DonutNV is NOT a Franchise Success Story… And May Never Be
DonutNV franchise founders Alex Gingold & Amanda Gingold are, I suspect, victims of bad advisors. The would-be mini-donut moguls flaunt monthly trips to luxury resorts as if they’ve earned the jet-setting lifestyle of the rich & famous. Alex Gingold posts entrepreneurial & motivational messages with the authority of one who’s already built a successful franchise organization. Except… he hasn’t. A well-intentioned intervention by Sean Kelly.
(UnhappyFranchisee.Com) If any of the many DonutNV franchise advisors, attorneys, fee-hungry sales and finance brokers, butt-kissers and clingers-on like, care about or have any real faith in Alex & Amanda Gingold, they will join me in impressing upon them this simple truth:
DonutNV is not a franchise success story.
Not yet.
Not by a longshot.
And, unless they take a serious reality check very soon, it never will be.
Please share your candid & confidential opinions and information with an anonymous comment below, or by emailing the author at UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail[dot]com.
DonutNV is Not a Franchise Success Story. At Best, It’s a Franchise SALES Success Story.
After nearly a decade since starting their business, Alex & Amanda Gingold were only able to grow DonutNV to 13 franchises… and most of those had been open for less than a year.
In very late 2022 or early 2023, the Gingolds turned over their franchisee recruitment and sales functions to the controversial franchise sales organization (FSO) Franchise Fastlane.
Franchise Fastlane deployed its customary, aggressive blitzkrieg consisting of commission-hungry franchise brokers and lenders outfitted with questionable sales claims (semi-absentee model, alleged overstatements of revenue & profit) and their playbook of hard-sell closing techniques.
The 2024 DonutNV FDD discloses that Fastlane had boosted the company’s franchise count from 13 to 98 operational franchises by the end of 2023.
IFPG reports, through its FranchiseWire promotional site, that as of November 2024 DonutNV had 130 franchisees managing mobile mini-doughnut franchises in about 150 territories in 31 states.
The Franchise Fastlane website boasts that they’ve sold 280+ franchise territories in the last year and a half or so vs. the 13+ the Gingolds managed to get open in 8 years.
So, it appears to me that the only documented DonutNV success story, thus far, is Franchise Fastlane’s success at using questionable earnings claims and an established syndicate of hypesters to convince otherwise rational people to bet their life savings on mobile mini-donuts.
Alex & Amanda Gingold’s Reputation Will be Determined by the Success – Or Failure – of DonutNV Franchisees
Some DonutNV franchisees fear that Alex & Amanda Gingold have forgotten that having sold a franchise is just the beginning of a ten-year commitment.
One struggling DonutNV franchisee laments:
I struggled to put gifts under a tree for my kids for Christmas, and they took a private jet to the Bahamas for Christmas and New Year’s.
Another DonutNV franchisee, on the verge of losing $300,000, summarized his/her feelings like this:
When Alex & Amanda [Gingold] started DonutNV, I don’t think they were out to like, pardon my French, f- over everybody.
But I think they started seeing how much money they were making, and now I don’t think they care.
They’re driving around in his and hers G wagons and flying private to the Bahamas all the time and posting about it on LinkedIn and Facebook
Yet another DonutNV franchise owner predicted:
If they keep handling things as they have been, I have no doubt they’re going to be gone within a couple of years.
Another franchisee stated:
They must realize, at this point in time, they’re hurting people, and lives are being destroyed.
I Predict: 2025 Will be a Defining Year for the DonutNV Franchise
Whether the Gingolds can transform the DonutNV sales success story into the start of an genuine franchise success story will likely become clear, in my opinion, by the end of 2025… or even sooner.
I hope they do… for their sake and the well-being of their hard-working franchisees.
As one who’s spent the better part of 3 decades growing start-up franchises into true franchise success stories, I’ll off this advice – free of charge – to Alex & Amanda Gingold:
Dear Alex & Amanda:
Don’t make the deadly mistake to believe the hype your franchise sales brokers have created for you.
You may have a successful concept, but you do not yet have a successful franchise.
Franchise Fastlane convinced more than 100 franchisee investors that you two are willing, able and dedicated to help them create successful businesses.
These franchisees have trusted that you understand and will honor your responsibility to be the franchisor you claim to be.
Some are now privately characterizing the DonutNV franchise opportunity as a “Money Grab” and a Ponzi scheme.
Your social media posts boasting of expensive dinners and drinks, and frequent, extravagant resort vacations seem to be validation of their worse fears.
Those pictures, posts and messages communicate that either you’re not aware of their struggles… or that you don’t care.
You haven’t responded to any of my questions or been willing to acknowledge the important issues raised.
