Applebee’s CEO on franchising as a fast track to founding

For many entrepreneurs, the dream is to build something entirely their own. Franchising offers a different path: owning and growing a business within an established system. A January 2026 study from the International Franchise Association reported that 64% of franchisees are first-time business owners, making franchising an entry point to entrepreneurship for many aspiring founders.

Few executives have spent more time thinking about that trade-off than John Peyton. Before becoming CEO of Dine Brands, the parent company of Applebee’s and IHOP, Peyton built his career as a brand leader across the hospitality industry, including at hotels, restaurants, and consumer-facing businesses. Since taking the helm in 2021, he’s led two of the country’s largest casual dining chains through post-Covid era challenges like cost inflation, the growth of takeout and delivery, and changes in consumer behavior. “What we know about younger guests is that they like to photograph their food,” Peyton told Founder Brew.

Peyton spoke with Founder Brew about why franchising can be a pathway to business ownership, the traits he sees in successful operators, and the leadership lesson he had to learn after becoming CEO: what got him the job wasn’t necessarily what the job required.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Many entrepreneurs dream of opening their own restaurant concept. Why should an ambitious restaurateur choose franchising instead?

There’s a big difference between opening an Applebee’s or opening John Peyton’s Bar & Grill. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re going to invest in opening a restaurant, when you invest in a national brand like Applebee’s, you’re getting a menu that’s been tried and tested for generations across the country, as well as the innovation that comes with it. You’re getting a national marketing and advertising platform; you’re getting our technology; you’re getting the restaurant design; you’re getting the brand standards, our social platforms, our training.

We also provide financial assistance and funding for first-time franchisees, for renovations, and things like that. There’s a lot of security that comes with being part of a franchise system.

What common traits show up among the most successful franchise operators?

No. 1 is they’re entrepreneurs. By definition, that means they’re risk-takers. They will roll the dice early on in their careers. They might extend themselves financially. They take chances, but they’re very competitive and they want to win.

At IHOP, our franchisee of the year a couple years ago is a gentleman in Queens who owns five restaurants, is an immigrant, and joined the brand as a dishwasher, and 30 years later, owns five restaurants. That’s an extraordinary, extraordinary story.

If someone had the capital to either launch their own restaurant concept or buy into a franchise like Applebee’s or IHOP, what questions should they ask themselves before deciding which path to take?

“Is your concept original enough, different enough, better enough, special enough that, as one restaurant on a block that no one’s ever heard of that it can break through?”

I would ask if they have a network of coaches and support to help them answer their toughest questions. Because when you join a franchise system, you not only get the support that we provide, but you instantly become part of a family of colleagues across the country who want to help…If the economy is tough and you have a tough year, an unexpected downturn in sales, do you have the financial resources to keep going?

Do you have the funds to invest in the technology needed today in order to talk to consumers versus a national brand like ours that can build out tech platforms that benefit everyone at a cost no individual franchisee could bear on their own?

What’s a consumer behavior shift that emerged during Covid that you thought was temporary, but turned out to be permanent?

Before Covid, both Applebee’s and IHOP’s off-premise business was about 6%–8% of sales. Now, five years post-Covid, it’s 22%–25% of sales…and it has held steady for five years.

We had to reinvent ourselves because these restaurants weren’t built with drive-throughs. They weren’t built with take-out counters…We had to think about packaging in a way we never had before.

Full-service restaurants, like ours and our competitors, became part of the delivery and takeout consideration set in a way that only quick-service restaurants were before. What really changed is we had to learn to meet our guests where they are—whether they want to dine in, or they want to have it delivered by a third party, or pick it up themselves.

What’s something you’ve had to unlearn about leadership since becoming CEO of a company at this scale?

I grew up as a brand leader and got promoted to CEO here based upon my success as a brand leader, but the job of CEO is not to write the Applebee’s marketing plan or the IHOP marketing plan. The job of CEO is not to necessarily be in the kitchen every day, commenting on the new food, which was my job as a brand leader. As a CEO, I had to learn about shareholders and telling the story to investors, and refinancing debt.

The hardest thing for me was the things that I did best got me the job, but the job did not require me to do the things I did best. It was learning to trust and support and coach those that are doing the brand roles that I used to do. It was learning that what got me the job is not what the job was, and to let others do that work, so I can do what the new work entails.