He Watched His Stanford Friends Become Dotcom Millionaires — Then Bought 8 Applebee’s and Became a Billionaire

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In 1994, Greg Flynn’s Stanford classmates were chasing dotcom riches. He chose Applebee’s. Now he’s reportedly worth more than $1 billion.

The franchisee was profiled in The Economist, which called him likely the first person in franchising history to reach billionaire status. After graduating from Stanford Business School, Flynn passed on the obvious tech path and bought eight Applebee’s restaurants in Washington state. He now runs more than 3,000 franchise outlets across seven brands in three countries through the Flynn Restaurant Group. In February, the International Franchise Association inducted him into its Hall of Fame — an honor previously reserved for franchisors like Ray Kroc of McDonald’s and Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC.

Flynn’s path is part of a bigger story. There are roughly 850,000 franchise establishments in the U.S., generating about 3% of GDP and employing 9 million people. McDonald’s alone has plausibly created more millionaires than any company in history. And with AI threatening white-collar work, young people are taking renewed interest in in-person businesses that can’t be automated. “There’s really not a franchise that you can run without people,” IFA chief Matt Haller told The Economist.