How do you turn a small franchise into a massive empire?In this episode, Dan Rowe chats with Neel Bhargava, co-founder of NB Group, who’s reshaping the world of franchise investment with his unique multi-unit, multi-brand approach. Neel’s journey took him from the world of consulting and private equity to becoming a powerhouse entrepreneur, scaling some of the most successful brands in the franchise space.In this episode of Smart Franchising Podcast, Neel reveals:-How he invested in Crunch Fitness group that scaled from just 10 locations to over 65-The European Wax Center’s strategic growth and how it sparked huge expansion-Franchise investment: the pros and cons from a private equity perspective-Managing the complexities of team building, financial infrastructure, and making the right investmentsOn the Investment Strategy that Drove Exponential GrowthNeel: “You start with a platform business, and then you make add-on acquisitions to build it... Rolling up a couple of franchisees to get the volume and continue growth while managing the challenges of integrating various companies.”On Embracing the Franchising ChallengesNeel: “There are pros and cons to franchising... Some of the pros are less upfront thought and work required. There's a playbook that's been written for you... The negatives are, back to the playbook, the quality of that playbook varies and you don’t have control to really impact it.”On Leveraging Analytical Insight for SuccessNeel: “We aim to make at least three and a half times our money on every investment... Payback period on that new build CapEx is critical to determining how much we like a multi-unit concept.”