<\/p>\nLast year, the company did just over $1 billion in revenue, and Browning predicts it will reach that milestone again in 2026. In 2025, Unleashed Brands opened 133 new franchise locations, with more than 200 franchises in development.<\/p>\n
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.\u00a0<\/p>\nMichael Browning Jr. Credit: Unleashed Brands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUrban Air:\u00a0from first park to franchise<\/h2>\n How long did it take Urban Air to become a franchise?<\/strong>How did you make the first Urban Air location work despite the risk of failure?<\/strong>When we started, we were only the sixth trampoline park in the country and didn\u2019t really know what we were doing. We ran the business on one mantra: Keep guests safe, keep them happy and make money \u2014 in that order. Every decision went through that filter. My family and I worked every position \u2014 register, attraction monitor, janitor, party host \u2014 until we knew how to do each job with excellence. Then we trained and coached our staff to deliver an exceptional guest experience.<\/p>\n
Learning about franchising<\/h2>\n When did you realize your first Urban Air location could be a franchise, not just a single business?<\/strong>The Founder<\/em> about McDonald\u2019s. I went and researched it, got mentors in franchising and decided I didn\u2019t want to look back in 15 to 20 years and regret not exploring it.\u00a0<\/p>\nDemand for the brand was strong, but I didn\u2019t want to open and operate every location outside Dallas\u2013Fort Worth myself. As I learned more, I realized franchising was an amazing model: people get a \u201cbusiness in a box\u201d they can own and operate locally. I now teach Introduction to Franchising at a local college because I wish I\u2019d understood it earlier. Too many people think entrepreneurship has to start from a blank sheet of paper; I believe franchising is one of the best models in America to stimulate entrepreneurship.<\/p>\nUrban Air Adventure Park. Credit: Unleashed Brands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nStarting Unleashed Brands<\/h2>\n What was happening in your life when you decided to start Unleashed Brands?<\/strong>Coming out of Covid, my wife and I were sitting on the couch, both Googling activities for our kids, and I remember thinking: This is really hard and fragmented.<\/em> Nobody had built a Marriott Bonvoy-like ecosystem for kids\u2019 enrichment. That\u2019s when it clicked: I was going to buy the world\u2019s best youth-focused brands families already trust, connect them on a shared services infrastructure \u2014 same point-of-sale system, same tech stack, shared marketing and media \u2014 and simplify the youth enrichment journey for parents. It grew out of frustration as a parent. That\u2019s how Unleashed was born.<\/p>\nMaking strategic acquisitions<\/h2>\n How did you launch Unleashed Brands \u2014 did it start with acquisitions?<\/strong>The Little Gym. Credit: Unleashed Brands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe second was Snapology, a STEM education company. My daughter had done a Snapology camp during Covid and loved it \u2014 she learned engineering concepts and built a motion-sensor alarm for her bedroom door without realizing she was coding. I reached out to founder Laura Coe, shared the thesis, and she wanted to be part of it. Those two acquisitions in 2021 really launched Unleashed Brands as a platform.<\/p>\n
How many brands does Unleashed Brands oversee now?<\/strong>Growth secrets<\/h2>\n What tactics have you used to grow? What are your secrets?\u00a0<\/strong>Instead of jumping straight into sophisticated digital campaigns, I leaned into that. I put signs over the men\u2019s urinals and on the backs of bathroom stall doors that said, \u201cWant to be your own boss? Own an Urban Air franchise.\u201d Everyone goes to the bathroom while they\u2019re there, and they\u2019re having a great experience in the park, so that message sticks. I\u2019d bet a large percentage of our first 50 franchisees came from people who sheepishly admitted they saw those signs. It inspired them to consider being their own boss and bringing something fun to their hometown.<\/p>\n
Advice for founders<\/h2>\n What hard, concrete advice do you have for founders?<\/strong>There\u2019s a misconception that being your own boss means working less. It\u2019s amazing, but it carries a different weight. You also have to find fun in the daily grind \u2014 joy in the work itself, not just in the big deal or big sale. People say if you love what you do, you\u2019ll never work a day in your life, but that doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t have problems. You need to love it so much that the problems never stop you, and you must be willing to work very hard.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways Michael Browning Jr. is the founder and CEO of Unleashed Brands, the $1 billion youth enrichment platform company that includes Urban Air, The Little Gym and Sylvan Learning. Unleashed Brands has more than 1,600 locations nationwide and serves more than 25 million people. In 2025, Unleashed Brands opened 133 new franchise locations with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-green-brands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Urban](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Urban-Air-Adventure-Park.jpg?w=1024\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/The-Little-Gym.jpg?w=1024\")