How an Early Doubter and a Believer Became One Team.
By Burn Boot CampAugust 20, 2026Jenn Krause spent more than two decades as a pediatric nurse before stepping away to raise the Krauses' four children. Somewhere in the middle of that, she found a Burn Boot Camp gym in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and it became the one hour of her day that was entirely hers.
Her husband Brad had already built a company, scaled it, and sold it to private equity, hitting a goal he'd written on a napkin years earlier: retire by 40. When Jenn first invited him to a Camp, he didn't see the point. He'd built businesses. This didn't look like one to him.
Two years later, they own the location together.
That gap, between what Jenn already knew and what it took for Brad to see it, is the real story here. It's also the story of how they ended up evaluating Burn not as a workout, but as a business: one with a system, a community, and unit economics that held up once someone who'd already built and sold a company actually looked at them.
What she knew before he did
Jenn didn't join Burn to test a theory. She joined because it fit into a day that had gotten smaller once she stepped back from nursing to raise four kids, and it turned into something she counted on.
"It wasn't just a workout. It became something I relied on," she says. "The community, the support, the people. It gave me something that was mine again."
- JENN KRAUSE
That's the part of the business Brad couldn't evaluate from the outside: retention that isn't built on habit or convenience, but on the fact that members build a life around it. For an owner, that's not a nice-to-have. It's the engine behind repeat visits, referrals, and the kind of member tenure that shows up in the numbers.
WHERE BRAD'S SKEPTICISM ACTUALLY CAME FROM
Brad's read on Burn wasn't personal. It was pattern-matching from someone who'd already run a business: a brand he didn't know, in a category he assumed he understood. He wasn't going to invest his time, let alone his capital, on a hunch.
That changed the day he actually walked into a Camp instead of judging it from the parking lot.
"I walked out of that first workout and said, okay, that was legit. It completely changed my perspective."
-BRAD KRAUSE, Burn Boot Camp Franchise Partner, Grand Rapids, MI
TWO DIFFERENT REASONS TO BUY THE SAME BUSINESS
By the time Burn's Grand Rapids location came up for sale, Jenn and Brad weren't looking for a new business. Both had already reached the version of success they'd set out for. But they'd separately arrived at the same conclusion, from opposite starting points.
“This is something special. It's more than just a gym. It's the people and the culture.”
-JENN KRAUSE
Brad's version of that same conclusion sounded more like an operator sizing up a system: proven unit model, real community-driven retention, a brand he'd now tested for himself. Neither of them was buying a fresh start. They were buying a business they'd both, separately, already decided was worth running.
WHAT OWNERSHIP ACTUALLY CHANGED
Owning the location didn't hand either of them a new identity. It gave them a system to run together, and each brought a different skill set to it. Jenn's two decades in patient care translate directly into the member relationships and team culture that keep a location's retention high. Brad's experience building and exiting a company shows up in how they're approaching operations, staffing, and growth from day one.
"You realize pretty quickly you're not retired," Brad says. "You're building again, and honestly, I like that a lot better."
-BRAD KRAUSE
A few weeks in, membership is growing and the team is aligned. That's early, but it's the right kind of early: a location run by two owners who came to the decision from different directions and arrived at the same answer.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR ANYONE EVALUATING THIS OPPORTUNITY
The Krauses' story isn't really about a skeptic won over. It's about what happens when someone who already knows how to build a business finally looks closely at one built on community, and finds the fundamentals real. Burn Boot Camp gives Franchise Partners a proven operating system, a defined support structure, and a brand built on the kind of member retention most fitness concepts spend years trying to manufacture. What Brad and Jenn bring on top of that, hers in people and culture, his in building and scaling, is theirs to run.
Own a Burn Boot Camp in your community
Explore what franchise ownership with Burn Boot Camp could look like for you.
Back to BlogJenn Krause spent more than two decades as a pediatric nurse before stepping away to raise the Krauses' four children. Somewhere in the middle of that, she found a Burn Boot Camp gym in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and it became the one hour of her day that was entirely hers.
Her husband Brad had already built a company, scaled it, and sold it to private equity, hitting a goal he'd written on a napkin years earlier: retire by 40. When Jenn first invited him to a Camp, he didn't see the point. He'd built businesses. This didn't look like one to him.
Two years later, they own the location together.
That gap, between what Jenn already knew and what it took for Brad to see it, is the real story here. It's also the story of how they ended up evaluating Burn not as a workout, but as a business: one with a system, a community, and unit economics that held up once someone who'd already built and sold a company actually looked at them.
What she knew before he did
Jenn didn't join Burn to test a theory. She joined because it fit into a day that had gotten smaller once she stepped back from nursing to raise four kids, and it turned into something she counted on.
"It wasn't just a workout. It became something I relied on," she says. "The community, the support, the people. It gave me something that was mine again."
- JENN KRAUSE
That's the part of the business Brad couldn't evaluate from the outside: retention that isn't built on habit or convenience, but on the fact that members build a life around it. For an owner, that's not a nice-to-have. It's the engine behind repeat visits, referrals, and the kind of member tenure that shows up in the numbers.
WHERE BRAD'S SKEPTICISM ACTUALLY CAME FROM
Brad's read on Burn wasn't personal. It was pattern-matching from someone who'd already run a business: a brand he didn't know, in a category he assumed he understood. He wasn't going to invest his time, let alone his capital, on a hunch.
That changed the day he actually walked into a Camp instead of judging it from the parking lot.
"I walked out of that first workout and said, okay, that was legit. It completely changed my perspective."
-BRAD KRAUSE, Burn Boot Camp Franchise Partner, Grand Rapids, MI
TWO DIFFERENT REASONS TO BUY THE SAME BUSINESS
By the time Burn's Grand Rapids location came up for sale, Jenn and Brad weren't looking for a new business. Both had already reached the version of success they'd set out for. But they'd separately arrived at the same conclusion, from opposite starting points.
“This is something special. It's more than just a gym. It's the people and the culture.”
-JENN KRAUSE
Brad's version of that same conclusion sounded more like an operator sizing up a system: proven unit model, real community-driven retention, a brand he'd now tested for himself. Neither of them was buying a fresh start. They were buying a business they'd both, separately, already decided was worth running.
WHAT OWNERSHIP ACTUALLY CHANGED
Owning the location didn't hand either of them a new identity. It gave them a system to run together, and each brought a different skill set to it. Jenn's two decades in patient care translate directly into the member relationships and team culture that keep a location's retention high. Brad's experience building and exiting a company shows up in how they're approaching operations, staffing, and growth from day one.
"You realize pretty quickly you're not retired," Brad says. "You're building again, and honestly, I like that a lot better."
-BRAD KRAUSE
A few weeks in, membership is growing and the team is aligned. That's early, but it's the right kind of early: a location run by two owners who came to the decision from different directions and arrived at the same answer.
WHY IT MATTERS FOR ANYONE EVALUATING THIS OPPORTUNITY
The Krauses' story isn't really about a skeptic won over. It's about what happens when someone who already knows how to build a business finally looks closely at one built on community, and finds the fundamentals real. Burn Boot Camp gives Franchise Partners a proven operating system, a defined support structure, and a brand built on the kind of member retention most fitness concepts spend years trying to manufacture. What Brad and Jenn bring on top of that, hers in people and culture, his in building and scaling, is theirs to run.
Own a Burn Boot Camp in your community
Explore what franchise ownership with Burn Boot Camp could look like for you.
Back to Blog