We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aren Johnstone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aren below.
Aren, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was jumping into entrepreneurship during my senior year of high school. My mentor—who’s now one of my closest friends—introduced me to the opportunity. A business associate of his was selling a small e-commerce figure skating store and needed to offload it fast to move on to his next venture. Less than 24 hours after hearing about it, I was sitting in a Starbucks meeting the owner. Less than 30 days later, we’d closed the deal in March of my senior year of highschool. At the time, I was already committed to Denver University’s business school and decided to take a gap year to pursue entrepreneurship. I took out a loan, owner-financed the inventory, and just like that, I was running a small business while balancing soccer playoffs, IB exams, finals, and everything else that comes with being 18.
It was nerve-wracking—probably the most stressful and isolating period of my life. There were days I was stepping out of class to take customer service calls about delayed orders, answering sales emails, or figuring out shipping logistics. Teachers didn’t always understand, and my friends definitely didn’t. I have always been very fornuate to have incredibly supportive parents, and my mentor gave me the confidence to trust myself.
It was a rough first year, but I learned a tremendous amount. All my friends went off to college, and I stayed home trying to figure out how to run a business. I had to learn everything—accounting, marketing, shipping, customer service—all on the fly. A moment that sticks out: I had to write my first check to a vendor and realized I didn’t even know how to write a check. I drove to my mom’s house to ask her for help.
Looking back, that decision set the course for my life. I never ended up going to college. Three businesses later, I’m running a company with nearly $6 million in annual revenue, 30 employees, and a spot on the Inc. 5000 list three years in a row including acheiving #49 in 2022. The lessons from that first business still stick with me: there’s no substitute for hard work, there’s always more to learn, and great customer service can solve a lot of problems. Taking that leap was terrifying, but it taught me a tremendous amount, and I am very appreciative for the path my life has taken.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Aren, and I’m the CEO and one of the owners at Franchise Ramp, an end-to-end performance marketing and creative agency serving the franchise space. We work with over 20 internationally known franchise brands and more than 900 franchise locations. Our services focus on media buying—running Facebook/Instagram, Google, and TikTok ads to generate customers and revenue for franchisees and franchisors. We also provide performance creative services, including UGC-style content development through our Franchise Performance Creative™ product.
My journey started back in high school, when I took the leap to buy a small e-commerce figure skating store during my senior year of high school. That experience set me on an entrepreneurial path. I later partnered with an early Facebook ad agency and spent years running high-budget e-commerce campaigns. Through that work, I met my current business partners, both franchisees themselves, and fell in love with their vision of helping franchisees achieve their entrepreneurial dreams with a performance marketing company. In 2018, I partnered at Franchise Ramp, and we’ve grown rapidly ever since.
Franchise marketing often lags behind other industries such as ecommerce, but we bridge that gap. Franchises face unique challenges: multiple systems, delayed tracking, and fragmented execution across locations. We bring cutting-edge performance marketing to the table, offering solutions that work in this complex space. What sets us apart is our deep understanding of the franchisor-franchisee dynamic—my partners have owned over 60 locations across five brands—and our proactive approach to ad management. Every account is touched weekly, and our investment in proprietary technology ensures seamless reporting and efficient ad management.
Three things I’m most proud of include navigating the challenges of COVID-19 with clients all in the brick and mortar space without letting any employees go, growing from zero to over 900 locations in six years, and earning a spot on the Inc. 5000 list three years in a row, including #49 in 2022.
At FranchiseRamp, our mission is simple: to help franchisees achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. Everything we do—whether it’s building innovative AI-driven tools or delivering unmatched customer support—is rooted in that purpose. When you work with us, you can expect honesty, hard work, and a true partnership.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of new clients for us has been word of mouth and direct client referrals. We’ve actually built our entire business on it—up until now, we’ve never had a sales team. Every client has come through inbound leads, either from franchisees or franchisors, and I believe that’s a direct result of how well we take care of our customers.
The lesson we’ve learned is that there’s really no substitute for having a disproportionately better product or service. If your product is mediocre or commoditized, you’re forced to compete heavily on sales and marketing. But if you deliver exceptional results, provide outstanding service, and build a strong reputation, the sales tend to follow naturally. That’s been our experience, and it’s something we’re really proud of.
Looking ahead to 2025, we’re adding a sales team for the first time. We see this as a way to accelerate our growth—not because we need to push harder to sell, but because we’ve built such a strong foundation. It’s an exciting next step for us, and we’re confident it will amplify what we’ve already accomplished.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
The most critical moment in our company’s history—like for many businesses—was during the onset of COVID-19. I’ll never forget it. My business partner and I were at a conference in Park City, Utah, when the NBA announced it was canceling its season. That was the moment we knew things were about to get serious.
At the time, we had just experienced massive growth. In 2019, we went from working with about 30 locations to 350 by early 2020—a 10x increase in less than eight months. But overnight, as everything began shutting down, our business was hit hard. A day after getting home, we’d dropped from 350 locations to 150. Sixty percent of our recurring revenue was gone, just like that. And it stayed that way for months.
We had just hired a number of new employees, so the pressure was immense. But we made the decision early on that we would do everything in our power to keep our core team together. While we paused hiring, we managed to get through the pandemic without letting anyone go. It wasn’t easy. Every single one of our clients at the time were gyms or boutique fitness franchisees—businesses that couldn’t stay open.
We pivoted fast. We shifted the marketing focus for all of our clients to at-home workouts, helping them adapt to the new reality. It was a stressful and challenging time, but it taught us a lot about resilience, adaptability, and the importance of prioritizing our team and clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://franchiseramp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franchiseramp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FranchiseRamp/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aren-johnstone/
