Daniel Boone has a goal that sounds almost like a punch line until you realize he means it. “I’ve always had a goal, for quite some time now, to live to be 120,” Boone said. That kind of long-view thinking is what eventually pulled him out of the furniture business and into a blender. After 25 years importing home accessories from Mexico and India, Boone wanted to build something consumable, something tied to health rather than home decor. He noticed an aging population of baby boomers who would keep spending money on health, beauty, and travel, and he decided health was where he wanted to plant a flag.
The idea crystallized in an ordinary way: he walked into a smoothie shop after a workout, tried what was on the menu, and had a simple reaction. “I think I can make this better,” he said.
At the time, Boone owned a building tucked into an industrial corner of Scottsdale, Arizona, hardly the kind of place where you’d expect a smoothie shop to thrive. Yet the unconventional location became an advantage rather than a setback. “We’re in an industrial area. It makes absolutely no sense where we’re at,” Boone said. “But it works really well because we’ve built a great following.” That unexpected success became the first indication that HB Protein Smoothies wasn’t going to follow the traditional quick-service playbook.
Chasing a Formula That Didn’t Exist Yet
What started as tinkering turned into a years-long pursuit of a very specific set of requirements. Boone wanted a shake that tasted like ice cream, delivered 35 grams of protein, landed around 250 calories, and blended with nothing but water and ice. No oat milk, no almond milk, nothing perishable. Formulator after formulator told him it could not be done that way, that he needed extra bulk ingredients to get the right texture. Boone held the line anyway.
The last seven years of that search were the most intense, filled with manufacturer meetings and false starts before Boone finally connected with a company willing to solve the puzzle on his terms. The result is a shake the brand describes as a complete meal replacement: packed with vitamins and minerals, built around 35 grams of protein, kept low in calories, and blended with only water and ice. Once the protein base was locked in, the next challenge became flavor, and that is where the brand started to develop its personality.
Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Elvis, and the Art of Narrowing Down
Working with a local formulator, Boone added small batches of sugar-free, organic flavoring he calls “puddings,” used in teaspoon amounts to create everything from birthday cake to butterscotch to coffee. At the flagship Scottsdale location, the menu has grown to more than 75 flavors, far too many to expect a new franchise to manage, so the brand narrowed its core lineup to between 20 and 25 flavors across its point-of-sale system, website, and delivery platforms.
Some of those flavors have become signatures. Banana cream pie is the top seller, and the chocolate, banana, and peanut butter combination known as the chocolate Elvis has built its own following. Customers also enjoy adding toppings, granola, graham crackers, chocolate sprinkles, and mini marshmallows, additions that add only 20 to 30 calories while delivering what Boone compares to a hot fudge sundae experience. Many of those flavor tweaks, he noted, started as customer suggestions that the team simply said yes to.
Protein’s Moment
Part of what is fueling the interest in HB Protein Smoothies is timing. Boone has watched public awareness of protein shift in recent years, as more people connect protein intake to health benefits. He sees a growing frustration with fast food that looks light but carries hidden calories and fat once sauces and extras are added in, and he believes consumers are increasingly looking for something that satisfies without the guilt. HB Protein Smoothies is positioned squarely in that gap: a fast, simple option that still functions as a real meal.
Boone points to a basic shift in how people think about a protein-heavy meal. Getting enough protein supports muscles, but he says the benefits go beyond that. A higher protein intake raises metabolic rate, which means the body burns more calories even at rest. What people often miss, he explained, is what happens once muscle needs are met: “If you took in 50 grams of protein at lunch or breakfast, your body uses all the protein it gets. You have hair, you have skin, you have nails. It’s the fundamental building block for every cell in the body.”
That message tends to land once customers feel the difference themselves. Boone hears it often in conversation at the counter, customers telling him they have more energy, can work out a little longer, or no longer feel as tired on a hike. Many say it is the first time they have gone out of their way to add more protein to a meal rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Boone expects that shift to keep building rather than fade as a trend. He pointed to broader momentum behind healthier eating and more responsible labeling across the food industry as a sign that the category has staying power. “I think long-term, protein focus and healthy options are here for good,” he said.
Two Generations, One Pursuit
Behind the formula and the flavor names is a simpler story: a father and son who genuinely like building something together. Ethan grew up in the family’s entrepreneurial habit of trying things, starting at HB at 16, then leaving for a stretch in Hawaii’s hospitality industry, bartending, and a mobile detailing business before coming back to help his father grow the smoothie concept full-time. The timing lined up well. Daniel and Ethan spent roughly six years dialing in the formula, far longer than either expected, and Ethan’s return coincided with the moment the brand was ready to grow beyond one location.
