Passion Meets Opportunity: The Story of BrightStar Care® Franchise Owners Alex and Nick

Passion and fate often intersect in the lives of successful entrepreneurs. And Alex Katz and Nick Gremminger’s story of becoming co-owners of a BrightStar Care franchise in Pennsylvania is a testament to this. The combination of their entrepreneurial spirit and a fortuitous meeting with the Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care, Shelly Sun, has set them on a rewarding entrepreneurial journey.

Combining an Entrepreneurial Spirit with an Excellent Opportunity

Nick has almost 10 years of experience serving healthcare providers in Montgomery and Bucks County and extensive knowledge in treating many diseases. Meanwhile, Alex has a background in financial services, management, and sales. Nick and Alex were best friends and college roommates, and always dreamt of becoming entrepreneurs, but were unsure of the path that would lead them there.

It was fate that would eventually bring them to the opportunity they were looking for. While Nick was on his honeymoon, a chance of luck brought him to meet the Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care, Shelly Sun, who introduced him to the franchising opportunity.

“This kind of fell into our lap, everything just made sense,” Nick explained. “I overheard them one evening, and then the next day we were all hanging out at the pool, and I started asking Shelly questions and doing research.”

The pieces fell into place when Nick learned about the great success of BrightStar Care in the franchising industry from Shelly herself. He was impressed with the company’s rapid expansion, franchise support team, and community of dedicated franchisees.

“After I did some research about BrightStar Care and the franchising opportunity, I was super impressed by their growth, specifically in recent years, and how they have truly become a premier home healthcare franchise brand” Nick explained.

Nick became even more interested in owning a BrightStar Care franchise when Shelly told him about an opportunity to be an owner of the BrightStar Care Montgomery and Bucks County location. Nick knew the healthcare systems really well there, and he knew the previous owner too. Nick also knew he needed a head of business operations, so he turned to Alex for his experience in finance and management to lead.

Personal Experiences and Choosing BrightStar Care

While neither Nick nor Alex had experience owning a business, they thought it was time to take the plunge when they realized the great opportunity they had. “The BrightStar Care franchise model was one of the best ways to do it, we were aligning ourselves with a national brand with an incredible ownership group of 200+ other owners across the country and a brand that’s been around for over 20 years,” Alex explained.

However, the services and support that BrightStar Care provides for families was the key motivation for Alex and Nick to choose to franchise. The quality of care that BrightStar Care provides its residents and families is truly unmatched, so Alex and Nick knew they were choosing a highly-respected, values-focused company to franchise with. In addition, Alex and Nick both had personal experiences with family members in need of home healthcare which further ignited their passion to join the industry.

Personal Experiences Drive Entrepreneurship

Born in Bucks County, Alex saw first-hand the positive impact BrightStar Care services provide. Alex’s mother cared for his grandmother in her final years. “It put a lot of pressure on my mom, both mentally and physically, and when we finally encouraged her to bring BrightStar Care and some help into the home, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to their relationship in her final years,” Alex said.

Nick’s grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's, and this caused his family to also see the struggles that can come from finding quality care. At the time, it inspired his mother to join the hospice industry, and now Nick has found his opportunity to contribute too.

“When this chance with BrightStar Care became available, it just seemed like the right thing to do, it was a perfect fit, and it made a lot of sense,” Nick said.

Starting and Plans for the Future

With Nick as the Head of Business Development and Alex as the Head of Operations, they are already learning that they work exceptionally well as a team. Their location is rapidly expanding to do more skilled care cases and deepen their relationship with the VA.

Alex and Nick will be quick to share how grateful they are to the franchise support team, their agency's office staff, and all of their amazing caregivers and nurses in the field. And their location was just recognized by the top home healthcare rating agency (HomeCare Pulse) as one of the Top 100 Home Care agencies in all of North America!

“Shelly and the rest of the leadership team at corporate have created great opportunities to expand the scope of who we are providing care for,” Nick said. “We are expanding coverage in the Medicare Advantage program and deepening relationships for workers' compensation and catastrophic cases.”

The Best Thing About Being a BrightStar Care Franchisee

Nick and Alex are incredibly passionate about their business. Their favorite part about being BrightStar Care owners is providing quality care to their community and working with each other.

"We are very ambitious and have a fearless willingness to learn from our mistakes and improve every day,” Nick said.

“We love all the families, staff and patients we get to interact with and support, it’s the very essence of what we do and how we do it.”

Contact us today to learn how you can open a rewarding healthcare franchise in your area.