Shelly Sun Berkowitz has spent more than two decades doing what few founders ever  accomplish — building a business from a personal mission into a nationally recognized brand,  navigating a successful exit, and emerging with the wisdom, capital, and relationships to help  the next generation of founders do the same. Today, that mission is focused squarely on female  founders and franchisors. As the founder of Founder 2 Founder and Next Phase Capital,  Berkowitz advises and invests in women-led businesses and emerging franchise brands,  bringing the hard-won operational insight and emotional intelligence that only comes from  having lived the founder journey herself.

Berkowitz’s own story began in 2002 when she identified a gap no one had filled — no single  provider offered both non-medical and medical care services in the home. She built BrightStar  Care from scratch in the Chicagoland area, expanded it through franchising in 2005, and grew it  into a system of more than 400 locations across the country, employing 15,000 caregivers and  5,700 registered nurses and generating more than $750 million in annualized system-wide  revenue. In early 2025, she completed the sale of a majority stake to Peak Rock Capital,  retaining over 30% ownership, and transitioned to Executive Chair of the Board of BrightStar  Group Holdings — the parent company of BrightStar Care and BrightStar® Care Homes.

The credentials she brings to founders are ones that can’t be taught. Berkowitz served as Chair  of the International Franchise Association, was featured as the protagonist in two Harvard  Business School case studies, appeared on CBS’s  Undercover  Boss  as the first home care  brand on the program, and endowed a Franchise Certification Program at the University of  Tennessee Haslam School of Business that provides scholarship opportunities for women and  underserved communities entering franchising. She has positioned BrightStar Care as the  premium provider of home care, evidenced by full Joint Commission accreditation and  third-party validation of superior outcomes — the kind of quality-first, culture-driven operating  discipline she now helps other founders build.

Through Founder 2 Founder, Berkowitz works directly with majority-owner founders navigating  the most personal and high-stakes decisions of their careers — scaling, leadership transition,  and exit. Through Next Phase Capital, she backs the founders she believes in, bringing both  capital and hard-won operational wisdom to the table. Her current board portfolio reflects her  thesis: she chairs the BrightStar Care board and serves on the boards of Tierra Encantada  Franchising, LLC, CHHJ Franchising LLC (College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving),  Transformations Care Network (a Shore Capital portfolio company), Clementine’s Ice Cream,  and the University of Tennessee Haslam School of Business Franchising Program. She has  also invested in Good Boy Vodka, Capriotti’s, Forge, Tint World, Asteri AI, Chippin, and AGelity  Biomechanics through Next Phase Capital.

Berkowitz has been recognized as an Ernst & Young 2023 Entrepreneur of The Year® Midwest Award winner, one of the top 25 highest-rated CEOs – and the only woman on the list – during  the COVID-19 crisis by Glassdoor, and a 2023 Women of Distinction in the health care industry  by McKnight’s Haymaker Media. Under her leadership, BrightStar Care has made Entrepreneur  Magazine’s Franchise 500 list for 13 consecutive years and ranked among Inc. Magazine’s  Fastest Growing Private Companies, and earned The Joint Commission’s Enterprise Champion  for Quality award every year since the award’s inception — the foundation of credibility she now  puts to work for the founders she advises and backs.