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🧠 Episode Description 

Frozen yogurt was written off as a dead category.

Neil Hershman didn’t buy that.

After leaving finance, Neil became a franchisee of 16 Handles, fixed broken operations at the store level, doubled profits, and eventually acquired the entire brand. Today, 16 Handles has ~40 locations open, dozens more in development, and multiple million-dollar frozen yogurt stores - while competitors stagnate.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why frozen yogurt was never actually dead
  
  


• The unit economics behind 20%+ margins
  
  


• How Neil turned underperforming corporate stores into cash-flowing assets
  
  


• Why owning stores as a franchisor keeps incentives aligned
  
  


• How COVID created the best real-estate opportunities of his career
  
  


• And what most franchise brands get wrong about growth, PE, and operators
  
  

This is a masterclass in operator-led brand revival, smart franchising, and building community-driven businesses that actually work.

🔑 Key Topics / Bullets (Platform-Friendly)

• From finance job → franchisee → franchisor
  
  


• Turning legacy brands into growth machines
  
  


• Frozen yogurt unit economics (rent, labor, margins)
  
  


• Why self-serve = automation before AI
  
  


• Urban vs suburban store performance
  
  


• Scaling without private equity
  
  


• Million-dollar dessert stores
  
  


• Buying brands when founders are “checked out”
  
  

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit empirespod.substack.com