Kika Wise built a nationally recognized wellness brand from her last $500 in a basement studio in Montclair, New Jersey.

Today, she is the founder and CEO of Kika Stretch Studios, a pioneering wellness company that introduced assisted stretch therapy as a stand-alone service category and grew into a national franchise system with 13 locations across the country. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, and she is widely recognized as one of the first female franchisors in the United States.

A first-generation entrepreneur, Kika scaled Kika Stretch from a single bootstrapped studio into a national brand without outside investors, partners, or a corporate background. What began as a single mother’s plan to feed her family became a movement that has changed how Americans recover, move, and care for their bodies.

That same hard-won experience became the foundation for Black Box Franchising, the consultancy Kika founded to help proven business owners turn their companies into national brands. Frustrated by an industry that handed aspiring franchisors generic templates and one-size-fits-all systems, she built something rooted in real operational experience — a hands-on advisory firm for founders who are serious about scaling with intention. Kika’s work isn’t about making franchising look easy. It’s about making it work.

In May 2026, Kika released her debut memoir, THE STRETCH — a raw, unfiltered account of what it actually costs to build something from nothing while life keeps testing whether you deserve to keep it. Equal parts founder playbook and personal testimony, the book has resonated with builders, dreamers, and anyone in the middle of becoming something new.

Kika is also the founder of The Stretch Founders’ Circle, a private membership community for entrepreneurs building real businesses, and the Kika Initiative, a quarterly tribute program that gifts overworked parents a fully paid weekend of rest.

She lives in New Jersey with her three children, and believes the moments that stretch you are the moments that build you.