It’s not too late to make DonutNV a franchise success, but it won’t happen by hiding from challenges.
Whether DonutNV becomes a franchise success story or just another cautionary tale won’t be determined by how many franchises Franchise Fastlane sold. It’ll be determined by what happened during the ten-year franchise agreements AFTER they signed.
Feel free to give me a call for suggestions on correcting your course… or to explain how I’m mistaken.
I’ll be happy to share any rebuttals, clarifivations or corrections you provide.
All the best,
Sean Kelly
Publisher, UnhappyFranchisee.Com
President, Relentless, Inc.
Also Read:
Is the DonutV Franchise Too Good to be True?
Is the DonutNV Franchise Too Good to be True?
DonutNV Franchise Earnings Claims: Accurate? Or Intentionally Deceptive?
Franchise Brokers: Have ZERO DonutNV Franchise Owners Failed?
Do DonutNV Franchise Sellers Support Free Speech & Full Disclosure?
NEW:
Has IFPG Stopped Promoting the DonutNV Franchise?
DonutNV References/Documentation:
DonutNV 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD)
Are you familiar with the DonutNV franchise opportunity? With Alex & Amanda Gingold?
Are you familiar with Franchise Fastlane?
Please leave a comment below or email us, in confidence, at UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail[dot]com.
Franchisors: The franchisor, its employees and agents are invited to submit correction, clarifications, rebuttals or other opinions for immediate consideration.
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Tags: DonutNV, DonutNV franchise, DonutNV franchise earnings, DonutNV franchise opportunity, Donut franchise, Franchise Fastlane, Alex Gingold, Amanda Gingold, Jake Hamburger, Franchise Sidekick, Franchoice, IFPG, Franserve, Franchise Brokers Association,
It’s hard to lead a company and guide over 100 new (because at donut nv almost all the franchisees are less than 2 years into it) franchisees from the seat of a private jet or a beach resort in the Bahamas. It doesn’t appear that Mr. and Mrs. Gingold have the slightest motivation to help their floundering franchise family members who bought into the fools gold projections and false promises offered by their franchise sellers. What a shame as the concept seems cool, if a bit gimmicky. It seems the only lives being made sweeter one donut at a time are the lives of the founders…
You make good points. This likely could be a good/fun business for the right person in the right market with the right expectations.
Why the big rush to sell hundreds of franchises all at once? Well, at $30K per referral fee I can see why the brokers and Franchise Fastlane wanted to make this a Gold Rush (or Fools Gold Rush, as you said).
But the Gingolds made a 10-year commitment that they still have to fulfill even after the commission-seekers are down the road.
Just a curiosity question as I’m not familiar with this type if business. They are on entrepreneurs magazine top 500 franchises. Does that not mean anything success wise? They are on that list with a lot of big names, yes very much lower. But still on none the least. Just general curiosity as it seems still very mixed comments of franchisees being happy and not happy.
Curious Kitten:
Thanks for an excellent question.
Let me get the snarky answer out of the way first.
If DonutNV is ranked #278 in the Franchise 500, doesn’t that mean there are 277 better franchises to look at first?
Actually, the rankings mean little to nothing. The Entrepreneur Franchise 500 provides good though superficial information about franchise brands, but they will tell you that that’s all they do.
Entrepreneur states: “The Franchise 500 is not intended to endorse, advertise, or recommend any particular franchise. It is solely a tool to compare franchise operations. You should always conduct your own careful research before investing in a franchise. Read the FDD and related materials, get help from a franchise attorney and an accountant to review legal and financial documents, talk to as many existing and former franchisees as possible, and visit their outlets. Protect yourself by doing your homework to find the opportunity that’s best for you.”
They advise doing what we’re doing here: asking franchisees and verifying what we hear.
Entrepreneur takes their information from the company FDD. Their data for DonutNV starts in 2023 and 2024. The Franchise 500 does not take into account franchisee satisfaction or litigation & accepts the franchisor’s numbers without independent verification.
When reading articles, interviews and accounts of awards, always check to see if the writer, interviewer or publisher has a vested (undisclosed) interest.
They usually do.
Entrepreneur relies on franchisor advertising and gets paid to generate leads for those who sell franchises.
1851 Magazine is one of several pay-for-praise paid publications masquerading as a legitimate, unbiased publication.
FranchiseWire & Franchise Dictionary are owned by commissioned and paid franchise broker groups.
There are no legitimate franchise “awards” with any substance. That’s why the hyped award winners are usually some hot new concept with little to no track record.
Otherwise brands like McDonald’s and Chik-fil-A would be sweeping them every year.
Look for brands that are open and transparent – and don’t shy away from discussing the challenges facing franchisees.
