The location name, neighborhood and opening date in the first screen. "Opening in Plano · Legacy West, March 14."
Multistead / Founders pages
Pre-opening marketing
Founders pages: open every new location with members already signed up
A Founders page is the pre-opening site for a new location. It sells a limited number of founding memberships at founding-member pricing, counts down to opening day, sends every sign-up to your CRM and switches to the full location site when the doors open. In Multistead, every new location can have one the week the lease is signed, on-brand and without a web project.
Included on the Local plan ($449 per location per month, billed annually) and above.
Why franchise development teams care about presale membership
Every franchisor with a growth plan has a "signed but not opened" pipeline. FranConnect, a franchise software vendor, counted 8,379 units in that pipeline entering 2026 (FranConnect). The months between signing and opening are when a new owner is most anxious and has the least to show. A presale membership campaign changes that: the owner opens with paying members, the brand has early proof that the market is there, and the development team has a playbook to show at discovery day.
The usual setup is improvised: a landing page an agency builds per opening, a form that emails the owner, and a spreadsheet of names. It's slow, often off-brand, and leads get lost between the form and the CRM. A Founders page is the same idea, built into the platform that will run the location's site anyway.
What a Multistead Founders page does
- Countdown to opening day. The owner sets the date. The page counts down in days, hours and minutes.
- A cap on founding spots. The owner sets how many spots are available. A live counter shows how many are claimed. The offer closes when either the deadline passes or the spots run out.
- A waitlist after that. Once spots are gone, the page keeps collecting interest instead of turning people away.
- CRM sync. Every sign-up lands in your CRM tagged by location, so the right owner follows up. GoHighLevel is supported today; ask about yours on the free consultation.
- Automatic launch. When the countdown ends, the page switches to the full location site on its own. Nobody has to remember to flip it at midnight.
- On-brand by default. The page uses your approved templates, palettes and photos, so a new owner can't publish an off-brand offer.
Anatomy of a good pre-opening page
Whatever platform you use, a pre-opening page that converts has these parts:
What founding members get (a rate, a perk, a locked price) and for how long. Use the same wording at every location.
A real cap and a real deadline, with a counter. Fake scarcity costs trust, and the cap should match what the owner can serve.
Name, email and phone. Payment or deposit only if your presale model requires it. Every extra field costs sign-ups.
Renderings or build-out photos, the address on a map, the owner or manager's name and photo.
When they'll hear from you, when the membership starts, and the terms in plain words, including renewal and cancellation.
A title and description that name the neighborhood, LocalBusiness schema and a Google Business Profile, so the page starts collecting searches before opening.
The page becomes the full location site, and the founding members get their welcome message.
A launch timeline for a new location
The right timing depends on your build-out and your vertical, so treat this as a sequence rather than fixed dates.
| Stage | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Lease signed | Location created in Multistead. Founders page goes live with a countdown and the founding offer from the approved list. | Development team, owner |
| Opening date confirmed | Owner sets the final date and the spot cap. Google Business Profile set up. CRM tags checked. | Owner, marketing |
| Build-out | Owner adds build-out photos and the team as they're hired. Local ads point to the Founders page. Sign-ups flow to the CRM. | Owner, marketing |
| Final weeks | Owner adds hours, services and prices in the full site, previewed but not live. Spots near the cap; the waitlist takes over. | Owner |
| Opening day | Countdown ends; the full site goes live automatically. Rank grid starts tracking the location. | Automatic |
| First month | Review replies drafted as the first reviews arrive. Monthly rank grid shows where the new location is visible. | Owner, HQ |
Founders club membership by vertical
- Gyms and boutique fitness: founding memberships are standard practice for new clubs. See gym marketing.
- Med spa and IV lounges: founding membership tiers or first-visit packages. See med spa marketing.
- Childcare: capped spots map directly to pre-enrollment and a waitlist.
- Salons, wellness and pet care: founding-client rates or first-month packages.
Two rules to check before you launch a presale
Membership terms. If founding memberships renew automatically, state laws on automatic renewal apply in more than half of US states, and California's updated law took effect July 1, 2025 (Fenwick). Keep the terms text headquarters-owned so it reads the same at every location.
Consumers, not franchise buyers. A Founders page sells memberships to customers. Keep franchise-sales content (anything that invites people to buy a franchise) off it, since franchise sales have their own disclosure rules. Check both with counsel.
What it costs
Founders pages are part of the Local plan: $449 per location per month, billed annually, which also covers the location's full website, the monthly rank grid, AI review replies and Google connections. There's no separate fee per opening. A new location joins your plan when you add it. Across the brand, there is a one-time setup fee, quoted on your first call, based on the number of sites. Each location has its own reports and dashboards, so headquarters can see how every opening is tracking.
When this is not the right fit
- You open one location a year and already have a good agency process. A one-off landing page may be enough.
- You need presale payments processed on the page itself by a system Multistead doesn't connect to. Ask on the free consultation what fits your billing setup.
On the call we'll set up a Founders page for one of your upcoming openings, live.
Questions
What is founding member pricing?
A rate or perk offered only to the first members who join a new location before it opens, usually limited by a deadline, a number of spots, or both. It rewards early commitment and gives the location revenue on day one.
When should a new location's presale page go live?
As soon as the location is real enough to promise: usually once the lease is signed and an opening window is known. Earlier means more time to collect sign-ups and build search visibility. Set the exact date when it's confirmed.
Where do the sign-ups go?
Into your CRM, tagged by location, so each owner follows up with their own leads. GoHighLevel is supported today. Ask about other CRMs on the free consultation.
What happens on opening day?
When the countdown ends, the Founders page switches to the location's full website automatically, with the hours, services, team and prices the owner prepared.
Can franchisees change the founding offer?
Owners set their own date and spot cap and choose from offers headquarters has approved. The offer wording and terms stay on-brand.
This page is general marketing information, not legal advice. Sources linked as of October 2026; FranConnect's figure is vendor data.