MID-HUDSON- Brandon Sebald felt he had no choice but to pay up when crooked contractors leaned on him for an additional $20,000, with guns drawn, to move forward with the completion of his Planet Fitness project in Miami in 2010.
Sebald was already $100,000 into the endeavor. However, this meant that he had to once again ask the Bank of Hans and Ellen Sebald for funding. Sebald’s parents provided $120,000 for the project via a home equity loan.
The Planet Fitness opened, the feds took down the bad guys for a variety of crimes, and, all these years later, Sebald, 42, can laugh about the shake down. He is now a successful entrepreneur and businessman who is a multi-millionaire running several 7 Brew coffee franchises in the Midwest.
“I am more appreciative than you can imagine,” said Sebald, 42, a former star football player at Rondout Valley High in Ulster County, who led the Ganders to the 2000 Class B state football championship. He was, perhaps, the most coveted local football recruit ever and landed at the University of Miami (Fla.) when “The U” was the top-ranked team in the country.
“I am fully aware that I would not have the life that I have today if my parents hadn’t done what they did for me,” added Sebald, who now lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “I wouldn’t have any of this. I am just thankful that I could pay them back and can help them. My parents, as well as my brothers, have given me all of the guiding principles to be successful.”
Sebald played tight end at Miami and later at Hofstra, where he graduated with a finance degree in 2006. He returned to Miami and hoped to open a high-performance gym for athletes. However, a former classmate at Miami told him about his uncle in Connecticut, who had success opening Planet Fitness franchises.
The pair opened a Planet Fitness in 2010 and hoped to expand, but the deal fell through. They sold the gym in 2013, and Sebald went into business with his former teammate at Miami, Buck Ortega, in Fayetteville. They bought five Planet Fitness franchises in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, growing the empire to 91 stores, when they sold them for $700 million in 2022.
A private equity firm took half of the profits from the sale, and Sebald split the rest with three partners. He was set for life. However, Sebald, who lives in Fayetteville with his wife and three children, couldn’t just retire.
“I am like a shark, I have to keep moving,” Sebald said.
Sebald bought his first 7 Brew in December of 2021 and now owns 56 stores across five states. He brought his brother, Chris Sebald, in to help run the business. Chris was also a standout football player at Rondout Valley.
Brandon Sebald hopes to own 70 of the coffee franchise’s by the end of the year and plans to sell them for as much $400 million next year. His employees are aware of the pending sale, and some of them will receive seven percent of the profits from the deal.
As a businessman, Sebald has taken pride in doing good by his employees and donating to charities that benefit veterans and children in need. But don’t expect Sebald to put his feet up after the 7 Brew deal is completed.
“I promised my wife that I would take a sabbatical,” Sebald said. “But good things don’t wait for you. I have the next model. You can call me in about a year, and I will tell you about it.”
