Franchise Interviews

When Michael and Babz Barnett saw a tweet from ABC scouting contestants for new TV show, Shark Tank, six years ago, they had no idea what they’d be walking into. In fact, they saw the premier episode in their hotel room the night before their own taping. But despite the lack of familiarity with the sharks entrepreneurs have today, they presented their concept, Romp n’ Roll – a modernized kids gym perfecting the intersection of entertainment and education for kids ages 3 months to 5 years, and were offered a deal.

 Which they declined.

 With just a handful of open units in the U.S. at the time, the company switched gears and redirected its focus to China, spending the last five years growing its presence there to an astounding 85 locations. Now, they are once again returning their focus to the states and picking up where they left off on that stage six years ago building on its incredible success – System wide sales in 2015 surpassed $2M in the U.S. and reached $30M worldwide.

In part 2, we hear a clip from our Great Quotes in Franchising podcast.