From The Ground Up
Ross Franklin got his start in health and wellness the way real operators do: on the floor. A certified personal trainer, he spent over a decade managing and scaling premium fitness clubs and boutique wellness brands across the East Coast. The lesson that stuck came from watching his clients: health starts with nutrition, not training.
He kept seeing the same gap. People invested real money in training and recovery while nutrition stayed an afterthought, because grab-and-go options were either loaded with sugar or stripped of anything useful. Years running a wellness consulting firm, stepping into C-suite roles to turn struggling companies around, taught him what it takes to scale a brand without breaking it. Nobody was doing that for nutrition.
In 2014, he opened the first Pure Green in New York City. One location. A tight menu built around superfood smoothies, acai bowls, and cold-pressed juice. Real ingredients, a premium experience, and a founder behind the counter learning the business at street level.
He never raised a dollar of venture capital. Pure Green grew one store at a time, with everything reinvested and every system proven before the next market opened. That discipline became the brand: pre-bottled cold-pressed supply, compact stores, and a playbook an owner can actually follow. Ross still runs franchise development, negotiates leases, reviews the legal, and sets the brand direction himself.
The story is still being written, and franchisees write it. Every Pure Green is owned by someone who becomes the health advocate for their community, the same role Ross took on with store one. The mission has not moved since the gym floor: make better nutrition accessible everywhere.
