Building Community and Connection in Business with Carl Comeaux

Community driven franchise growth is not a brand value at Crust Pizza Co., it is the first operating decision, and Carl Comeaux traces it back to where the restaurants get built. Carl is CEO of Crust Pizza Co., which he has led from a single neighborhood pizza concept to 38 locations, deliberately sited in grocery anchored neighborhood centers rather than highway destinations. He joined hosts Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski for the show’s first episode of 2026.

In this episode we explore:

• Why site selection is a community decision before it is a real estate one

• The corporate island and the franchisee island, and how to bridge them

• What their own franchisee data revealed about achievers and empathy

• Bringing back a dine in experience most chains abandoned

• The number that explains why most franchise systems stall

• A purpose built in hospital hallways

When the brand went from a few stores to 38, the team asked why they were succeeding where they were. The answer kept returning to schools, churches, and local nonprofits. Community stopped being a nice value and became the growth strategy, on a simple premise: the more we give, the more we receive.

That premise only survives if the operator believes it, which is why Carl treats awarding a franchise as a culture decision first. Crust profiled its whole system to understand what separates top performers, and the finding is more useful than the usual advice. Most of their franchisees are achievers, task and number driven rather than naturally empathetic, and the good news is that achievers can learn empathy. Others arrive people first and have to build operational discipline. Neither profile is disqualifying. What matters is coachability, and a willingness to run the existing playbook rather than invent Crust 3.0, then spend the freed up time being what he calls the local mayor.

He is unusually blunt about the economics, and it is the most useful warning in the episode. Roughly 400 new franchise brands launch every year. It takes a year to sign franchisees and another to develop them, so two to three years before the model breaks even, and fewer than 2 percent of franchise systems ever reach 100 locations. His diagnosis is that most get the first ten wrong, never validate, and never recover.

The customer side is where the philosophy becomes visible. Carl grew up on Friday nights at a pizza chain with red cups and dim lighting, an experience that mostly disappeared into takeout. Crust rebuilt it deliberately: about half the business is dine in, kids get dough balls to play with, there is a mascot named Tavi after their tavern cut, a reading reward program, kids eat free on Tuesdays, and half off wine on Wednesdays so parents get a night off. None of it looks like much on a spreadsheet. All of it is why people pick Friday.

Key Takeaways

• (2:41) Community starts at the site. Crust deliberately picks grocery anchored neighborhood centers, and when they studied their own success it traced back to schools, churches, and nonprofits. “The more we give, the more we receive.”

• (6:50) Two islands: “you have your corporate island and then you have your franchisee island.” They bridge it with a weekly email and a quarterly Franchise Advisory Council, where each member is responsible for carrying the message to a specific group of franchisees.

• (8:26) The economics nobody explains: about 400 new franchise brands launch every year, and it takes two to three years to break even because you spend a year signing franchisees and another developing them before royalties arrive.

• (10:22) The consequence: “less than 2% of franchises ever get to 100 locations.” Carl’s read is that most get their first ten wrong, cannot validate to the next ten, and never rebound.

• (11:40) What their franchisee profiling found: most top performers are achievers who are not naturally empathetic, and the useful part is that “they can learn empathy.” Coachability matters more than the starting profile.

• (15:25) Designing the memory: dough balls for kids, a mascot named Tavi after their tavern cut pizza, a reading reward program, kids eat free Tuesdays, half off wine Wednesdays. About half the business is dine in, by choice.

• (22:44) Pressure as a test: COVID flipped them from roughly 60 percent dine in to 40, and revenue held. “Anytime there’s a problem or there’s a pressure, there’s an opportunity to get closer.”

• (26:18) The bigger why: his wife and one of his twin sons both faced cancer the same year, and three years of hospital hallways reshaped the goal. Crust raised over 100,000 dollars for St. Jude in their first year with them, and Carl intends to direct at least half his future wealth to that work.

FAQ

What does community driven franchise growth actually mean?
At Crust Pizza Co. it means the community decision comes first and everything else follows it: neighborhood sites in grocery anchored centers, franchisees selected for whether they want to be the local mayor, and programs designed around schools, churches, and nonprofits.

How long does a franchise take to break even?
Two to three years, according to Carl Comeaux, because roughly a year goes into signing franchisees and another into developing them before royalties start. He warns that brands franchising to get rich quickly have misread the model.

What percentage of franchises reach 100 locations?
Fewer than 2 percent. Carl Comeaux attributes it to the first ten franchisees: choose the wrong operators, and there is no validation for the next ten, and the system never recovers enough to scale.

Should franchisors hire achievers or empathetic operators?
Crust Pizza Co.’s own profiling suggests the question is wrong. Most top performers are achievers who can learn empathy, and naturally empathetic operators can build operational discipline. Coachability is the actual predictor.

Community is a site selection decision, a hiring decision, and a Tuesday night decision long before it is a marketing line. Hear the full conversation with Carl Comeaux, watch it on the video page, hear Kelly Roddy of WOWorks on leading restaurant brands, and find more on the Bliss Businesses series.