Antonio Mattei, a Tint World franchisee, and Roxanne Kaiser got engaged at the end of “The Ultimatum” Netflix series.
When Antonio Mattei received an offer from Netflix to star on its reality dating series “The Ultimatum,” his response was simple: “Hell no.”
He had the opposite reaction to franchising with Tint World, though, and he opened his first store in Tyrone, Georgia, a few weeks ago.
Antonio Mattei opened a Tint World location in Tyrone, Georgia.
“I learned that I loved it,” said Mattei, who comes from a family of McDonald’s franchisees. “I learned that I loved working on cars, I love that entire transaction from start to finish.”
Of course, he ultimately said yes to Netflix, though, and even (spoiler alert!) ended the show engaged. “The Ultimatum” is a reality show in which couples come on the show to test their relationships. One person wants to get married and the other doesn’t. The couple “breaks up” for a few weeks and lives with another contestant they’ve bonded with before doing the same thing with the person they came with. Some couples break up for real, others get together with new partners and others get engaged.
“’The Ultimatum’ show is just way too personal,” he said. “It was basically just like a high-stakes accelerated therapy program. It was really emotionally exhausting, emotionally and physically. You’re just always having to be on camera.”
Mattei and his fiancé, Roxanne Kaiser, started the show with Mattei wanting to get married and Kaiser was against it. “It puts so much strain on our relationship,” he said. “At the end, we found out that we have a very strong relationship.”
Filming wrapped in November 2022, so they had to keep their engagement a secret for nearly a year until the finale premiered at the end of August. “It was hard,” he says.
One of the couple’s issues was Kaiser wanting Mattei to have an entrepreneurial drive like she did. Now, as a Tint World franchisee, he’s using fueling that drive.
“I’m in the store every day,” he said. Kaiser has experience with window tinting—a service Tint World offers—so he is in the shop working. But, when it’s time for his administrative duties, he has a team of 10 people to take over. “It’s been working really well, but for now, I definitely still have my hand in almost all the services that we offer.”
He bought the location in July when it was a hand-wash car wash. Mattei still offers the services because it was so popular, he said.
“I was really blessed to basically inherit that entire book of business and continue to operate the carwash and then turn it into a Tint World,” he said. “We already had a whole bunch of people that were already coming in.” The store is already booked through mid-January, Mattei said.
Related: New COO Brings Wealth of Franchising Experience to Tint World
The initial investment cost for a Tint World location ranges from $289,950 to $469,950. The brand’s Item 19 lists the brand’s average unit volume as $883,270 among 67 locations and average gross profit was $707,810 for the 2022 calendar year. Gross sales ranged from $328,977 to $3.3 million.
Mattei signed a two-unit agreement and he intends to open his second store within the next year. He leaves this advice for other young franchisees: “Fail. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail,” he says. “You learn so much more from your mistakes than you do from things going smoothly.