Most business consultants teach resilience from a theoretical standpoint. The founder of Franzen Todd LLC learned it the hard way—riding a bicycle through snow in a suit to business meetings after losing his driver’s license, facing eviction, and watching his construction company collapse overnight when a partner withdrew over $280K from their account.
What happened next defines the company’s approach today. Without transportation or resources, he landed a $1.3 million church remodeling contract. That unlikely comeback became a template for the real estate investment coaching services the firm now provides.
A Career Built on Starting Over
The path to Franzen Todd LLC wound through multiple iterations. It started with a janitorial company in his early twenties, followed by light demolition work. By age 28, he was running a commercial general contracting firm building Dairy Queen, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s locations. Each venture taught different lessons, though not always through success.
After his contracting company shut down and a three-year struggle with alcohol ended with jail time, he faced his fourth business restart. The 2008 financial crisis, which devastated many investors, became his entry point into real estate. Bank-owned properties flooded the market, and he began buying them.
Over the following years, he bought and sold more than 1,000 properties. That volume of transactions gave him ground-level insight into what works and what doesn’t in real estate investment—knowledge that now forms the core of his consulting work.
Zero-Percent Funding and Deal Negotiation
Today, Franzen Todd LLC combines that real estate experience with something many investors struggle to secure: capital. The firm helps clients access zero-percent interest business funding, then guides them through finding and negotiating investment properties. It’s a full-service model targeting real estate investors, startup founders, franchise owners, and established business owners who need both expertise and financing.
The approach addresses a common barrier in real estate investing. Many people can identify good deals but lack down payment capital. Others have funding but need help with deal sourcing and negotiation. By providing both elements, the company aims to remove the typical roadblocks.
Building Something Different
At 54, the founder is entering a new chapter personally—married for two years and expecting his first child. Professionally, he’s projecting that his business funding and coaching practice will reach over $1 million annually within three years, while helping clients secure more than $10 million in funding each year.
There’s also a real estate coaching product in development, designed to complement the funding services. The goal is creating a system where clients can access both the money and the knowledge they need simultaneously.
For someone who’s rebuilt multiple times from nothing, the vision is characteristically ambitious. Then again, riding a bicycle through a snowstorm to close a million-dollar deal probably seemed ambitious too.