Rapidly Expanding a Family Owned Business Through Franchising | 0.1 MSP Credit

Dan Monaghan

CFE; Principle Investor of Clear Summit Group

Dan is co-founder of WSI, the world's largest digital marketing agency network (founded in 1995).

He is also managing partner of Clear Summit Group, an impact franchising organization that makes venture capital and private equity investments in early stage franchise and technology companies. The current portfolio consists of over 1500 franchised units across multiple brands, operating in 87 countries.

Dan wrote the bestselling book Why Not Me? in 1992, followed by Amazing Secrets of Profiting from the Internet shortly after founding WSI. In 2013 WSI released the best seller Digital Minds - one of Amazon's highest rated books on digital marketing.

Dan sits on several non-profit boards including the Young President's Organization, the Institute of Certified Franchise Executives (ICFE) Board of Governors and is a trustee of the IFAÔÇÖs Franchise Education and Research Foundation. He is also the founder of Make Child Poverty History, a world-wide outreach program operated in partnership with World Vision.

Specialties: Dan's specialties include franchising and business development, digital/internet marketing, business management, software development, private equity, investing in early-stage franchise and technology companies, international business.

Shawn Goldsmith

CFE

Shawn earned both his BS and MBA degrees from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. As a student, he was geared toward a career in investment banking and worked within CitigroupÔÇÖs Real Estate Investment Banking Division. However, his entrepreneurial passions ultimately led him to discovering franchising, a middle path of risk-mitigated entrepreneurship.

Shawn is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE), an active member of the International Franchise Association, and a graduate of Georgetown University's Franchise Management Program. He is Co-Founder of FranchiseLens, a digital marketplace that matches business owners with the best franchise brands and lenders. Currently Shawn serves as the Area Supervisor of several Great American Cookie franchises where he is leading an optimization overhaul in operations, sales/marketing, and growth opportunities.

In addition to his franchise experience, Shawn served as Chief Marketing Officer at Matrix Insights (an EQ and Team Development tech startup), Head of North America Demand Generation at BonitaSoft (a French-based BPM tech startup), and Social Selling Enabler at Oracle. He also founded and continues to run his own company, Markarie, a full-service marketing agency that serves an array of clients including non-profits, universities, and tech companies. Shawn's entrepreneurial spirit was first ignited as an Eagle Scout where he earned every merit badge; he remains active in Scouting. In his free time, Shawn competes in amateur boxing as well as enjoys studying ancient military history. He was acknowledged for his contributions to ÔÇ£The Death of CaesarÔÇØ, a work authored by former Cornell History Chair Barry Strauss and published by Simon and Schuster.