Their personalities complement each other as much as their skill sets do. Daniel describes himself as someone who befriends everyone he meets, wide and easygoing in how he connects with people. Ethan is more selective, the one who reads a new face or a new partnership and decides whether it’s trustworthy. That balance mattered later, once a franchising opportunity walked through the door, almost literally, but it shows up daily in smaller ways too. “If we disagree with something, we’re both diplomatic about it,” Ethan said, describing a working relationship built on respect rather than friction.
What stands out most is how little the business has crowded out the relationship itself. Daniel calls working alongside his son “a blessing every day,” and the two often step away from the store in the middle of a workday to hike together before coming back to finish out the afternoon. Ethan describes the same rhythm from his side: “We love what we do, it’s just fun building the company with my dad.” For a brand built around movement, energy, and health, it’s hard to miss the fact that its founders live that philosophy together, not just sell it.
The family imprint extends further than the two of them. Daniel’s daughter and her husband, Holland and Chad Fields, are preparing to open a corporate location in Flagstaff, where they’ll serve as managing partners, adding a third family member into active ownership of the brand. As HB Protein Smoothies scales into a franchise system, that family foundation, two generations who chose to build this together, on purpose, remains close to the center of the story.
A Connection Built on a Spouse’s Recommendation
For a while, Daniel had no idea who one of his most loyal customers really was. A woman came in regularly, week after week, and kept telling her husband he had to try the place for himself. “You got to go try this. You gotta go try it,” she said, again and again, according to Daniel. Her husband wasn’t easily convinced. HB’s flagship location sits in an industrial pocket of Scottsdale that isn’t easy to stumble onto, and by his own admission, he drove past it more than once without finding it.
That customer was Teresa, wife of Dan Rowe, owner of FranSmart and a veteran of three decades in franchising. When Rowe finally tracked the place down and tried a chocolate Elvis, the chocolate, banana, and peanut butter shake that’s become one of HB’s signatures, the visit changed everything. He reached out directly to ask whether the Boones had any interest in franchising. Ethan recalled Rowe’s reaction once they connected: “He said, this needs to be a thousand store concept.”
That balance between Daniel’s instinct to trust people quickly and Ethan’s more careful read of character mattered as the relationship took shape. The meeting, roughly a year before this interview, set HB Protein Smoothies on a different trajectory. Within months of formally launching the franchise concept, the brand had more than 200 units awarded, with multi-unit owners in some stage of development for their first location. The interest has extended from Florida to as far as British Columbia, once again reaffirming that others believe what the father and son duo believe: healthy living is the wave of the future.
Daniel speaks about the partnership with genuine enthusiasm.
“What he’s brought to the table with his franchise team is remarkable,” he said. “We’re really good at what we do, and he’s really good at what he does, and the blending of that is a perfect fit.” It’s a partnership built on complementary strengths rather than overlap. The Boones focused on product and culture, FranSmart focused on the systems needed to scale it, “and it just couldn’t be a better blend at a more perfect time for everyone to capitalize on what we’re doing.”
A Concept Built to Be Franchised the Right Way
A great product alone doesn’t scale into a hundred-plus store brand. It takes the right infrastructure underneath it, the kind of systems FranSmart was brought in to help build. Site selection, build-out, training, and marketing each needed a structure of their own. It needed to be repeatable enough that a new franchisee could step into it without guessing, and flexible enough to work whether that franchisee opens in Scottsdale or British Columbia. The result is the launch model HB Protein Smoothies runs on today.
Real Estate Without the Guesswork
FranSmart’s involvement reshaped how HB Protein Smoothies approaches site selection. The brand partners with real estate experts and uses an AI-driven location analytics tool to identify which areas around a city already support strong performance for health and fitness-related businesses, then narrows site searches to those higher performing tiers rather than relying on instinct alone. Visibility on a main road and easy parking remain non-negotiable, but the targeting itself is now data-driven.
Store sizes range from roughly 500 to 1,500 square feet, with a sweet spot between 800 and 1,000 square feet. To keep entry costs down, the brand favors converting existing food and beverage spaces, what Boone calls “second gen” locations, where the buildout, electrical, and main infrastructure work is already done. Franchisees moving into those spaces mainly need paint, cosmetic updates, and core items such as blenders, an ice machine, and a freezer.
The first HB location opened in 2013. The brand closed out its legal franchising process late last year and began actively franchising in the first quarter of this year. At the time of this conversation, no franchised locations had opened yet, though leases were moving through final stages in Florida, British Columbia, and Arizona, using the site selection and construction playbook. With a proven operating model and a more strategic approach to real estate, the next generation of HB Protein Smoothies locations will test what happens when a concept that built a loyal following in an unlikely industrial pocket is paired with sites that are more visible, more accessible, and intentionally selected for growth.
Training, Grand Openings, and Staying Close
Training begins the moment a franchisee has a confirmed market and location. New owners travel to HB’s Scottsdale headquarters for roughly two weeks, working alongside the team to learn the menu, the equipment, and the standards the brand expects at every location. Training continues until both sides are confident in the handoff.
