About Us

Microfranchise Ventures, LLC was created to build microfranchise networks across the globe so low-income people can acquire and successfully run their own businesses.

Our goal is to help families move from the lower class to the middle class in their respective countries.

We firmly believe that only for-profit businesses accomplish this objective.

 

Kirk Magleby is a worldwide evangelist for the Microfranchise movement.  In his book, Ending Global Poverty: The Microfranchise Solution, Kirk shows why the vast non-profit industry has been unable to solve poverty in the developing world and explains how microfranchising is the ideal for-profit vehicle to help individuals lift themselves out of poverty.

A microfranchise is simply a scaled-down franchise.  Many franchises in the United States or Europe cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.  A microfranchise is small enough that even a low-income individual living in a Third World country can aspire to own one.

 

Microfranchises are well suited to solve global poverty:

  • Very few individuals from the lower socio-economic classes in developing countries possess the skills necessary to run, let alone found a successful business.  Microfranchises are proven, documented business models that help even inexperienced owners achieve success.
  • A microfranchise is a "business in a box" that removes most start-up obstacles:  legal, IT, accounting, real estate, personnel, operations, licensing, pricing, financing, marketing, investor relations, etc.
  • Microfranchises come with built-in mentoring and a rich support network.
  • Microfranchises often create jobs for people outside the owner's immediate family.

 
 

Our Team

Kirk Magleby - Founder

  • LDS Mission, Peru, 1972-1974
  • BA Economics, BYU, 1977
  • Founder, Nuvek, 1983
  • Executive Director, Chasqui Humanitarian, 2005 (Chasqui merged into Ascend Humanitarian Alliance)
  • Author, "MicroFranchises as a Solution to Global Poverty," 2007 Purchase book
  • Founder, MicroFranchises.org, 2006

 

Brent Thomas, CPA/PFS - Chairman

  • LDS Mission, Ecuador 1969-1971
  • Partner, Thomas, Wirig, Doll & Associates, 1978
  • MBA, University of Utah, 1978
  • LDS Mission President, Peru Lima Central, 1999-2002


Michael Wadman - CEO

  • LDS Mission, Peru, 1998-2000
  • BA, Spanish, BYU, 2009
  • Co-founder, Cali International, 2006
  • CEO, Microfranchise Ventures, 2009

 
 Steve Leininger, CPA/PFS - Member of the Board

  • LDS Mission, Florida, 1974-1976
  • MAcc, Tax Accounting, BYU, 1980
  • CEO & Principal, Capital Performance Advisers, 1984

 

Sherman Doll, CPA/PFS - Member of the Board

  • LDS Mission, Venezuela, 1973-1975
  • MAcc, BYU, 1979
  • Partner, Capital Performance Advisors, 1982
  • LDS Mission President, Illinois, Chicago USA, 2009-2012