QuickBooksIntuit
point-of-sale system and computer system as follows: The system will include our currently required POS/CRM system, credit card processing system, and accounting platform, such as QuickBooks. These sy
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Steep Me
Retail foodSoftware purchasing at Steep Me flows through a lean, founder-led structure. The 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document names Jerry Hintz as the Agent for Service of Process, signaling a centralized decision-making hub at the North Dakota headquarters. With only 2 company-owned locations and no franchised units yet, the addressable market is small but concentrated — a single buyer controls the tech stack.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
2
0 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
6%
of gross sales
Ad fund
1%
national + local
Initial fee
$30K
per unit
Investment range
$238K–$412K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
2 years
from the filing
Item 19
No claims
from the filing
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
7%of gross sales (FY2025)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
Systems named in Item 11 of this filing. None is recorded as mandated here, which is not the same as the filing mandating nothing. Read Item 11 before treating the category as open.
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
29 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 5 explicit no's.
Accounting
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall use such customer data management, sales data management, administrative, bookkeeping, accounting, and inventory control procedures and systems as Steep Me may specify in the Manual or otherwise in writing.
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
You must give us independent access to the information that will be generated or stored in these systems.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall provide such periodic financial reports as Steep Me may require in the Manual or otherwise in writing, including: (i) a monthly profit and loss statement and balance sheet for the Business within 30 days after the end of each calendar month; (ii) an annual financial statement (including profit and…
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
Our affiliate, Capitol Tea Company, LLC, is currently a supplier of the tea products and inventory that you must purchase, and we reserve the right to be a supplier (or the sole supplier) of an additional good or service in the future.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
Steep Me may change any such requirement or change the status of any vendor.
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
0Item 8
Our revenue from all required 12 Steep Me FDD 2025 purchases and leases of products and services by franchisees in the prior fiscal year was $0.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesFranchise agreement
Steep Me may receive rebates, payments or other consideration from vendors in connection with purchases by franchisees.
Item 8 gives this proportion in one of two shapes: separate percentages for establishing the business and for operating it, or one figure covering "establishing and operating" together. Where they are separate, answer with the operating percentage; where the passage gives only the combined figure, answer with that. What percentage of the franchisee's purchases must come from designated or approved suppliers?
50Item 8
We estimate that the required purchases and leases of goods and services to operate your business are 50% to 80% of your total purchases and leases of goods and services to operate your business.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If you want to use a supplier that is not on our list of approved suppliers, you must request our approval in writing.
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
notify the telephone, internet, email, electronic network, directory, and listing entities of the termination or expiration of Franchisee’s right to use any numbers, addresses, domain names, locators, directories and listings associated with any of the Marks, and authorize their transfer to Steep Me or any new…
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must at all times comply with payment card industry data security standards (PCI-DSS).
Franchise management
Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall participate at its own expense in programs required from time to time by Steep Me for obtaining customer evaluations, reviewing Franchisee’s compliance with the System, and/or managing customer complaints, which may include (but are not limited to) a customer feedback system, customer survey…
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
Steep Me may enter the premises of the Business from time to time during normal business hours and conduct an inspection.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
Steep Me may supplement, revise, or modify the Manual, and Steep Me may change, add or delete System Standards at any time in its discretion.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
Your site is subject to our approval.
Marketing
Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall spend at least 3% of Gross Sales each month on marketing the Business.
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall sell or otherwise issue gift cards, certificates, or other pre-paid systems, and participate in any customer loyalty programs, membership/subscription programs, or customer incentive programs, designated by Steep Me, in the manner specified by Steep Me in the Manual or otherwise in writing.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesFranchise agreement
If a Market Cooperative for the geographic area encompassing the Location has been established at the time Franchisee commences operations hereunder, Franchisee shall immediately become a member of such Market Cooperative.
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
You must purchase required items from our affiliate and our approved vendors as prescribed.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
You must purchase required items from our affiliate and our approved vendors as prescribed.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall purchase or lease all equipment and enter into all business relationships necessary to accept payments as required by Steep Me.
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesItem 6
We currently require you to pay royalty fees and other amounts due to us by pre- authorized bank draft.
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesFranchise agreement
At its own expense, Franchisee shall sell or otherwise issue gift cards, certificates, or other pre-paid systems, and participate in any customer loyalty programs, membership/subscription programs, or customer incentive programs, designated by Steep Me, in the manner specified by Steep Me in the Manual or otherwise…
People
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall cause its personnel to comply with any dress attire, uniform, personal appearance and hygiene standards set forth in the Manual.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
You must purchase (or lease) the point-of-sale software and hardware, and related software and hardware, that we specify.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
You must give us independent access to the information that will be generated or stored in these systems.
