Mathews has been in franchising since 1985 after accepting his first position right out of college, recruiting franchisees for a 20-year old regional sandwich chain with just under 400 restaurants. That chain was Subway. While it had taken Subway 20 years to open 400 restaurants, they opened 3,000 restaurants over the next few years.

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Mathews had four key takeaways from his early experience with Subway, which FPG still incorporates in its business model today.

First, he learned how to use franchising to create tremendous brand acceleration and market dominance.

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