Tim has 12+ years of executive-level experience across the franchise industry. Prior to co-founding Banyan Street Equity, Tim worked for 12+ years in the franchise space as a top-performing franchise consultant where he advised hundreds of clients and helped them achieve their lofty aspirations.

Prior to this he was Head of Strategy and Corporate Development for a private equity-backed technology career services company. While there, Tim served as Interim President of a 30-person business unit. He led the successful integration of 3 acquired businesses, recognizing significant synergies and positioning the company for strong future growth.

Tim was previously the Global Director of Corporate Strategy for a Fortune 500 food ingredients manufacturer. In this role Tim led many large, cross-functional growth initiatives, assessed the attractiveness and strategic fit of dozens of potential acquisition targets, and created the CEO’s keynote address to the Board of Directors.

Prior to this, Tim was a Case Team Leader at Parthenon-EY, a global management consulting firm where he worked on 50+ growth strategy and commercial due diligence projects for private equity clients across a variety of industries such as industrials, health and wellness, and consumer.

Tim has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received the Bronze Tablet Award for graduating in the top 3% of his class.

He lives with his wife and 3 small children in the Chicago suburbs. He enjoys traveling (visited 48 of 50 states), golf, and water skiing. One day when his children are a bit older he hopes to be able to do these activities again!

Kipp is a savvy franchise operator with key experience in Franchise development, operations, legal, and management. As an Executive at a startup franchisor, he sold over 130 individual franchise units in 18 months. He also served as interim Director of Operations and interim Director of Marketing, helping to lead one company from 10 units sold to over 150.

Kipp’s interests revolve around scaling and managing medium-sized businesses. His first foray into franchising came about through food trucks, where he took a single unit to five operational, winning several food truck awards in the meantime. Each unit was performing in the top 5% of food trucks nationwide when he exited.

Kipp has also been a franchisee, owning three units of the same brand before exiting the system. Kipp believes in building franchisors that keep their franchisees’ interests front and center and aligning interests so that everyone can benefit from a fantastic brand.

Kipp attended Texas Tech University, graduating Summa Cum Laude before attending the University of Cambridge. He lives with his wife and young son in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his spare time, he enjoys working in his rose garden, playing tennis, and experimenting with furniture design.

Erik cut his teeth early in life when a simple blog he started with a few friends rose to international fame with millions of monthly visitors. This first foray into digital strategy helped chart his path for years to come.

Eventually Erik would return to school and finish his Public Relations degree at Texas Tech where he met Kipp. During his time in Lubbock he started working at ad agencies and event production companies, expanding his skillset of various marketing and advertising strategies significantly.

Erik would eventually move to Denver in 2022 and start working at one of the most prestigious privately held international ad agencies, Gravity Global. First as the director of digital and eventually as the director of paid media.

While Erik loves all things paid media, his specialities include search engine optimization, branding, web development and social media. He left the agency world in the Summer of 2024 to pursue his own ambitions with Banyan Street where he helps super charge both unit and franchise sales for the best clients in the world.

When he isn't optimizing web presences, he loves paragliding and skiing in Boulder as well as taking long walks with his fiance and their two dogs, Willet & Loki.

Cole Wilhite is Banyan Street's sales and marketing intern. He helps with strategic functions and administrative tasks in the firm.