Bottom line
- Total investment $279K – $936K including a $30K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $2.0M/year.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 42/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 169 loans (below the industry average).
- Auditor disclosed a going-concern note — flagged doubt about the franchisor's ability to continue operations. Verify against the latest FDD.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Gold Dust Pizza unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
36%
In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Gold Dust Pizza units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.7%
7.51× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$2.0M
on $10.0M purchase
Total debt
$8.0M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Gold Dust Pizza franchisees operate quick-service or full-service pizza restaurants, managing daily food preparation, customer service, staffing, and inventory. They handle marketing, local promotions, and day-to-day P&L responsibility within a protected territory while adhering to franchisor brand standards and recipes.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 14 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Gold Dust Pizza is a micro-franchise with insufficient operating history, opaque profitability metrics, and unclear unit economics that warrant caution despite protected territory and no litigation.
Score breakdown · what drove the 42 / 100 rating
- 01MINOROnly 5 units in system with unknown growth trajectory — insufficient scale and data to assess viability
- 02MEDNet Income not disclosed in FDD — unable to validate $2M+ average revenue translates to acceptable profitability
- 03MINORWide investment range ($279K–$935K) suggests inconsistent unit economics or unclear cost structure
- 04MINORExtremely small franchisee base limits meaningful performance validation and peer support network
- 05MED5% royalty on undisclosed net income creates uncertainty about true cost burden to franchisees
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
14 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Gold Dust Pizza · FDD (2025) PDF