From there, HB’s team travels to the franchisee’s market for about another week of on-site training ahead of opening, working inside the new store itself rather than leaving the franchisee to translate what they learned in Scottsdale on their own. That on-the-ground presence continues through opening weekend, which doubles as the brand’s signature launch event: a weekend of free shakes for new customers, one per person, designed to spread quickly through word of mouth as people tell friends and neighbors what they tried. It’s a deliberately low-cost, high-reach way to introduce a new location to its community.
Support doesn’t end once the doors are open. HB continues with planned check-ins after launch, a rhythm of visits and follow-ups meant to keep franchisees on track well past the early weeks. “We’re with them every step of the way,” Ethan said, a line that applies as much to month six as it does to opening weekend, the stretch most franchisees find hardest, and the one HB is most deliberate about not leaving owners to handle alone.
Marketing Engine Fueled By Tasty Images & Presence
Marketing leans heavily on consistency rather than complexity. The brand posts daily across Instagram and TikTok, a shake video one day, a customer interview the next, always something to keep engagement steady rather than treating social media as an occasional afterthought. Franchisees aren’t expected to produce this all themselves. Instead, they pull pre-approved content from a shared portal and post from a library the brand has already vetted, a guardrail built specifically to protect brand integrity.
Google reviews are treated with equal priority. HB has built a strong rating over time, and the brand works to make sure that rating shows up wherever a customer is searching, whether they type in healthy options, protein, or meal replacements. Ranking near the top of those searches typically routes a new customer straight to HB’s Instagram, where the photos and reviews do the rest of the convincing before that customer ever walks through the door.
That same discovery pattern plays out for travelers, not just locals. Boone described it through his own habits: landing in an unfamiliar city and turning to TikTok or Instagram to find a place to eat, the kind of search behavior he expects HB’s own visibility to capture in markets where the brand is just getting established. Once that search leads someone in the door, the conversion often finishes in person. Boone makes a habit of asking new customers how they found HB, then walking them through the menu himself, highlighting details like the gluten-free formula or the protein content per shake. It’s a small moment, but one that turns a single online discovery into a repeat customer.
A Staffing Model Built Around Students, Not Shifts
One of the more distinctive parts of the HB model is its labor structure. Safety rules mean no location ever runs on a single employee, with staffing scaling from two people in the morning to three during the midday rush and back down to two for closing. Rather than relying on a small number of employees working long shifts, the brand leans into short three to four hour shifts that fit around school schedules, drawing in high schoolers, homeschooled students, and college students who would otherwise skip a job that demanded a full eight hours a day.
That structure produces an unexpected benefit. Daniel pointed out that students on the roster bring in their own networks of family and friends, teammates stopping by after practice, grandparents checking in on a granddaughter’s shift, and classmates from church or clubs. “We’re really big on hiring people who are grateful,” he said, describing an interview process focused less on resumes and more on attitude and life. The flagship store keeps about 14 people on its roster, which makes covering a missed shift far easier than it would be with fewer, longer-shift employees.
Beyond the Smoothie: What’s Next for HB
Looking ahead, the Boones describe a deliberately paced growth plan: one location in a franchisee’s first year, expansion to additional units only once that first store is running smoothly, with a long-term target of 500 open locations and 1,000 in development within five years and 1,000 locations open and 2,000 in development within 10 years. Beyond smoothies, the brand also offers a proprietary energy drink line, sweetened with electrolytes and no added sugar, and plant-based protein balls sweetened with raw honey, giving franchisees two additional product lanes alongside the core shake business.
The Boones are also building a podcast studio at their Scottsdale location, a project Daniel is especially excited about. The plan is to interview customers and business contacts about their own stories while folding in shorter educational clips on topics like creatine and other add-ins many customers ask about but don’t fully understand. It is one more way the brand is trying to turn a counter transaction into a relationship.
Wealthy by Getting Healthy
Asked to sum up the business case for a prospective franchisee in a single sentence, Boone offered the brand’s slogan without much hesitation: “We want you to become wealthy by helping other people get healthy.” It’s a little quirky, by his own admission, but it captures the idea at the center of HB Protein Smoothies, that a simple, protein-forward shake, built without shortcuts and sold by people who actually want to be there, can grow into something far bigger than one shop in an industrial strip mall ever suggested it would.
It’s the same conviction two generations of the same family have already proved to themselves, long before anyone else was paying attention. The Boones spent years getting the formula right, took a hard-to-find building and built a following inside it anyway, and turned a father-son partnership into a brand other people now want to be part of. Wealthy by helping other people get healthy isn’t just a slogan. It’s the same belief they’re now inviting franchisees to build alongside them.