We continue to invite DonutNV Corp. to join the discussion.
Once upon a time, there was a farmer and his wife who wanted to be break out of their class and join the rich and the elite.
Naturally, they knew the quickest way to achieve this, would be to sell their souls to the devil and go after older people who were looking for a nice nest egg to retire with and would be willing to pour their life savings into it or others that were very motivated to get into the owning their business, but didn’t quite know how and could easily be lured by unrealistic margins and earning potential; they would even openly LIE to people and tell them that this business is easy to do as a semi-absentee, even though there were little to no examples for semi-absentees who were doing anywhere near the numbers the farmer and his wife said were possible.
With help of the Devil, they knew they could reach far more people than if they were to grow organically, first perfecting their craft and working hard to ensure a water tight business model with a proven track record and bullet proof product.
They would focus their time on selling as many crappy Horse and wagons as possible, selling them at a price 6x their worth on the market, as well as selling “bespoke products” like a candy apple making machine that would cost 800-1000 shillings on the open market, but they would go on to sell these machines at a 600% mark up and claim these amazing machines were only made for them.
They would also FORCE the buyers to buy products ONLY from them, when all they would do is buy products that you can get literally anywhere, put their lovely farmers stamp on it and charge 5x the amount to the people they so adored.
They would go on to set up a community forum for their victims… I mean buyers. This forum would appear to be a place where people could ask for help/advice, however, the farmer and his wife would NEVER allow anyone to say anything bad about their precious company, as it was PERFECT and all of the MANY issues were simply false and not true.
After all, they knew it was better to try and put a band aid over a crack in the damn rather than fixing the damn and would instead go on to just gaslight the workers.
The farmer and his wife would continue to ignore the countless cries for help, the begging for change and a better product and the honest feedback when the same things went very wrong, over and over and over again.
They ignored the fact that so many were forced to close their door within the first 6-12 months of owning their Horse and Wagon, this would be 10s of people, with 10s more already looking to get out.
The farmer and his wife claimed to care, however whilst their “colleagues” scraped together the pennies they had left to stay alive and feed their families, they bought themselves gold chariots and went to paradise, toasting to the misery of the buyers that they suckered in…
Thank you for highlighting these critical issues, Sean.
It’s clear that DonutNV in its current state, while boasting a decade of existence, is only still a budding brand who did not become established until franchising began.
Their focus seems to be on maintaining an image of success and “skipping ahead” rather than on humble, slow and steady growth that truly benefits everyone involved.
Tragically, it appears that the egos of the executive leadership have negatively impacted and devastated many lives.
Notably, favoritism seems to exist towards franchise owners who don’t question the status quo and obediently “stay in line”, while proactive ones who notice discrepancies, ask questions or request aid too often are treated as adversaries.
It’s not surprising that many of the favored have commented positively about the company and the Gingolds themselves. However, they appear to be fortunate enough to overlook the main point of your articles. While it’s true that DonutNV can certainly be successful, success only occurs under very specific circumstances, including but not limited to location, age/energy of the owners, whether the owner has other successful franchises, etc.
The crux of the matter is that DonutNV is being marketed and sold using false promises and exaggerated numbers which is negatively impacting good-hearted, hard working people.
I believe an investigation into Scott Gingold’s business practices is also necessary (particularly after his sudden removal from the presidency, which was quietly swept under the rug) as his leadership and ethics appear to have played a significant role in many of DonutNV’s failures.
Additionally, the abrupt departures of many dedicated corporate team members last year raise concerns.
Multiple dismissive comments from Amanda regarding the above served as a transparent attempt to undermine their contributions and besmirch their character while again, sweeping it all under the rug.
All of the above, coupled with the Gingold’s boastful portrayal of a lavish lifestyle while their own franchisees and employees struggle, certainly seem to validate distrust and the investigations happening now.
It’s my genuine, yet cautiously optimistic hope that these articles and comments will prompt them to reflect on their actions, take responsibility, seek genuine solutions, and stop deflecting blame for the fallout from their lack of integrity and greed.
Thank you for sharing, All that Glitters…
Thank you for sharing, DonutFairyTale.
Your story contains a lot of lessons that can be gleaned from this unfortunate situation.
Franchisors who set up meaningful (internal) community forums where free speech and sharing is encouraged and challenges are acknowledged and addressed with a team approach do not, generally, prompt participation on this site.
If franchisors object to having internal issues discussed publicly, they should create a system whereby franchisees can express their needs and challenges internally without fear of repercussion.
I have contacted the DonutNV to offer ideas and support on how to do this but have not yet heard back.
I don’t think it’s too late to correct course and mitigate mistakes, but the window for doing so is not indefinite.