CA (6), and AZ (3), with no multi-unit operators.
The FDD does not include an Item 8 extract regarding designated or approved suppliers. The procurement model is not disclosed in the most recent filing.
Initial franchise terms are 10 years, with a 5-year renewal requiring a $10,000 successor fee. Contract windows may align with these cycles, but no specific timing is disclosed.
The 2026 FDD was filed with state franchise regulators. You can view the full document in the embedded PDF viewer below.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Special Strong files a new annual FDD — usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
35 operators run 35 mapped locations — 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit35
Top states by locations
| TX | 10 |
|---|---|
| CA | 6 |
| AZ | 3 |
| RI | 2 |
| PA | 2 |
Related Fitness brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.