Bottom line
- Total investment $257K – $496K including a $50K franchise fee, 7.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $557K/year. Estimated payback in 5.6 years.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 65/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 4 loans (below the industry average).
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 Hydralive unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
31%
In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Hydralive units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$1.7M
on $8.4M purchase
Total debt
$6.7M
SBA $4.2M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Hydralive franchisees operate hydration beverage stations or bars, likely offering customized water, electrolyte, or functional drink products. Day-to-day operations typically include customer service, product preparation, inventory management, and point-of-sale transactions in a retail/kiosk environment.
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 · 9 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
Early-stage franchise system with franchisor going concern issues, minimal unit count, thin unit economics, and unvalidated financial claims creates elevated risk despite protected territory and no litigation.
Score breakdown · what drove the 65 / 100 rating
- 01MINOROnly 4 operating units with unknown growth trajectory suggests nascent/stagnant system with minimal proven scalability
- 02HIGHGoing Concern status (False) indicates financial distress at franchisor level, creating sustainability risk
- 03MINOR12% net margin (67,072 / 557,169) is thin; 7% royalty leaves only 5% cushion before overhead
- 04MINORNo Item 19 financial performance representations limits ability to validate if $557k average is typical or outlier
- 05MINORHigh initial investment ($257k-$496k) relative to net income creates 3.8-7.4 year payback scenario with execution risk
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
17 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Hydralive · FDD (2025) PDF