Franchise Fee: $81,250
Royalty: 8%
Total Investment: $222,500 - $394,000
Can Be Home Based: No

Founded: 2022
Franchised: 2025
VetFran Member: No

JunkStart is blowing up an outdated, volume-based junk removal model. Most brands eyeball the pile and haggle over “how much space it takes in the truck,” even though they’re all charged by weight at the landfill. We hated that game—so we built the first and only pay-by-weight junk removal system with patent-pending onboard scales. When we switched from volume to true pay-by-weight, everything changed: revenue took off, gross margins jumped from the low-40s to nearly 70%, and we took pricing power away from the 19-year-old in the truck and locked it into a simple, transparent system. We also flipped from ~90% residential to over 50% higher-ticket, recurring commercial work, because property managers and contractors love fairness, data, and predictability.