Sales and CRM
Must the franchisee use a CRM system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
The system will include our currently required POS/CRM system, credit card processing system, and accounting platform, such as QuickBooks.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 11
Otherwise, we do not currently require additional training programs or refresher courses, but we have the right to do so.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesFranchise agreement
The Principal Executive shall use reasonable efforts to attend all in-person meetings and remote meetings (such as telephone conference calls) that Steep Me requires, including any national or regional brand conventions.
The filing answers no to 5 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?Item 8
- Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?Franchise agreement
- Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?Franchise agreement
- Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?Item 11
The vendor opportunity at Steep Me
Steep Me is a retail food concept headquartered in North Dakota with exactly 2 company-owned locations as of its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. The number of franchised units is not disclosed, and no year-over-year unit growth rate is reported. For a software vendor, the immediate addressable market is those 2 units — a single-owner, single-decision-maker environment where a successful pilot could lock in the entire system.
Average unit volume (AUV) is not disclosed in the FDD, so revenue-based sizing isn’t possible from public filings. The royalty rate sits at 6.0% on a 10-year initial term, with renewal options for up to two additional 5-year terms. That long initial commitment suggests stability, but the tiny unit count means any software sale here is a niche play, not a volume play.
Who controls software purchasing
The 2025 FDD lists one executive: Jerry Hintz, Agent for Service of Process. In a system this small, Hintz is almost certainly the sole decision-maker for all operational and financial software. There is no CIO, CTO, or procurement officer on file. Vendors should prepare to engage directly with the owner-operator level — there is no layered buying center to navigate.
No operator footprint is mapped in our corpus, meaning no multi-unit franchisees exist to create a secondary purchasing channel. Every software decision runs through the HQ in North Dakota.
Mandated and current tech stack
Steep Me’s 2025 FDD mandates exactly one technology system: QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. This is the financial backbone of the business. No POS system, inventory management platform, payroll provider, or CRM is named as mandated or recommended in the filing. That absence is itself a signal — the tech stack is either minimal or entirely ad hoc beyond accounting.
For vendors selling complementary or replacement financial tools, the QuickBooks mandate is a hard constraint. Any pitch must integrate with or displace Intuit’s ecosystem. For vendors selling operational software (POS, scheduling, loyalty, delivery), the field appears wide open — but you’ll need to prove value to a 2-unit operator who may not yet see the need.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the FDD — which typically discloses procurement restrictions, designated suppliers, and rebate structures — contains no extract in our data. That means Steep Me either does not impose procurement controls on franchisees or simply did not disclose them in the standard format. Without that signal, assume an open procurement model until proven otherwise.
Renewal conditions (Item 17) require franchisees to sign the then-current form of franchise agreement, comply with all obligations, renovate to current standards, and execute a general release. The renewal term is 5 years. For a software vendor, those renovation requirements could trigger technology upgrades — a natural insertion point for new tools. However, with no franchised units currently operating, renewal-driven sales cycles are theoretical for now.
How to read the Steep Me FDD
The full 2025 Steep Me Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. It is the primary source for every fact on this page. Use it to verify the QuickBooks mandate, the 6.0% royalty, the 10-year term, and the single executive contact. For vendors building a ranked target list of franchise systems, Steep Me represents a micro-cap opportunity — small today, but with a centralized buyer and no entrenched enterprise tech stack to displace. Talk to FranCloud if you want to see how Steep Me compares to other retail food franchisors in your pipeline.
Questions vendors ask
Steep Me, answered from the filing
Jerry Hintz, listed as Agent for Service of Process in the 2025 FDD, is the primary contact for legal and operational matters. In a 2-unit system, he likely controls all vendor decisions directly.
The 2025 FDD mandates QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. No other operational or POS systems are disclosed as required or recommended.
Steep Me operates 2 company-owned units. The number of franchised locations is not disclosed in the 2025 FDD.
The 2025 FDD does not include an Item 8 procurement extract, so whether Steep Me uses designated suppliers, approved suppliers, or an open model is not publicly disclosed.
With a 10-year initial term and optional 5-year renewals, contract windows may align with renewal cycles. However, no recent unit growth or renewal activity is reported in the 2025 FDD.
The 2025 FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can view the embedded PDF viewer below for the full document.
Source
Read the filing itself
Every number on this page traces back to this document. Read it in full, page by page. Buy the original PDF to download, search, and annotate it.
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Steep Me files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
1 operators run 1 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit1
Top states by locations
| WI | 1 |
|---|
Related Retail food brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.