Demand for premium early childhood education continues to outpace supply across the United States, creating a significant opportunity for franchise investors. As parents increasingly seek educational experiences that prepare children for long-term success—not just childcare—brands that deliver differentiated, high-quality programs are positioned for sustained growth.
Tierra Encantada has redefined early education through its premium Spanish immersion model, combining a play-based STEAM curriculum, whole-child development, intentionally designed learning environments, and global, from-scratch meals. Following a $38 million growth investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity and the addition of franchise leader Shelly Sun Berkowitz and former KinderCare CEO Paul Thompson to its Board of Directors, Tierra Encantada is accelerating its national franchise expansion. We spoke with Founder and CEO Kristen Denzer about what makes the brand uniquely positioned for long-term growth and why entrepreneurs and investors are taking notice.
Q: Tierra Encantada fuses Spanish immersion with a play-based curriculum and sustainable practices. How does this specific model meet the current demands of parents seeking early childhood education?
Kristen: Tierra started because I was a parent looking for childcare and couldn't find what I wanted for my own kids. If they were going to spend that much of their waking day away from me, I wanted that time to give them something I couldn't easily recreate at home: true language immersion, exposure to different cultures, great food, and an environment designed around how young children actually learn.
Parents today are asking the same question I was: What is my child getting from this time? Spanish immersion is especially powerful because the earliest years are when children are wired to absorb language naturally. We pair that with play-based learning and global meals made onsite, so the differentiation isn't one feature; it's the whole experience. That matters for children and families, but it also matters to the business. In a crowded childcare market, being meaningfully different gives parents a reason to seek you out and, just as importantly, a reason to stay. For a franchisee, that kind of differentiation matters because you're not trying to convince families they need childcare – you're giving them a compelling reason to choose you.
Q: The company took its first institutional investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity after years of founder-led growth. How will this capital infusion accelerate your franchise development and brand visibility across the country?
Kristen: We were very deliberate about taking outside capital. I had been approached by many firms over several years and said no because I didn't want capital that changed what made Tierra work. Susquehanna was different: they understood franchising, multi-unit businesses, and founder-led companies, and the investment allowed me to keep majority ownership while adding resources and expertise to scale responsibly.
The biggest change is that we can build ahead of growth instead of after it. That means hiring experienced leaders before we need them, investing in better systems and technology, strengthening franchisee support, and entering new markets with more discipline. Capital doesn't make a franchise system good. It gives a good system the ability to get better faster. That is how we are thinking about it.
Q: Shelly Sun Berkowitz, founder of BrightStar Care, invested with Susquehanna when they acquired a minority stake and joined your Board of Directors. What specific operational expertise does she bring to your aggressive growth strategy?
Kristen: Shelly brings the perspective of someone who has actually done what we are trying to do. She built BrightStar Care from a founder-led company into a national franchise with hundreds of locations. That means she understands not just franchise sales, but what happens after the agreement is signed: unit economics, franchisee relationships, support infrastructure, leadership bench, and the discipline required to grow without weakening the brand.
She is also a founder, which matters to me. She understands the tension between moving fast and protecting what makes a company special. And she is very direct, which I value. I tend to be the same way – I would much rather have someone tell me exactly what they think than give me the polished version of it. The best board members are not there to validate every decision; they are there to challenge your thinking, point out what you may be missing, and make the business stronger. I don't need a board that only tells me to grow faster. I want people who will push us to grow smarter, and Shelly does that.
Q: Quality can be difficult to protect as a childcare brand grows. How do you make sure expansion does not dilute the experience families and employees expect from Tierra Encantada?
Kristen: The hardest part of scaling childcare is that quality is experienced locally, every day, in a classroom. You cannot protect that with a brand standards manual alone. It starts with who we choose as franchise partners. We want owners who care about the mission and are willing to operate to a very high standard, not simply investors looking for a concept. From there, we support them with training, curriculum, operating standards, marketing, technology, and ongoing coaching.
We also continue to operate corporate centers ourselves, and I think that matters. We are still living the same staffing, enrollment, licensing, and operational realities our franchisees are facing, so our support system keeps learning with the business. The goal is for every Tierra center to feel unmistakably like Tierra – in the design, the experience, the quality, and the standards – while still being deeply connected to the community it serves. For us, growth only works if we can grow without diluting what made families choose Tierra in the first place.
Q: The franchise has received numerous accolades for championing diversity and achieving rapid growth. What makes your unit economics and business model highly scalable for new franchisees?
Kristen: Childcare can look simple from the outside, but the economics are highly operational. A strong center depends on getting a handful of things right over and over: site selection, licensing and capacity, enrollment ramp, staffing, labor scheduling, tuition strategy, and family retention. If one of those is off, the operator feels it quickly.
Tierra’s advantage is that we pair the recurring need for full-day childcare with a program that is meaningfully differentiated. Families choose us because of the Spanish immersion, play-based curriculum, global meals made onsite, and the overall quality of the experience. That differentiation helps drive demand and retention.
Where scalability really comes in is the system behind the center. We have more than a decade of operating experience, and we are still opening and running corporate locations ourselves. Every new center teaches us something about how to make site selection, pre-opening, staffing, training, enrollment, and operations more efficient and repeatable for the next one.
And the model becomes even more powerful for multi-unit owners. Once a franchisee has a successful first center, the second is not starting from zero. They can develop leaders internally, train staff within an existing operation, build on local brand awareness, and in some markets even benefit from existing family demand and waitlists. That is when the real leverage of the system starts to show.
Q: As Tierra Encantada enters its most aggressive growth phase yet, what are the primary goals for the brand over the next few years?
Kristen: We are already the largest Spanish immersion early education brand in the country, so the opportunity now is to extend that leadership nationally without losing what made Tierra special in the first place.
The next few years are about disciplined expansion: adding great franchisees, growing corporate centers in strategic markets, building the leadership and systems for a much larger company, and continuing to raise the bar on what families should expect from childcare. For me, scale is not the finish line. The point of scale is impact: more children becoming bilingual, more families finding care they feel good about, and more educators having real career opportunities. It also means helping more entrepreneurs build something of their own. I have always loved supporting other business owners, and one of the most rewarding parts of franchising has been watching our franchisees grow, open additional centers, create jobs, and achieve goals that are deeply personal to them.
If we can do all of that at a national scale while continuing to improve the experience for children, families, employees, and franchisees, that is success.
Tierra Encantada's growth strategy demonstrates that successful franchising is about more than expanding locations—it's about building a scalable system that delivers long-term value for franchise owners while maintaining exceptional quality for families.
Backed by strategic investment, experienced franchise leadership, and a differentiated business model, Tierra Encantada is well positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for premium early childhood education. For entrepreneurs and investors seeking a purpose-driven business with strong market fundamentals and a proven support system, Tierra Encantada offers an opportunity to build a meaningful business while helping shape the future of early education.
To learn more about franchise opportunities, visit https://tierraencantadafranchise.com/.
